So Apple will be releasing their iCloud this fall. This iCloud will store your documents, media and pretty much your life in a cloud (as long as it fits into a space of 5GB) and will automatically push them to their iProducts or PC. Earlier in the year, a company called Funambol announced a Mobile-Me like service that provided two-way synchronization with Outlook as well as synced pictures between your BlackBerry and PC – or with various social networking sites. Check out the original post here.

Funambol has recently announced the release of their own version of iCloud, called xCloud. This digital locker is a cross-platform service allowing for synchronization over a numerous brands of smart phones and platforms. In other words, you can sync a BlackBerry with an Android tablet or an iPhone. So the x in xCloud represents the cross platform support. They’ve also vastly improved their synchronization services since their previous versions. xCloud is based on the recently introduced Funambol MediaHub cloud digital locker solution for manufacturers, VAS providers and mobile operators. Funambol is offering both free and premium services with the xCloud. The free version gives you 150 MB of free storage. Premium plans include 5GB for $34.99 per year and 50 GB for $99.99 per year. You can grab the Funambol Sync Client for free from BlackBerry App World. Full press release after the jump.

More information on Funambol
More information/download Funambol Sync Client for BlackBerry smartphones

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There is a growing need for wireless synchronization. Besides the obvious solution that goes by the name of BES (and the free BES Express), many companies have thrown their hat into the ring to provide users a way to feed that need. Some offer only contact, calendar and email synchronization, others offer only access to files. Today, the folks at Funambol decided to toss their own hat in and announced their beta for a ‘mobile cloud service’ for BlackBerry. Through Funambol BlackBerry service, you are able to sync pictures between your BlackBerry to your PC – or to numerous social networking sites (Facebook, Flicker, etc). You can also enjoy two-way synchronization with Outlook of contacts, calendar, tasks and note. All of this is done OTA and you can choose whether you want to manually sync or schedule automatic syncing.

Funambol is already up and running on other platforms and it’s about time that BlackBerry is shown some love as well. They say that their service is equivalent to what Android would expect from Google or what iPhone users get with MobileMe. Funambol is currently in beta and can be found in BlackBerry App World. Based on the reviews on BlackBerry App World, it’s been there since at least October. Full Press Release after the jump

More information/download of Funambol App

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* Note: Turns out the beta isn't available for the Storm just yet. If you have a Storm and want in on the beta send an email to beta@pushlife.com and they'll get you the Storm version when it becomes available. Sorry about that! *

PushLife is a new music application for BlackBerry Smartphones that seeks to change how you listen to and manage your music on your BlackBerry. Managing music on mobile devices has never really been an easy task for me. It seems no matter how much effort I put into organizing and ensuring items are named and tagged correctly I always end up with a disorganized batch of music on my BlackBerry. After checking out PushLife, I'm liking what I see and it looks to be a way to keep my music better organized.

Now, the folks at PushLife are getting set to release their application via a major carrier announcement next month but as an exclusive offer to the CrackBerry community they've given us a slightly slimmed down version of what will be released for CrackBerry readers to check out (music purchasing disabled in this version). iTunes and Windows Media player synchronization, Twitter sharing of music, editing of ID3 tags on the go and more. That's just some of the features available in PushLife so read on for more information. As for getting in the beta, PushLife is going to limit to the first thousand beta testers, so visit pushlife.com/crackberry from your BlackBerry's web browser to download it now!

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* UPDATE- After speaking with several folks, it looks as though the GMail 2 way sync portion is to be a gradual rollout. So no immed. access is available, it should arrive in the near future to users. Taking this approach ensures that all will work fine rather than releasing something then finding out it may cause an issue*

We've been talking about the BIS 3.0 upgrade for a while now. And while nothing really overly exciting was to come from the update, the one thing it had going for it appears to have been ripped out. Users in Europe are among the first to get the newly launched BIS 3.0 but many have been reporting that 2 way GMail sync did not arrive as expected. Say it isn't so? 2 Way GMail sync was one of the key features of this upgrade coming in the form of enhancements to the GMail plugin.

While all other things seem in place, Open Office support and items such as the update to the carrier portals as shown above from the pics sent to us from BB Master. The mystery behind the absence of 2 way GMail sync seems rather odd considering the Official BlackBerry Support forums are even claiming it's supposed to of have been released with this update. However, when you access the Research In Motion knowledgebase you'll see that the documentation there shows nothing regarding 2 Way GMail sync. The line, as shown on the official support forums has been removed from the knowledge base entry.

Since users are reporting the service does not seem to be available to them we're thinking someone, somewhere may have messed up with the documentation. In all actuality, we may not see 2 way GMail sync until BIS 3.1 is rolled out. In the meantime, sit tight while we dig a little bit deeper into this story and try and find out what exactly the real deal is here.

Seems there is no shortage of BlackBerry Internet Service information these days. The BIS 3.0/3.1 documents contain a few long awaited changes. The folks over at BBLeaks were once again tipped off to more BIS 3.0 information. After having looked at the files, some of what we had learned from the last leak was once again confirmed. Check out the run down.

• GMail - The enhanced plugin will get an update which allows for read/unread status of email.
• Open Office- Open Office documents will gain support for presentations, text, speadsheets.
• WMA Support - Long awaited handling of WM Audio will be supported now in attachments.
• Email Setup /Validation - An enhanced email set up application will be added. Increasing security for end user and methods of email validation/revalidation uponPIN changes.
• Carrier Enhancements - Error messages will now be more indicative of who they should be related to. ie: "If you are having a problem please contact <insert carrier>.
• Other -Carrier based tools such as BIS Admin which help with troubleshooting customers.

Nice updates most importantly out of all of it would be the GMail, Open Office and WMA support as I see it. The email validation and settings is something that some users will appreciate especially first time users, those familiar won't even likely notice until it comes time to change a device. Can't say I like having to wait for all these changes to happen but it's good to know they are coming. Now how about a new browser since I didn't really have an issue with the email before?

• Grab The Documents From This Link And Have A Look At The Full Details>>

It wasn't too long ago now that version 3.0 of BlackBerry Media Sync was released. Now we got an update which brings a newer, semi-revamped UI and improved picture synchronization for PC users. Bumped up to version 3.0.0.39, you can now auto update through media sync or just grab the latest version from the BlackBerry Media Sync download site.

Having checked out the latest version, I can see RIM actually worked out some of the kinks in this version. It not only looks better now but actually works much faster than previous versions. Not too sure as to why the Mac version isn't seeing any updates... I'm not a Mac user so those of you who are is the Mac version working fine as is? Or could it use an update as well?

• Download BlackBerry Media Sync For PC And Mac Today >>

It wasn't that long ago we heard rumors of BIS 3.0 and 3.1 coming our way soon and bringing with it, a bunch of highly anticipated changes. This time around, we're hearing from BBLeaks that there are a few more additions we can expect as well. 

• Support For OpenOffice Documents - Presentations, Text documents and spreadsheets
• Support for WMA (Windows Media Audio)

Support for OpenOffice is interesting to see. Not quite sure how much market space OpenOffice has for users but I've used it on occassion and can see why RIM would be adding it. As for WMA I have to question as to why this is even still unsupported? I honestly thought this was taken care of when WMV was added to the media player for videos. Granted, I don't get many WMA attachments but it seems like a lot of you all out there do so that will be a big improvement. Of course, these are just rumors at this time but rumors that make sense given what they bring to the platform.

With a title like that I'm sure some of you out there are asking why would I want to clear my address book? Well, let's face it even though BlackBerry does a good job of contacts synchronization through Outlook and various other methods, unless you are on a BES it has a tendency to wreak havoc on occassion.

Duplicate entries, missing email addresses or just general chaos can happen. This is a quick and easy guide to show you how to remove your whole contact database without removing wanted items such as calendar entries or needing to wipe your whole OS. 

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