Crack'n the Blackberry

McAfee ACE Certified in EMM

2011-08-24T13:14:00.001+10:00

Yay! officially as of today :)

First non RIM post me thinks too :)

My Next BlackBerry :) 9900

2011-05-07T08:49:00.001+10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYHIH09oYYI

Couldn't resist sharing this Vid...

2010-09-17T07:58:00.001+10:00

Demonstrates how infectious BlackBerry Instant Messaging is and the use of PING!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V_kmJXOrzU&feature=player_embedded#!

Classic!!!

Mileston - shift of power..... WIN2K3 old in RIM's eyes....

2010-07-14T12:10:00.004+10:00

The updated compatibility Matrix with the relesase of Service Pack 2 for 5.0 clearly says for both the x86(64Bit and 32Bit) applications are now fully recommended to work with Windows Server 2008 SP2.

From memory Windows Server 2003 has always been the choice of server operating system for BES and now the giant leap into 2008 territory has started.

It's one thing to see the claims for certification but to see it in the compatibility matrix in which arguments can be sorted out is another.

Long live Win2k3 I say! :)

Link:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/software/server_compatibility.jsp#tab_tab_compatibility

BlackBerry Certified Solution Designer in 5.0 as of Today :)

2010-07-09T19:32:00.003+10:00

It was longer than 8 weeks, but better late than never ;)

Unable to open the BlackBerry Administration Service site - Quick Tip

2009-08-20T08:15:00.004+10:00

If for some reason you cannot open the BlackBerry Administration Service, check that the HTTP SSL service isn't running (IIS will have this running, but in this case it wasn't so be wary :), as it will be locking down your 443 port, as you would expect :)

Had me stumped for a while there.

Blackbery Certified in 5.0 for Exchange and Domino as of Today :)

2009-05-09T21:54:00.000+10:00

Passed :)

I'm on Twitter - succumbing to pressure, finally they say....

2009-05-07T20:58:00.004+10:00

Yes.... yes I am.... Suprise suprise(now facebooks another issue, don't get me started!).

Love twitterberry, essential app not to be hidden away :)

Needs more features, and I'm sure they'll come, no need to discuss.

Anyway, follow me on a more rounded IT perspective in my day to day travels @ http://www.twitter.com/ashleyarmitt

:)

Top BES 5.0 Review

2009-05-05T20:05:00.002+10:00

Located Here

Brendan Zivcic has just posted a great summary of the experience and features of BES 5.0 over @ blackberrycool.com.

Great to see fellow lovers of the Black fellowiship getting involved.

When you have a chance, go through it and take it in, well worth the read as it's well summarized for you marketing types out there, to the point.

BES 5.0

2009-04-30T20:33:00.002+10:00

Well... now the cats out of the Bag...

I can finally talk about BES 5.0 ! Yay!

I have been using it now for the last two months, and have sat the 5.0 Beta Exams in Domino and Exchange, and I'd like to say that I am extremely impressed with 5.0.

But first, we will need to address the change in Administration of the server for the critics. I like it and I hate it at the same time. I see in large organizations with multiple admins and a distributed help desk environment do need to have something that is easily accessible and not a strain on the COE, so having a Web Based only administration method seems the logical choice here, but.... the 4.1 console has been around for a while now and the popularity of BES has multiplied immensely since 4.0 and people have really fallen in love with the 4.1 console. One particular point was in service pack 2 when RIM re-introduced the right - click due to popular demand, this was such a relief as we all came from 4.0 right? Well now we have gone back to a web based, no right click version, that seems like it takes twice as long to do anything again, now I do realise for 5.0 that this is there first to the masses release and haven't perfected it yet, the 4.1 optional extra admin service was not widely used and still isn't so I guess a true reflection on the usability wasn't established.

Here's a thought RIM.

Why not have an option in the install to chose the default install ?

1. Web Based
2. Console

and then run setup again to install either at a later date.

As for the other well published features, mirroring,ha etc... they are fantastic, great direction from RIM.

I think BES 5.0 coupled with SQL 2005, Exchange 2007/Domino 8, Wireless Upgrades, and 5.0 Handset Code on a Bold is going to absolutely blow all the competition away, yet again!

Price it right and watch it fly!

SRP Dispatcher Dropouts and Non-Starts

2009-02-25T13:40:00.003+11:00

Although it is not recommended to be running 3rd Party software on a BES, it is most offen the case that there will be other software, for some strange and obscure reason, on the server sucking down those precious resources.

If by chance you happen to come accross a rogue (for theatrical reasons) application that just so happens to leech onto port 3101, and you don't want to change the port for some reason, then the best way to do this is to modify the registry to lock the blackberry app to the port explicitly.

Heres a good little doc from MS - M$

if you do a pilot, do a pilot

2009-02-25T13:34:00.002+11:00

Taken from itnews.com.au

Large organisations need to get better at "moving faster" when projects are working better than expected and putting a stop to projects when things aren't going so well, he said.

"Also, if you do a pilot, do a pilot," he said. "How many of you have done a pilot that somehow becomes a production system? We put out a BlackBerry pilot to 50 staff, when it got to 1000 staff, questions were asked. It was a pilot you couldn't turn off."

=========

This is sooo true, as I have seen many a pilot move into production within a few months, with no great thought to how the solution (sometimes it wasn't even implemented as a solution!) is giong to operate in 6/12/18 months at down the track. And typically it ends up being in the too hard basket and doesn't ever get proper funding or resources to make it have HighAvailability/Redundancy and scalable.

On a side note, send me an email, if you need some advice, I'm alway willing to help (and maybe charge at the same time :) ).

Barack Obama - Special Package ???

2009-01-23T10:13:00.002+11:00

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24951266-5012572,00.html?referrer=email

Referring to the above link...

As the article states, the US President has allegedly received a " "super encryption package" custom-built by the National Security Agency. ".

Someone like myself is intrigued by this as with a device that is straight out of your local Blackberry store you have the ability in conjunction with a BES to use AES 256 bit encryption of the data in transit aswell as the data on the device and/or memory card. On top of this you can use certificate based authentication aswell a secure mime. You can alos use your favourite VPN with a token and use a swipe card reader aswell. You can also change your key store password any time you like if you feel it is has been comprimised (so slim of a chance), also firewall for random messages and unwanted services and default application permissions, just incase this gets into a bit of trouble some how, secure encrypted carrier phone calls, not to mention the total control from the BES using a private peer to peer encryption key and minimising password attemps, compelxity requirements, disabling non essential blackberry services, duress notification, wipe on holstering etc... the list goes on ........

Now my math is pretty good, but to do the math on the above I can only imagine the amount of time needed for the best spec PC to allow someone to hack into an Obama layer cake like this.

My predication is that there is actually nothing special besides what I have mentioned, out of the box delivered by the Blackberry that the National Security Agency has done.

I can only imagine that there has been an application on there that has been placed to provide challenge questions periodically or the like, to ensure it is actually the president using the device... or something of the like.

I think an internal attack from within the network is more likely than someone wirelessly launching an attack on Obamas baby blackberry, but, it's about getting stolen I would say.

Anyway, that's my Two Cents.

Interim Security Update 2

2009-01-14T16:29:00.000+11:00

Has been released.

Word of note, is that when you apply it to an early service pack, i.e. sp3 and upgrdae to say, sp5 you will have to reapply the patch again, sounds obvious, but i'm sure a ton of BESAdmins will forget to do this simple thing.

Back from the dead...

2009-01-14T16:28:00.000+11:00

It's been a while, as I have been on two months Holdidays :)

But i'm back and better this year.

4.7 Install - End User License

2008-11-20T10:52:00.003+11:00

One little addition to the usual boring install of 4.7 is this little puppy.

Administrative Puposes ? or is this for other sinister uses ???

after running through the boring install hundreds of times over the years, the EULA was always the same until this showed up and why it was made so prominent i don't understand.

No Clean Feed Support

2008-11-13T15:06:00.002+11:00

Although not Blackberry Specifically related, I thought this is one thing that could effect Mobility Devices in general and that is internet filtering. Latency and throughput is already slow enough, now the Government wants to slow mobile devices down further.

So i've added the nocleanfeed link up the top.

Fingers crossed this is immediately knocked back in parliament asap....

Exam Day Number 2 :)

2008-11-01T07:56:00.003+11:00

I am now a Blackberry Certified Solution Designer :)

Now all I have to wait for is the Certified Trainer Exam and that will be a pip :)

Exam Day :)

2008-09-30T21:29:00.002+10:00

A Good day today.

Now I am officially a Blackberry Certified System Administrator

Now for the Solution Designer Exam Next Week :)

Highly Recommend this Interview with Senior Product Marketing Manger from RIM

2008-09-23T09:58:00.002+10:00

CLICK HERE

Quotes of the session -

"The convergence of four screens - TV, Home PC, Work PC, and Blackberry"

"Disruption"

The one and only Bold

2008-08-22T07:42:00.002+10:00

Well, here I am, sitting @ Stanwell Park, enjoying the view.

I thought, i'll make a phone call to my wife, so I get out the Bold, and the headphones that come with the bold since I have not used them, and begin to make a call and to my frustration theses stupid suction based earphones were unusable!!!

The headphones are rubbish RIM !!! Why did you go and re-invent the wheel ????????

Highly highly annoying.

They keep falling out and there is absolutely no bass and that kind of chord is frustrating as it has friction on your clothes and is hard to move around.

Well all as I can say, since I have been using the Bold for a while now is that the only thing I can complain about the Bold is infact not even technically part of the Bold.

The Bold lives up to all the reviews scattered accross the Net. I'll have to disagree with the fragile'ness of the device as I am finding it very similar to the Curve, fingeres crossed.

The screen is freakishly amazing. iPodone's screen quality is no match.

I probably use my device Half/Half as I travel 2.5hours each way every day to work and including wekends for Business/Recreation and I am finding this device has two distinct cores that have been meshed into one perfect blend of an Enterprise Consumer device.

If RIM don't sell millions of these puppy's then the order of the universe has been adjusted and i'm not writing this!

Battery life is true, hardcore using and abusing of all features on this device with only 1 initial charge from out of the box gave me 8 hours and 50% battery level left, once you have had it for longer it starts to be 2 full days of hardcore business and recreational (awake hours) use, so you don't even worry about the battery running flat that day if you charged it fully before you left no matter what you have on.

WIFI - What can I say ? this device with it's 624Mhz processor was build for WiFi, sending emails, IM'ing, Webbrowsing, felt like the only bottleneck was my ISP! the device even has quicker communication arrows and that was @ 48mbps.

It seemlessly cuts over from Cellular to Wifi and initiates that 443 connection effortlessly and quickly without any user action once setup.

Now wheres that UMA client?????? and why can't we use it in Australia ??????????

Media upgrade was evolution and is a definate compeditor for other media devices in the consumer space, video is seemless getting atleast 32fps without flicker. Audio is outstanding.

Great job RIM, well done, EXCEPT THE FREAKING EARPHONES!!!!

Hopefully I will resist the urge to come in and edit this and make it into 50 pages as I have fallen in love.

a quote that rings true, "Once you go Bold, there's NO going Back!"

Exchange, Groupwise and Lotus Domino

2008-08-11T08:45:00.004+10:00

Has there ever been a comparison between the three for BES ?

In the coming weeks I will be doing a direct comparison between all three environment for BES and to find out which service wins the speed race.

Of course it will be fair as all results will be quantitive and not objective.

Internal BES competition. Why compare other Mobility Servers when there has yet to be a true competitor ?

will keep you posted....

Official Proof of the Kickstart Flip Phone(s) ? :)

2008-07-23T11:15:00.004+10:00

There are multiple references to the Flip phone(s) in the Policy Reference Guide for 4.1.6....

Seems all the rumours were true.

Heres an extract of one mention....

Force Memory Clean When Closed IT policy rule
Description
This rule specifies whether BlackBerry® 8220 and BlackBerry® 8210 smartphones run the memory cleaner application when
the flip is closed.
Default setting
The default setting is False.
Minimum requirements
• Java® based BlackBerry 8220 device
• Java based BlackBerry 8210 device
• BlackBerry® Device Software Version 4.6
• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Version 4.1 SP6

Guest Blogger @ Blackberryforums.com

2008-06-25T22:33:00.003+10:00

Throughout the years, i have posted, replied, mentioned and blogged a fair bit about Blackberry, now it has led me to the Mothership of Blackberry Socialites, the Blackberry Forums.

I'm now a Guest Blogger for Blackberry News dot com :)

Look out for my postings.... if your smart :)

P.S. they pay good :)

HTML Email at Long Last !!!

2008-06-08T12:08:00.003+10:00

Thankfully, over the weekend, RIM upgraded there Asia Pacific BIS Servers to 2.5, thus allowing HTML Email and a whole host of other features.

I say it's fantastic, give it a go.

I have HTML email running on our 4.5 BES but I guess i'll have to wait for corp IT to upgrade to 5.0 or the Hack, to get my BES emails in HTML.

One more box ticked on the Microsoft Push solution, couple that with the Bold then I really cannot see 1 particular advantage over Blackberry Microsoft has.

I plead with you all to write a comment and tell me just one ?

----

EDIT - SP6 is released! Let the HTML Email FLooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!!!

1.2%

2008-05-20T12:32:00.002+10:00

A significant mention must goto SMH for this article, as I don't normally comment on articles I felt i had to since it is one of the best that I have seen from an Australian Media outlet.....

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/where-to-now-for-the-blackberry/2008/05/19/1211182701198.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

The killer line's from the whole document which pleases me immensly is the following:

"International consultancy firm Nomura estimates that of the 600 million-700 million corporate email accounts around the world, only a tiny 1.2% have been "mobilised" to date.

"There's 1.2 billion cell phones sold every year. This is a huge market that isn't anywhere near saturation level. I think right now there's lots of room for all of us," says Mr Lazaridis."

Something tells me Wireless Data is the place to be :-)

4.5 Device OS

2008-05-15T22:50:00.002+10:00

I have it i installed on my corporate device (will install it in the lab tomorrow), way too many features to blog about right now, very tired....

1 feature which really stands out is the browser!!!

very very impressed.

Watch this space.

------

First Impressions.... they have gone into separating data, moving away from the traditional "loads of information" in one streaming data list for just about every application on the device. Looks good. Having a problem with some themes ATM, unable to lock the 8310 with the alt-enter combination from the Home screen, not the applicahtion screen. Have to have the localisation service on to shift-space and then it works, if you turn it off it stops working.
The equaliser is not always there in the media player, I was doing a demo to a work collegue and all of a sudden the EQ vanished! At this point in time I migh point out that I am using version 4.5.0.10. The Browser is getting there... it is rendering pages pretty close to the PC level now. The HTML email handy and a natural progression. In all... the Bold with the increased CPU speed and HSPDA capabilities will make this device a powerhouse for Blackberry again. The feel of the new OS is fantastic and you just get a sense that everything just works. Can't wait for that BOLD !!!

on a possible negative note...
How will the Battery go ?
Will it stoop down to the Windows Mobile Powered device levels and last for 3 hours ?

I think @ worst it will have the battery life of the 8310. It's going to be interesting to see how they switch between the 3 DATA Transports (GPRS/3G/HSDPA).

One theory of mine is that it will stay on GPRS just as normal and in true Blackberry Style it will connect to the 3G/HSDPA Network as needed, meaning the battery life is going to be huge!!

Wifi connectivity is nothing new, looking forward to the UMA ideas that are finally going to be floated around in Australia.

/me is off to talk with our RIM Account Rep :)

New Blackberry Front Page

2008-05-09T09:41:00.001+10:00

www.blackberry.com

A welcome screen with select your country... this was long overdue, just hope that it's not a total redirect to the old site and has localised content... i'll be watching closely.

Blackberry Monitoring Service 4.1.5

2008-04-15T20:58:00.006+10:00

I am installing the monitoring service now, very intrigueing to me as this is the side of my work where I live :)

4.1.5 was definately released as a service pack, no visual triggers to make you want to have it, only the addition of the tab in the domain selction tabs.

The Blackberry Monitoring Service installs three (3) services so to speak,

There is the Data Router, Engine and the User Interface.

I suspected that this would be web based and I was plesantly suprised that it was. When first installed the default browser is opened and 127.owed:5089 and up comes the Welcome to Blackbery page.first to note is the default username and password, one would expect these to not be changed by lots of organisation , resulting in a security breach.

Thankfully as soon as you press ok, you have to change it straight away... as expected from RIM.

Ahh my first glitch, the monitoring service uses SNMP traps, away i go to install :)

..... back.... been very busy @ work... new Job and all.... still no the trail... just very busy.

Have it working, just a few minor details before I release some screenshots, etc..

4.1.5 Install

2008-04-15T20:15:00.003+10:00

The first notable inclusion in this release is Java 6.0 Update 2.
For a longtime now ofcourse Java 5 Update 11 was the standard.

Everything else is exactly the same as the service pack 4 installation..... ill wait until i reboot to finish this post.......

Side note, I am installing 4.1.5 Bundle 79, available through Partnerzone and not publicly anounced yet.

well... that was an anti-climax.... except the BLACKBERY MONITORING SERVICE!!!

A little present from RIM.... 4.1.5 (service pack 5) :)

2008-04-14T15:31:00.002+10:00

Guess who is the lucky owner of SP5 :)

installing as I blog..... will keep posted :)

I never thought it was coming.

Blackberry's Outstanding Figures - as usual :)

2008-04-04T09:14:00.002+11:00

It's of no supporise that RIM have doubled there income since the same time last year.... hence my employment :), but there have been some out there attempting to predict Blackberry's downfall, and have obviously no idea what they are talking about, amongst other things.

When the number just keep coming good.....

see: http://www.rim.com/news/press/2008/pr-02_04_2008-01.shtml

....it's a sure bet this time next year will be looking good aswell.

It's definately a massive sign that Blackberry is by no means, going away anytime soon.

I predict 18million subscribers next year ... big call, but I think it is realistic.

Service Pack 5 - Delayed till April 15th, 2008

2008-03-31T21:47:00.002+11:00

Bit old news now... but still, I have to post it as I have been extremely busy with the New Job @ Optus and all.

Service Pack 5 - Delayed till March 28th, 2008

2008-03-12T08:38:00.002+11:00

All set to download.... again, since I am off work the most I can do with Blackberry ATM is wait for SP5 until I start my new role.

As mentioned on blackberryforums.com it does feel like the old days where you would be hanging out for a new scene release on IRC waiting for this service pack !

Mobility Banking - Secure Internet Banking

2008-02-22T22:35:00.002+11:00

Seems to be a big grey area in the market these days.

Only one notable Australian Bank has come to the plate with mobile banking, enter, Bank of Queensland (BOQ).

This is one of the areas that is easily steaked in the group as a competitive advantage to the rest of the market. Now let's not forget IT's roots here, to support the business.

This is a primary example of where technology is capable of doing 256 Bit HTTP SSL Encryption over an AES Data connection and a business not being to "scared" to be the first to offer it.

I look forward to the day the desktop is obsolete. I pretty much only use it for research, banking and remote-desktop these days anyway

IM (MSN, GTalk, YMessenger), Email (Desktop,Windows Live Hotamil,Gmail), SMS, MMS, Phone-calls, Feeds, Cricket Scores :), Facebook and of course the once a day Accuwhethere Push Service all are done from my 8310 Curve.

Banking on my Blackberry would be fantastic, it might even be a pre-requisite in the not too distant future for which bank (no pun intended) I go with.

Here's to reading your last 7 days transaction whilst in transit minus a laptop :)

OCS 2007 Certification

2008-02-22T22:33:00.003+11:00

One thing I did forget to mention was that Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Certification for Blackberry Enterprise Server will not be granted until service pack 6. Lotus sametime seems to be the flavour of the month, and why not? Lotus is by far the largest messaging/communications solution for the the US fortune 500.

Link to SP5 PDF from Webcast

2008-02-22T05:14:00.001+11:00

SP5 WEBCAST PDF LINK

Thanks to Dataoutages :)

Service Pack 6 - Confirmed

2008-02-22T05:00:00.004+11:00

Due out later this year apparently :)

What little goodies will we see ?

Aaron Stuart from RIM stated "released later this year"

BES SP5 WEBCAST .... Flooded !!!

2008-02-22T04:05:00.003+11:00

Well here I am.... 4:06am AEST ..... trying to get onto the RIM resourcecentre website to watch the official presentation for BES 4.1 Service Pack 5 and it appears that the site has been swamped. Even using an overseas proxy still would produce no results when trying to attempt to connect.

Hopefully I will have something to post in the next hour.

and hopefully I didn't get up @ 4am for nothing to :)

EDIT: Just checked out the forums.... everyone is unable to get in :-(

Although annoyed it is very satisfying that there is such demand for a newly relesed service pack.

Onward soldier...

Jumping Ship

2008-02-20T06:31:00.002+11:00

Sorry for the amount of time between posts, been busy getting myself a new Job @ Optus Australia :)

One thing I am definately looking forward to is the Wireless Lan Pearl that's on offer through Optus.

UMA is definately the future....

Blackberry Wishlist / Need List

2008-02-04T11:35:00.001+11:00

Ill start the ball rolling now, not conclusive, but I am going to put up my Wishlist for the Blackberry Solution, ones that are easily added to the device and aren't unrealistic (i.e a key dedicated to producing wormholes :P )

1. GPS Notification Icon - Doesn't that just bite when ur battery goes dead because you have left GPS on all day ?
2. BES Management Console for the Device, i.e. So BESadmins can add and remove and reset passwords on the go.
3. Ability to remotely hide/show icons on users devices rather than just the service. i.e Hid the compose icon.

EDIT: Good to see atleast one of my ideas was fixed with SP5 :)

more to come.....

The Inner Workings of a Blackberry Curve 8310

2008-01-21T20:36:00.000+11:00

Bang!

Shouts of Horror!!

I nearly lost my Blackberry today.... the world most definately would have ended... lol

Until I got another one out of the Cupboard @ work tomorrow ... lol.

While it was smashed into smitherines from my accidental throwing of the device I decided to check it's guts out :)

The design is very well made, complements to the chef :)

But one thing caught my eye and that was , you guessed it, the trackball. I had always been wondering what it looked like underthere and how it all worked (engineering background/nature) but i had always been "too busy" to pull it apart.

It actually works like the legacy ball mice for PC's but there are 4 rollers rather than 2, thus surrounding the trackball on 4 sides.

The rough texture of the Trackball is actually by design, thus making it grip.

Anyway.... i was intrigued...

Scrubbing Part 2

2008-01-13T11:04:00.000+11:00

After looking through my Website stats I have notice that people are looking for a particular duration of the scrubbing feature.... Unfortunately it cannot be quantified exactly, but, in real life terms on my 8310 it takes about 2 hours to complete.

Hope this helps.

Blackberry Messenger Transports

2008-01-13T10:35:00.000+11:00

Over the ages at work, Lee Williams and Craig Pringle and myself have been discussing enhancements to the Blackberry device.

One particular enhancement that would definately see success would be to allow transports to be added to the built-in messenger client thus allowing connection to public IM communities.

www.quickim.com provides a solution to MSN/Live Mesenger problems, but just doesn't have that feel as good as the Blackberry Messenger (as basic as it is).

When will RIM step up to the task to allow users to access public IM communities through their proprietry browser ?

Just ask ?

2008-01-04T07:28:00.000+11:00

While perusing around the Internet and seeing Toyota is now more popular in the USA than ford (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=4080834&page=1) I discovered this add in one of the frames.

http://www.blackberry.com/select/ask/

At first I was a little surprised by it all as it is not their typical style of advertising.

They are definitely trying to capitalise on the whole "love for the Blackberry" thing.

Check it out and see what you recon.

NZ's 8830 WorldMode Edition

2007-12-20T05:52:00.000+11:00

Excuse the crappy quality, was taken in reduced quality for MMS format...

As stated before I am just about to fly back from NZ after providing training for the Blackberry Helpdesk for Telecom NZ. The first device for corporate customers only at the moment, is the Blackberry 8830 WorldModel edition featuring access to both 800/1900 Mhz CDMA2000 and 900/1800 Mhz GSM/GPRS networks. I think this device is brilliant for Governnet and C level Clients and security personell, but I wish that RIM could have made available an 83XX WorldMode edition handset, as this would have been more appealing to the wider community. The pearl 2 that is due to be released early next year should be a breath of fresh air by then when Telecom NZ receives this device as it will be a long time between drinks by then :)

4.1 Service Pack 4 Maintenance Release 4

2007-12-20T05:43:00.000+11:00

After hearing along the grape vine about installs with Exchange 2007 failing due to the public folder database not being created (as MS are fazing this out) this MR fix's this issue.... Not much else to report.... Bring on SP5 :)

I'm still here !!!

2007-12-17T06:10:00.000+11:00

I'm just over in NZ training some Blackberry Administrators for my good friend NZ Geek Girl.

http://nzgeekgirl.wordpress.com/

... just listening to the BB Cool podcast and just found out that RIM has now launched an official Blackberry store in Michigan...

Will we ever see a dedicated Windows Mobile/Intellisync/Goodlink store ?

Doubt it..

Scrubbing

2007-11-29T08:00:00.000+11:00

One handy feature of the OS is the scrubbing after wiping feature.

RIM defines it as the following -

"the process of rewriting over memory to remove any residual unmapped data on the BlackBerry device. The scrubbing process could take up to several hours."

I am still trying to find out the exact details of scrubbing, as it is still a bit hazy, would love to post the exact method/mathematical formula/algorithm used.

I like this part -

"Note: Once scrubbing has been triggered, there is no way of stopping it. The process must be fully completed before the BlackBerry device may be used. Removing and reinserting the battery of the BlackBerry device will only start the scrubbing process again from the beginning.

The duration of the scrubbing process depends on factors such as the actual processor speed of the BlackBerry device, the amount of memory that it has, and the actual memory speed."

RIM the Confusing :)

2007-11-22T12:45:00.002+11:00

Q: How do I determine if an MR is a hotfix or a rollup?
A: The www.blackberry.com web site and Release Notes clearly identify the MR as either a hotfix or rollup

Taken from Here

I'm still a little bemused by it all....

Mobility Man Enjoying Beer !

2007-11-14T12:26:00.001+11:00

Well... he would be if he wasn't on standby waiting for his new child to arrive in this fine world.

Sporting a Mo, as we are all supposed to be as Movember is a great cause, since us blokes rarely visit the Doctor.

He has more on his site here

Aussie Media Coverage

2007-11-14T12:20:00.001+11:00

Since my inbox was overflowing with emails surrounding this article, I thought i'd post here.

A few interesting comments around expected growth.

4.1.4 Maintainence Release 3

2007-11-14T12:17:00.000+11:00

RIM seem to be pumping the fix's atm, when will the features arrive ?

Apparently sp5 is not due out until Feb 2008, check the RIM Lifecycle Page.

Remote Services

2007-11-14T12:11:00.000+11:00

I recently had the pleasure of being asked to train up some of our NZ boys around Blackberry. Fun was had by all, esp. the Greek in the middle :P

Mark had brought something to my attention whilst doing a remote router service install and noted that the usual registry entry change needed for remote services was already enabled.

It seems the remote service's are now crying out for mummy when installed, thus enabling it automatically.

Nifty idea ... but can this be exploited somehow ?

2007-11-05T22:06:00.001+11:00

Wireless reconcile

when switched off does not perform to 100% after a period of time.

I don't know why

BES logs are clean.

Not happy

Hopefully fixed in 5.0

Media on the 8310

2007-11-05T22:01:00.001+11:00

Enable mass storage mode and smash some tunes on the card and rock away puppy!

this Business phone goes great comparably in regards to music playback.

Playing music for an hour at full ball with medium sized JVC headphones , the battery hardly goes down at all!!!

comparable to an i-pod i would say... 10 hours or more would drain the battery i estimate.

I was very supprised by the amount of performance from a business phone... i am happy to say that it out preforms a nokia in regards to playback.

very sharp.

8/10 only because the play is very basic.

stops in between songs.
stops when unlocking device etc....

Holiday fun and the Blackberry 8310!

2007-11-05T21:53:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

A couple of weeks have flown by, to the lack of mentioning my annual leave from the grind :(

never the less, i managed to fully test out the Vodafone GPS Application on 3rd Service pack release for the whole trip - from Wollongong to the Gold Coast.

So much to say, so little time, lol.

1st point - it got me there
2nd point - questionable
3rd point - it improved
4th point - i needed it bigtime and it didnt fail

it worked well, although it's routes were questionable it still got me there. The VF product is supposed to be up to date but i did find on a few remote occasions that the map didn't know where i was ?? i.e on newly built bypass's etc.

1 thing i don't like is the lack of which town i am in now ?

when you are driving a long way and someone calls you would like to tell them where you are Vodafone !

anyway..... ill elaborate later.........

the Holiday was great... i had a great time and if it wasn't for my Blackberry's long battery life and reliability i would have had a poor experience.

more to follow....

BES 4.1.4 MR2

2007-10-09T08:57:00.000+10:00

Maintainence Release Two - RIM actually have in brackets (Hotfix), must be the new RIM naming convention requirements that we no longer refer to these "patch's" as Hotfix's.

What can I say ?

Smooth install... nice and easy... you end up with a nice little version number of 4.1.4.15

Did someone mention service pack 5 ???

Should be getting my grubby little hands on the above mentioned soon... will be providing a nice indepth review when i do.

Has anyone managed to get service pack 5 yet ?

Vodafone Compass Part 2

2007-10-01T15:18:00.000+10:00

After the recent updates to compass the software has become more usable. Takes a while to get used to it still. Whilst on the long weekend here in Oz, I decided to give it a a good run in the car on the way to Sydney airport and back to wollongong. The device handled it well.... seems to be getting up there in the likes of tomtom etc.... it really sucks the battery, with only 30 minutes of usage burning up half the phones battery, that's including the constant connection to the BES, receiving email and phone calls....etc..
The screen was pretty hot after 10 minutes so I guess this is the reason why. A car charger is definately mandatory for this operation.
The gps even in a car door pocket managed to find about 8 satellites and was about 3 meteres acurate the whole way, so it said.
Looks good so far, can't wait for the October update.

Mobility for Lunch anyone ???

2007-09-26T10:40:00.000+10:00

Craig Pringle has put together a notion about chatting about Mobility...

I'll be attending .... here's the link

Symantec Vision 2007

2007-09-18T21:51:00.000+10:00

I had the please of attending the Symantec Security conference last week... nice bag and some nice food and a few beers aswell :)

The speakers were well versed, with some nice unqualified comments coming out of it.

Mobiles outship PC's at a rate of 5:1. - Well ... this is a silly comment becuase we aren't exactly comparing apples to apples are we ?

We all know the threats are real and where the "New Enpoint" is in todays age.

I found it interesting that Blackberry was an official sponsor but they didn't off a product for Blackberry due to the following comment made :- "Blackberry doesn't open it's code up enough for us to provide access for us to write something to protect it" or something along those lines....

Maybe that's why it is so secure ?

Are symantec that nieve ?

They weren't even ranting about a windows mobile 6 release of there mobile AV solution.

I also found it funny that all the solutuions mentioned through the windows mobiles security suite are standard and have been standard with the Blackberry solution for years.

i.e Firewall on the client?

wow... i wish i had that in 2004... oh wait, i had a Blackber !

Symantec will see the coming of releases between symbian and windows mobile
Mobiles outship pc's 5:1
Smartphone growth 77%
Mobiles 27% growth
Mobile. Devices viruses have doubled every 6 months since 2004
80% of companies have devices on their netework but 5 and 10 percent have secure devices on their network.
Allowing to be used but not thinking about security.
Treat them as a computer
Far more connectivity
Left unprotected thew represent by far the weakest link on the entwork
All smartphones
Attacks now for financial gain
30 of top 50 exposed user data
Mobiles becoming payment methods
Becoming digital wallets and identities
Snoopware
If a phone is always with you its akways at risk
70% use their mobiles as alarm clocks
Mobile security suite 5.0 for windows mobile
over the air management is critical for devices
Anti sms spam
Whitelist blacklist
Loss mitigation
Security settings
Define card policy
Phone feature control
Vpn compatible with cisco or nortel
Allows control for nac
Verification of all nac rules and adhered to before allowing
Enterprise management
Move to versiion 11
Firewall event chart
Symbian security
Planning for smartphone usage
Sensitivity on controlling the phone
No mindset that there is a risk of anything on their device
Are we using a smart device
Rember how much time and money we spend on keeping the information secure in the data centre, we need to be the same as the phones.
Blance of education.
Roll out in stages
Make data phones as part of the end point
FIrst thing to do is to put av on the device
Protect data and protect it when lost
Match response to risk
15% smartphone deployment globally
Acceptance of the user
Make part of pc community
Bring into a simgle management console
Hackers are clearly making there way into devices
one console
Think of security as an enabler
Rpregnell@symantec.com

Service Pack 4 good bad ?

2007-09-14T23:41:00.000+10:00

After 3 Months of the Service Pack "in service" .... lol I have been please to say that it has been a roaring success. The addition of lots of cool insites into the future of the Blackberry solution aswell as some current functionality increases makes the move very worthwhile.

We can all sit there and go throug the release notes and we'll feel like we know what a service pack does. Truth is, you need to get amongst it as any BESAdmin will tell you that SP4 is a far cry from 4.1.0.

Symantec's Thoughts on Mobile Security

2007-09-14T23:31:00.001+10:00

I recently attended the Symantec Vision 2007 conference in Sydney on Wednesday.... needless to say I learnt alot. Symantec are obviously partners on the Mobile Scene with Windows Mobile, even though all their marketing at the event was around Blackberry and their 8310 Curve. The reason I drew this conclusion was dues to a speach made by their Mobile Specialist. He went about the security features surrounding Symantec's mobile product version 5.0. The features that were listed were very good, infact so good that they actually were what Blackberry has had for a number of years. A question was asked if Mobile 6.0 was supported and apparently not until the end of the year.

Question: How can Symantec preach "the endpoint is the user" when they aren't supporting Mobile 6.0 for months after it has been released ?

Once again, the TCO of a Windows Mobile fleet is even more expanded due to the licencing of the Security features.

Besides this, I did gain a terrible lot out of Symantecs Sales Sessions and I still regard Symantec as the leading brand in Security (whether I agree with them or not)

I think they gave Blackberry a silent "plug" by announcing that the reason they don't make Anti-Virus SW for the Blackberry Devices was because they haven't openned up the OS Code for developers to be able to write SW for their operating systems.

Could this be why there are no eligble virii in the wild atm ??

My gut says yes.

Although ... one to ponder....

New Site for Blackberry ???

2007-09-14T23:30:00.003+10:00

http://www.blackberry.com/

seems to have reinvented itself, yet again....

I wonder what for ????

Vodafone Compass

2007-09-06T19:43:00.000+10:00

Had the pleasure of toying around with the New Vodafone Compass product made by Yapp Software in Sydney today.
The first release looks exactly that "first release" not very impressed so far, was shaping up to be good, icons look good on the 8310, the download process was nice looking and worked well, but the actual program is very user "un friendly".
The product looks very promising, but very infant and I doubt that it was properly tested for user acceptance and usability before being released.
Word on the wire is there is going to be a big release of this in the coming weeks, watch the Vodafone AU space.
The software uses the live.vodafone.com.au APN and VF Australia have kindly made the page worth zero vaule. Since Data from the live APN is free the Compass service is free :) until December first so get in quick peoples !!!
Apparently there is going to be a monthly update program which i am pleased to hear but these things tend to go no where so i'll wait and see if the proof is in the pudding.
The whole voice telling you where to go is neccesity for mobility these days and it's great that it's using the streamin technology and not stored "old" map data.

http://www.vodafone.com.au/Business/BusinessSolutions/VodafoneCompass/index.htm

Duress Notification Policy thumbs up !!

2007-09-06T09:20:00.000+10:00

Has anyone implemented this policy in their organisation ?

It brought a smirk to my face when I first saw this puppy as it just goes to show the level of depth and thought that has gone into perfecting the whole solution, aswell as showing that RIM actually responds very well to feedback from their customers.

I'll be posting a service pack for Eval on here soon... my SP3 one is on the forums.

Oh Little Johnny, you have redeemed yourself...

2007-09-04T22:15:00.000+10:00

Our beloved prime minister made one of the best jokes I have heard him say (and let me tell you he doesn't make many good ones)

Warren Smith to Prime Minister John Howard @ the Dally M Medal Award's

It went a little something like this (don't quote me :) )

WS - So, I hear theres a little meeting happening in town
JH - Yes there sure is
WS - I also hear that president bush is in town tonight
JH - Yes he is, he was supposed to of landed 15 minutes ago..... I knew that the NRL Dally M's were on so I sent the treasurer to Greet him...... gotta have your priorities right you know !!!
WS and Crowd and myself laugh loudly.

Gotta Say good call PM !!!

Also, well done to Johnathon Thurston - Well Deserved !!!

Darwin Theory of Evolution

2007-09-04T20:49:00.000+10:00

BG and BBCool mentioned the other day on their podcast interview (see earlier post) that the Blackberry's released since the 8700 have all been "redesigned 8700's". I do agree somewhat, but not in a bad way, here's why....

The Motorola V3 Razr ...... now in it's 4th year ??? or something like that .... the Razr pretty much inherited the OS from previous phones from Motorola making the OS run for a very long time. Same can be said for the Nokia 1000 series phones.

If something works why change it , just enhance it!?

Blackberry and Beer !!!

2007-09-04T20:41:00.000+10:00

Now that I have your attention .....

If you are like myself and love the odd/regular drop of the ultimate pure golden nectar itself known as Beer, you would have ecstatically peeled your eyeballs back and near licked the screen clean with the salivation on the thought of CnH2n+1OH mixed with our beloved Black Fruit.

I know I did !

As it turns out it was just a crappy article on some news site, forget which one, stating that a beer company was using blackberry to get the freshest results, blah blah blah, it did get my heart racing for some stupid reason, but I was let down considerably. I don't know what I was expecting but I know it wasn't that.

New site not for a while ....

2007-09-04T20:39:00.000+10:00

Godaddy quickblog service is not for the technically minded such as myself ;)

will pursue but will be a while....

anyway, back to it for now.

Lee Williams' Blog

2007-08-31T11:00:00.000+10:00

As promised, here is Lee's "all things mobility" blog ....

Bound to be full of in-depth knowledge surrounding mobility, I look forward to the post's ahead.

The HTC Kaiser seems to be catching my attention, a first for Windows Mobile devices.

Here it is...

www.leew.info

Blog is moving ...

2007-08-28T21:36:00.000+10:00

Yes , no post's due to working on the new site (hosting wise)

will be up in the not too distant future....

Mr System Manager doesn't like Mr R2 (apparently)

2007-08-25T19:54:00.000+10:00

Is it just me or does Windows Server 2003 R2 (MMC 3.0) seem to have issues around Exchange System Manager ?

I came across this issue on friday where the DLL seemed to not register correctly thus rendering the MMC 3.0 console not knowing what to with the snap-in.

On a quick scavenge of the internet (as I only had 10 minutes at the time) I found similar instances of this issue.

I can't understand why Microsoft would and does continually do stuff like this. Windows is big, right... Exchange is big, right.... you would atleast make sure (and spend a few more days testing) that these two core products would work well together before a release.

BTW heres the spec's
Windows Server 2003 R2 with all latest Windows Updates and Exchange System Manager (6.944) - snap in failed.

No errors in the Windows System or Application event log's either, strange.

A re-install fixed it.

Why it worked? I do not know.

Side Note - I know it's not Blackberry "per say" but it's a BES requirement, thought i'd rant!

Boygenuis talking to Blackberry Cool Continued...

2007-08-23T22:07:00.000+10:00

Very interesting podcast. I was not expecting what I heard, I had always assumed that BGR and BBC were of a more technical background. I think I would say, slightly dissapointed. There are a few points that came out of Part 1 of the the Twin sessions but I left my notepad on my desk at work. From what I can remember there was a whole 8800 vs 8300 vs 8310 discussion contained within the conversation that was about how all 3 devices are extremely similar. There not!
Point 1 - the 8800 has the best battery life out of any smartphone on the market, source unknown on that one, will seek qualificatoin.
Point 2 - the 8800 has in built GPS but not camera but long battery life. the 8300 has GPS but a camera, the 8310 has GPS and has a camera. They are in a range for what features you need most.
BES/OS 5.0 Information was a letdown hopefully it is revisited next post.
1 thing that stood out was there massive comparrison to the iPhone. Australia is yet to experience this and I hope that it is an over rated phenomenon, since BGR and BBC were convinced the iPhone is a competitor to Blackeberry.
On a side note, Windows Mobile didn't even come into conversation throughout the interview, maybe only in passing comment but it really showed us Australian's an insite into the US/Canada mobile data market space.
I was reassured when BGR said that Blackberry wins hands down in the enterprise environment, confirming what I already thought for the US market.
I am even more keen now to find out about the road map for the Blackberry future as they definately hold there cards close to their chests.

Quote from the podcast "steve job just has these massive medicine balls..."

more to follow.....

Boygenuis talking to Blackberry Cool

2007-08-23T09:35:00.000+10:00

Since I am an avid fan of both the above mentioned I thought I would encourage people to listen to this rare podcast from BBC. Very very informative ... heres the link ...

http://blackberrycool.com/2007/08/22/005426/

I'm still listening to it, comments to come...

Office Communications Server 2007

2007-08-22T21:13:00.000+10:00

At present I am currently testing the new released (is it released yet ?) Office Communication Server 2007 capabilities for Blackberry. Nothing to report yet... but it does look promising. I have a vision of getting an inhouse dev to provide an app that will provide Ocs2007 functionality to the palm of your hand, which leads me to my next though...
Why have Blackbery been so late into introducing higher speed devices into the GPRS market ?
They had a stab at it with the 8707 but WCDMA proved to be not all that it was cracked up to be.
For Australia to move forward in the market an HSDPA (or next generation, lol) device is needed, hence Telstra's enthusiasm to be the first in the world with the fastest device.
I can't see the average organisation utilising the faster speeds with how the Blackberry works but I can see the largest enterprises utilising this eventually. Not for a few years yet ;-) Did someone mentin next BES ?

How To: Disable Email Delivery in 4.1.1

2007-08-22T20:52:00.001+10:00

One of the most frustrating problems I have had ever finally was solved last week.

The Problem: To NOT recieve email's on a Blackberry Device.

The Solution: Seemed extremely straight forward, disabled from the handheld but to no avail, disabled email reconciliation and still failed, firewall still failed. This puzzled me to no end. Log's showing messages being delivered to device so for some reason the changes weren't being recognised by the BES. Here is how I eventually fixed it....

1. Remove check box's from the folders to be redirected
2. Create a special IT policy that disables wireless reconcile
3. Disable sync in properties of user on the BES
4. Wait for a couple of minutes for config to update device
5. Change back to default IT policy and enable Synch.

Seemed a little strange to me but that was the only way I could figure it out. For some reason the clients solution was intent on NOT getting email out to those devices.

Good to know that trying to break the solution is hard :P

I think the RIM developement team mustn't have had much feedback on this component of the SDLC, lol.

2007-08-22T16:57:00.000+10:00

Ancient Hisotry

2007-08-22T13:56:00.001+10:00

About 2 years ago around when Service Pack 2 for Exchange was coming about I was shown some documentation around the Windows Mobile architecture for Direct Push. One thing stood out and one that I found amazing was the amount of Data consumed by a Windows Mobile device just to keep the connection alive. 2 years ago it was around the 2c per kilobyte figure and having Exchange Active Sync enabled on the devices over a Month would rack up an aproximate bill of 15mb! @ the before mention price equals $50.00 without any email! This astounded me as Blackberry on the lowest plan only needed 1mb of Data at the time in Australia.

How is it that one solution without email needs 15 times the amount of data than a solution with email?

It makes me wonder where else the fat is going.

First things first....

2007-08-21T20:50:00.000+10:00

Blackberry just works.

Period.....

To sell Blackberry is very easy these days due to the above statement.

You might find that's a pretty weird way to start out a newly created Blog specifically to do with ideas surrounding the Blackerry World and the Mobility workspace it plays in, but that's me.

Who is me ? you might ask ....

A self confessed Blackberry NUT ! Yes that's right, i'm very into Blackberry more so from the Technology point of view and how the whole Solution has captivated/captured the market.

I live in Wollongong and work in Sydney for an ICT Solutions provider in Australia called Gen-i who are part of the Telecom Group of NewZealand (AAPT and Powertel are also owned by them).

I have been directly involved in Blackberry since 2004 providing Blackberry Consulting services for 2 of the 3 Carriers in Australia up until this year where I joined Gen-i/AAPT in January.

I work closely with my colleagues Lee Williams (All things Mobility Guru) and Craig Pringle - Tablet MVP and Messaging and Collaboration Guru (http://www.pringle.net.nz) and the IT Infrastructure team in the Mobility Space where I am known to them as the "blackberryman".

I have been a member on Blackberry forums (under an alias) since early 2005 and would like to do my first plug for them as the community there is absolutely fantastic, although at times can be inundated with BESAdmins on panic alert .... Ill save that for another post.

Secondly, one of my Goals of this Blog is to not turn this into a marketing page. I could slap a few domain names in here as examples of a non thinkers blog, but i'll be patient and conserve my energy for other areas.

Thirdly, suggestions are noted well. Like I said, this blog is about ideas around Blackberry and that's the way i'm going to keep it.

That's it for now... tomorrow is Blackberry Blogging day.....

"At 3am last night I got this important email, damn I hate my Blackberry" - positive negativity