Did you get the message?

Around 12 today, my BlackBerry Storm made a weird alien-like ring and there in my message box was a red message from the mothership, BlackBerry Network Administrator, telling us to phone home… well to download the new BBM .57.

I’m assuming the message was sent to everyone that has bbm .55 or .56 (the versions that messed up BlackBerry smartphones for the Americas yesterday). The .50’s series of BBM fixes the slow or sometimes impossible transfer of pictures between BBM’s.

If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can find it at http://mobile.blackberry.com/ using your BlackBerry Browser.

Last night marked the third time and it pains me to say this that RIM (Research in Motion – BlackBerry) has failed me in the last week. This last bbm/internet outage lasted almost the whole night. It was long enough for my girlfriend to kind of start freaking out about it and my sister to call me to be befuddled about it. Apparently the issue stemmed from a bad update to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

RIM’s apology

Last night a service interruption occurred that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas and it appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience and has taken corrective action to restore service.

A new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) is available and we particularly encourage anyone who downloaded or upgraded BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this latest version which resolves an issue that exists in the two previous versions (5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56). To download the most current version of BlackBerry Messenger software, please visit www.blackberry.com/blackberrymessenger and follow the on-screen instructions…

I think it’s funny that he link RIM provided for the fix does work when using a BlackBerry Browser and wasn’t working on my computer until just a few moments ago. I’m also a little perturbed that I pay 30 bucks a month for a service that has stopped working three times this month. Last night realized what it feels like to be on AT&T… (please don’t sue me)

All seems to back to normal in the BlackBerry world now, though, if patterns foretell the future, we should be expecting another outage in a few days…

If you’re still running BBM 5.0.0.55 or 56, download the newest non-server crashing version at http://mobile.blackberry.com using your BlackBerry browser.

Last night reminds me how utterly dependent we as a society I’m getting on technologies. But that’s enough of that.

finally a BlackBerry Messenger that works on OS 5.0.

Research In Motion (BlackBerry) released a new BlackBerry Messenger, version 5.0.0.33.

Download-

You can download it by searching for it in BlackBerry App World. If you don’t have App World, you can download it by going to http://mobile.blackberry.com and downloading it directly from there.

Few new features-

• You can now create groups. This can be an awesome feature if you have, let’s say, a lot/most of your friends with BlackBerry smartphones or if your work uses BlackBerry. Groups make sharing pictures and calendars or chat in group chat or list things that need to be done really easy. The group shows up as a homescreen icon for quick access.
• If someone chats in the group, a notification icon of the groups icon shows up.
• there’s an ability to backup and restore the Contact List… just in case you’re afraid to lose your contacts.
• I mentioned this before but it works on BlackBerry OS 5.0.
• I did a mini-review of the other features, but they’re about the leaked version. This version of BBM 5.0 is a little different, but it talks about the Bar Code Scan.

I’m still playing around with it so I don’t know all the cool little things it can do. To quote my girlfriend, though, she says…

This rocks. It’s messenger on steroids.

One issue I have found is that while I’m in the group, it won’t notify me with an audible sound when something new has occurred in the group (like new chat). Hopefully RIM will fix this in the next version.

So far, though, I’m loving the new BBM. It’s pretty darn awesome.

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.