Just checked. BlackBerry Storm 4.7.0.148 is live.

Go to www.blackberry.com/update and check for updates.

*Makes sure you use Internet Explorer because going to the site using FireFox doesn’t work for me.

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It took me about an half an hour, but I updated to the official update. No, I didn’t revert back to .75 before I updated. Yes, it was very easy… easier than doing a leak update I think.

And yes, the sound button doesn’t work in lock mode…

The only issue I had was with FaceBook; I had to reinstall it. Everything else was cake.

I should be getting ready to go to that wedding now

Finally, an official release… hopefully

Unless you’ve been living under a rock… without internet the last 24 hours, you know and probably are counting down the moments until the next official release for the BlackBerry Storm is arriving. (maybe only I am)

Countless sources, Crackberry, Boy Genius Report, InformationWeek and many more report that an update will be available at 3pm Eastern Time to download onto computer from blackberry.com/update.

At 10pm Eastern Time, Storm users can update using the wireless update feature. (options > Advanced Options > Wireless Update).

Boy Genius has the update-to-update changelog and the list is absolutely massive.

I can’t wait, but unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to be on my way to a wedding at launch time. (small tear).

Having already played with the leaked version of .148, I’m bummed that it seems they won’t be re-coding the “sound button changes the phone to vibrate when locked” feature. Maybe next time.

how to recover a missing browser on any BlackBerry

Sometimes, after changing a BlackBerry Smartphones OS, the browser disappears. Don’t worry, the fix is simple.

First off, just make sure the Browser isn’t just hidden. (BlackBerry Button > Show All)

If it’s not there, register the phones Host Routing Table.

Go to Options > Advanced Options > Host Routing Table > (BlackBerry Button) > Register Now.

There should be a message that says “Registration message sent!” An email saying that the phone was registered should show up and the browser should be where it should be.

Slacker was updated to 2.0.2

Last night, as I was getting ready to go to bed, I got an email from Slacker. It said, “New! Updated Slacker App for BlackBerry …” My first thought, of course, was, “how can something be both new and be updated?” because, well, you can’t update something that’s new, but anyway. My second thought was that I hadn’t used Slacker in a long time.

So I downloaded the app and climbed into bed and gave it a try.

The first thing I’m struck about the app is it’s simplicity. Each station is well organized. When listening to a song, there’s 4 buttons. Pause, Skip, Love, and Hate. When I first used the app, it’d have a nasty gapping problem, but the people at Slacker seemed to have fixed that.

A feature I don’t remember seeing before is search. It allows me to search for a song or artist and if it’s played on a station, I can listen to it right away. Slacker also has station caching which saves stations onto the Storm to be able to listen to them later.

Using the supplied BlackBerry Storm headphones, the sound is pretty incredible.

Slacker with MLB Mobile Premium reminds me of the summer I subscribed to XM Radio. Virtually commercial free music and every baseball broadcast are right at my fingertips.

If only my battery could handle playing both of these all day…

To download Slacker, go to www.slacker.com using your BlackBerry browser.

Getting nostalgic about my experiences with my first BlackBerry… Why a BlackBerry user should update to a newer OS.

After the screen fiasco last Sunday, I spent the last couple days running .75 on my phone until the replacement arrived (in preparation to send the broken one back). It’s funny because with the new leaks that have arrived, I’ve always thought the latest .148 was so much faster than what .75 was, but it really wasn’t the case. The jump from .65 to .75 was much bigger.

.75 ran admirably strong (for a OS that just seemed to be thrown together on a deadline). Sure, scrolling between icons were deftly choppy, but the rest of OS didn’t feel so bad.

I felt nostalgic being able to use the sound button once again. (Every leak so far doesn’t have this feature enabled). The old cut and paste made me think, “yah, this is how it used to be.” Even the accelerometer didn’t seem too much slower.

I understood why some people still cling onto version .75 and choose not to update until the next official.

Mind you, I haven’t used version .75 since practically the beginning so it’s been at least 6 months since I’ve seen it. It felt nice to use it.

Then it started.

The hair pulling phone crashes that came randomly or while using the camera, or using BlackBerry Messenger. Waiting what seemed like a minute for the phone to respond to the call button when receiving a call was overly frustrating.

Then there was the inevitable memory loss that never came back.

These are all things that have been fixed in the new leaks, each leak seeming to get it better than the one before.

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I got the replacement phone on Wednesday. It took two days like the Verizon Rep promised.

The first thing I did, of course, was wipe then install a leak. Instead of .148, though, I installed .141. Other than the locking issue, the OS has been flying for me.

.148 on the other hand has ’cause my phone to start the random crashes again. I’m not sure if I can blame it on the OS or the screen issue I was having; all I know is that I didn’t have the problem before.

I installed my White Incipio Feather Case (thanks Jessica) and decided to not put on the invisibleShield this time.

It took me about an hour but I was able to restore every thing on my phone… from contacts to calendar to apps to email onto the replacement.

And once again I’m loving this phone again.

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Crackberry posted that an OFficial release may come out by this Sunday. However, there’s controversy over whether it’s just leak .148. We’ll see soon enough…