Research in Motion has officially released information about the upcoming BIS 2.8 update and one of the the big feature additions is 2-way Google contact syncronization.

Google Contact Synchronization: If subscribers integrate a Google Mail™ account with their BlackBerry® Internet Service account, they can synchronize contacts between the account and the contacts application on their BlackBerry device. Subscribers can add, change, and delete Google Mail contacts from their device or from their Google Mail account and the BlackBerry Internet Service synchronizes the changes.

2-way contact synchronization may not seem like a big deal to BES users who probably take the feature for granted, but, trust me, this is a most welcome addition  for many BIS only users.

BIS 2.8 also has the following features:

  • Enhancements to email setup and settings: Automatic Login now supports most billing identifiers, which allows new subscribers with wireless service providers that use PIN, IMEI, or ESN as a billing identifier to create BlackBerry Internet Service accounts from the BlackBerry smartphone, without having to create a login user name and password
    • Note: This feature will be available approximately one week after the BlackBerry Internet Service upgrade.
  • Windows Live™ Hotmail® revalidation: With BlackBerry Internet Service 2.8, new Windows Live Hotmail mail integrations will be defaulted to a protocol that is designed so as not to require 90 day reauthorization.
    • Note: Existing BlackBerry smartphone users accessing Windows Live Hotmail using Microsoft® MSP will still be required to revalidate their Windows Live Hotmail account every 90 days.

[Source]