A reader named Nick at BlackBerry Cool is especially observant these days.

He was on the Rogers Wireless support site and guess what he found.

A pull-down menu that leads to a page for the white BlackBerry Pearl.

Which can only mean one thing.

Coming real, real soon.

Now let's look at this image.

My friend and fellow blogger Alec Saunders is a Rogers BlackBerry Pearl user.

Toronto-based Alec is happy with his Pearl but he seems to be lukewarm at best to the deluge of extra offers from his carrier.

In a post on his blog, Alec questions why he'd want to pay:

• $3 a month for the Rogers NewsClip (shown at right) news alert service, when he already has a mobile RSS reader that feeds him the same news for free;
• 75 cents an answer for AskMeNow when most of the questions are Google-able;
• bbTV: "stale news clips for ..$5 a month;
• Mindit Assist: $20 a month for software that lets you customize responses to emails and other communication. He thinks this should be a one-time load, not a subscription-based deal.
• Sales Anywhere. Alec says that he envisions sales reps dependent on Salesforce.com might find value in this $25 a month service.
  

Doesn't work for him, though.

Me either.

My blogger colleague Alec Saunders is out with a real thorough review of the Rogers BlackBerry Pearl.

Likes:

The Pearl's size, and the fact that it is small enough to fit into your pocket. Because of theat, you don't need a holster.

The screen, Alec says is "light and gorgeous."

The menu taxonomies are so much more intelligent and flowing than previous BlackBerrys.

The voice dial activation button, that responds to specific commands- i.e. "call Marcia." (I made up "call Marcia" in honor of an old girlfriend haven't seen in what, 20 years man).

The micro-SD slot, which he has filled with a 2G storage card.

The MP3-compliant music player.

The convenient though relatively low res camera.

"With good light, you can take nice pictures," Alec writes.

He then gives us a sample of Pearl photos.

Gonna show you my fav now.

A BBHub reader, Rogers Wireless employee and BlackBerry subscriber named "Gexxy" says he (maybe a she but for consistency will refer to Gexxy as "he") tells me he's just received an email from Rogers about new anti-spam measures being undertaken for their BlackBerry Internet Service Accounts.

"In response to the increased amount of SPAM e-mail that has been showing up in the Inbox @rogers.blackberry.net) of BlackBerry Internet Service customers, RIM will be implementing additional improvements to the BIS anti-spam filters to reduce, but not eliminate, the number of unwanted and unsolicited e-mails starting on December 2, 2006," the letter reads. "Also, RIM will be implementing additional enhancements to BIS in upcoming releases to further reduce the amount of SPAM messages."

The letter then goes on to say that this update to the BIS Anti-SPAM solution will be based on a Reputation Scoring System, and will require no end-user interaction, acceptance, or configuration by customers. There will be no charge for the Anti-SPAM solution on BlackBerry Internet Service.

Gexxy has also provided the text an FAQ that was included with the letter.

While we tend to avoid cut-and-paste jobs here like the plague, I think you will agree with me this new anti-spam policy is important enough to justify us replicating Rogers' FAQ about the subject.

S here goes:

First, you have to live in Canada.

Second, you need to sign up with Rogers for a three-year plan.

Third, you have to be one of the first 50 people per day to show your face at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario on these days:

• Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM
• Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
• Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

If you do the click-y just below I will show you this offer and also let technology from our peeps at MapQuest illustrate where the International Centre (I just love typing Centre rather than Center) is:

Pinstacker Moridar, who is a Rogers customer, reported tonight that the Pearl is now available on Roger's website. I checked out the website myself to see, and sure enough there the Pearl was in all its glory.

Its not cheap, $249.99 with a 3 year contact. I assume that is Canadian, as Rogers is in Canada.

This Pearl comes with a battery, travel charger, SIM card, stereo headset, and one USB cable. It works on edge too. I believe this Pearl has BlackBerry Messenger and Yahoo Messenger installed.

Rogers customers, please let us know what you think of this Pearl. Is it any different than the T-Mobile Pearl?

BlackBerry Cool reports there's a BlackBerry Pearl 8100 support area up on the Rogers site.

Well, that's an area, true, but as both Steve from there and me from here will tell ya, the support area is kind of a shell right now.

But not for long..with Rogers formally adding the Pearl in the next few days.

I am hearing reports from my BlackBerry friends that the data network is not working for some. Last night on Pinstack petroly started a thread called "tmobile data down." Petroly reported that T-Mobile said their server was down. Several other stackers reported similar problems with email and Internet.

Me being me, I tried to load a web page with no problem, and figured it was all back up and running. I was even able to download and install the newest Yahoo Messenger off the BlackBerry website around 2am last night. I have noticed it takes longer to load and pictures are not coming.

I am hearing again this morning that people are having intermittent problems with data and email. People from Tennessee, Kansas, California, Texas, and Pennsylvania are all reporting issues today and last night. My husband is in Iowa and I am in Florida, and we both seem to have data. Sn1p3R reported that Bell, Telus, and Rogers in Canada is also having problems.

My question to all BBHub readers is where are you? Who do you use? Are you working? I am hoping this is not a big problem with RIM.

Comments by Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie all but affirm that the BlackBerry Pearl will be available in Canada next week.

That would be in keeping with one of our sources, who gave us the scoop in this post.

The carrier will be Rogers, which RIM had previously announced as the Pearl's exclusive carrier in that nation.

"I'm not suppose(d) to pre-announce another carrier's launch plans next week," Balsillie said, "but I don't think these things will be very long," Balsillie said yesterday. "Heaven forbid that September should end without these things being announced."

Well, it sure sounds like "heaven" won't have "to wait."

The working release date for the Rogers BlackBerry Pearl 8100 was supposed to be October 26. That's what it says in Rogers release books that Rogers outside account managers tote around.

But then again, enterprise users may get the Pearl a lot sooner.

What gives? Well, here's the swoop.

The announcement is official: The BlackBerry Pearl (a.k.a. 8100) is coming to Rogers in October.

Specific date? No one is saying but that doesn't mean we won't find out.

As a matter of fact we have found out. Can't say where but 'twill be October 26 (not October 6).

Happy talk:

"As Canada's leading wireless carrier and data leader, Rogers Wireless is pleased to be the first to introduce the new BlackBerry Pearl in Canada," said John Boynton, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at Rogers Wireless. "Leveraging the popular and proven BlackBerry platform, the BlackBerry Pearl is the handset for everyone, combining the most advanced voice and data features with multi-media features such as a media player and camera together in a small and powerful smartphone."

"RIM and Rogers have been working together on wireless technologies for nearly 20 years and it is extremely gratifying to jointly introduce another breakthrough product to the Canadian market," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "We set out to address the demand from a growing number of consumers for an ultra sleek and stylish smartphone that can also deliver an uncompromising mobile voice, email and browsing experience. The innovative BlackBerry Pearl solidly hits the mark."

Pinstack.com's Lewis reports that during an instore visit, he heard from a Rogers Wireless dealer that there is going to be a new Rogers BlackBerry pricing plan that will take effect August 1.

That's this Tuesday, by the way.

The plan will be up to 200 MB for $100 (CDN) a month.

This will be in addition to the three other existing Rogers BlackBerry data plans:

• $25 for 0.5 MB, additional: $31 per MB
• $40 for 1 MB, additional $10 per MB
• $60 for 25 MB, additional $ 7 per MB

As of today, the new plan has not been posted yet, but how much you wanna bet it will be up on the Rogers site sometime on Monday. Or Tuesday morning @ the very latest.

BlackBerry service from Rogers Communications was out in parts of downtown Toronto yesterday afternoon.

The cause, Rogers spokesperson Taanta Gupta said, was a cut in the fiber used by networking provider Allstream to bridge Rogers and Research In Motion's mobile networks and routing facilities.

In fact, the Toronto Star's Tara Perkins spoke to several users who were quite inconvenienced to say the least.

One of them was Bruce Drysdale,a public affairs official for Toronto-based nickel miner Inco, Ltd., whose bid for Falconbrdige Ltd. was set to expire last night.

"A public affairs person, in the middle of a (mergers and acqusitions) battle, and your BlackBerry goes down," Drysdale told Perkins.

Drysdale added that to make things even more frustrating, Inco CEO's BlackBerry was on the same network.

Inco's CEO's name is Scott Hand. So, I guess his BlackBerry is his "Hand held."

(Yea I know, I'm a blogger, not a comedian).

In what will come as a surprise to virtually no one, Rogers and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion formally placed the BlackBerry 7130g on sale today. (Note: that link should be active by mid-morning).

The device is GSM/GPRS/EDGE network-compatible, with 64MB flash memory, 240 minutes talk time, and 16 days worth of juice in standby.

Pricing and availability are according  to the length of the service contract you sign for Rogers Wireless service.-No term $499.99; 1 Year $499.99;  2 Year $449.99.

Last I checked, Rogers site had the 3-Year listed at $399.99, but the press release that just went out a few minutes ago about the announcement has the three-year price at $249.99 counting a $50 rebate. 

OK, I admit that I am not first to market with this.

Still, as the BlackBerry blog of record I thought I should present this shot of an oversized BlackBerry 7130g.

This photo was taken by a BlackBerry Cool reader who attended the Rogers BlackBerry 7130 party in Montreal earlier this week.

What is there about BlackBerry launch parties and huge model BlackBerrys?

I guess that size matt... better not go there.

And I won't.