Blackberry Bulletin

A month or so ago I was tired of waiting for AT&T to release the new version of the Blackberry OS for my Curve 8300 that was originally expected to be released in April 2008.  I went to the Rogers (large GSM carrier in Canada) website and downloaded their 8300 4.5.x version.  The upgrade went well, no errors to report.  Until….

A few weeks after upgrading I noticed my phone wasn’t working properly.  In fact it was borderline useless.   Data connections were working perfectly.  I was getting HTML email and had great web javascript support.  But…when I would make or receive a call the audio and voice would cut out (not drop) and I couldn’t here the other party and they couldn’t here me.  At first I didn’t equate this to the 4.5 upgrade.  I was thinking something was wrong physically with my phone.  After all I have dropped it several times.  

So after dealing with this annoying problem for about a week.  I realized that it probably was the OS upgrade.  I was using a OS that was designed for a different carrier.  I struggled with the thought of going back to 4.2.2.  The added features of 4.5 makes it a great replacement to keep me happy while waiting to get a new Bold until the price drops further.  After thinking about it I went back to 4.2.  After all what good is a cell phone that doesn’t make calls.

But rejoice!  Only a week after downgrading back to 4.2, AT&T releases 4.5.110 for the 8300.  I quickly upgraded back to 4.5.  Being the sysadmin for my work’s BES server I was easily able to get a new activation password (after you upgrade it removes the authorization) to re-activate my phone with the BES.  I postponed going to bed to finish and test the phone.

The HTML email has been a great feature!  Emails are much easier to read when the phone can process the HTML.  It will not download the images unless you ask it which is one feature I love about full clients.  Emails load just as fast.  It is really nice when I get business emails that are formatted with pictures and colors.

The web browser upgrades are fantastic as well.  I can now visit more websites and view them a little more like they are meant to be seen.  The processing is faster and pages look better.  I don’t know all the details on the upgrades of the browser support but I can say that it is very nice.

Long story short the upgrade is amazing and essential to getting more out of your blackberry.  If your dying to get a Bold or Storm and you haven’t upgraded to 4.5 (and can), you must do so.  You won’t regret it.

Here is the link from Blackberry’s site

So I haven’t made a post in a while, big deal!

Huge annocements since I last made an update

• BOLD is availabe in the US!!
• the Storm will be coming out to Verizon before the end of this year

The latest news on the release of the Blackberry Bold in the U.S is that AT&T dealers can order the Bold from AT&T starting on September 24th.  This means that stores could get it in a few days after.  So sounds like the rumored September 12th release date will not be a reality but the rumored October 2nd date will be.

$299 is still the rumored price.

The Blackberry Storm just went into technical acceptance at Verizon.  I’ll quote the boygeniusreport who broke the story.

“it just went into technical acceptance at Verizon which usually takes around 3-4 weeks, and the device has been delayed internally by around 3-4 weeks while they work out the kinks (read: buggy and unresponsive) and polish it up. That puts us around a mid-November launch on Verizon.”

The Storm seems to be gaining some ground on the Bold.  The Bold maybe be available mid-Sept. or early October this is a much shorter gap than their was

Speaking as a Blackberry Enterprise Server admin I can’t say enough good things about the Blackberry service.  The installation was not difficult and maintaining it has not been difficult either.  Now I only have three users with one being myself but that may change. Adding a user is simple, just generate a temporary password and email it to the user, they activate their phone on the network using the password and a few min. later they are all set.

I ordered my server copy at the office for free as part of RIM Quickstart edition promotion.  I don’t think they have it anymore though.  Too bad, because it came with a free server license and licensed for 10 user and the ability to add 5 at $100 a license

Since I got mine RIM has released the Blackberry Professional Software.  After a call to RIM sale’s I discovered that the quickstart edition and Blackberry Professional Software are considered one and the same.

Anyway RIM is offering copies of their server software for free.  As of Sept. 4th they are offering:

• Blackberry Professional Software for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino
  Free server license, plus one free user license, one free tech support incident, ability to purchase up to 30 user licenses, and you can trade up to Blackberry Enterprise Server if you need more licenses.
• Novell Groupwise® Blackberry Enterprise Server Quickstart Edition
  Free server license, five free user licenses, one free tech support incident, ability to purchase up to 10 more user licenses for a limit of 15, You can purchase the full Blackberry Enterprise Edition which include 5 additional users and removal of the 15 user limit.
• Blackberry Enterprise Server 60 day trial
  RIM has trial versions of all the server types (Novell, Lotus, Microsoft) with 20 user licenses.

For all of RIM’s offers visit their Special Offers section on their website

RIM announced on Sept. 3rd that the Bold is now available in Luxembourg and France.  These add to the countries that have to Bold available that does not include the United States, RIM’s largest market.

I received a marketing email about the new Vlingo software.  I thought I would post the email 

Vlingo is a program that has been getting a lot of attention on the Blackberry sites I have found.  I tested it out myself and found it to be cool.  I have never been that excited about  voice recognition software, I feel it doesn’t work that well.  I can’t make the argument that voice software will save you time as well.  I can move around the keyboard and menus faster I think.

I don’t do too much driving where I need to respond to emails and what not but maybe a busier business traveler whould find it useful.

Here is the email info on the new version 1.1  Check out Vlingo.com to see the full specs.

Vlingo 1.1 Open Beta: reply, forward, better connections

The vlingo 1.1 beta has been expanded to everyone who’s interested! Anyone who wants to download can now do so from:http://www.vlingo.com/vlingo/go?r=10

The biggest advancements in vlingo 1.1 are the ability to forward & reply to emails and text messages, and better connection handling. Details of what’s new after the jump! 
New Features

• Reply to and forward messages using voice
  • You can now “reply with vlingo,” “reply all with vlingo” and “forward with vlingo” (simply access these options by hitting the menu button when viewing a message - these are currently not spoken commands).
• Punctuation and automatic capitalization
  • Recently vlingo added automatic capitalization of proper nouns and the first letter after punctuation. Try speaking “period,” “exclamation point,” or “question mark, followed by another sentence.  

Vlingo 1.1 Key Bug Fixes and Network Connection Improvements

• This version should fix the problem where vlingo was unable to run because it thought it needed WiFi permissions on a non-WiFi device
• If you have a WiFi device: Vlingo 1.1 no longer requires you to turn off WiFi when you are not connected via the WiFi network.
• Vlingo 1.1 offers a more robust set of connection options. If you previously were unable to connect to vlingo or received frequent timeout errors, this update offers users additional options for establishing a successful connection. Please see below for additional options should connection problems still occur.
• Improved permissions management.

Getting vlingo on Your BlackBerry

The 1.1 beta is available to all. You can find the beta software at:

http://www.vlingo.com/vlingo/go?r=10

I’m already using the 1.1 beta. Is this a new version?

Yes. If you are already using the 1.1 beta, you’ll soon see an upgrade notice that will ask you to upgrade to this version. You don’t need to click the link above, though you may do so if you’d like.

How do I provide feedback?

Once you download the beta and try it out, vlingo wants your feedback. You can do this in one of two ways:

• Use the “Send Feedback” link in the vlingo software. You can access it on the vlingo home screen, or from the menu available from any vlingo screen.
• If for some reason you can’t use the Send Feedback link, email your comments to vlingosupport@vlingo.com.

Remember - specificity helps. Vlingo is looking for feedback so they can get ready for the general 1.1 release.

New Connections Options

Vlingo 1.1 offers some additional connection options. If you are receiving request timeout or connection failure messages, try changing the vlingo “Connection Type” setting. The different options are:

• Auto. With this setting, vlingo will try to determine the best connection itself. Try this first and leave it here if it works. If you have errors or extremely long response times, then try the settings below.
• Direct TCP. Typically this provides the fastest connection. If you have a GSM phone, make sure that your APN is set correctly. For instructions, see the FAQ “Request Timeout” question at http://www.vlingo.com/faq.html.
• BIS. This tends to be slightly slower, but if Direct TCP doesn’t work then this typically will.
• MDS. This option is available for people whose phones are on a corporate BES server. If other connections are slow or unavailable, try this to see if it works better.

AT&T will be releasing end the end of the month a new Curve, the 8320.  It will have OS 4.5 and WiFi.

…via the BoyGenius report

While many carriers around the globe have had the Blackberry OS version 4.5 available, a major carrier here in the U.S. has not.  Today it was leaked by the Boy Genius Report of course that AT&T will release the OS update in mid-Septemeber.  New phones will have the OS version pre-installed starting in October

Version 4.5 will have some great features that my wife and I have both been waiting for.

• Video recording
• HTML e-mail
• Documents to go - allows for editing of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files
• Improved browsing
• see the graphic for others