Admins, rev your engines. RIM has been testing the latest version of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for a long time now to iron out all the bugs, but BES 5.0 is now publicly available. If you haven’t been in the loop, some of the main features for end-users include:
- Remote access to Windows network file shares to allow smartphone users to securely retrieve, view, edit and email documents from behind the firewall.
- Flag emails for follow-up in the same way that flags are used in Microsoft Outlook®.
- Create, move, browse, rename and delete email folders directly from the smartphone, and view and attach files from those folders to emails sent from the smartphone.
- View attachments in a meeting request or calendar entry, and forward calendar appointments with attachments.
- Easily manage personal and public distribution lists.
- Use of Calendar Meeting Delegation for IBM® Lotus® Domino®, which allows attendees to delegate invitations to others from their BlackBerry smartphones.
The release also marks RIM meeting EAL 4 Common Criteria, up from level 2 last year. Cool stuff overall, and it sets the groundwork for handheld software version 5.0. We’ll probably have to wait until devices like the BlackBerry 8250 and 9630 before the new OS is available, however.
[via RIM]