A new version of BBM was released on October 7, 2009. Click here for more info.

Last Friday was another one of those exciting days for BlackBerry users.

No, it wasn’t new OS leak day.

Instead, BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 was what was leaked to the masses. If you don’t know what BBM is it’s like AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) or texting between BlackBerry phones. What’s cool is that it’s free (for Verizon with the data plan, at least) to anyone that uses a BlackBerry phone, even if they’re not on Verizon.

And of course, like a text message, the messages are pushed to phones, not updated. (Push meaning automatic transfer onto the phone.)

So far the update has had it’s good and bad.

The Good

BBM now has a barcode feature. What’s a barcode feature?, you may ask. Well. Each BlackBerry has a unique PIN number assigned to them. That PIN generates a unique barcode. When I meet someone knew with a BlackBerry, instead of asking and writing their alphanumeric PIN number, I can just scan their barcode. Using the phone’s camera, it looks at the other phones barcode. I’ve tried to use it a few times between mine and my girlfriend’s storm, and the execution is pretty flawless (as long as the flash is off).

The chat window looks kind of like the IPhone AIM application which I don’t know if it’s a plus or minus.

The Bad

There’s a new feature called Proximity Alert which is supposed to alert me when a contact gets within a chosen amount of distance from me. I’ve tried it more than a few times and it doesn’t seem to work. I think it has to do with some GPS issue.

Location sharing seems to have stopped working.

I’ve been showing up as unreachable occasionally through out the day.

A weird issue, I think it has to do with the Proximity Alert, I’ve been having is delayed chat. If the person I’m talking to sends a series of messages, sometimes I don’t get the middle few until a couple hours later. I’m not sure why that is, and it seems to only happen yesterday. If it keeps up, I’m probably going to have to downgrade my BBM.

Conclusion

I’m not sure if it’s really worth the download to get BBM 5.0. The chat does look better but it takes some time to get used to. The bar code is just an awesome feature but how often do you meet new BBM contacts. I’m hoping the delayed messages are just freak occurrences.

I really like the update despite the issues.

OTA

I downloaded BBM 5.0 OTA from http://www.prp2.com/bb/Storm/BBM5/BBM5.jad. You have to download this link using the BB Browser. I don’t know who this is, so I was a little wary about it. It seems to be working though.

Hmm… this one seems to work for the Storm 4.7
http://www.theiexplorers.com/BBM/For_4.7.0/BBMen.jad

A new version of BBM was released on October 7, 2009. Click here for more info.