A little over a week ago RIM outed the BlackBerry Bold 9790 on its official developer blog and, although there was no mention of when the new handset might be launching, we figured that it likely wasn't too far off. Now a report from BGR has emerged to back up our speculation. According to the site's tipster, the Bold 9790 will be released "around the end of November." What's more, an (extremely blurry) image attached to the report shows that the 9790 may launch with redesigned Send, Menu, Back, and End buttons similar to the ones found on the Torch 9850/9860.

That's not the only bit of BlackBerry news we've got for you, as the folks at BGR have also heard a rumor concerning the OS that powers the latest round of 'Berrys to hit the market. The site is reporting that BlackBerry 7.1, the first major update to BB7, will be pushed later this year. BlackBerry 7.1 is also said to be the last OS released by RIM before it moves on to BBX.

Although I'm sure many 'Berry addicts have flocked to the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, it's good to see RIM bringing the same pairing of touchscreen and physical QWERTY keyboard to the 9700 series for folks that prefer that form factor. After all, choice is good. Which U.S. carriers (if any) the Bold 9790 will make it to remains to be seen, but all should be revealed when RIM makes the device official. Any of you think that you might prefer the 9790 over the other BlackBerry 7 handsets currently available?

Via BGR