BerryReview provided a wealth of information regarding BIS 2.8 which should be available in Mid-September.  Since BIS 2.7 has  such subtle changes, this will have many more enhancements. This upgrade will require OS 5.0 for the main feature which is a good precursor for the timeline of that operating system.  Please see the specifics below.

What’s new in 2.8:

• Two-way wireless synchronization with Google Mail Contacts* and the Address Book on the BlackBerry smart phone:
  • Synchronize Google Mail contacts quickly and easily to the BlackBerry smart phone
  • Add or edit Contacts and the Contacts are automatically updated, whether they are updated on the computer or BlackBerry smart phone
  • The documentation says this is scheduled to sync every 4 hours and will not work on BlackBerry Connect devices. It also will obviously not work on BES contacts or even Google Mail Contact Groups whatever those are.

• 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 smart phone, 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 smart phone users accessing Windows Live Hotmail using Microsoft MSP will still be required to revalidate their Windows Live Hotmail account every 90 days

**Contact the author, Adam Kosnitzky on twitter at @akosnitzky