It seems GPS is gaining more and more popularity with Blackberry devices. Shortly after the Blackberry 8820 was released Vodafone and Research In Motion (RIM) introduced the BlackBerry Curve 8310 smartphone. Featuring an integrated GPS module and Vodafone Navigator software with traffic and possible road obstacles information it gives its users a better chance of planning a traffic-jam free route. The Navigator itself is an off-board navigation system and downloads information from a central server when planning routes.

The BlackBerry Curve 8310, like its forerunner - the BlackBerry Curve 8300, features a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash. The GPRS/EDGE-enabled device sports 64 MB of internal flash memory, which is expandable through a microSD card slot. The display offers 65K colors and QVGA resolution. And connectivity features include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP as well as a mini-USB. Like the BlackBerry Curve 8300 the BlackBerry Curve 8310 features a full QWERTY keyboard. For the German market a QWERTZ keyboard layout will also be available.

The BlackBerry Curve 8310 is available now from Vodafone in Germany for EUR 99.90. An interesting detail worth mentioning is that the first 5 000 people that purchase the BlackBerry Curve 8310 will have 100 top chart songs in MP3 format preinstalled on them.

As rumors go, the BlackBerry 8310 is only one of a series of new RIM devices that are to be released this summer. Another one - the BlackBerry 8820 has already hit the shelves. It is only a matter of time to see if the 8320 or the 8120 (both with Wi-Fi) will join it or will limit their existence to the gossips realm.

As you wish ...