The Storm has 1GB of internal storage, but it also has a MicroSD slot and will ship with an 8GB MicroSD card. Also present: a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and a second external mic (on the back, in addition to the one for voice on the front) that picks up ambient noise data for the built-in noise reduction technology, which in theory should improve voice call quality. The Storm, like the iPhone, has an accelerometer that adjusts the display's orientation as you rotate the device.

But the Storm's most interesting and potentially controversial innovation is RIM's implementation of a touch interface, especially for typing. The Storm provides three different software keyboards: When you're holding it in landscape orientation and you need to enter text, a standard QWERTY software keyboard appears; the keys flash blue when you depress them.

In portrait mode, you have a choice: You can have a software keyboard that looks like the one on the Pearl (20 keys, some with one character, others with two) and that supports RIM's SureType predictive text entry system. Or you can opt for a standard phone keypad (although why you'd want to enter text by multiple letter taps is beyond me).

Only time and hands-on testing will tell whether the Click-Through technology will make text entry and navigation easier (for example, by helping to avoid inadvertent finger taps) or more confusing (the device has a number of tap-and-click shortcuts that take some getting used to).

Visual Voicemail and More

The Storm's phone-related features include so-called visual voicemail. As on the iPhone, this allows you to peruse a list of incoming calls (identified by caller ID number or, if the number is in your address book, by name) and address them in whatever order you wish.

Like all BlackBerry devices, the Storm will have BlackBerry's first-rate e-mail features, including support for just about all corporate e-mail systems via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The Storm will also ship with Verizon's VZ Navigator software (but service charges apply) and with instant messaging clients for the major IM services.

However, there's no universal IM client for the Storm, so if your buddies patronize different services you'll have to run all of them in the background.

The Storm will support at least limited functionality for most older BlackBerry applications. But at launch, RIM says it will offer a developer's kit that will make it easier to adapt existing BlackBerry apps for the Storm--for example, optimizing them to take advantage of the touch screen, the accelerometer, or both.