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Fall’s in Full Swing and Here Come the Apps!

ANDROID / 11.02.17 / Michael Clewley

Being in Ontario, Canada, we get the full on 4 seasons – and I’m thankful enough to have had the chance to get some good fall colour viewing in over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (shameless plug for my twitter @michaelclewley to check some of those photos).

While some of you have already been rocking the app updates in beta, let’s get down to business and talk about the goodness that awaits you this month!

 

Hub

  • Additional Hub Integrations: Supported integration for Tumblr and QZone accounts. We just keep adding more based on your feedback!
  • Enhancements to Email Signature: Set up a separate signature for replies and forwards versus the initial email composition. Both signatures now support adding links in the signature.
  • Improved Android Wear Support: Reply to an email message using an Android Wear watch. Three responses are provided to the user based on the list of quick responses they’ve set up in Hub on their device.
  • Empty Trash Enhancement: Empty Trash feature for Exchange ActiveSync accounts now accessible via account tray view of the Deleted Folder selection.
  • External Recipient Warning and Restriction: Exchange ActiveSync accounts under EMM management now provide warning or restriction when sending emails to external recipients. EMM administrator will setup an internal corporate domain, all recipients outside of it will get highlighted in yellow, while all the recipients defined as part of the restricted domains will be highlighted in red and messages will not be sent to them.
  • LDAP Certificate Retrieval Using Kerberos AuthN: Using Hub+ Services app configuration policies, an administrator will be able to configure LDAP certificate retrieval in environments where authentication to the LDAP servers is managed via Kerberos.
  • User/Admin Setting for Signing Hash Algorithm: Currently listing this as a beta feature for this release but user will be able to specify what hash algorithm to use for signing operations of outgoing S/MIME messages. When Hub is deployed in a managed profile, this setting will be controllable by an admin using Hub+ Services app configuration policies.

Calendar

  • External Invitee Warning and Restriction: Exchange ActiveSync accounts under EMM management now provide warning or restriction when inviting external contacts to events. EMM administrator will setup an internal corporate domain, all invitees outside of it will get highlighted in yellow, while all the invitees defined as part of the restricted domains will be highlighted in red and event invite will not be sent to them.
  • Exchange ActiveSync Attachments: Calendar now supports adding and receiving of attachments for Exchange ActiveSync (v16) based calendar accounts.

Launcher

  • Hide Apps: Applications can now be individually hidden, so that they will not appear on homescreens or in the All Apps grid. Visibility state is controlled from within the Launcher settings. Hidden apps can still be launched from within Launcher settings.
  • Customize App Name: Rename applications to anything you choose in Launcher Settings. This will rename the application in homescreens and the All Apps grid.

Productivity Tab

  • Hide Tabs: You can also hide any of the built-in tabs such as Calendar or Contacts.

Notable

  • Saved Images: Images are now stored in the root of the system, making your Notable images more immediately accessible to other applications and services, such as Google Photos

DTEK by BlackBerry

  • Android Security Patch Level: Within DTEK, users can now see more information about what BlackBerry has done for the security of their device. Users will be able to see the date of the latest security patch that has been applied to their device, check for updates and are also given a link to BlackBerry’s Security Bulletin, where they can get the list of common vulnerabilities and exposures that the patch addressed.

***

As with previous updates, you should receive a notification when the application updates are available in Google Play, at which point they should download automatically over Wi-Fi.

If you need to manually update:

  1. Connect to a Wi-Fi network, then open the Google Play Store.
  2. Tap the icon on the left side of the search bar, then select “My apps & games” from the menu that pops up.
  3. Either tap “Update All” or select which apps to update on an individual basis.
  4. Tap “Download” and the update will begin, even if you don’t see a progress bar or another indicator.
Michael Clewley

About Michael Clewley

Michael joined Research In Motion® (RIM®) in 2001, and has worn a variety of hats from customer and developer support to product management. Always ready to get stuff done, Michael is truly a BlackBerry® power user, but always has time to listen to customers and co-workers on how to improve BlackBerry’s products. He currently works as BlackBerry's Director of Software Product Management.