RIM has identified a nearly 40-acre site near Alpharetta’s North Point Mall, said sources familiar with the company’s plans. RIM, which is in expansion mode, probably picked the Atlanta area because it is home to a major customer — AT&T Mobility, said Tavis McCourt, an analyst with Morgan, Keegan & Co.

Source: Atlanta Business Journal

One incredible feature of BES 5.0 is the ability to update Blackberry Smartphones over-the-air. This means that the operating system of a BlackBerry smartphone can be patched to the latest version without users having to bring their BlackBerry into the office for upgrading.

Othey enhancements include increased support for switch over to to a standby server in case the main server goes down. Additionally BlackBerry users now have the facility to access Windows network file shares. Also the Blackberry Administrator interface is now web based.

This heavyweight challenger should give Apple a run for its money. The Blackberry Bold 9000 is roughy the same size as the iPhone 3G, but feels slightly bulkier.

However the wide screen is excellent and shows a redesigned menu very well. Its particularly impressive when watching films though some reviewers don’t think it quite matches upto the Apple in this respect.

However a “real” keyboard gives the Blackberry the edge with very tactile keys and you will achieve far raster typing speeds than with the iPhone touchscreen.

Blackberry are also trying to change the image of the mobile device so thats its more consumer orientated with the ability to load music and video’s. The basic 1GB storage is not generous however, but this is expandable. Sound quality is also “impressive.” The Blackberry also has a 2 megapixel camera, wifi, satnav and 3G speeds.

For heavy wireless email users the Blackberry perhaps has the edge with the iPhone remaining popular with music lovers and general users.