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These things are what's keeping Blackberry alive. I'm still baffled as to why other manufacturer's haven't done anything like this. It seems that no one cares about the enterprise when it somes to mobile phones and the "bring your own" motto is taking over. This is of course pissing off IT departments, but CEOs are loving it.

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Research In Motion on Wednesday announced the availability of BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (MVS 5). The latest update to MVS brings with it compatibility with more enterprise communications systems, including Avaya Aura 6.1, Avaya Communications Manager, Avaya CS1000 Communication Server, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Mitel Communications Director.

(Later)BlackBerry MVS 5 ties together enterprise PBX phone systems with BlackBerry smartphones, allowing employees to have a single number that rings both their desk phone and BlackBerry. Employees also can use what would otherwise be PBX-only features, such as extension dialing, hold, transfer, and ad-hoc conferencing.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/230700064?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

If there is one thing you see in business, it is many people carry around two phones. They use a personal phone and a business phone. RIM wants to change that by added new software that would handle the two separately. It is called Blackberry Balance. We'll see if it flies...

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The goal behind the software is to let BlackBerry owners rely on a single smartphone, so they can use the same device for business and social reasons. IT administrators--concerned about personal devices tapping into their networks--will also be able to manage and secure the corporate side of the phone while leaving the personal side up to the user.

"There are two fundamental use cases on the smartphone--enterprise and personal. The problem is that they are conflicting," McDowell told Reuters.

As an example, people will be able to freely hop onto the Internet and use Facebook and other social-networking sites. But access to corporate e-mail through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server would be controlled by IT, with a virtual wall separating the two sides.

And then a user screws up and that "virtual wall" is gone and your corporate network is now open for everyone.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20029305-94.html

It was rumored to be announced and it has been. The PlayBook tablet will run QNX and has dual Cortex A9 ARM CPUs with 1GB of RAM. The device contains a 7" screen and looks like an oversized phone (of course).



http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/live-from-the-blackberry-developer-conference-2010-keynote/

When RIM released the Blackberry Storm a decision was made to not include a holster packaged with the phone. While there are many solutions to this problem, OtterBox steps in with the Defender series of cases specifically made for the Storm. Combining overall case protection in addition to the holster, this case can take some punishment and is a worthy compliment to the Storm itself.Next Page »

I've had the Storm for about a day and I've been using it on and off. I mainly got the phone for data usage and since charging it to full yesterday at 2:30PM, it is about half full in battery life. I'll come back in a longer article about more specifics.

The Storm needs a firmware update, at least. Hopefully it comes quickly. The UI is sluggish (at best). The accelerometer doesn't work well and takes a very long time to switch to portrait or landscape mode. The SurePress clicking is nice, but it can be disabled and it should be an option. It wouldn't be that hard. Many apps I've downloaded use a normal touch instead of having to click.

The clicking function is awkward since there is a huge button in the center, but not the edges, of the screen. When you try to click the edge of the screen, it is much more difficult than clicking the center. The screen itself wiggles when you hold your thumb on it and move it around. That seems like a design flaw.

The backlight bleeds out of the unit which reeks of poor packaging.

There are other problems and many issues I have would probably be glossed over with a firmware update. I bet something is coming soon, it is pretty bad. The demo units in Verizon stores are sluggish and such. My unit crashed a few times as well.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend the Storm just yet. I don't know why Verizon released the phone in this state. It is pretty terrible. I'm sure an extra two weeks would have ironed out these issues that are blatantly there.

I hate to say it, but I am finally getting a smartphone and since I use Verizon, the Storm seems like the one. The release is this Friday. I'm going to check it out on Saturday with a one on one with a Verizon rep. Data plans from Verizon are expensive ($60 for unlimited data + tethering, $45 for just phone data alone), but Verizon has the best coverage around the north east. Couple that with the inability for the iPhone or even the G1 (so far) to tether, it makes sense to try this one out.

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RIM didn't want to lose this feeling, so the company made sure that users still have to push down on the touch screen as if they were actually hitting a button. As an Apple iPhone user, I have to admit, it took me a little while to get used to the Storm's "push" touch screen. But in some ways I think it's an improvement over the iPhone touch screen. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally called someone or sent a text message before I was ready to hit send, because my finger brushed across that area on the iPhone touch screen.

Another improvement over the iPhone is the fact that the Storm has 1 gigabyte of internal storage and can use a standard microSD storage card to support up to an additional 16 GB of data storage. And because they are standard storage cards, they can be swapped out and replaced. By contrast, the iPhone 3G comes in two versions, an 8GB model and a 16GB model. The storage can't be removed or swapped.

Also, the Storm has a removable battery. Again, this appeals to me, because the iPhone's battery can't be removed, which means if it dies, so does my iPhone.

The rep I spoke to said the GPS was unlocked and the unit will come with a SIM card for use overseas. I don't know if Verizon will finally start using SIM cards for their network. The lack of WiFi is not that important to me since I'll only really be using the phone to check email and other light duties. The real use will be the tethering plan. Most places I go to, the WiFi is very expensive ($10+ per day!) so this plan makes sense.