Blackberry Add-On Adds Value for Gmail Users

Blackberry offers an enhanced Gmail plug-in that gives you the following capabilities:

• Archive a message
• Add a star to a message
• Add a label to a message
• Report spam email message
• Perform local and remote searches
• View related messages conversation view

These features work within the plug-in but do not effect email in Messages application. The plug-in works if you are connecting to your mail account over Blackberry Internet Services.

To learn more, click here.

Google Releases the Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server

After an extended period in Beta testing, Google has released its connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server.

• Messages sent to your Gmail inbox are pushed to your BlackBerry within 60 seconds.
• Emails read/deleted on your BlackBerry are marked as read/deleted in Gmail, and vice-versa.
• Emails archived/starred on your BlackBerry are archived/starred in Gmail, and vice-versa.
• BlackBerry folders are synchronized with labels in Gmail.
• You can search for contact information of coworkers from the global address list on your BlackBerry.
• Contacts in Gmail are automatically synchronized with your BlackBerry address book.
• You can view your Google Calendar schedule with the native BlackBerry application, with one-way synchronization from Google Calendar to your BlackBerry device.
• Administrators can use the management and security tools that are part of BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

There is One Caveat:

• Two-way calendar sync with the ability to accept, decline and schedule meetings from your BlackBerry device is not available with this release but we are working on it.

Contact us for more information.

Google Adds Voice Search to Blackberry App

Blackberry users can not take advantage of Google's voice search. Simply go to m.google.com in your Blackberry browser and download the app.

10 Things Steve Ballmer (and Microsoft) is Thinking About

As reported by ChannelWeb, Steve Ballmer touched on many issues at Microsoft's Strategic Update Meeting in New York last week. Here is my take after reading the quotes:

1. SEARCH: Microsoft is not making money from Search and may be slowing its rate of investment
2. Microsoft is threatened by netbooks and is considering how to adjust its Windows 7 strategy to avoid loosing market share to Linux and other OS's
3. Google, with Android, and Linux threaten Microsoft's client operating system dominance
4. Microsoft denies they are creating a smartphone, but have they really accepted the "market mojo" of the iPhone and Blackberry?
5. Microsoft knows they need a lower cost server operating system -- watch for Foundation Server
6. Microsoft still sees pirated versions of Windows as the biggest threat to their OS business
7. Microsoft IE is losing market share: Ballmer admitted that "Browsers are key features of operating systems", in contrast to their answer to anti-trust concerns that IE is not part of the OS
8. Microsoft wants to R&D itself through the current economic times
9. Microsoft has not figured out how to make money with Office Live, yet; Windows Azure (server in the cloud) may be ready by November 2009
10. OpenOffice is a growing threat, starting with the educational market

In all of his comments, Ballmer seems to be missing the gap between the features Microsoft deliver and the subset of those features most customers actually use. If the threats he acknowledges offer simpler feature sets, but meet most customers' needs, Microsoft could be in big trouble.