BIS 2.8 Launched For All North American Carriers

In the wee hours of the morning, RIM was hard at work upgrading all North America BIS systems to the latest version being 2.8. BIS 2.8 brings with it some long awaited changes for BIS users but still leaves some room for improvement for a later time. A quick look at what's new is listed below:

Two-way wireless synchronization with Google Mail Contacts and the Address Book on the BlackBerry smart phone:

Synchronize Google Mail contacts quickly and easily to the BlackBerry smart phone

Add or edit Contacts and the Contacts are automatically updated, whether they are updated on the computer or BlackBerry smart phone.

Note: Two-way wireless Contact synchronization with Google Mail Contacts requires BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and configuration through email settings on the BlackBerry smart phone. Additional requirements and constraints may be found within the BlackBerry Internet Service 2.8 Documentation Kit. This feature is not supported on BlackBerry smart phones with BlackBerry® Connect™ software.

Enhancements to email setup and settings:

Automatic Login now supports most billing identifiers, which allows new subscribers with wireless service providers that use PIN, IMEI, or ESN as a billing identifier to create BlackBerry Internet Service accounts from the BlackBerry smart phone, without having to create a login user name and password.

Note: This feature will be available approximately one week after the BlackBerry Internet Service upgrade.

Windows Live Hotmail revalidation:

With BlackBerry Internet Service 2.8, new Windows Live Hotmail mail integrations will be defaulted to a protocol that is designed so as not to require 90 day reauthorization.

Note: Existing BlackBerry smart phone users accessing Windows Live Hotmail using Microsoft MSP will still be required to revalidate their Windows Live Hotmail account every 90 days.

The transition seems to have gone smoothly with minimal impact on users and the list of changes is nice to see roll in as it does address some long standing concerns. Anyone have any issues last night? Anything else you would like to see added to BIS services at a later time? Let us know in the comments.

[ BGR ]