BlackBerries get juicier with Windows Live and QuickOffice

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 13 May 2008 02:35

Business IT - Technology

The usefulness of Research in Motion hugely popular BlackBerry handhelds has been further enhanced with support for Microsoft Windows Live services, and for QuickOffice.

Research in Motion and Microsoft have teamed up to provide Microsoft Windows Live services on BlackBerry handhelds. They claim that the integration of Windows Live services into the BlackBerry will allow customers who use Windows Live Hotmail to exploit BlackBerry's real-time push technology for automatic message delivery and message synchronisation so their online HotMail accounts will reflect actions taken on their BlackBerry smartphone.

Users will be able to seamlessly access their Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger account from their BlackBerry smartphone by entering their Windows Live e-mail address and password once. "

BlackBerry users will be able to create a dedicated inbox for Windows Live Hotmail messages, which will be automatically delivered to the smartphone and they will have the option of receiving their Windows Live Hotmail messages, along with messages from other e-mail accounts, into a single inbox on their BlackBerry smartphone.

Windows Live Messenger for BlackBerry will allow customers to: send instant messages and join group chats; set status and see the presence of friends and colleagues within Windows Live Messenger or their contact cards; customise status messages; save conversations; showcase their display picture (avatar); send and receive pictures and files; use more than 60 emoticons.

According to Brian Arbogast, vice president of the Mobile Services organisation at Microsoft. "Over 430 million people around the world rely on Windows Live to stay in touch.

Windows Live services for BlackBerry smartphones are expected to be available in mid 2008 with support for multiple languages.

Meanwhile Quickoffice, which claims to be the leading global provider of mobile office productivity software and solutions and its recently acquired DynoPlex, a developer of enterprise mobile office solutions for BlackBerry handhelds,  have produced a new version of eOffice. that, they claim will for the first time "enable BlackBerry users are able to open, view, edit and create native Microsoft Office documents in their original format and save the document with high data integrity." CONTINUED