The Boy Genius has gotten his hands on the Incremental Features Document for BlackBerry Device Software Version 4.6 expected to debut with the BlackBerry 9000. A bunch of things like themes, language support, media applications, and streaming media, etc., have been redone. We however want to talk about just one update which arguably might be the coolest of them all.
From the looks of it, the BlackBerry Browser has been updated significantly from the bag of arse that it was before to a mobile browser acceptable by todays standards. It’s not Safari on the iPhone, but, quite frankly, it doesn’t have to be.
The web rendering has been improved dramatically and now supports the following AJAX capabilities…
- JavaScript 1.5
- CSS 2.1 (including Lists, Box Model, Positioning, Floats, Visual Effects, Tables, Colors, Backgrounds & Text Properties; NOT including system fonts and generated content)
- DOM L2 (including Core, HTML, Style, Events)
- HTML 4.01 (including Forms, Maps, Tables, Frames, Objects)
- XMLHttpRequest
Needless to say, the new BlackBerry Browser is a lot nicer from the sounds of it.
Now the web browser with AJAX would be sweet. Now, if they can come up with a clever redesign that incorporates a larger screen and physical keyboard, then we’re talking. I really don’t care about the look as much as I do about the usability. If I can use one hand to perform many of the functions while driving or flying a plane (just kidding), then I’m in.
About time this happened but the question is will 4.6 overhaul be backwards compatible with the current phones – say for instance a BB Curve or Pearl or even the 8700s/8800s. I believe there is a significant proc ugrade from 312MhZ to 612MhZ on the new form factor. What does everyone think?
Kind of nice, but only if I get to see this on my 8130 before the dawn of the next millennium 🙂
An improved browser for the blackberry would significanlty increase consumers usage of this feature and i suggest that a PR tool like myprgenie (http://www.myprgenie.com/technology/ ) will definately attract more consumers
what is the highest software version I can update my BB Curve with?
when does V4.6 for device become available?