Clifton of BlackBerry Alliance member Man & Machine writes to let us know that the $129 CoolMIR external BlackBerry keyboard supports every BlackBerry device except the BlackBerry Pearl 8100.

While that certainly is news, the reason why the Pearl isn't supported yet is even bigger news. That is, there seems to be some charging issues related to BlackBerry OS 4.2.

And it's not only OS 4.2 that seems to be encountering problems.

"Hand held software version 4.1 for BlackBerry 8700 series, 7100 series and 7290 has a problem that forces the BlackBerry to charge from any external devices that is attached to its USB port even if it is not a power source," Clifton writes.

"In some cases, if it can not charge from the attached device, it resets itself," he adds.

Clifton says that Research In Motion has told him the 4.1 hand held software issue is being fixed in their next hand held software release., but then adds that hand software version 4.2 for the BlackBerry Pearl also has this bug.

It's Clifton's understanding this bug will be fixed in the next Pearl software update.

"To avoid this problem, Clifton advises to make sure the keyboard has more than 15% battery life when the Cool MIR is used.