Blackberry Operating System 6.0

Sorry for the delays in writing, we’ve had a new member to the family scheduled to arrive for a while now, but he/she’s 6 days overdue so I’m going to just jump right into the most exciting topic on the Blackberry calendar.

At the WES 2010 speech, CEO Mike Lazaridis revealed the launch of Blackberry OS 6.0, but he didn’t reveal too much about their new operating system. A few leaks and some videos indicate some quite shocking news, though.

Things like:

* Unified search (search built into every app blackberry wide)
* Youtube support
* More menu animations, more transparency
* Wifi UBS support with geo-coding and zip code stuff
* Bar code scanning features
* trackpad gestures
* Camera and focus features
* Social media features
* Tabbed browsing similar to Safari

courtesy of Mobiclue.com

There’s a video on Youtube as well:

Can we expect Blackberry OS 6.0 on older devices like the Bold 9000?

I think the short answer is no, although there’s no official information out, it sounds like the aim of many of the features contained in the new operating system are aimed at touch screens and trackpads. Perhaps even only trackpads… It’s been reported in many places and in many forums that The Bold 9700, Blackberry 9550, Blackberry Storm2 and other phones WILL get the upgrade and it’s an exciting time again to be a Blackberry fan, what’s not exciting is the timing…

Blackberry should have had operating system 6.0 out long ago, and operating system 5.0 wasn’t much of a feature upgrade but more of a neccesary basic overhaul. If the new operating system performs as well as the video’s show and indicate, we could be in for a VERY exciting time. However, I’m still not overly impressed with the OS entirely. It still seems much of the same. No dramatic changes. It’s still just enough for me to wait a few more months before considering Android.

More Blackberry OS 6.0 Rumors…

Apparently some are reporting that The Bold 9700 will not be running the full version of OS 6.0 as it requires 512MB RAM and the Bold 9700 only has 256MB…  RIM has said that Operating system 6.0 should be here in Q3 of 2010. It’s sad that iPhone OS 4.0 with multi-tasking will be out before the Blackberry flagship operating system that’s trying to carry the Blackberry good name into 2010 on shaky ground with Android and iPhone devices catching up super fast into the business world. The iPhone already supports a ton of enterprise level features and networking features and security options that once made the Blackberry so Famous. There’s still plenty a Blackberry can do that an iPhone can’t, but there’s a gaining list of what an iPhone offers, that Blackberry doesn’t… Namely in it’s web browsing experience and software availability.

The web browser uses the new WebKit features which of course may require other hardware and processing power that we’re not quite sure yet the Bold 9000 or Bold 9700 will have. Stay tuned as I will try and keep everyone up to date on this news. It’s very exciting and not that far away.

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Update… Several reports are out now showcasing the Bold 9700 running OS 6.0 pretty well. I admit I have not tried OS 6.0 on a Bold 9700, I have tried it on the 9780 (Which is essentially the same phone but with a 5mp camera and twice the ram), and I think it would be hard to bare without the extra ram….

I mentioned in a previous post recently that it’s now proven it’s *NOT* Possible to run OS 6.0 on a 9000 only due to RAM on board. Everything else on the phone would technically support it just fine. Sad, I know. We all wish they’d release a bold 9000 with 0s 6.0 because that thing was a killer beast to type on.

What’s taking so long to launch OS 5.0 to all Blackberries?

According to RIM, it’s not them, it’s the carriers! Crackberry.com set out to find what’s going on with RIM and the end of 2009 promise to have os 5.0 launched to the majority of devices out there and what the hold up was and found that was RIM’s take.

A statement filed by RIM said:

RIM began rolling out BlackBerry OS 5.0 late last year through our carrier partners for supported devices, including the BlackBerry Bold 9700, BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Storm2. We continue to work with our carrier partners to make BlackBerry OS 5.0 available to users on new and other supportable in-market BlackBerry smartphones.

So what’s that mean, that kinda leaves out the Bold 9000, doesn’t it? Apparently the software is available to all carriers to make this available to anyone, as we saw recently with Bell releasing 5.0 to the Bold 9000, all carriers have the software and ability. So from this byte of news, we can stop screaming “when’s RIM going to release 5.0 for my device” and start screaming “When is my carrier going to release it?”.

That… Is the question.

Jeremy Atkins

… At least from Bell Mobility! Great job, Bell! At least this is a clear sign that it will be released for other carriers.

As reported from BerryReview, CrackBerry,  Phone’s Review and other sites out there. I mentioned before that I was hoping for Os 5.0 to bring battery improvements to the Bold 9000. There’s no guarantee though so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

This was also one of the reasons I stated that it made sense to buy a Bold 9700 over a Bold 9000 for “futureproof” reasons. However, i’m not sure that’s a big deal now that they’re both officially going to support the latest OS, it’s going to be more of a question of what you like better and if you’re ok with a shortened battery life and lower quality camera.

P.S. – For newbies, yes you can still do the upgrade if you’re not a Bell Mobility customer. Yes, it’s the exact same hardware.

Funny how the years have passed when Blackberry devices didn’t have home screens with pretty graphics on them… They were just a pile of icons to navigate and a jog wheel on the left to find them with… I miss that some days because it really was convenient.

If you miss those days too, you might wanna give this new feature from Handango a try! Click on the image to the right and experience the 18 icon tool which lets you have no home screen and just a pile of icons.

Try it out! Download 18 Icon for Bold 9700 Today!

Rumors are floating around the web that os 5.0 will come available for the Bold 9000… That its one week away.
According to many sources, RIM claimed they’d have it rolled out before the end of 2009, which of course is very very near….

I sure hope that’s true. They’re still selling the device, now in white too.

Its a much needed upgrade and I hope battery life improvements we saw on the Bold 9700 come along with it. But, if it does come out soon for the Bold 9000 I will be doing the upgrade on my spare as it’d be nice to see how it runs on it compared to how it runs on the Bold 9700…
What about you? Will you do the update if RIM rolls out OS 5.0 to the Bold 9000?

P.S. This week we removed Google Adsense from the site, hope that keeps the site clean for everyone! It’s really about the content more than the revenue ideally…

Daniel J Deyette

The Bold 9700 Fresh out of the box.

Last week, when I first got this phone, It was a surprise and a blessing. It came 3 weeks late, but I was happy to have it regardless. I was almost ready to cancel the order actually, thinking it was never going to come.

The battery cover door was really frustrating at first, but then after opening it about 3 times, it can now be done with one hand. Operating system 5.0 doesn’t appear any different at first glance, but the upgrades are some-what under the skin and un-noticible until your looking for them.

Upgrades like the calendar, changing the date spins just like an iPhone. Changing the time on the clock spins like an iPhone and I can prove the browser is upgraded from previous in some very dramatic ways on OS 5.0.

For example – My blog loads all of it’s CSS and twice as fast. Bookmarks now ask you how you’d like to bookmark them (With options to have Java off when you visit that page, to show yourself as IE, Firefox or Blackberry Browser) all phenomenally useful if you’ve ever had sites that just wouldn’t load right for you.

I was a little bothered by the charging jack being made smaller, forcing me to use new accessories instead of the old ones in my car, house and office… But that’s progress I guess. It now uses a Mini-USB which is a bit smaller than the original blackberry charging jack they’ve been using for like 8+ years on the old Bberries. I believe this is something invented by Motorola, but I’d have to check.

The trackpad is genuinely a remarkable experience, kind of like using an iPhone although it is pretty hyper sensitive, it takes a bit of getting used to but it’s very responsive.

I’ll Write more on my review of the phone later.

Daniel J Deyette