What was rumored as BlackBerry OS 6.1 was officially announced as OS 7 because RIM felt the improvement were too big for a mere 0.1 update. Bad news for old devices though; they would not be getting in on the action.
RIM has officially introduced two new BlackBerry smartphones; the Bold 9900 and Bold 9930. Previously known as BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900 Dakota and BlackBerry Bold Touch 9930 Montana, the two smartphones are the first in the Bold series to feature full QWERTY keyboards and touchscreen displays (2.8 inch, 640 x 480 pixels), as well as the first to run the brand new BlackBerry OS 7.
The BlackBerry OS 7 will launch with the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Bold 9930 devices -- the Bold Touches -- and Berries that came before those two would not be updated to v7 of the OS, not even the ones running version 6.
BlackBerry OS 7 incorporates BlackBerry Balance, which keeps personal and corporate data on the same device separate. It can be configured to, say, only wipe the corporate data on the phone or to forbid personal apps to access corporate files (e.g. you can not attach a coporate file to a personal email).
The BlackBerry browser has also received major improvement with OS 7. New graphics and JavaScript engines speed up pages and enable smooth panning and zooming. Support for HTML5 video has also been added.
Universal Search that was introduced in v6 of the BlackBerry OS works with voice queries too. Also, BlackBerry OS 7 comes with Docs To Go and for the Bold 9900 and Bold 9300 at least, all premimum features of the app will be enabled out of the box.
By the way, BlackBerry OS 7 is not based on QNX (like the PlayBook OS is) so we do not expect to see apps from one running on the other (a la iPhone apps on iPad).
The BlackBerry OS 7 will launch with the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Bold 9930 devices -- the Bold Touches -- and Berries that came before those two would not be updated to v7 of the OS, not even the ones running version 6.
The BlackBerry browser has also received major improvement with OS 7. New graphics and JavaScript engines speed up pages and enable smooth panning and zooming. Support for HTML5 video has also been added.
Universal Search that was introduced in v6 of the BlackBerry OS works with voice queries too. Also, BlackBerry OS 7 comes with Docs To Go and for the Bold 9900 and Bold 9300 at least, all premimum features of the app will be enabled out of the box.
By the way, BlackBerry OS 7 is not based on QNX (like the PlayBook OS is) so we do not expect to see apps from one running on the other (a la iPhone apps on iPad).
