There is only 1 week left until RIM promised us that OS 5.0 would be available. It would be great if it’s still coming but with only a week left you have to wonder if they can do it. Also, given this is the holidays, they are surely short staffed.
According to the official word that Kevin got from RIM:
The roll out process has begun for BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 with the recent beta release of BlackBerry JDE 5.0 (BlackBerry Java Development Environment 5.0) to BlackBerry Developer Zone at www.blackberry.com/developers to prepare the BlackBerry developer community for pending device software releases. As can be expected, BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 will follow before the end of the year, as referenced in the “RIM Launches BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0″ press release that was issued at WES 2009.
The official statement doesn’t tell us what devices will receive OS 5, but rather vaguely states that it will be available. One would have to assume that this would include the 9000, and the 83xx series at the very least.
[Thanks to all the readers who sent in this reminder]
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
The popular Bible App by LifeChurch.tv and powered by YouVersion has been updated with new features as well as support for every BlackBerry with OS 4.2.1+ including the Storm and Storm2.
Included in the new version:
- Reading Plan – You pick the plan (YouVersion has 20+ to choose from) and each day a special selection will be ready and waiting for you.
- Users have the ability to email, Tweet, as well as see Reading Plan details.
- New custom daily reading scripture reader.
- Manage YouVersion login as well as Twitter settings.
The Bible App have over 3 million mobile users across several platforms and their users have collectively spent over 1 billion minutes reading the bible. You can find them in App World’s Top 10.
If App World is not available in your country, you can also download it via http://youversion.com/download from your Blackberry, Android, or iPhone mobile device.
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
AT&T’s latest BlackBerry promo is called ‘Stay One Step Ahead’ and it’s a trailer for a fake movie about a team hunting down a guy with a BlackBerry and “he’s always one step ahead.” The video asks you to log in with your Facebook account because the guy they’re looking for is you. It’s cool to see your profile picture on their view screens in the trailer and it’s a fun way to promote BlackBerry. It’s also really corny.
Check out the ‘Stay One Step Ahead’ video and log in with your Facebook account.
[Read it first from Adam at CB]
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
Bell have announced that they are the first Canadian carrier to offer Visual Voicemail on select BlackBerrys. Bell’s Visual Voicemail is available offline as well, because messages are saved to the internal memory or the MicroSD/SDHC card. That being said, a BlackBerry doesn’t come with very much memory so I wouldn’t recommend saving to the internal memory. Visual Voicemail is available on both HSPA and EVDO networks in Canada and worldwide and is now available on the BlackBerry Bold 9700, Tour 9630, Curve 8330, Pearl 8130 and BlackBerry 8830 and is expected to be available on additional BlackBerry smartphone models in the future.
Visual Voicemail for BlackBerry is available for $8 per month.
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
Twinkler Software have launched a new app called InstantLog. The app runs in the background and logs your calls, SMS messages and emails to the calendar. Optionally, InstantLog can also record all Incoming, Outgoing, and Missed Calls to the Calendar. The app features a Logging Firewall that allows the user to define email and SMS messages that will not be logged for privacy purposes. This app is helpful for anyone looking to record communications for billing purposes, or to keep track of important communications.
More information available about InstantLog available at the BlackBerry Cool store.
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
Bplay have launched a new animated BlackBerry theme called Glitter Motion. The theme is an update of sorts to the original Glitter theme, adding a lot more twinkle and different icon placement. This theme is available for almost every BlackBerry, and it’s sure to be a winner for anyone who liked the original Glitter theme.
Purchase Glitter in Motion for $6.99.
© Matt Cameron aka W4LNUT for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
Click to enlarge the image
BoxTone have provided CIO with the details as to what happened during the BlackBerry outage. According to BoxTone, the problems began between 3PM and 4PM EST. BlackBerry Messenger and BIS internet browsing outages were quickly reported around the web.
Between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, the problem extended to BES email, preventing the delivery of emails for anyone on a BES. BoxTone began noticing a large increase in messages pending, and generated a warning alert before their customers flooded them with calls. BoxTone also placed all affected BES and Carriers in a Critical state on their customers’ Operations Dashboards (depicted by the red dots next to each BES and carrier). The steady growth in Pending Messages beginning around 6:45 continued until the issue was resolved early this morning. From their monitoring data, it appears that BES were able to communicate with the RIM NOC throughout the outage; however, the NOC was unable to deliver messages.
At about 12:09AM, BoxTone detected a brief disconnect in teh SRP connection of each BES to the NOC; it appears RIM reset the NOC SRP connection to complete their fixes. Following this reset, delivery of BES mail resumed.
By 2:45 AM or earlier, BoxTone detected that most customers’ email and services were back to normal and the backlog of pending emails had been delivered. BoxTone generated notifications informing their users that their service levels had returned to normal and updated the status of the BES and carriers to Normal.
Overall, this outage seems to have lasted around 7 hours. Thankfully, it wasn’t during peak hours, or this could have seriously impacted the working day. I hope RIM does a much better job of fixing these outages because 7 hours is way too long.
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
The BlackBerry outage that has been affecting users across North America was caused by BBM and it’s crucial that everyone download the latest version of BBM (5.0.0.57) to correct the issue.
Download the latest BBM from www.blackberry.com/messenger.
According to an official statement from RIM:
RIM Statement – December 23rd – A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure.
RIM has taken corrective action to restore service. RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this latest version which resolves the issue. RIM continues to monitor its systems to maintain normal service levels and apologizes for any inconvenience to customers.
RIM has got to pick up its socks and not let these outages continue to happen. It has to be the worst public relations disaster for a company that prides itself on reliability. Hopefully this will change in the New Year.
© Kyle for BlackBerry Cool, 2009
