The BlackBerry 7.1 OS update will begin rolling out from carriers around the world beginning today and over the coming weeks, and offers some great new features that we wanted to highlight here:

• Mobile Hotspot: Turn your BlackBerry 7.1 OS device into a Wi-Fi® router anywhere, anytime! The new OS seamlessly provides Internet access for up to five Wi-Fi devices, including laptops and tablets.
• Universal Search: For this new release, we wanted to focus on the intelligence of our system and our apps – in other words, we wanted to create an intuitive experience that does the thinking for you. For example, Universal Search now has a new auto-suggest feature that that intelligently filters Bing® search results to offer you a variety of relevant Web sites based on your search terms.
• BlackBerry® Tag: Share contacts, media and files, and even invite friends to BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) through a simple touch. BlackBerry Tag unlocks near field communication (NFC) capabilities for everyday use and makes sharing a lot faster and much more personal.
• Wi-Fi® Calling (where available): With BlackBerry 7.1 OS, you’ll be able to make Wi-Fi calls using your carrier’s Wi-Fi calling service (aka UMA-lite or GAN-lite). Wi-Fi calling allows you to save your talk time minutes and make phone calls over any Wi-Fi network. Not all carriers offer such a service so check with your carrier for availability.
• FM Radio: The BlackBerry 7.1 OS update will let BlackBerry® Curve™ 9360 and 9380 smartphone customers enjoy FM radio. The Curve models include a built-in FM radio so you can tune in to local FM radio stations. Simply plug in your headset to boost the reception (it acts as the antenna). Plus, no data usage or data plan required!
• BlackBerry® Maps:

When you launch the new BlackBerry Maps you’ll be able to discover special offers, coupons and discounts from nearby vendors – and, of course, you can act instantly by calling about the deal, finding the best route to get there, or grabbing the coupon code.

But that’s not all the surprises we have in store for you today – along with the new OS update, we’ve also released updates to a number of other popular BlackBerry smartphone apps! We’re continuously taking steps to enhance your social experiences on your BlackBerry smartphone. We are making the apps you know and love even more intelligent and intuitive with upgrades to help you manage your daily tasks or plan for your next big adventure.

Here’s what we’ve got for you:

BBM is now 6.1

It’s the BBM you know and love, taking your social experience to a whole new level. Now with BlackBerry Tag integration, you can invite a friend to BBM by simply tapping your NFC enabled BlackBerry smartphones against each other. Also, by popular request from our BBM community, we’ve added more ways to personalize your messages and your profile. BBM 6.1 is now out of beta, so check out our BBM 6.1 blog post for an in-depth look at the newest features.

BlackBerry Travel

Are you a frequent flier or avid traveler? The updated BlackBerry Travel app virtually plans your trips for you, from airport pick up and drop off to accommodations and scheduling. You’ll be able to find deals on hotel and car rental options, or arrange for limo service to and from an airport. Plus, you can rest easy knowing that the BlackBerry Travel app will quickly notify you if your flight is delayed or cancelled, and that it can help you find a new flight right away. No matter where you do your booking, the automatic trip scanning feature can pull your trip details into the app, so you don’t have to. See all your travel updates in one place as they happen, and don’t worry about double and triple checking your itinerary; if you’ve missed anything, BlackBerry Travel will let you know!

BlackBerry Traffic

Getting where you want to just got easier with the new update of BlackBerry Traffic. The updated app now provides you with turn-by-turn voice guidance so figuring out how to get there is easy and hands free. BlackBerry Traffic provides you with your route and your estimated time of arrival (ETA) based on current traffic conditions – right on your BlackBerry smartphone.

So as you can see, we’ve got a whole bundle of goodies ready for #TeamBlackBerry to enjoy. We’re confident that this collection of intelligent apps will help you connect with your fellow BlackBerry smartphone users, because life is better when it’s shared in real time.

For more information and to download the new versions of BBM, BlackBerry Traffic and BlackBerry Travel visit BlackBerry App World and don’t forget to leave us a comment and let us know what you think about BlackBerry 7.1 OS and the new app updates!

For those of you attending this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) come visit the BlackBerry booth (South Hall 3 Booth # 30326) to see these new updates and more firsthand!

Being able to find information on your BlackBerry® smartphone is really easy thanks to the Universal Search feature built into BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones. Universal Search is designed to allow you to search for help, contacts, documents, files, photos and other information right from the BlackBerry smartphone home screen.

Today I’d like to provide an overview of how Universal Search works and why you should start using it to help you stay on top of almost everything!

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

The BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and BlackBerry® Bold™ 9930 smartphones have gotten great buzz since we first announced the two BlackBerry® 7 smartphones with a BlackBerry Bold touch at the BlackBerry World™ conference in May. Members of the media and #TeamBlackBerry certainly enjoyed test-driving them at our #BB7FanNight event in Toronto. (FYI: We’ve gathered many BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 reviews from across the web for your quick reference.) Now that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are making their way to your local carriers and retail locations, we thought it would be a good time for the BlackBerry Bold Product Managers Michael and Jason to share five things you need to know about the new BlackBerry Bold touch smartphones.

1. The new touch BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones combine design style with substance

Our design goal for the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones was to deliver a stunning design that integrates the BlackBerry Bold family’s iconic QWERTY keypad with a brilliant, high resolution capacitive touch screen. Great care, time and precision went into designing and creating the keypad on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones; it was meticulously refined, sculpted and positioned to deliver the utmost in precision functionality to make typing accurate, simple and fast. In fact, even though the keypad on these two smartphones may look similar to that of the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 smartphone, it actually has 5% more surface area. Achieving such an improved typing experience – on the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet – is something we know BlackBerry customers will appreciate (and is a testament to our design team’s commitment to delivering continuous improvements to what matters most to our customers).

In terms of the overall design, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones were built in the tradition of the BlackBerry Bold line of smartphones, with purposeful detailing plus premium materials and finish. When you first hold the device in your hand, we think you will quickly realize how great it feels. We’ve highlighted some of our favorite design elements below:

• Brushed stainless steel frame: the elegantly brushed stainless steel frame extending around the exterior adds to the visual appeal of both Blackberry Bold smartphones, giving them what we feel is a timeless and classic look. Beyond aesthetics, the stainless steel frame adds reliable durability while seamlessly integrating important functions like the convenience and volume keys.
• “Aerospace composite” battery door: distinct to the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, the “aerospace composite” battery door is incredibly lightweight and durable. It’s made of the same composite material that’s used to construct next-generation airplanes, racecars, and high-tech sports equipment. The cool factor is high to be sure, but more importantly, this composite construction actually helps optimize antennas, radios, and other device technology for highly reliable connectivity.
• Ultra-thin design: When we looked at the amount of time people have a device in hand, it became a priority for us to make the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones ever at 10.5mm. For BlackBerry smartphone users, this means a lightweight, sleek & slim device that fits comfortably in the palm of their hand, while maintaining uncompromised performance.

2. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930: The most powerful guts ever in a BlackBerry smartphone

We wanted to match the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones’ distinctive design with powerful hardware to deliver a best-in-class BlackBerry Bold smartphone experience. With a 1.2 GHz processor, 8GB of onboard memory with the option to expand (using up to a 32GB media card), and high-speed CDMA or HSPA+ world phone connectivity, these models have the most powerful ‘guts’ ever in a BlackBerry smartphone, helping you get more things done even faster. Here are a few features we’d like to speak to in more detail.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are the first BlackBerry smartphones to feature brilliant 2.8” 640×480 high-resolution touch screens, which deliver crisp, clear images and text at 287 pixels per inch, in full 24-bit color. Powered by the BlackBerry 7 OS and Liquid Graphics™ technology, these screens provide a truly responsive and versatile touch experience, so you can browse the web, interact on social sites, read and respond to emails, and view high resolution videos and photos. If you’d like to learn more about the evolution of the touch experience in BlackBerry 7, check out Sangita and Troy’s post, which tackles the subject in more detail.

In addition to hi-speed CDMA or HSPA+ cellular connectivity, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones also feature dual-band Wi-Fi® connectivity (2.4GHz and 5GHz). Reliable Wi-Fi connectivity is important for pulling down large amounts of data quickly without a hit to your data plan, and Dual band Wi-Fi connectivity means better connectivity and faster performance at the office, coffee shop, airport, or at home.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are the first BlackBerry smartphones to feature Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. NFC is a technology that allows BlackBerry smartphone users to just tap to connect, get information, and link up with other supported NFC devices or authentic BlackBerry accessories. For more information about what NFC means for BlackBerry smartphone users, please watch this interview with Andrew Bocking, VP of Handheld Software Product Management.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

3. The new BlackBerry 7 OS delivers better performance, usability and voice-activated Universal search

The powerful hardware in the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones have been paired with the new and powerful BlackBerry 7 OS, which offers a variety of performance and usability enhancements, such as Liquid Graphics and the next generation BlackBerry web browser. While BlackBerry 7 Product Manager Annu is planning on providing a detailed blog post on BlackBerry 7, we thought we’d share one of our favorite features: voice-activated Universal Search.

With voice-activated Universal Search, the powerful on-device search functionality that premiered in the BlackBerry 6® OS has gone hands free. Using advanced speech-to-text translation, you can now search for files, emails, contacts, music, and more—all without typing a thing. Voice-activated Universal Search also combs the web and BlackBerry applications for the information you need. For example, I often use Universal Search to find an address, which automatically brings up the BlackBerry® Maps location information. Very cool!

4. The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones improve social collaboration

As we said before, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones’ full QWERTY keypad offer an efficient and speedy typing experience, but it’s not just for emails. The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones feature the latest versions of our social media applications, including Social Feeds, Twitter® for BlackBerry smartphones, Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones, and the new BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) 6. This suite of apps makes it easy for BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphone owners to quickly connect with friends, family, and co-workers.

We’re most excited about the potential of BBM 6 for BlackBerry Bold smartphone users, because of “BBM-connected” apps. BBM 6 allows for 3rd-party applications to incorporate your favorite aspects of BBM into their apps, from status updates and sharing to BBM chats. The video below shows how popular social application Foursquare takes advantage of BBM 6, but that doesn’t mean that social on the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones is only about fun and games. Don’t believe me? Check out this post on how to use BlackBerry Messenger 6 for business.

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

5. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones “Balance” the needs of enterprise and end users

In addition a full QWERTY keypad, dual-band Wi-Fi and BBM 6, the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones offer a variety of features that reinforce the BlackBerry Bold family’s heritage as the ultimate enterprise device for business people on the go. Two of our favorites are BlackBerry® Balance™ technology and the Documents To Go® Premium app.

BlackBerry Balance is a new technology in BlackBerry 7 that ensures your work life and private life never mix—so you can enjoy the fullest mobile experience on just one device. When you’re at work, BlackBerry Balance technology allows you to focus on getting tasks done while securely accessing business information, but it also makes it possible to stay connected via apps like Facebook, Twitter or personal email accounts. This is because BlackBerry Balance technology is designed to works behind the scenes to safeguard against accidentally compromising the security of company content while simultaneously protecting the privacy of your personal content. To learn more about this new technology, check out the BlackBerry Balance product page.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones also come with the full premium version of the Documents To Go app, which is a vital tool for mobile productivity. Documents To Go is a mobile document suite that is designed to allow you to create and edit Microsoft® Word®, Microsoft® Excel®, and Microsoft® PowerPoint® docs, and view PDF docs anywhere, anytime. As someone that travels regularly for work, I can attest that the ability to easily review or edit important work documents has been a lifesaver many times over.

We’re incredibly excited that the next generation of BlackBerry Bold smartphones is now available for BlackBerry smartphone users. For more information on pricing and availability, please contact your local carrier or visit our BlackBerry Bold where to buy page. Make sure to post a comment below and let us know what you think!

It’s no secret that the BlackBerry® 7 OS has arrived on a whole set of brand new BlackBerry® smartphones. There are many exciting features of the new operating system that enhance the business experience that BlackBerry smartphones have always provided. Here are our top five features of the BlackBerry 7 OS for business users:

Documents To Go® Premium

This app is a true companion to those who do business on the go; it is designed to allow you to open, edit, save, or create new documents including Microsoft® Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint® files on your BlackBerry smartphone. When you need to make one small change to that report, or a colleague is asking for you to review a presentation, you can make changes quickly and efficiently while on the go.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

As you may have already seen in the sneak peek video, the Home Screen in BlackBerry® 6 has undergone a makeover. To get the inside scoop on some of these changes, I reached out to Joey Benedek, Director of UX Research at Research In Motion® (RIM). Check out the interview below.

First, can you tell us a bit about what you and your group do at RIM?

I am a Director in the User Experience (UX) group, and I run the UX Research team. The UX organization is responsible for understanding user needs and desires and translating those into interface designs. We then work with the various software development teams to iterate those designs – with end-user feedback as our guide – prior to releasing to market. Bottom line, our team is responsible for defining the on-device experience that our customers interact with and making sure those experiences are not only usable but also desirable.

If there was one thing you want our readers to know about the Home Screen redesign, what would it be?

I’d say that the redesign of the Home Screen in BlackBerry 6 is fresh, but familiar. When you look at it, it still looks like a BlackBerry Home Screen (for example, wallpaper selection continues to be a key attribute of the visual design), but it’s been updated – much like a home renovation still ‘feels’ like home, but is actually new.

With BlackBerry 6, we are introducing a host of new features in the design, evolving the look and feel and enabling the user to really customize the Home Screen. Overall, the visuals are cleaner and sleeker, and movement between and within the applications is more fluid, allowing users to navigate their BlackBerry smartphone in a much more intuitive and interactive way.

What is the biggest change in the Home Screen design?

In BlackBerry 6, there are now five separate views that a user can easily switch between using the Navigation Bar, depending on their preference and the type of information they’re looking for. These include: “Frequent”, where your most frequently-used apps are automatically placed for easy access; “Favorites”, where you can choose to add not just your favorite applications, but also to create shortcuts to particular Contacts or web pages (making the important people and information in your life just one click away!); “Media”, for all your media-centric content; “Downloads”, for all the apps you download; and “All” – this is the big vertical list that you can scroll through, similar to the Home Screen today. Users will be able to simply slide left and right (the touch-screen or trackpad, depending on your BlackBerry smartphone model) to quickly get to any of these new view panes.

Can you give us an overview of some of the other important BlackBerry 6 design updates?

In trying to deliver an optimized experience for how people use their BlackBerry smartphone – and how they search for information on it – we are introducing two new ‘quick access areas’ that are built into the Home Screen.

One is designed to allow you to have quick access to the Connections, Alarm and Options screens – things that we found people frequently want to adjust or change – with one click from the Home Screen. With BlackBerry 6, this will be done by simply selecting/tapping the top of the Home Screen. A drop-down panel then appears that allows you to change these on the spot.

The other quick access area on the Home Screen is designed to enable you to view your most recent messages (such as email, text, BlackBerry® Messenger), phone calls, upcoming appointments, Facebook® and Twitter® notifications simply by tapping the Notification Bar in the middle of the top of the Home Screen. If you click on the Notification Bar, it drops down to show who the notifications are from, along with the first few words from the title. This feature makes it much easier to prioritize which notifications you want to respond to first.

The BlackBerry Home Screen also now includes a powerful Universal Search application. It’s never been easier to find content on your BlackBerry smartphone, regardless of whether you’re looking for contacts, messages, music, pictures or appointments. Universal Search was designed to be tightly integrated with your BlackBerry smartphone: simply tap on the Search icon in the top right-hand corner of the Home Screen – or just start typing – and it searches the whole device. As you type, we instantly bring back your results using icons.

Maybe even more exciting is that the same search query can also be used to search the web as well. If you search your device and can’t find what you’re looking for, you can simply tap other available icons, such as YouTube®, Google or BlackBerry App World™, to extend your search further.

How did your team come up with the design and layout for the BlackBerry 6 Home Screen?

The Home Screen is really one of the most used areas of the BlackBerry smartphone, so we spent a lot of time researching how people access data and where they naturally would look for things. The research included focus groups, usability testing, gathering feedback from forums, customer feedback and much more.

For example, we found that users were overwhelmed by all the icons and details on the initial Home Screen, so we implemented the five views and swiping pane for easier viewing. We also found that it wasn’t always intuitive where to find newly downloaded applications, so we created the Downloads view on the Home Screen. Another great example was Universal Search – the team had users keep diaries of any searches they did in any domain over a few weeks, which helped us learn behavioral patterns, what order people want content coming back to them, and so on. This had a big influence on how the Universal Search application was designed.

If you had to pick your favorite new aspect of the Home Screen, what would it be?

It would have to be either the new Notification Dropdown (it’s great for multitasking) or swiping between application panes (I like watching the animation — it’s fun!).