BlackBerry push framework now available to all developers
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 17th 2010 3:47PM
posted March 17th 2010 3:47PM
It's been a year or so since RIM announced that push APIs had become available to its Alliance Program members, and now it looks like the rest of us are finally able to get in on the action (at least those of us who are BlackBerry devs). Starting today, access comes in two packages: either BlackBerry Push Essentials (the free version) or BlackBerry Push Plus with a number of tiers that reflect different options and price points. So, what are you waiting for? If it's good enough to implement in Weather Bug Elite it's good enough for your application, right? Hit the source link to get started.
If I can only find my old blackberry curve (whistles for it...not found)
As Exchange supports push notification anyway - isn't Blackberry's own tech. obsolete?
Not so much of a problem when you already allow applications to background.. Though this could be handy for battery life I suppose
@geekthree like using the data connection (Edge/3G/WiFi) consumes no power.
If background app are well developed and configured, that shouldn't consume that much battery.
I think the best solution is true multitask and push combined, regarding of the service you want to create.
@geekthree There's a data transfer savings too. Although, I don't think consumers really care too much (directly anyway) about the wasted transfer used checking for updates without a push. You know, that is until Big Blue and the others start charging for data tiers and overages ;-)
i want my gmail app to push.
go google go!
@awillinger I'd be in support of that...except it probably won't come out for another few months, right around when I'm due for an upgrade and get an Android phone.
@awillinger
you could have the email in that app forwarded to your blackberry address to get push -- or better yet (what I do) --> just have everything relayed through fastmail.fm to a gmail account and trigger a "notify" for any email of interest to go to a push enabled account...but that's a bit involved...
I definitely read documentation on push applications when I was developing BB apps a couple of years ago. What's different with this?
@ilh Before, if you wanted to use the BB Middelware, you had to pay a fee of about $1000/year. This is supposed to open their middleware (relay, framework...) for all developers. Their argument for charging money bofore was that they had to review the apps and validate them, since they couldn't otherwise make sure that they made proper use of the bandwidth that happened to pass through this framework. It's still unclear how they'll avoid apps from abusing from this.
Push is great... bu wheres my quality browser? Its like RIM techs are avoiding the necessary work
Funny... I just unsubscribed from my push notifications on WeatherBug Elite. With all of the rain here in the northeast I had been getting a weather alert every half hour (every time something was updated, even if it was just a flood watch being extended another hour, I got an update). Got very, very annoying. At one point I had 13 alerts at once (some from my hometown in NJ and some from Boston where I am currently).