Posted on October 2, 2008, at 8:53 am .
Speaking at the Churchill Club, a speakers’ forum for Silicon Valley civic leaders, Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo had a few things to say about a variety of his competitors (Google, Apple, etc.), but saved his strongest words for RIM. While he said he was impressed by RIM’s strategy to sell not just devices but whole solutions for managing corporate e-mail securely, he indicated that Nokia’s recent deal to place Microsoft email support on Nokia’s 80 million Series 60 phones as the key to defeating the boys and girls from Waterloo.
“Multiply what RIM has been doing here,” the Nokia executive said of his own company’s strategy to provide e-mail not only to business users but also consumers and a category of avid users in between the two markets, nicknamed “prosumers.”
“We will exceed the RIM client (BlackBerry) in some months with a very good e-mail system,” Kallasvuo promised.
What do you think, folks? Typical CEO bluster or a laying of the gauntlet. Nokia certainly sells a lot of phones every year, and a lot more than RIM…
(via Reuters)
Posted on September 19, 2008, at 9:06 am .
RIM today announced support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, which advances the functionality offered through the Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005. So what’s all the fuss about? Corporate customers running Microsoft OCS 2007 and a BES now have access to the BlackBerry Messenger. If you think that isn’t a big deal, well think again:
“Instant messaging and presence on the BlackBerry platform is improving our ability to find members of our mission critical teams that are often mobile, and bring them together quickly into live and interactive meetings, regardless of their locations,” said Gary Bellfield, Information and Communications Technology Manager at Tayside Fire and Rescue. “Mobile access is an essential component of our complete unified communications initiative, and we trust the BlackBerry solution to support our mobile instant messaging capabilities in a highly reliable, secure and intuitive way.”
Who knew that IM could help save lives? Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 requires BlackBerry Enterprise Server 4.1.6 or higher, and handsets running BlackBerry OS 4.1 or higher. More information can be found at:
http://www.blackberry.com/go/ocsdownload
(via RIM)
Posted on August 25, 2008, at 8:22 am .
Back in 1991, the National Association of Broadcasters attempted to lobby the FCC against pay-to-use news services over cellular networks, which would have been bad news for BlackBerry if it had gone through.
The NAB said that the cellular operators are misusing their spectrum. “Cellular spectrum should be reserved for the two-way communication for which it is designed,” said the NAB. “One-way transmission of news, sports, weather and traffic would be a misuse of this spectrum and a needless duplication of broadcast services.”
Yep, the NAB didn’t want any data services sent over cell networks, which would include that handy push e-mail we all know and love today. Too bad for them that one didn’t pan out, eh? Think they would have smartened up over the last decade? Guess again. They’re still combating the use of wireless white space by Google, Dell Microsoft and others for data services for fear of its interference with existing broadcasting in the spectrum – essentially the same premise as back in ‘91. Good luck with that one, guys.
Thanks Josep!
(BNET via Saschameinrath)
Posted on August 18, 2008, at 2:54 pm .
Microsoft’s TellMe launched last April to meet Yahoo!’s OneSearch head-on for supremacy in voice-activated search. Today TellMe has expanded their device support to beyond the BlackBerry 8800, and now works on the full BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry Pearl range (well, maybe not all BlackBerry Pearls, and the 8300 isn’t supported), so now more folks can enjoy the business search, traffic, driving directions, maps, weather and movies TellMe is offering. Want to give it a shot? Grab TellMe for free at m.tellme.com from your BlackBerry’s browser.
Posted on July 18, 2008, at 7:39 am .
Admins rejoice! The latest patch for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server is available for download. The device-side software made it out yesterday, and BIS was upgraded a couple of weeks ago, so the circle of upgrading is all completed. Big changes in this service pack include rich content e-mail, support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Lotus Sametime 8.0, and control RIM value-added applications. On top of that, reconciling permanent message deletion has been improved, and there are also some changes to the BlackBerry Configuration Database schema, the naming of collaboration clients, Mobile Data System conventions and related software. As for that PDF vulnerability, this patch should take care of everything A-O-K. Go ahead and download BES 4.1.6 here, or scope out the update notes here.
(via BerryReview)
Posted on July 9, 2008, at 8:01 am .
Not one to be outdone by Yahoo! OneSearch, it turns out the Windows Live Search application for BlackBerry is also packing voice recognition, letting you pull up mobile searches just by speaking into your mobile. I’ve been making progress with vlingo lately, which features Google and Yahoo! searches built in as well, but one of our readers went so far to say “it has replaced half of my applications overnight, literally.” Tall words, but Live Search does feature GPS maps and navigation, movie showtimes, traffic, weather, and a bunch of other handy features. One-stop shops for BlackBerry software are becoming hot commodities, and voice recognition is the soupe du jour. Head on over to m.live.com to give Windows Live Search for BlackBerry a shot, or go to Live Search Mobile for more info.
Posted on July 3, 2008, at 9:03 am .
Microsoft announced today that their customer relationship management software, Dynamics, is coming to BlackBerry via MobileAccess 4.0 in Q3. I don’t know how much room there is in the BlackBerry CRM software market, what with SAP announcing a fairly tight partnership with RIM at WES this year, but hey, if you’re already using the Dynamics archietecture, it’s good to have the option. Check out TenDigits for more info on the software.
Posted on May 12, 2008, at 2:37 pm .
As if RIM wasn’t getting cuddly enough with Apple via iTunes support in the Bold, they’re also making nice with Microsoft by giving Hotmail push capabilities and supporting Live Messenger. The only other company to get the red carpet rolled out like that so far has been Google, and to a lesser extent Yahoo!, but clearly RIM’s willing to work with just about any of the big players. Expect this to go live come summertime. Thanks, BBSync!
Posted on May 7, 2008, at 10:17 am .
WebMessenger has announced that their enterprise IM client will now play nice with Microsoft Office Communication Server. Outside of all your standard instant messaging, OCS also has a lot to do with VoiP… maybe we can see a voice client for BlackBerry…? We talked with WebMessenger on the podcast about pitching OCS support to AT&T, so if you’re in the market, take a listen.
Posted on April 23, 2008, at 7:38 am .
Not to be out-done by Yahoo’s oneSearch, Microsoft announced Tellme for your BlackBerry. Not only does it recognize voice commands like “weather”, “movies”, “traffic” and “map”, as well as search for any company name, but the app also takes into account your GPS coordinates to further narrow down search results. It’s odd that the BlackBerry version came out before Windows Mobile, but you’ll hardly hear us complaining. You can check it out at www.tellme.com.
