HOT! BIS 2.8 Features – Two Way Google Contacts Sync & More
by Ronen Halevy

Its good to be back! Just got back from a weeks vacation in Switzerland and what a day. One of our secret agents sent me the change log for the upcoming BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 2.8 upgrade that is scheduled for September. The most interesting part of the upgrade is that it will require OS 5.0 for the main feature they have added which is a sure sign it will be released soon.

The two main upgrades are scheduled for rollout around September 10th and the auto login feature will be coming about a week after that. They also mention a MS DAV Migration which is happened last week and is going to be discontinued at the beginning of September but I have no idea what that means…

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.

So what do you think? RIM is really going gung ho into integrating Gmail into BIS. Now if only they would fix the Gmail Advanced Plugin to actually be useful.