First genuine BlackBerry OS 6.0 info shows new media player, browser

Research In Motion could deliver sixteen completely new smartphones with built-in telekinesis amplifiers, but it would not satisfy the legions of BlackBerry users who depend on its reliable messaging ability, who need a real Web browser that shows real Web pages, and who would appreciate a media player that doesn't look ported from a Commodore 64.

Why RIM officials can't just deliver the news to WES conference attendees directly is puzzling, but during this second day of the three-day event, the Day 2 keynote offers RIM users a two-minute quick-cut video of BlackBerry OS 6.0, alongside a parade of new enterprise apps. Granted, enterprise apps are important, but what BlackBerry has been lacking this past year is a proper platform for them.

In an either ingenious or perverted scheme, the two-minute video released today only shows the new BB OS 6 environment in a semi-transparent frame, floating freely in front of the torso of someone who, to paraphrase the show's name, thinks he or she can dance. We've cleaned up some of the images and straightened them out as best we can, and what we find are many of the now-basic smartphone features that BB users have been screaming for, presented in a classy, but tasteful motif complete with BlackBerry's typical lack of useless frills or adornment.

We've tried as best we can to normalize the images from the "BlackBerry 6 Sneak Peak" [sic] video (the dancers still appear behind them...trust me, they're not included). Users of other smartphones may snicker a bit as BlackBerry users (including myself) rejoice at the inclusion of the following built-in features, for the first time:

• A media player with downloadable album covers and categorical media library.
• A YouTube app with searchable video.

• The ability to play back said video in landscape mode and stereo sound.

• A categorical, searchable library for photographs.
• A calendar with usable meeting data that appears to sync not just the data, but the connections (who's invited, where's the location), very likely (though not officially confirmed) with Microsoft Outlook. Yes, BlackBerry does already have a reliable manual sync function, and enterprise users can deploy ActiveSync over the air. But Outlook 2010 expands users' capabilities to organize meetings, and it's important that this extra level of functionality be added to synchronization as well.



• A tabbed Web browser. No, not Opera Mini, but something that has fluid scrolling and that's plainly legible at a distance of 18 inches. A RIM spokesperson did confirm to Betanews this morning that the new browser does use the WebKit engine (also found in Safari for iPhone), and that for multitouch-capable models, pinch-to-zoom will be supported here and throughout the system.

• A single application for maintaining multiple social network feeds, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and BlackBerry Messenger. We don't know at present whether this list is extensible with add-ons, to support other services such as LinkedIn and Plaxo.
• Individual apps for social network services including Twitter. This particular picture (above right) is important because it also demonstrates how BB OS 6 replaces the PC-style popup context menu with this graphical, more touchable, easier to interpret version.

Though we have no official confirmation of this yet, much of the BB buzz is centering on the platform's apparent new use of "flick gesturing" or "gesture flicking." Here, models that include the new mini-trackpad (for instance, the Pearl 9100 and Bold 9650, introduced yesterday) should interpret flick movements as commands. The video showed dancers trying to demonstrate this kind of jerky, flicky motion, though it's possible some viewers mistook those motions for choreography.

The running live blog of this morning's keynote event where the video premiered, on the forums of CrackBerry.com, indicate that very little new information about the platform itself was revealed today. RIM's platform VP is scheduled to speak tomorrow, and hopefully he doesn't dance.