First look at BlackBerry OS 5.0

Remember when we first mentioned OS 5.0 nearly one and a half years ago? Yes, it’s been that long. Although that version matured into what we now know as OS 4.5, earlier this year, we broke the story about the formal introduction of OS 5.0 within the walls of Waterloo. Many revisions and version updates later, including a few different creative direction changes — we now have OS 4.6.0 (Bold and Pearl Flip), as well as the upcoming OS 4.6.1 (Javelin/8900 and 8350i) and OS 4.7.0 (Storm) — OS 4.5.0 still hasn’t been officially released in the United States, home of RIM’s largest user base. Hit the jump for the full run down!

So what do we have for you? Yes, that’s right, OS 5.0 for the BlackBerry Curve. For those of you who have looked on enviously at the slick-looking ’Clock’ application on the Bold and Pearl Flip, you will one day be able to have this rather simple Alarm-replacement application on your last generation device. You can throw in the accessibility options and most of the other features found in OS 4.6, as well.

One new feature we noticed was the “Files” application. Although it doesn’t appear to work, this new feature appears to add network share access, which has been a fairly popular request for a number of years. Assuming that BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 will likely be available by the time OS 5.0 is available, we will make the assumption that this will be a new server-client feature. Let’s just hope none of us are sporting walking canes by that time. You know, RIM kind of has a bad track record when it comes to release dates…

To be honest though, having been on a BlackBerry Bold for a few weeks now, this new OS seems a bit underwhelming at this point. Granted, this is a fairly early beta and has a long way to go in the life cycle process (it is good to see RIM working on this version prior to wrapping up OS 4.5), so there’s still time to really “WOW!” each and every one of us. However, until that time, we think this version should currently be considered OS 4.6 for the Curve. Source...