Web-Based BES 5.0 "Argon" Out in April

RIM's first BlackBerry Enterprise Server software came out in 1999 as a desktop redirector, where it routed encrypted e-mails from the desktop to mobile devices.

The tenth anniversary BES solution features a Web-based Administration Service that lets IT managers download and wirelessly push software updates automatically over the air on workers' handsets rather than servicing the devices in person. Meaning no more physical upgrade appointments with individual users. They can do maintenance or updates during weekends or off-hours.

Administrators will have far more control over admin and user roles and permissions, and specific IT policies can be applied to individuals or groups, to restrict access to specific resources such as GPS.

BES 5.0 features a multi-server architecture that can scale up to 100,000 smartphones, and users can wirelessly download files from the corporate network directly to their BlackBerry handsets.

Details:

*A new administration user interface, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Administration Service, provides a centralized framework that increases productivity by allowing IT to remotely manage and troubleshoot the system and components through a web user interface

*Enhanced job management, throttling and scheduling upgrades and maintenance of applications for users’ devices – this improves any task an IT Manager may do in relation to end users

*Enhanced monitoring capabilities through the BlackBerry Administration Server helps identify and prevent potential downtime and outages

*Improved reporting, alerting and troubleshooting through the BlackBerry Administration Server help minimize potential issues

*Built-in high availability enables fast recovery from failure and unplanned downtime, supporting mission critical business operations by seamlessly failing over key components of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server

*BlackBerry User Migration Tool enables user accounts to be easily moved from one BlackBerry domain to another with minimal risk and impact or action required by the end user

*IT administrators can leverage the high availability architecture to conduct maintenance upgrades without impacting the service

*Improved remote desktop capabilities

*Device-side folder management, such as adding, deleting, moving and modifying folders from the device

*Enhanced calendar functionality

*Synchronization of public and private contacts

BlackBerry on Ice

Here's the BlackBerry Ice Sculpture Sponsored by Rogers for Ottawa's Winterlude Festival, which started this weekend. No cold calls please.

A BlackBerry for Babies

Leapfrog has come out with a new toy called the Text & Learn, which is being hailed as the "Baby BlackBerry".

The Text & Learn was unveiled at the U.K. Toy Fair last week and will be available this summer in the US at a price of $25. It's a bit bigger than your Curve and comes with a "pretend" browser mode, letter matching, shape identification, and QWERTY.

This will keep their sticky little fingers off your Precious Device.

No word on whether it has WiFi or a service plan.

BlackBerry Application StoreFront Now Accepting Submissions

Clich HERE for information, and HERE for the Vendor Portal.

BlackBerry Nation Now BlackBerry Planet

The publishers (John Wiley) and I have agreed to change the name of my book. One section will be renamed BlackBerry Nation.

RIM Q3 Results

RIM will be holding a Webcast on the Third Quarter Results on Dec. 18 at 5pm.

You can listen in HERE.

Stephen Hawking Lured to Waterloo's Perimeter Institute

Reuters reports that famed Cambridge University mathematician Stephen Hawking has been appointed as the first distinguished research chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, starting in the summer of 2009. Perimeter is a quantum theory and cosmology institute founded by RIM founder Mike Lazaridis in 1999.

“The institute’s twin focus, on quantum theory and gravity, is very close to my heart and central to explaining the origin of the universe,” Hawking said in a statement today. The author of the bestseller “A Brief History of Time”, Prof Hawking will make regular visits to the institute in the next few years and build links with Cambridge.

The image shows Hawking and daughter Lucy floating around aboard Zero Gravity Corporation’s June 9, 2007 Father’s Day flight. Hawking should feel right at home in the Institute's Black Hole Cafe.

BlackBerry Storm Videos

I have posted a collection of Storm videos and ads from fans, Verizon and Vodaphone. Have a look HERE.

BlackBerry Storm Teardown

PhoneWreck features a great Storm teardown with fabulous photos of the interior. Check out the screen's "big button":

Bold Beats the Pack in Transfer Times

Gregory Quirk of EE Times has done download tests on the major smartphones, and concludes that Bold is best, largely because RIM's use of the Cypress Semiconductor West Bridge peripheral controller, found in the previous BlackBerry 8120 Pearl, provides "a direct connection of peripherals and creating fast transfer tunnels without loading the main processor. Instead of routing files from the computer through the phone processor to the storage device, it sets up a tunnel directly from the computer to the storage device."

Bold blew away the competition in downloading media files, loading movies twice as quickly as the iPhone 3G.