BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 2.3 launches today

It appears that the day some have been waiting for has finally arrived, a new BlackBerry Internet Service update that is.  For AT&T customers, when you wake up tomorrow, you should be living through a whole new experience with your BIS services. AT&T and BlackBerry have added a lot of attachment enhancements and support, which is a blessing for those less fortunate non-BES users. For instance, you can now open .mp3, and .wav files, attach and send up to a 3MB file in an email right from your BlackBerry, while also being treated to the Delivery and Read notifications we all love in our BlackBerry Messenger, this time it works with emails too. Have a look after the jump to see the full rundown from AT&T and the details of the upgrade.

START AND END DATE:

April 29th, 2007

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OVERVIEW:

On April 29th, an enhancement to BlackBerry Internet Service® (BIS) will be released.  BIS is an easy-to-use wireless email solution included with the purchase of BlackBerry Personal data rate plans.  BIS offers direct wireless access to work and personal Internet email accounts such as Earthlink, Comcast, Yahoo! and virtually any other POP3 or IMAP account.

BIS v2.3 offers subscribers several feature improvements:

Added Support for Yahoo! Mail and Gmail

Subscribers using a Yahoo!® Mail account will now have two-way synchronization of deletes to and from the Yahoo! Mail inbox, as well as two-way, virtual real-time synchronization of message status (read/unread). That means that when subscribers delete a message from their Yahoo! mail account, the message is also deleted on their BlackBerry (and vice-versa). And when they read a Yahoo! mail message on their BlackBerry, the message is immediately marked ‘read’ in their Yahoo! mail account. There’s no need to manage messages twice.  Also, subscribers using a Gmail® account are no longer required to enable POP (Post Office Protocol) before integrating their Gmail account with their BlackBerry service.  And subscribers now experience virtual real-time (instead of poll-based) delivery of Gmail messages.

Delivery Receipts and Read Receipts

Subscribers will have the ability to know when an email message has been successfully delivered and read to another user who is using BlackBerry. If the Sender and Recipients have enabled this Delivery Status Notification,a "D" will appear over the sent message checkmark in the message list of the Sender when the message has been successfully delivered to all or some of the Recipients and an "R" will appear over the sent message checkmark in the message list of the Sender when the message has been successfully read by all or by some of the Recipients. The Sender can open this sent message to view which Recipients have received the message. Users can enable this feature in the Messages application by selecting Options/Email Settings and changing the status of Delivery Receipts to "Yes" and selecting Options/Email Settings and changing the status of Confirm Read to "Yes". Message recipients will then have the option to configure (Send Read Receipts) to: (a) always send read confirmations, (b) never send read confirmations, or (c) always be prompted for each message received.  This feature requires BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.2 or higher.

Auto-forwarding

Subscribers can have a copy of email messages that are sent to their mycingular.blackberry.net email address automatically forwarded to another third-party Internet mail account. This feature is ideal when subscribers need easy access to mail sent to their BlackBerry email address (which is only viewable from the device) from a desktop browser as well. Auto-forwarding can be set for all incoming messages, or just messages with attachments.

Easy-viewing slideshow format

With BlackBerry Internet Service, subscribers can view popular attachment formats on the move, including JPEG, BMP, TIFF, RTF, Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint®, Corel WordPerfect and Adobe PDF. And now, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs can be viewed in a convenient slideshow format. This feature enhancement requires BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.2 or higher.

Attachment uploading

Subscribers can attach files up to 3MB in size stored on their BlackBerry (i.e., pictures saved to the saved to the expandable memory card) to email or MMS messages.2  This BIS v2.3 service feature is only available on BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.2

Voicemail attachment playback

Subscribers who get voicemail messages from work or home sent as email attachments (mp3 and WAV) can listen to these messages virtually anywhere, which makes it even easier to stay up-to-speed and responsive throughout the day.3 File size supported up to 500 KB.

Expanded Language Support

Subscribers can use their BlackBerry in the language they’re most comfortable with. For the user interface, BlackBerry Internet Service now supports: English, French, Italian, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (European), Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian and Turkish. And for email transport, BlackBerry Internet Service supports: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Afrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (European), Russian, Swedish and Turkish. Plus, language selection can now be made right from the log-in screen, so subscribers can proceed with the set-up process in the language of their choice.

Wireless Meeting Requests

Subscribers can now save even more time each day by sending, receiving, accepting and declining wireless meeting requests between BlackBerrys.4 Requires BlackBerry Handheld Software version 4.1 or higher.

Wireless Address Book Attachments

Now, subscribers can open electronic contact attachments (vCard format) using their BlackBerry. They can also add these contact details directly to their BlackBerry Address Book and even attach an address from their BlackBerry Address Book to any email they send.

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KEY SELLING POINTS:

    * With Blackberry Internet Service, customers get a robust, easy-to-use and reliable wireless email solution to send/receive/forward/reply to messages.
    * Customers can wirelessly manage multiple email accounts on the go.  In fact many customers will find it much easier to check their desktop email from their BlackBerry vs. a computer as there is no log in process and they can sit anywhere to do it.
    * Access to BIS for as low as $1 a day with the $29.99 BlackBerry Personal Plan.

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COMPETITIVE INFO — THE CINGULAR ADVANTAGE:

BlackBerry will launch BIS v2.3 to all North American carriers on April 28th, 2007.

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CRITICAL INFORMATION:

    * All new Blackberry Personal Plan activations will on BIS v2.3 after April 28th, 2007.  The Welcome Message email received by customers will indicate that they are on BIS v2.3.
    * Existing Cingular BIS v1.8 users are not required to upgrade to BIS v2.3.  However, when a BIS v1.8 user logs into their mycingular.blackberry.net account via http://www.cingular.com/blackberrystart they can opt to migrate from v1.8 to v2.3.  They will be prompted with the benefits of BIS v2.3 and stepped through a guided migration experience.  Each time BIS v1.8 customers log in they will be prompted to optionally migrate.
    * Current BIS users who migrate from BIS v1.8 to BIS v2.3 cannot revert back.
    * Data usage on BlackBerry Personal rate plans includes email, web browsing, and access to the Cingular Browser and MEdiaNet.