Will the touchscreen Blackberry and RIM's OS 6 be announced next Tuesday?

There's no rumour mill spinning quite as fast as that of the tech world's.

Toronto's John Albright, who is co-managing partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund, as well as the founder and managing partner of JLA Ventures, says that Research in Motion's latest, much-hyped touchscreen-and-slideout-keyboard Blackberry will hit shelves in mid-August.

Which means that the official announcement for its release would have to come pretty bloody soon, and Engadget has recently reported that RIM is planning just that: it's likely to all go down at a major joint event with AT&T next Tuesday. When the Blackberry, tentatively but unofficially called the 9800, is announced, it's expected that RIM's new OS 6 will also be announced.

This all comes at a time where many are questioning if RIM can keep up with the recent onslaught of competitors after enjoying (and possibly softening up a bit after) several years of very little competition.