Yesterday, I finally took the time to download and check out the new Blackberry Messenger 5.0. This is the leaked version which has not yet been officially released by RIM. It means that this version is prone to problems. It is designed to run with the new Blackberry Device software 5.0 however its been running on my Storm with Blackberry Device Software 4.7 for the last 24 hours without any problems.
I love upgrades!!! I am going to be doing some upgraded to this blog as soon as I publish this post!
Its been out around the internet for about 3 weeks now and from when I understand it is alot more stable that when it was first released. I opted to install it after my busy time – Crop Over 2009 as I really, really need my phone to be in working order. It was the notes I saw from some Blackberry Technicians strongly advising against install it as there was the possibility of it rendering your phone useless.
Now that Crop Over has passed I took the chance to look it over and I love it!
What is Blackberry Messenger(BBM)?
Now being a long time user of the Blackberry service, there were never any major upgrades to the messenger until now. It seems to come at a perfect time for the Caribbean, especially those of us working in the Entertainment Industry. Blackberry messenger is now one of the core communications tools for artistes, managers, musicians, promoters and more.
Now for those of you who don’t know Blackberry Messenger is an IM (Instant Messenger) that allows peer to peer conversations between Blackberry users.
Basically once have a persons Blackberry PIN you can have an IM conversation with them Blackberry – Blackberry using Blackberry Messenger (BBM). Now the fantastic part about it is that you can message anyone anywhere in the world for now extra costs, once you have unlimited Blackberry service. Basically this makes it easy for those working in the Caribbean Entertainment Industry to stay connected with their associates worldwide without incurring any extra charges.
Feature Presentation : Blackberry Messenger 5.0 (BBM) – Review + Download
I love it! Its got a facelift as you can see from the photo above.
Here are some of the highlights for me
– Link your BBM contacts to your Address Book contacts. I love this as it means that my BBM contacts can be backed up when I back up my address book. This was not the case before.
– Group Contacts, in the previous version you could only add contacts to a group when you were accepting requests. In this version it allows you to Group contacts anytime, just like you would in Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo Messenger
– Photos Of Contacts, it allows you to post your own photo on your BBM profile. This feature also helps me identify people I have added. It also takes it a step further by allowing me to use the photo I have in my address book to a particular contact if I so desire.
– Broadcast Message to a Group, as a spin off you can broadcast message to a group of people if you so desire. I am not a fan of any kind of spamming so I love this feature for sure. Also since its smaller groups of people you might be able to update everyone on your team by selecting the Broadcast function.
– Backup Contact list, you can now also back up your BBM Contact list if you so desire. It has its own independent backup feature
– My Barcode, this is a very cool feature. Basically the idea is that instead of you having to take down someone’s information and then add them to your messenger. They can display their barcode on their screen and you can "scan it" using ur Blackberry camera, and all the information would be stored. I haven’t tried this out yet, but I can’t wait!
– Show Contact On Home Screen – you now have the option of placing a contact as an icon on the home screen i.e. the main menu screen. This a very cool feature, so that you can quickly send messages to people on your team, without having to go into messenger and search for them.
I have been blabbering enough. My readers and subscribesrs can check out the messenger for yourself below
http://blackberryrocks.com/2009/07/28/blackberry-messenger-5-0-zip-ota-download-links/
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