Sexy Smartphone Wars: BlackBerry Boldly Unveils the Bold

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The tech blogs are abuzz this morning with talk of the BlackBerry Bold, Research In Motion's newest, sexiest, boldest smartphone to date, set to be released at the end of June—first through AT&T, then other carriers. (RIM's announcement was not a surprise, as images of the thing have been in circulation since last December.) Why you care: there is now an actual choice to be made between buying this device and the second generation iPhone, which is due early next month.

The Bold boasts a slew of upgrades from its predecessor, the BlackBerry Curve, such as that it'll support tri-band 3G high-speed networks worldwide and have a better web browser than previous 'Berries. Plus, it's prettier. Plus, unless you work at a company with a very a promiscuous tech buying department, this is the one you can expense. On the other hand, there's the iPhone in all of its shiny, touchscreeny, Appletacular glory. Refer to the links below for further buying advice—or maybe just get both.
· RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Bold Smartphone [RIM]
· BlackBerry Bold [blackberry.com]
· AT&R: We're Getting the BlackBerry Bold First [Gearlog]
· HTC Joins Attack of iPhone Clones [Channel News]
· Rumormongering: iPhone Price Chop Imminent [Racked]