A black Friday for the BlackJack II

Samsung BlackJack II

(Credit: Samsung)

The newest edition of the Samsung BlackJack officially will become available on that uber-shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving. Announced last month at CTIA, the Samsung BlackJack II for AT&T sports a revamped design that comes in two color schemes: black or burgundy. Improvements include a larger display and more shortcut buttons while a front jog wheel replaces the side-mounted scroll wheel. On the feature front, the BlackJack II offers everything we saw on its predecessor but adds integrated GPS and support for AT&T Video Share. Only the black version will go on sale this Friday, November 23. You'll have to wait until December 6 to snag the burgundy model. Both are $149 with a two-year contract.

[Bill Polhemus]

Which Windows Mobile?

Is it Windows Mobile 5.barf, or is it 6.0? I like my Blackjack I okay, except for Windows Mobile - which means I really don't like it at all, doesn't it?

[RSVDUKE]

WM6, Thank goodness

It's going to be WM6, thank goodness. WM5 and battery life crippled an otherwise great Blackjack1.

There was some talk about AT&T offering a WM6 upgrade to the Blackjack1, but in true fashion they shot that down to make people want to upgrade to the Blackjack2 instead.

In the end though, this looks like it'll be a great phone with good software (and battery life?)

[tdm850rider]

I am a new owner of a Wine-Red Blackjack II. Love the phone!
What I DON'T love is the Microsoft Active Sync that comes with it. Will Microsoft ever write software that doesn't need a Phd in Computer Science to install?

I don't want to 'upgrade to Outlook XP', why can't it work with (Microsoft) Windows Live Mail?
When someone writes an intelligent sync program (do I hear Linux?) the Blackjack II will be darn near perfect. Right now it has a great big anchor attached to it called Microsoft.

This is no problem if you don't care to sync
(or if your computer is set up exactly the way Bill Gates' computer is.)