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The Pearl in Pearl, the trackball in RIM's first BlackBerry to feature a camera and a media player, is having some problems in association with receiving phone calls. Early reports say a bug causes the trackball, which replaces the traditional BlackBerry scroll wheel, to silence the smartphone's ringer with the slightest movement.

Unlike a scroll wheel, the trackball isn't recessed. It sticks out of the phone and is extremely freewheeling. So if you have a BlackBerry Pearl in your jeans or a purse, the trackball could easily move and have important consequences on whether or not you have a phone call.

Sure, it isn't that much of a problem if you hear the handset ring first and then start to reach in to pull it out beforehand. But it is a real issue if the movement happens before you become aware that the ringer had gone off. Then you would almost certainly miss the call.

We would expect T-Mobile, the first carrier to ship Pearl, and RIM would jump on this and offer a fix fairly quickly. Engadget says they tried to explain the problim to RIM rep at CTIA last week without much luck. As the blog points out, the Canadian push e-mail and PDA leader would have to 'get' the problem to fix it. With enough complaints, I'm sure they will pretty quickly.

T-Mobile sells Pearl for $200 after $150 in discounts and with a 2-year service contract.

Next week, Rogers Wireless is expected to become the second operator to deliver Pearl, while Cingular Wireless should start offering as the BlackBerry Pearl 8100c later in the fall.

More on Pearl
BlackBerry Pearl is a sleaker handset built in the mold of RIM's 7100 series, which means it is more smartphone-like than models like the 8700 series, for example. As result, the device nixes the traditional BlackBerry QWERTY thumb-keyboard for a keypad/keyboard combo that merges numbers and text onto each button, while RIM's SureType technology helps users accurately input text. When they press a key, the new handset - as with the 7100 series - is supposed to know which of the two supported letters they meant to use.

Although Pearl's form factor resembles the 7100 models, at a compact 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.57 inches (107 x 50 x 14. millimeters) and mere 3.1 ounces (89 grams), it is, perhaps, the sleekest-looking BlackBerry yet. Undoubtedly part of RIM's plan to expand outside of its corporate and mobile professional niche with the device.

Pearl's 1.3 megapixel camera comes with built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. MMS enables you to send video and pictures as multimedia messages to others. And you can display images and video (MPEG-4 and H.263) on the new BlackBerry's 240 x 260 pixel color screen, which isn't touch, just like all other RIM handhelds.

To navigate the smartphone you use a trackball - the Pearl in the handset- which, along with the display and keypad/keyboard, adjusts lighting to provide an optimized view in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.

In terms of audio, Pearl will playback MP3 and AAC music files. There's a stereo headset jack. And Bluetooth 2.0 support means you'll be able to wirelessly connect to wireless headsets and stereo headphones as well.

Speaker independent voice recognition for voice activated dialing is available through integrated technology from a company called Voice Signal.

A microSD slot is there to expand upon Pearl's 64 MB of memory.

The quad-band GSM/GPRS smartphone is also EDGE-enabled, a 2.5 G cellular technology supported by T-Mobile and most other GSM carriers. That means you'll be able to send those multimedia messages, browse the Web, access e-mail and other content services at average speeds of 135 kilobits per second.

As with all BlackBerrys, Pearl supports RIM's push e-mail and data access solutions. It also bundles the AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and ICQ instant messaging clients.