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North American BIS customers get upgraded
Over this past weekend, BlackBerry customers received a little treat if they're using Gmail or Yahoo! Mail accounts. RIM updated their BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) for what should be all service providers in North America from 2.1 to 2.3. With RIM's latest endeavor to reach a common ground for BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service) functionality for the BIS subscriber, customers should now be rocking two-way wireless synchronization of deleted emails, auto forwarding from BIS email addresses, as well as read / unread message counts. From what we can tell, the upgrade went smooth with no issues -- which is exactly how BlackBerry users like it.
BlackBerry network down?
We've gotten some reports in that the BlackBerry network has been completely offline in North America for the last couple of hours (since 8PM EST). Apparently email traffic and all BlackBerry Enterprise Server services have been totally wrecked; we confirmed with the BlackBerry-using among our crew. Apparently the network should be back online by or at midnight tonight -- anyone else seeing this issue? Let us know when it lights back up, would you?[Thanks, Harvey]
BlackBerry OS 4.2 ready for 8700 and 7310
We're game for salacious BlackBerry insider info just as much as anyone, so it was with great delight that a "high-level exec at RIM" leaked some info about an upcoming BlackBerry OS 4.2 upgrade (not pictured right) for that older 8700 or 7310. Here's a quick breakdown: BlackBerry Enterprise Server SP4 should be released in June, while BlackBerry OS 4.2 is apparently ready to roll from RIM's end for the 8700 and 7310 handsets -- it's just a question of when carriers will release it. And, oh yeah, BlackBerry OS version 5 is being touted for public release in 2007 or in early 2008 (we hope we can all wait that long) in harmony with its next-gen devices.
RIM boots Balsillie as Chairman, but he remains co-CEO
It looks like RIM co-founder Jim Balsille is out as the company's chairman of the board, although he will remain on with RIM as co-CEO. The crackberry BlackBerry maker has had a little of a black eye recently (like many tech companies) with its handling of stock option accounting, which dates all the way back to 2004. As a result, RIM will have to lower its earnings by what seems like a nice chunk of change -- $250 million. Although we don't think RIM is going anywhere fast, its recent public missteps like this one have added to a long list of woes in recent years. Just promise us, RIM, that this isn't going to affect the release schedule for the 8820, mkay?
