CrackBerry.com's Kevin got his hands (and signature green coffee table) on RIM's next-generation touchscreen BlackBerry, the Storm 2, aka 9550, aka "Odin". And his early thoughts?

• the hardware is much nicer
• the click screen is more user-friendly
• the operating system is basically the same

Is 2/3 enough? Says Kevin:

In going hands-on with the 9550, it becomes clear that this next-generation Storm is really an evolution of the original Storm. Yes, it's better in every respect, but I'm getting the impression it's sort of like when a new model year of a car comes out - it doesn't make the old one instantly obsolete.

TiPb was pretty tough on the original Storm, though so were many BlackBerry faithful (it was basically cast as the Vista of Smartphones, after all). Any chance the Storm 2 will turn the touchscreen form factor around for RIM? Anyone see it as a threat to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0? Or is it still about RIM providing that diversity to people who want the BlackBerry experience, and would never consider another device, touchscreen or no touchscreen? And if it disappoints, will RIM still lay the blame on consumer expectations in a post-iPhone world?

Every spring, the interweb gadgeteratti turn their attention towards rumormongering Apple's June iPhone release. So what does the BlackBerry world do? Try to wedge in a little next gen Storm chatter.

CrackBerry.com rounds up some rumors from Slashgear and BGR and appears to get confirmation from Tweakers.

The code name just might be "Odin". The Storm, of course, first leaked as the Apple Killer (AK -- yeah, that turned out well...) but was originally code named the Storm, then became branded as the Storm so was re-code named (code re-named?) as Thunder. This time fears that media disdain and user dissatisfaction may have reached levels where the Storm brand itself is radioactive could get it changed again. What's with Odin? Father of thunder-god Thor (we get the connection!), one-eyed lord of the Aesir, gallows-god...

But what's the iClone aspect this time? Why trying to tout a long missing feature as a big upgrade, of course! Sure, the little berry has long supported copy/paste and MMS, so no luck there. But -- wait for it! -- this one may actually have WiFi! (If Verizon doesn't strip it out as per usual...).

Yeah, that should distract attention away from whatever little device Apple was planning for WWDC...