Our buddy Kevin managed to score some video footage of the upcoming OS 5.0 running on an 8900 courtesy of a kind tipster. I can say that the OS looks polished compared to the current one and adds some new features but its kind of like the upgrade from 4.5 to 5.0. More of a feature bump than something new altogether. I am hoping RIM still has more up their sleeve to warrant a jump to 5.0. We are still missing quite a few features that we have confirmed will come with OS 5.0 combined with BES 5.0 as I list at the end of this article.
The video shows:
- Nice new progress bar during boot (improved version of the Storms)
- Trackball “flicking” through pictures
- Bigger menu buttons with rounded edges
- Slightly improved browser
- BlackBerry Messenger improvements
So far I am hoping this drops sometime around WES 2009 in May. Hopefully there will be more to write about then!
Just as a reminder we told you a bit back about new BES 5.0 features that will only be supported with OS 5.0:
- OS 5.0: Flag messages and set reminder times on your BlackBerry!!!
- OS 5.0: View personal contact subfolders and edit contacts! Until now BES used to put all of your contacts into the Contacts application even if they were in different folders.
- OS 5.0: You will be able to view and use contacts that are in public folders and copy them to your local contact list if you have permissions.
- OS 5.0: You will have a file browser to access shared network locations to open, add, or save documents. You will be able to see document information from there such as file type, size, and date
- OS 5.0: Forward meeting invitations and calendar entries from your BlackBerry
- OS 5.0: Ability to add, delete, move, or rename personal folders
- OS 5.0: Ability to view personal distribution lists that you have in your Outlook contacts and send email to them.
- RIM is working on a solution to make emails that come from your BlackBerry look exactly like they would if they came from Outlook. I always hated the fact that people could see that I was on my Berry.