Blackberry OS 4.5 - The First 12 Hours

So after about 12 hours of use here are my impressions.

User Interface:
The included applications (Mail, Calendar, Address Book, etc) all have a dressed up user interface. This doesn't add anything but eye candy, but its nice.

Browser:
The WiFi Browser is now called Hot Spot Browser. It now has a start page separate from the bookmark list that has a URL field; a search field that searches Google, Wikipedia or Dictionary.Com; Bookmark and History mini lists that link to full lists; and it does favicons. There also seems to be better JavaScript support. The best thing though is the cursor in column view. This is a cross between what were mobile and desktop views. Instead of scrolling through text and randomly (or so it seems) jumping between links, you can now have a cursor that you can drive exactly where you want. Wonderful.

Calendar:
Appointments can now be "Sent using" one of your configured mail sources. What, exactly that means in every case will need some investigation. Each "calendar" can be configured for wireless sync (if you have a Unite or BES server), and each gets its own colour.

So far I'm pleased, but don't use the Rogers version. Search the web to find the latest release.

Blackberry 8820 OS 4.5 Rogers Upgrade

I found the official Rogers version of Blackberry OS 4.5 (4.5.0.37 Release 52, the "latest" release for this device is 4.5.0.75) so I've decided to install it today. Normally when upgrading the OS on a Blackberry you want the desktop software version to match that of the OS upgrade. Rogers doesn't have the Desktop Manager 4.5 so I installed the RIM generic version. This simply means that I had to track down and delete (actually I rename) the vendor.xml file. Vendor.xml determines which versions of what software the Desktop Manager will install on the device. If someone else is managing your Blackberry, you probably don't want to do this without their permission, but I manage my own.

Once vendor.xml was taken care of the Desktop Manager offered to upgrade my unit. You will probably, like me, want to go into the advanced options and change the load out somewhat; enable Blackberry Maps, disable languages you don't need, etc. Make sure a complete backup of your data is enabled and click next.

The process of the upgrade proceeded very smoothly but it does take time, and you don't want any interruptions, so make sure you have good reliable power supplied to your PC. The longest part of the installation is after the new software has been installed and the Blackberry reboots. I can take a very long time to come back. This is normal but can be worrying the first time you go through it. My device took nearly a half hour of flipping the hourglass to get everything sorted out. Once it came back the desktop automatically restored the data.

Most things came back just fine. I had to reload Facebook, the starter icon was on the ribbon, but the application was removed. You still can't past the password from the password keeper which is stupid.

So far I haven't noticed any real significant changes. The GPS has a location enable/disable option and location assist. It will take time to see if location assist does anything useful. There is a new theme, but I don't like it any better than the one I'm using now. There are some changes to the WiFi configuration screens that I will have to explore. BIS activation came back automatically, but I had to re-activate on Unite.

Update:

Should have gone with the latest release. 4.5.0.37 has a really stupid bug to find its way into a production release. Sigh!