RIM announces the BlackBerry Torch

Research In Motion on Tuesday introduced the BlackBerry Torch, a touch-screen and sliding-keyboard device that will be the first to feature the sixth version of the company's phone software.

The phone, which goes on sale August 12 will be an AT&T exclusive. New or otherwise upgrade-eligible customers will be able to get it for $199 with a two-year contract. There's no word yet on whether it's available without a contract, and, if so, how much it will cost without a contract.

The marquee feature of the device, besides the touch screen and QWERTY combination (which Palm did with the Pre), is the inclusion of the BlackBerry 6 operating system, which features a WebKit-based Web browser, universal search, and contextual menus. RIM has also built in a social-feeds application that can group together updates from several social networks, and pipe them into one stream.

:story: Full story: c|net