Lots of news coming out of the BlackBerry Developer Conference today!

RIM has announced the BlackBerry Academic Program which provides colleges and universities content to help learn about developing for the BlackBerry platform. Course content is currently available for mobile application development, administration of BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry support.

• Mobile Application Development Courses – Students can learn about the tools and techniques for developing applications for BlackBerry smartphones. Courses cover topics such as BlackBerry smartphone features and functionality, user interface design, multimedia application development, mobile web application development and Java® application development.
• Administration Courses – Mobile communication and collaboration tools continue to play a large role in boosting the productivity of enterprise workforces, and the need for trained professionals to administer and support mobile solutions has grown with it. There are over 200,000 BlackBerry® Enterprise Server installations globally and trained professionals are needed to maintain and support these deployments.
• Support Courses – Students are trained to work in technical call centers or IT support environments in support of the BlackBerry solution. The Support courses also include information that can help prepare students for the corresponding BlackBerry Certification exam.

Over 500 students have already taken courses in the program and universities in Canada and the US are beginning to offer courses and course content from the program in their curriculum. For more info visit blackberry.com/academic or check out the press release after the jump.

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Today’s deal of the day is for RDM+ Remote Desktop for Mobiles by SHAPE Services. RDM+ allows you to remotely access your desktop or laptop computer right from your BlackBerry allowing you to send and receive emails, surf web, edit documents in word processor, copy, cut, paste files or folders and much more.

Features:

• All connection types are supported: BES, BIS, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi and HTTP connection are supported.
• Blackberry joystick and keyboard navigation.
• New Feature for Storm! Enlarging Glass:Touch and enlarge any fragment of the Desktop.
• User interface is available in two languages: English and German.
• Quick commands.You can use quick commands for starting/stopping system services and processes, viewing the list of desktop windows, checking system performance, displaying system information and rebooting or shutting down your computer.
• One-time fee. All further updates are free.
• All data, screen images, mouse movement and keys are encrypted for security reasons.
• You can create a password when starting up application. Without this password no one can access your client address book.
• Executing any console commands (like ping, netstat, ipconfig) is available.
• History feature allows to find and re-send stored commands.
• Full-screen view and zooming. In full-screen mode you can see the remote screen on the entire screen of your device. Zoomed mode lets you see enlarged fragment of the desktop in more detail. In zoomed mode you can also scroll the desktop up/down, right/left.
• Switch between different modes using the predefined and your own hotkeys and create device-specific keys for mouse click and open desktop menu.
• Navigational mini-map of your desktop which appears in the right upper corner while you scroll. Wi-Fi detection on your device.

RDM+ is normally $39.95 but until 12AM CST tonight you can get it at 50% off for $19.97. This app is compatible with all BlackBerry devices running OS 4.2 or higher and comes with a 7-day free trial, but if you want to get it at 50% off make sure you do so before 12AM CST tonight!

Vodafone and RIM have made the BlackBerry Storm2 official!

The second generation of RIM’s innovative and award-winning touch-screen smartphone, the BlackBerry Storm2 significantly improves the BlackBerry® touch-screen platform with new technology and new features to let customers stay easily connected to the people, places and things that matter most.

In the busy holiday gift buying period, customers in the UK and Ireland will be able to get the new smartphone first through Vodafone, and it will be offered exclusively by Vodafone in Germany, Netherlands and Spain. It will also be made available in France, Italy and South Africa in time for Christmas.

The BlackBerry Storm2 with BlackBerry OS 5 evolves the BlackBerry touch-screen platform with hundreds of hardware and software enhancements.

Pricing will be announced by the individual in-country operating companies and so far Vodafone UK will be offering the Storm2 free from £35 per month on a 24-month contract. Since Vodafone has officially announced the Storm2, according to earlier rumors, Verizon should be announcing it within the next week or so.

For more info (including hardware and software features) check out the press release after the jump or head to blackberry.com/storm!

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Ronen got tipped off about the upcoming BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 2.8 and its new features, right now rumored to be rolling out this September 10th with the two main upgrades and an auto-login feature coming soon after.

An exciting tidbit about this BIS upgrade is that BlackBerry OS 5.0 will be required in order to use the main feature, which means the release of OS 5.0 is definitely around the corner (hopefully).

What’s new in 2.8:

• Two-way wireless synchronization with Google Mail Contacts* and the Address Book on the BlackBerry smart phone:
  • Synchronize Google Mail contacts quickly and easily to the BlackBerry smart phone
  • Add or edit Contacts and the Contacts are automatically updated, whether they are updated on the computer or BlackBerry smart phone
  • The documentation says this is scheduled to sync every 4 hours and will not work on BlackBerry Connect devices. It also will obviously not work on BES contacts or even Google Mail Contact Groups whatever those are.
• Enhancements to email setup and settings:
  • Automatic Login now supports most billing identifiers, which allows new subscribers with wireless service providers that use PIN, IMEI, or ESN as a billing identifier to create BlackBerry Internet Service accounts from the BlackBerry smart phone, without having to create a login user name and password
  • Note: This feature will be available approximately one week after the BlackBerry Internet Service upgrade.
• Windows Live Hotmail revalidation:
  • With BlackBerry Internet Service 2.8, new Windows Live Hotmail mail integrations will be defaulted to a protocol that is designed so as not to require 90 day reauthorization.
  • Note: Existing BlackBerry smart phone users accessing Windows Live Hotmail using Microsoft MSP will still be required to revalidate their Windows Live Hotmail account every 90 days.

*Note: Two-way wireless Contact synchronization with Google Mail Contacts requires BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and configuration through email settings on the BlackBerry smart phone.  Additional requirements and constraints may be found within the BlackBerry Internet Service 2.8 Documentation Kit. This feature is not supported on BlackBerry smart phones with BlackBerry® Connect™ software.

Feel free to share your thoughts and any additional info in the comments!

Google has just officially announced that the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is now available!

A weeks ago I mentioned that Google had updated the ETA for the Google Apps Connector and it looks like they just made it. Here’s an updated feature list:

• Messages sent to your Gmail inbox are pushed to your BlackBerry within 60 seconds.
• Emails read/deleted on your BlackBerry are marked as read/deleted in Gmail, and vice-versa.
• Emails archived/starred on your BlackBerry are archived/starred in Gmail, and vice-versa.
• BlackBerry folders are synchronized with labels in Gmail.
• You can search for contact information of coworkers from the global address list on your BlackBerry.
• Contacts in Gmail are automatically synchronized with your BlackBerry address book.
• You can view your Google Calendar schedule with the native BlackBerry application, with one-way synchronization from Google Calendar to your BlackBerry device. Two-way calendar sync with the ability to accept, decline and schedule meetings from your BlackBerry device is not available with this release but we are working on it.
• Administrators can use the management and security tools that are part of BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Google Apps Premier and Education Edition customers worldwide can get this feature free of charge by downloading  the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

For more info about the mobile options for Google Apps visit www.google.com/apps/mobile.

Well the announced July 2009 launch date for the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server has already passed and it looks like Google has updated the ETA for August 2009, less than a month away!

A recap on the features:

• Messages sent to your Gmail inbox are pushed to your BlackBerry within 60 seconds.
• Emails read/deleted on your BlackBerry are marked as read/deleted in Gmail, and vice-versa.
• Synchronize BlackBerry folders with labels in Gmail.
• Search for email addresses and phone numbers of other users on your company domain.
• View your Google Calendar schedule on your native BlackBerry application, with one-way synchronization from Google Calendar to your BlackBerry device.
• Contacts in Gmail are automatically synchronized with your BlackBerry address book.

So far it looks like the only thing that was changed at the product page was the ETA date, everything else looks pretty much the same.

If you are interested you can contact an Apps sales rep, or visit the Google Apps Connector page for more info and screenshots.

If I missed something or you know more about the development of the Google Apps Connector feel free to mention it in the comments!

Yatca has been updated to version 1.7.2 with some service updates.

• In some BES environments it is necessary to change the ‘Use BES/MDS when available’ setting to ‘No’. This is because some BES admins do not permit Yatca to communicate with the Twitter (or identi.ca) server. The problem is that even when this setting was changed Yatca was still reporting a ‘Bad Request’ error when trying to verify credentials. This has been fixed in the service release.
• The yfrog image storage service now requires that Yatca identify itself by supplying a unique key when uploading photos. It cannot be guaranteed how much longer yfrog will continue to accept uploads from Yatca releases that do not supply the key. This change has been included in the service release.
• The blog post for release 1.7.1 stated that the ‘Use geotagging’ setting defaulted to ‘No’ but this was not actually the case. This has been fixed in this service release. Note however that this change will only apply to a new install of Yatca and not an upgrade from 1.7.1. So if you do not wish to use geotagging please ensure that the ‘Use geotagging’ setting is ‘No’.

Yatca is only for BlackBerry devices on OS 4.6 and above. You can download it OTA by going to http://bit.ly/yatca from your BlackBerry Browser, or visit Yatca.com for more info.

• How To: Install applications and themes via OTA with or without using data

Thomson Reuters now has a BlackBerry application that allows you to check world news on the go!

Features:

• News stories from a variety of categories including world, sports, politics, environment, health, and business
• Full story articles and photos optimized for easy reading on a mobile device
• Ability to select region – US, Canada, UK, or India – for localized content
• Up-to-the-minute market data including indices, commodities and currencies by region
• Designed to support offline use when users don’t have service or an Internet connection
• Personalized stocks tab so users can track only the stocks that they want
• Keywords and My Feeds tab that allows users to customized news feeds that are of special interest

The Thomson Reuters application seems to be compatible with any BlackBerry OS 4.0+ with ZIP downloads available for each OS at the Reuters download page. The ZIP installation files don’t show a 4.6 version but after going to the download page with my CUrve 8900 it recognized it and gave me a specific version to download.

You can download it from the BlackBerry App World once it’s available or from Reuters.com/bb now. There is also a version available for those on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) with Mobile Data Services (MDS).

• How To:
  • Install applications and themes via OTA with or without using data
  • Install Applications and Themes via Desktop Manager

For more details check out the press release after the jump.

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Some highlights from the press release:

• Get more for your money, be more productive and be ready for the future with AT&T. AT&T* today announced support for BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0, the next-generation of Research In Motion’s (RIM) market-leading push-based wireless platform for secure mobile access to email, calendar, contacts, corporate instant messaging, browser, and enterprise applications.
• BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 enhances access to administrative tools that simplify management and centralize control of BlackBerry® smartphones.
• AT&T offers a broad portfolio of smartphones, all of which are enabled for international voice and data usage, including the BlackBerry® Bold™, BlackBerry® Curve™ series including the recently announced BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry® Pearl™ series, and BlackBerry® 8820 smartphones.
• AT&T enterprise customers can contact their account representative today for more information regarding upgrading or purchasing BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.
• For more information on AT&T’s enterprise mobility offerings, please visit http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Portfolio/eb_mobility/.

Read the full press release after the jump.

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Info about the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 is now available through RIM’s BlackBerry Connection Newsletter.

New to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0

BlackBerry Enterprise Transporter Tool
With the BlackBerry® Enterprise Transporter tool you can run parallel BlackBerry Enterprise Server environments, allowing you to do real-world testing in the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 environment with part of your team before making a full migration. There’s no need to wipe devices before transferring to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0, and backing out to the pre-existing environment is easy.

Threshold Assistance Tool
The Threshold Assistance Tool resides within the BlackBerry® Monitoring Service; it uses the information gathered by your monitoring database to suggest acceptable operating thresholds for your particular server and network environment. As your company grows, you can run the tool again to set new baselines.

High Availability
Utilizing High Availability is easier than you think—three clicks and you’re done. Learn more about this feature in an upcoming edition of BlackBerry Connection.

Role-Based Admins
BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 allows for granular control of admin permissions. You can now scope a given role to a set of users the admin can take action on. For example, you can create an executive-support IT group, which would allow for only particular employees to perform administrative tasks against the execs’ accounts.

Maintenance Windows
You can now opt to suspend alerts during specific periods, for example, during server maintenance. Using this function just might end those early-morning wake-up calls that occur during scheduled server downtime.

Sign up here for notification of BES 5.0’s availability. Check out the newsletter for more info.