There are some leaked details about the new version of BIS, the BlackBerry Internet Service 3.2. The details are as follows:
- Everyone who has used the BlackBerry Internet Service before would be happy with the feature of syncing your address book with your Google or GMail account. Now, BIS 3.2 brings you the pleasure of syncing the calendar entries also. So keeping track of your meetings becomes more easy and you may be relaxed to know that your data will be safe on two different servers.
- As it is rightly said, with great powers comes great responsibilities, BlackBerry is saying, with great features comes great security. So now, the security in the service has increased. In the olden versions, you were asked for a 6-character password. But in BIS 3.2, you are asked for 8 to 16-character password. And this has to a combination of lower case and upper case alphabets with numbers, complete security eh??
- You dont have to worry about entering your log in details everytime you try to access the mailboxes from your devices. The new service takes care that the first time you provide it with the details, it is saved in a place and from the second time, its automatic log in. Saves time and headache.
- People who use WAP were not able to see the passwords they entered with the old version. But in the new version, its corrected and people who enter the password can now see what they have entered and whether it is correct or not.
- The new version has it necessary that the Windows Live account be re-validated every 365 days, failing which, the usage may be stopped. But the user will not be affected by this, unless its not validated.
Technically, BlackBerry phones are PDAs as well as a phone working on push technology. With a usual phone with internet access, one will have to check the mailbox regularly or frequently, or keep a mail client active at all the time, which may lead to low battery backup. But with BlackBerry, you don't have to worry.
BlackBerry phones use the push technology, where all your emails, calendar entries, documents or any other data directly to your phone via the internet. This is possible due to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), responsible for the forwarding of all the mentioned items. All the BB devices are assigned a PIN (Personal Identification Number) and are integrated with the BES.
This BES actively monitors the users mailbox at all times. When it sees a new item in the mailbox, it pushes it to the network operation center of RIM, which further uses the network service provider's services to push the item to the user's phone.
All the data which moves around the BB devices and servers and operational centers, are encrypted. BB uses the triple Data Encryption Standard (DES), and more recently the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Encryption is done to hide the personal info that is essentially trasmitted during a transaction. BB uses highly complicated algorithms to achieve this type of encryption and its very hard for a person to intercept the data.
This unique kind of operation is what caused the popularity of the BlackBerries. With this technology improving over time, BlackBerry is committed to change the way that the corporate world functions.
With a lot of countries like the UAE, Saudi, India and middle eastern countries warning Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, that their services would be blocked in the countries, Kuwait has said that it wont ban BlackBerry services. The authorities say that they are following the situation continuously, but are not planning to impose a ban due security concerns.
Mohammad al-Baseeri, communications minister here said "At the moment, I can tell you that there is no intention to stop BlackBerry services in Kuwait". But then he said that he was waiting for answers from RIM on the security risk concerns tossed by the neighboring countries. It is also quoted that he said "We are in direct and indirect talks, and contact, with Saudi Arabia, UAE and the BlackBerry maker to follow up on the solutions presented by the company."
Friday was a very sad day for Blackberry lovers in Saudi as the services were blocked. People were seen selling their devices for half price on the streets of Saudi. This was done as RIM did not respond to Saudi's government's warning that it should allow access to its encoded data sent out of the country to its server in Canada. This caused a lot of havoc in the corporate market in Saudi. But now, its not clear whether this was due to the ban or due to the servers being tested. Some say that it was a glitch due to the testing of the servers, but, some newspapers reported that the services were banned and there was no communication possible from or to the devices.
Reportedly, the services were back the next morning and it is assumed that it was just a glitch. But nevertheless, the fear of the services getting blocked still haunts Blackberry owners here. The services would be shown a green signal by the authorities only if RIM issues the authorities monitoring rights. And, this situation is expected in other countries like the UAE and India for the same reasons.
Blackberry lovers in some parts of the world like the middle east and some countries in Asia are not really happy from a few days. This is because the concerned countries' governments are planning to ban the Blackberry services in their countries due to security risks. Now, this is a well known fact.
The reason being, Blackberry uses a proprietary encoding technique for all the data transaction happening through its devices. These data are stored in a server located in Canada. The governments have asked Blackberry to cooperate in making the situation better by letting the authorities tap the encoded data and examine. This is necessary due to the increase in terrorism worldwide.
The governments of the concerned countries have warned Blackberry that they would ban its services if the company doesn't agree to this. But Blackberry has said that it can't help the authorities in this because the encoding algorithm used by it is of very high security and even if it wanted, it couldn't hack the system. This, obviously, is not an answer that the governments want.
Recently, Bruce Schneier, a security expert, chief security technology officer for BT said "I could design a good hundred ways to gain access". Officials with Canada's RIM did not respond to a request for comment. Security experts around the world say that attacking the network's most vulnerable points, the Blackberry smartphone itself and the Blackberry server, would be a solution. These points, the two extreme end points for the communication to take place, are supposed to provide would-be hackers access to unscrambled data.
Tyler Shields, who works for the Burlington, Massachusetts based security firm Veracode, released a spyware program earlier this year for attacking Blackberries via the handset. "I wanted to demonstrate that Blackberry handhelds are susceptible to spyware", said Shields. So now, if RIM doesn't nod to the governments, they may hack the networks themselves or ban the company's services completely very soon.
RIM and AT&T just announced the new BlackBerry Torch 9800 slider and as you might know, there were a lot of rumors on the internet about it and some “spy photos” too. Most people thought that this was going to make part of Storm family but it doesn’t as you see. I was quite expecting that because there is no Storm with so many buttons.
Here came the time to talk about the plans that BlackBerry has for the future talking about a new smartphone namely a new version of the BlackBerry Pearl which is named BlackBerry Pearl 2 or BlackBerry 9100. Before starting to talk about it, I would like to let you know that this new Blackberry 9100 is going to be released this month or better said, in the next two weeks because there is not left too much time until this month ends.
I thought that the readers of the BlackBerryLovers should know what are the plans of BlackBerry for the future and I’m taking about launching a new phone. As you can see in the title, I’m talking about the new BlackBerry Essex which is also known as BlackBerry Tower 2, they just named it different.
If you’re having a lower version than the 5 OS on your BlackBerry Curve 8900 and you don’t know if you should upgrade your phone to the new 5 OS, you may find this post useful. This post was axed on the 5.0.0.130 so if there are some new features at some new upgrades, I’m sorry, anyway, now we’re going to talk about the main new upgrades at this new OS.
When you first turn on your phone, you see a welcome screen where your phone is loading and here already comes an upgrade namely that it has a new welcome screen represented by the BlackBerry logo and also a loading bar.
This is a great news and until now I didn’t think about this but this is a must have upgrade for this app. I mean you should know that this application was built to make your life easier and of course, if you own a BlackBerry smartphone. Of course, this news has been announced by RIM. Anyway, if I was you, I would already download again this app world so that I can download or buy themes much more easy.
