14 DAY TRIAL // In the BlackBerry Technical Solutions Center, Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has just published a list of details regarding new features that should be included in the BlackBerry Internet Service 3.1, which follows the release of the BIS 3.0 not too long ago. The new solution is set to land with two main features on board, namely wireless contact synchronization and changes regarding the manner in which one can log into the account from a new device.
“Two-way wireless synchronization with Alt-N MDaemon v11 via SyncML, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail contacts and the Address Book on the BlackBerry smartphone: - Synchronize contacts quickly and easily to the BlackBerry smartphone - Add or edit Contacts and the Contacts are automatically updated, whether they are updated on the computer or BlackBerry smartphone. Note: Wireless contact synchronization with Alt-N, Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail occurs every four hours. This means that a delay of up to four hours may occur when making a change on the handheld or on the BlackBerry smartphone,” RIM states about the first feature.
As for the second, the company notes that it has been put in place so as to increase security and improve usability, and that one will have to first insert their SIM in the new device, so as to change the BlackBerry smartphone personal identification number (PIN) that has been assigned to their BIS account. Users won't be able to change the PIN without inserting the new SIM, and that should apply for future versions of BIS too.
“Once a user has inserted his/her SIM in the new device and has logged into the HTML BIS email account, the new device will be detected and the user will be required to confirm the PIN change on their device. For CDMA users, customers are required to contact their wireless carrier to have their new BlackBerry smartphone provisioned prior to setting up a BlackBerry Internet Service account on their new device,” the company continues.
RIM also notes that this release of BIS does not come with support for Yahoo! Mail Categories / Windows Live Hotmail Contact Groups / Alt-N Groups, and that the solution won't sync Category and/or Contact Group distribution lists. BlackBerry OS 5.0 or higher is needed for contact syncing with Yahoo! Mail and/or Alt-N, in addition to a Yahoo! Mail and/or Alt-N integration with BIS. Moreover, the contact syncing with Windows Live Hotmail will require OS 6.0 and integration with BIS. More details are available here.