BIS 3.0 coming to North American BlackBerry users next weekend?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted March 20th 2010 7:01PM
posted March 20th 2010 7:01PM
It seems almost too good to be true, but it looks like the era of usable Gmail integration on BlackBerry might finally be upon us. CrackBerry is citing information that BIS 3.0 will be rolled out to North American customers in the wee hours of Sunday, March 28, when most of us are in a peaceful slumber (a good thing, considering that data services will be mostly down during the four-hour window). Out of the gate, 3.0 will offer Gmail label creation and deletion when using the plug-in along with support for OpenDocument file types and WMA audio, but the real meat should come shortly thereafter as two-way synchronization of read status and sent messages "will be added throughout the Spring 2010 by region." Technically, Spring starts today, so this could show up the moment BIS 3.0 goes live -- but given that we've waited literally years for this to happen, we're not getting our hopes up prematurely.
"two-way synchronization of read status and sent messages"
wow took them long enough
@HurricaneDC BiS
Glad
@foxyNinja
(get)
What about BlackBerry users outside NA?
@m0m4nq
N/A
What I don't understand is all the gloating about BlackBerry e-mail when it can't even do this properly...
Seriously, I am curious, what's so great about BB's e-mail system as compared to other smartphones?
Compared to android running gmail, nothing.
@therockr92 Not so much any more. It used to have pretty much a monopoly in mobile email but as u can see everyone else is catching up.
@Luxury Guy from a consumer perspective I don't see anything so great. I only got my BlackBerry for the hardware keyboard.
@Luxury Guy
Its a combination of being able to manage large numbers of handhelds at a time as well as the email factor. From what I've been able to gather, the two platforms that best handle those types of situations are BB and WM. Since WM wasn't as standardized as BB, that's the choice many companies went with.
Though I think at this point its a large heaping pile of no-change-itis. Its moderately understandable though seeing as how some businesses would have to completely retool their set ups.
Consumers went with it either because it provided (and arguably continues to) the best portrait keyboard available on the market (couple of my cousins), or because they saw business people with them and figured if it was good enough for them, it would be spectacular for me (my mom).
Though this is a combination of inferences and pure speculation. Feel free to correct me or outright disregard anything I have said.
@Luxury Guy simply put: push email. I moved from a Touch Pro 2 to a BB 9000 since I just couldn't figure out how to have email pushed to my phone without an exchange server. I use Gmail, but wasn't able to use Google Sync to push emails to the phone. The alternative was to use third party servers like SEVEN to push it so that my phone's battery didn't kill itself checking for email every second. fuck that, i'm already paying for a data plan, no way was i going to link up another service to that when BIS was offering to do it for me.
@aniym Gmail uses MS Exchange for push to all smartphone though... so push shouldn't be an issue.
It's kind of sad that Blackberry isn't the best at anything anymore. It doesn't even support IMAP Gmail syncing? Even iPhone does that. Blackberry used to be the king of email, now it's jack of all trades master of none.
I honestly can't believe RIM has let you blackberry owners go without essential gmail features for so long. It's quite pathetic, and why is this the headlining feature of a 3.0 software? Shouldn't there be something else NEW to get excited about in a x.0 release??
@jellotime91 Best at messaging = BB (obiously that's just my opinion)
and ps: I'm an iPhone user
@foxyNinja I disagree.. I have msn on my iPhone which is a non-exclusive service where I can reach almost all of my friends, also I add them via email not weird pins. Top it off with backgrounder and the fact that most people with blackberrys are also using msn anyway, and I see no difference or inconvenience. Some people just feel the need for an exclusive service to make them feel special... I do not.
@jellotime91 Strange... on my version of BBM, I can add a contact by "person's email address, PIN, name, barcode, SMS name, or phone number". But who knows maybe other versions can only use a "weird PIN".
Also, the app I'm using on my iPhone for MSN doesn't run in the background. That's convenient. I'll search for another that always runs so people can contact me any time.
@redfish too early in the morning. Meant to say inconvenient. And will have to search for that other Background program. An edit feature sure would be nice. Whew! Now off to the coffee pot!
@redfish Well, I don't know everything about bbm. But as far as running in the background, iPhone has push notifications so that you don't need to run an IM client in the background and you can still be contacted at any time. This also conserves battery.
If that isn't enough for some reason then you can always jailbreak.
Right in time for me to drop my Blackberry and get a Nexus One on Verizon. Sorry, RIM... a little too late.
@xmonkey Samesies.
How would I get my friends to drop their Blackberrys and get Android phones? They are in love with their BBM and none of them use gmail.
@garythelegend
I'd like to know that as well. I bought a BB 9700 sim-free just for BBM because "everyone's on it", while use HD2 as daily contract phone... I hate the BB and would love for the 'fad' to die already.
@garythelegend
Tell them to get Gmail... even if they only use it for GTalk.
I love BBM... but I hate that it's *only* for BB users.
I wish everyone would settle on one IM platform... preferably one that works on ALL phones... and not tied to a particular brand of handset.
Imagine if iPhones could only talk to other iPhones... Android phones could only talk to other Android phones... etc. That's what happened to the Blackberry.
My next phone will not be a Blackberry. I will miss BBM.
If they went with an Android phone they could use Google Talk.
...I mean it's something...
@garythelegend Yup! BBM is like a curse for me. I'd love to get an Android phone or even the next iPhone but I'm not sure I could live without BBM. Guess I should try rehab...
@garythelegend get the manufacturers to make an excellent phone with a hardware keyboard. That's the main reason I got my BlackBerry... the keyboard's way better than any software keyboard i've ever used.
@Almo Nice. I'm thinking of ditching my 9700 for an HD2? Am I going to regret it?
@DJ -- BBs run Google Talk, too, though (just sayin'...)
It's announcements like these that are the reason I dumped my BB 9000 for the Nexus One. RIM is great at coming out with upgrades that are nothing more than trying to play catch up with everyone else. It's nice being ahead of the curve, way ahead, for a change.
Dude......J.Tops just enoculated in his pants.
Putting the crack back into crackberry...
gmail sync! no way! Must be the biggest modern day breakthrough in mobile communications... srsly, who buys this crap anymore? If all your friends are on bbm, you need to make new friends.
@technotechie
Putting G Berry back into the crack.
blackberries suck but the fact is that consumers don't actually buy blackberries, they are bought by businesses for employees. I know 800 million people will come in and refute this but I truly believe it, I've very rarely met someone who just bought a blackberry because they actually wanted one. Another side effect is blackberries tend to be used by upper management who can't handle things like android or webos, and so rely on blackberry messenger, which requires the employees under them to have berries for it to work smoothly. This is one of those places that Palm should be making headway instead of fighting the iphone. Fanboys might screen how much they hate palm pre's, but give them a blackberry bold and palm pre for 2 weeks and see how many would pick the pre (tons).
@nickyP I'd have to disagree. A decent fraction of my friends (ranging from early to late 20s) swear by their BlackBerries and BBM. None of them are real techies. I know they love the BBM, I think they love the keyboards and relative HW robustness (this is a crowd who doesn't have a gadget love thing going on, and so drops their phone occasionally), and finally my guess is they love the simplicity of setting up e-mail.
On every other setup you need, if auto-setup doesn't work you need to put in servers and ports, and authentication, ect. BBs don't seem to ever have to do this. Correct me if I'm wrong, as I've only set ppls up, but actually owned a BB.
Everything said and done, I really don't see what the appeal is, as it seems to me that every other smartphone platform can do everything a BB can do, and in many cases, it can do it better.... that is except for simple e-mail setup. As for BBM, why tie yourself down to a proprietary mobile only IM platform?
@nickyP
I know tons of people who have Blackberries as their normal cell phones... and these are not business people. Hell, I work in dance studios... and there are tons of teenagers with Blackberries. Verizon practically gives them away on family plans and buy-one-get-one deals.
I don't know why you think that Blackberries are only sold to corporate customers... and that regular people don't want them. Verizon has 90 million customers... do you think they are all corporate customers?
Take me, for example. Whe it was time to upgrade, I got a new Blackberry for $30. I guess I could have gotten a free LG enV.... but I didn't want a crappy featurephone... I wanted a Blackberry.
I've got 27 people on my BBM buddy list... but I probably know 100 people with Blackberries. And these are personal phones... not business phones.
Actually... I've got 281 Facebook friends that have the Facebook app on their Blackberries... and these are mostly people under 30 or in college..
So... you can truly believe that "consumers don't actually buy blackberries, they are bought by businesses for employees"... but you'd be wrong. Have fun with that.
@Luxury Guy email setup on an iPhone is really easy and you don't have to remember a login to access your service providers bb site to add a new email address.
@Luxury Guy -- "I think they love the keyboards and relative HW robustness (this is a crowd who doesn't have a gadget love thing going on, and so drops their phone occasionally)"
@mpv uhhh don't know what happened to the rest of my post; i had a long point there (concurring, in short, that BBs are tanks, and that this is key) -- but somehow it evaporated. just as well...
@Michael Scrip I understand that any broadly sweeping generalization is going to have exceptions, but in the end I think blackberries are riding fumes right now, since the only thing saving their marketshare is the corporate market and the limited availability of the iphone, as soon as verizon gets the iphone, and windows phone 7 comes out, I think you're going to see the blackberry market drop in marketshare drastically. Please though, if you're a blackberry fan, I get it, they're robust phones that do a limited set of things well and are generally not a big hassle. They also have some of the best HW keyboards on the market, when I said earlier they suck, I mean it from the typical engadget reader's perspective. The thing is though, what's cool to us is cool to other people 1-2 years later. Things like palm web os and android are going to become much bigger over the next year (assuming palm manages to live and release new devices), because many of the original complaints are patched away and blackberry doesn't seem to be innovating fast enough. Now Rim will launch OS 6 and make me look like an uninformed ass.
LOL Blackberry. So doomed. So... DEAD.
I mean really, what's the point of getting Blackberry that other mobile OS's cannot do?
Nothing?...
It's time to quit the mobile OS game Blackberry. Just release your Blackberry Enterprise Server for Android, charge for it, and that's your business from now on.
Also, buy Palm.
@Johnny Rockets
You are either clueless or a troll. RIM has a bigger slice of the pie than either Apple, Android, or pathetic Palm.
@dave1812
Present standings do not indicate future performance.
@Johnny Rockets
Email is seamless on a Blackberry. I love my Pre, don't get me wrong. But Push email with the BIS blows away the pre email client. Plus RIM devices have way better battery life. RIM out the door? Get real.
Wow blackberry still didn't have it. Thank god I ditched bb for an iPhone last year. Blackberry is just such a garbage platform. I had it for years. Sense 8700g up to storm. The thing didn't change much at all. Is is just way too outdated. I swear my 7200 does all that my new storm could just as well.
What's the big deal? I've had Gmail on my 8900 for the longest time already!
@JoeJoeJoeJoeJoe : umm, yeah. WTF are all these idiots talking about? Gmail can be configured as POP3 or IMAP on a Blackberry. It just didn't support a couple of Gmail's IMAP features. I can understand some of the legitimate beefs at RIM - I have a few myself. But the haters in here are really a strange, clueless breed.
@psycros You guys aren't getting the point. The fact is that the service does not work completely, and by that token, it does not work. The things that are missing with gmail on blackberry are really frustrating not to have. Blackberry is supposed to be the best mobile email device, not the worst.
Why are the trolls the ones with terrible grammatical skills? I'm just sayin'.
I agree that two way GMail sync is way overdue, but if you're going to bash at least back it up with some reasoned examples, and spelling and punctuation that doesn't make you look like a moron.