A "BOLD" NEW MOVE

I can hear Coldplay's new "Violet Hill" track playing loudly through this young girl's ipod and I think to myself. One day I will get itunes on my BlackBerry. Low and BE"BOLD" that day is here.

It appears that the new BlackBerry Bold will be able to sync its music with iTunes. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Media Sync software will come with the new capabilities. This is a tight relationship that helps BlackBerry owners keep that corporate feel with an IPOD sound. Not bad.

BREAKING NEWS: OS 4.5.0.37 Pulled From RIM Partners Zone

We learned today that RIM has removed the BETA Operating System v4.5.0.37 from their partners site today, which leads to much speculation:

• Is the Operating System close to being officially released?



• Did RIM find a critical bug in the Operating System?



• Did RIM get fed up with the BETA Operating Systems being leaked all over the internet?

Let's touch on the first two possibilities. If by chance the OS were close to being released, then one would assume that there would be no reason for it to disappear from the Partner Zone, especially considering the fact that the Partner Zone still has copies of the 4.0 OS, and noone can seem to remember of an OS ever being removed from the site.

Second...if a critical bug was found, then it would make sense for RIM to pull the OS, however, that really hasn't stopped them before. There have been numerous issues with the new Operating Systems, and while we normally wouldn't comment on a BETA/Unreleased OS, since these have been floating around the internet like air, it's kind of hard to keep it under wraps at this point. All seems to have been well in this Operating System, except for a few instances in which users (NON-AUTHORIZED BETA TESTERS MIND YOU) reported SIM Card Rejected errors, especially when loading the system onto 8320 BlackBerrys.

HOWEVER...

Maybe RIM is fed up that their BETA Operating Systems are being leaked out just HOURS after they hit the Partner Zone.

Word around the campfire is that RIM is actively searching for the culprit(s) behind the public free-for-all that the 4.5 OS has become, with severe legal (Criminal and Civil) consequences sure to follow. And from the looks of emails that have hit partners in-boxes recently, it also appears that some major changes can be expected in the "Partners Zone" in the next coming days.

However, maybe the BlackBerry community has taken these releases too far and is somewhat to blame for this.

Not to excuse any person(s) who may have released confidential and NDA covered material into the general public, but...BlackBerry users know that these Operating Systems are in BETA...They know they "should" not have them...They know there are issues with it...But go onto any BlackBerry related forum or community, and all you see are people asking for it and offering it.

This brings up another question...How are these un-authorized releases going to affect the future of BlackBerry partners? BlackBerry Partners are given pre-released versions of the Operating Systems for a reason...So that they can test for bugs and errors, but also so they can start developing applications which are compatible with them, so that when they are officially released, applications and programs can be updated and used.

The 4.5 Operating Systems have obviously not been released for a reason...

So some questions to ponder are:

WHY were the Operating Systems removed from the Partner Zone?

Why weren't the OTHER 4.3 and 4.5 versions removed from the Partner Zone?

Will 4.5 ever see the light of day, or will RIM scrap 4.5 all together and make users upgrade to a newer device if they want all the features?

What are your thoughts and ideas?