Just like we reported it would happen last week, BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 3.0 is now up and running, thanks to Research and Motion engineers. The work was done early this morning, which is why the lot of North Americans did not notice any issues.
So now that BIS 3.0 has been running without a hitch, it’s time for the changelog, courtesy of RIM:
* Coming soon: Enhancements to Google Mail integrations
o Google Mail Account to BlackBerry smartphone synchronization of read, unread and sent email message status for new Google Mail integrations
+ Note: this feature will be added throughout the Spring 2010 by region
* Enhancements to the Google Mail Plug-in
o Create and delete labels from the BlackBerry smartphone
+ Note: The Google Mail Plug-in requires BlackBerry® Device Software 4.5 or later and a Google Mail integration, using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), within BlackBerry Internet Service.
* Additional Language Support for Basque, Catalan, Galician, Romanian
* Increased Attachment Compatibility
o OpenDocument Presentations (.odp)
o OpenDocument Spreadsheets (.ods)
o OpenDocument Text (.odt)
o OpenDocument Text Templates (.ott)
o Windows Media Audio (.wma)
* Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (xHTML) Support for non Thick Clients
BlackBerry Internet Service 3.0 is designed to support xHTML for non Thick Clients, providing BlackBerry smartphone users with a richer user experience, allowing for buttons, additional fonts, and colour controls when subscribers access and toggle their user settings.
*
Device Switch Revalidation
Changes to optimize the email setup and deactivation experience when the subscriber switches BlackBerry smartphones or Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards.
* Hosted Email Address Passwords
Allows BlackBerry smartphone users to re-claim the BlackBerry email address if their BlackBerry Internet Service account is ever deleted.
Note: After BlackBerry Internet Service 3.0, only newly created BlackBerry email “Username/Password” accounts will be prompted to create a password, secret question, and secret answer.
* Send Delivery Receipts
BlackBerry Internet Service users now have the ability to configure whether to allow sending delivery receipts or not.
Perhaps the most-anticipated feature when it comes to BIS 3.0 will be rolled out gradually, as noted in the text above. Enhanced Gmail integration will be arriving this Spring, region by region. No particular order was announced.
http://erictric.com/2010/03/28/blackberry-internet-service-bis-3-0-now-up-and-running/