First year engineering students at Dalhousie University received something extra when they started last year – a BlackBerry PlayBook. Professors took advantage of the new teaching opportunities created when every student is connected.

“Given its ultra portability and power, the PlayBook has given the students the ability to interact with professors at an unprecedented level,” explains Dalhousie Professor George Jarjoura.

Having every student using a PlayBook opened up new ways to teach. Students could follow along with course presentations on their PlayBooks, annotating slides with their own notes. Equally as important, given the size of first-year lectures, was the ability to ask questions and take quizzes electronically, in real time.

“For some first year students, participation during the question period is very intimidating, especially in large classes with hundreds of students,” says Professor Jarjoura. “With the PlayBooks, students could ask questions, submit answers and interact with me in real time, as I lecture.”

The initial pilot year was considered a success and Dalhousie is planning to continue experimenting with instruction using PlayBooks.

“Students told me that they quite liked having e-books and notes together – and that they could attend and participate in my lectures from wherever they were,” says Professor Jarjoura. “The success and popularity of the program means we’re eager to continue.”

For further information, see the article on page 10 of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Engineering Winter 2013 newsletter.

Today I’d like you to meet Sunny Khalsa, a highly mobile and security-conscious worker who’s shared his story with us. Check out the video below to learn about how Sunny uses BlackBerry technology to stay fully functional and fully connected while on the road:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

With customers that include government agencies, it’s important to have reliable security built into the devices that you use. But security shouldn’t limit functionality – quite the opposite in fact; it should enable it. With trusted BlackBerry security, a whole world of apps and possibilities open up to allow employees to access corporate data while on the move.

I can particularly relate to Sunny’s hotel room ritual – connect a PlayBook tablet to the hotel room TV using an HDMI cable, pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, pop open an app like Citrix Receiver or even a remote desktop connection, and get right to it.

How do you use your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on the road? Share your war stories in the comments below.

Qubit.tv is an Argentinean telecom company that offers video-on-demand services for movies and documentaries. Founded in 2011, the company initially offered its services exclusively through its website. After identifying that users between the ages of 18 and 34 increasingly use their mobile devices to watch movies, Qubit.tv determined that they could grow their business by offering a wide variety of free and pay-per-view movies on mobile devices.

In order to expand its market reach, the company deployed Qubit.tv, a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application available for download from the BlackBerry App World storefront. Developed by Sondeos, the application sends an email confirmation to users who download it and register, and then allows them to run the app and choose from a menu of free and pay-per-view movies.

Qubit.tv’s app provides users with a variety of options: they can select a free movie, access over 700 movies available for rent, or subscribe to a pay-per-view service by paying a fixed monthly fee for on-demand mobile video access. Users can either watch movies directly on their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or enjoy a “home theater” experience by connecting the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to a television using an HDMI cable.

“We worked specifically with BlackBerry PlayBook tablets because the user video experience they offer is fun and user-friendly, and from a hardware and software point of view, it gives users an excellent video streaming experience,” said Javier Guevara, Marketing Manager at Qubit.tv.

Offering a mobile tablet application has helped Qubit.tv reach a younger and tech-savvy market segment. “Thanks to the app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, Qubit.tv has been able to penetrate a highly competitive market and attract new customers,” said Guevara.

The application has also helped Qubit.tv provide a consistent user experience. “With the app for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, our customers have a more rewarding entertainment experience, with better transmission and minimal video interruptions, which we see reflected in the app’s high usability rates,” said Guevara. “Now, they can use their tablets to easily navigate and watch their favorite movies wherever they are.”

How does your company or organization use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for business? Share in the comments below.

The BlackBerry Enterprise Developer Partnership team was on hand to showcase the latest in BlackBerry technology including BlackBerry 10, and show how easy HTML5 applications can be developed for or ported over to the BlackBerry platform. At each event, most of the developer teams built their apps using HTML5 and showed demonstrations of these applications running on BlackBerry devices, including both the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

All of the BlackBerry versions of the applications were built with HTML5/BlackBerry WebWorks, and considering that they were built in a day and half – and that they all connected to theSAP HANA platform using oData – it was quite impressive. This really illustrates how quick and easy it is to develop effective enterprise applications on the BlackBerry platform, with very little time and development effort.

At the end of the day a winning app was selected. At the Healthcare focused Innojam hosted in Las Vegas as a part of SAP TechEd, the app “Nurse Assist” was crowned the victor. At The Innojam hosted at SAPPHIRE NOW in Madrid , the theme was connecting people in larger cities with each other, and the “WeCare” app emerged victorious:

Nurse Assist (winner in Las Vegas)

Nurse Assist is designed to help mobile nurses in their day to day activities, keeping them better informed about patients and providing an easy and effective way to update patient records. It even provides the quickest way to get to their next appointment. This app was designed to run on the BlackBerry platform using HTML5/WebWorks, and was integrated with SAP solutions on the back end to enable the user to pull the latest information, and to update patient records and information. The application was demonstrated on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

WeCare (winner in Madrid)

The WeCare application was the winner at the Madrid Innojam, and was designed to better connect people in large cities with their neighbors; similar to the experience of those living in smaller towns and communities. The app makes it easier for people living in large cities to easily and securely connect with their neighbors to help out with shopping, carpooling, babysitters, and more. The app connects to SAP HANA for the latest information and updates, and was integrated with various social media tools like Twitter & Facebook.

To learn more, check out a full video recap of the Las Vegas event and the Madrid event.

For more information on developing applications integrated with SAP solutions on the back end, check out the SAP for BlackBerry Development Guide, and for more on BlackBerry development best practices, check out the BlackBerry Enterprise Development Guide.

We also hope you will take the time to check out all the new and exciting news and information on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform. Have you developed business or government apps using BlackBerry WebWorks? Share your experience in the comments below.

Neotelis Inc. is a Canadian telecom consulting company that collaborates with clients in more than 100 countries around the world, offering its expertise to telecommunications organizations through training, consulting and forums.

Neotelis, which originally offered courses in a traditional classroom setting, began to modernize its programs by offering virtual training, where participants could participate in live classes and select individual e-learning options. Deciding that the next evolution of its programs should involve mobile learning, the company launched a pilot program of its flagship Mini MBA course that provided all trainers and students with BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets equipped with the course material.

“Our trainers have given it rave reviews in terms of how it can work in a training environment,” said Michel Bruyère, owner of Neotelis. “We were easily able to incorporate links within the material that would allow students to access the browser and benefit from having this great device.”

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet allows the trainers and students to multitask between its many business and productivity features. Using the pre-loaded Documents To Go® feature, students easily switched between viewing, editing and formatting the course material using Microsoft® Word® documents, Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets and Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations.

When Neotelis mentioned BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in its invitation to the Mini MBA training session, they gained almost five times more click-throughs than a typical invitation. The company has also had businesses indicate that they would like to incorporate BlackBerry PlayBook tablets into the private sessions that it runs.

“Our clients recognize that these tablets help to enhance the learning experience,” said Bruyère. “Not only that, they also provide the chance to leave the session with a very useful device — both for professional and personal use.”

How does your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet help your business or organization increase collaboration? Share in the comments below. And if you have a success story similar to Neotelis, let us know at success@rim.com.

Today a free software update has been made available for Wi-Fi® BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets. This release brings with it many new features for business customers and IT administrators that make the tablet a seriously enterprise-ready device and a productivity powerhouse. Combined with BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion and the coming BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10, managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets just got a whole lot more functional. I’m excited to walk through what’s new when it comes to both management and security as well as features for business end users. Read on for the full scoop!

Features for Business End Users

Print To Go® across Wi-Fi networks

Judging by our LinkedIn® recommendation page, there are quite a few fans of the Print To Go app out there. We’ve also had a lot of suggestions for additional features since the initial launch. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, you now have the ability to deliver documents from your PC to a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that may be connected on a completely different network, providing a true solution for rapid document transfer to your tablet.

Text Messaging with BlackBerry Bridge

Text messaging or SMS is now supported as a BlackBerry Bridge™ application. Head to the BlackBerry Bridge folder on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s home screen and get started interacting with SMS.

Improved Android Runtime

One of my favorite features on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is the Android™ runtime and all of the fantastic apps that it places at my fingertips. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, the experience is improved and even more seamless with features like multi-window applications for a feel consistent with the overall OS, support for the HD cameras on the tablet, and in-app payments for value added experiences.

Portrait Orientation for Messages, Calendar, and Contacts

I often use portrait mode when I’m reading e-books on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or playing games like Cut the Rope HD – and now this functionality extends to the native mail, calendar, and contacts applications. This gives you the flexibility and choice in how you want to view information and interact with the tablet. The layout intelligently arranges the data onscreen to display critical information in portrait mode, and automatically returning to the expanded view in landscape mode.

Folder and Sync Management

Folders within an email account connected through ActiveSync can now be synchronized individually. You can quickly toggle on/off for each folder to round out the mail management experience on the device. If you use an IMAP email account, you can also now get full access to your mail folders. These features together with the current functionality provide a complete mail organization tool in the Messages app.

Streamlined setup and software update experience

When setting up a brand new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and running through the out-of-box experience, a Wi-Fi connection is no longer required. Software updates can also be delayed until a later time – and when you do need to update your software, patch-based updating is now supported, which significantly lowers the file size of the updates and increases the speed of the operation.

Management and Security Features

Over-the-air (OTA) enrollment with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion

Employees using BlackBerry PlayBook tablets for work can now enroll with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion wirelessly. Once connected and enrolled, enterprise configurations such as email, Wi-Fi, VPN profiles, or enterprise apps can be pushed directly to the device by IT administrators. With this new feature, you can bring BlackBerry PlayBook tablets onto your corporate network quickly and easily.

New IT policies for added security

IT policies are crucial for enabling IT administrators to manage the wireless devices at play within their organizations. We’ve added new IT policies that administrators can take advantage of through BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. These include the ability to enable full device encryption and to disable development mode for enterprise-connected BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

ActiveSync Certification Management

Certificate-based authentication can now be configured in order to allow access to work email, calendar, and address book data. These can be securely installed to the tablets over the air with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which utilizes Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP).

Full device encryption, including personal data

From the Options menu on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can now enable “Full Device Encryption” by navigating to Security and then Encryption. This secures the data on both the work and personal perimeters of the device with AES 256-bit encryption for ultimate data protection.

What are you waiting for?

Get the update! You will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or you can check for the software update at any time by going to the settings menu under “Software Updates” and tapping “Check for Updates”. Then follow the steps to update.

What’s your favorite feature in the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 update? Share in the comments below.

A free service pack update is now available for BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion. The service pack includes enhancements to further help you manage mobile devices in your organization. Updates include BlackBerry® Device Service 6.1, Universal Device Service 6.1, and BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion Studio 6.2.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed to allow you to manage and secure BlackBerry®, iOS, and Android™ smartphones and tablets. The management tool is a unified web-based console called BlackBerry Mobile Fusion Studio. A few of the features include application management, setting user and group policies, and support for BlackBerry® Balance™ technology for BlackBerry devices. BlackBerry Balance technology helps add a layer of security and is designed to allow a user to use a BlackBerry device for both work and personal purposes by helping to keep business information secure and separate from personal information.

New Features Contained in the Service Pack 1 Update

Universal Device Service

• Improved iOS 5 support, including new features for Wi-Fi®, VPN, Microsoft® ActiveSync®, and managed app distribution
• iOS enterprise app distribution via web client
• Simplified error messages and notifications for updates
• Enhancements to iOS device enrollment
• iOS 6 compatibility
• Touchdown email configuration for Android devices (requires update to the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion client from Google Play – available today)

BlackBerry Device Service

• Over The Air (OTA) enrollment directly from a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Once enrolled, enterprise configurations such as email, Wi-Fi, VPN profiles, and enterprise applications can be wirelessly pushed to the device
• Full device encryption option as a new IT policy (including personal and work areas)
• Developer mode can be disabled on enterprise-connected BlackBerry PlayBook tablets
• Support for Microsoft ActiveSync certificate-based authentication

Note: Updates for BlackBerry Device Service that involve functionality for managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets will become functional after the upcoming release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1

Regional availability of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion has also been expanded to include additional countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. To find out if it’s available in your country, check the list of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion availability.

Stay up to date and get ready for BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10! Download Service Pack 1 today.

Does your organization embrace a BYOD policy? What are some of the challenges that come along with it? Share in the comments below.

This all brings us to an important point: mobile devices in enterprise, including tablets, need to be managed and secured in order to protect corporate data and reduce liability. It started with BlackBerry® smartphones and the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server solution, and here we are today with the variety of mobile devices exploding, leaving many IT departments in a scramble to keep track of it all. Of course, each IT department is on a different path, facing unique challenges and with unique priorities. But with the growth that’s already happened and the growth of tablets in enterprise that’s expected to come, sooner is better for crafting a strategy to support and manage tablets within your infrastructure.

BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion was designed specifically to meet this need – to reduce the headache of managing multiple platforms with separate tools, consoles, and licensing structures, as well as to ultimately provide a unified means of managing the influx of mobile devices in your workforce, be they smartphones or tablets, Android™, iOS®, or BlackBerry. So what does a managed and enterprise-ready tablet look like? Take a look at the graphic below for a perspective on the ideal enterprise-ready tablet.

Let’s review the picture that we’ve painted of a truly enterprise-ready and managed tablet. The device can be integrated with your existing infrastructure, work data is encrypted, personal data is partitioned separately, VPN and Wi-Fi® profiles can be pushed, IT can remotely manage the device, end user privacy is protected, and it’s loaded with all of the features that employees want in a mobile device.

What’s the most important feature of a “managed, enterprise-ready tablet” from your perspective? Share in the comments below.

I’m Jeff Holleran, the Senior Director for Enterprise Product Management here at RIM. Since the launch of BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0, which includes a native email and PIM client that is based on Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol, one of the frequent questions that I am asked is, “Why ActiveSync?”

There are a number of reasons that RIM made the choice to go with ActiveSync as the sync engine for our next generation of messaging on BlackBerry tablets and smartphones. Over the past decade, ActiveSync has matured as a protocol. We are able to use ActiveSync to provide a capable sync engine that is supported for both the traditional Enterprise email platforms that RIM currently supports, and for additional email platforms that support the Microsoft ActiveSync protocol. This ability to build a single sync engine increases the reach of BlackBerry devices, while reducing the complexity of the custom sync engine that exists in today’s BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (BES). By selecting ActiveSync, we are able to provide a set of additional options for email connectivity to our customers including growth to support multiple devices for each user. In addition, we increased scalability with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion when compared to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Customers also have expressed interest in taking advantage of different levels of security, from the basics that come with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync through to the advanced security and controls that come with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and the BlackBerry Infrastructure.

What this change didn’t mean was a move away from our core BlackBerry DNA: our full end-to-end encrypted email solution that our customers have come to depend upon. In particular, there is no need to open additional firewall ports or make any other changes that would cause an IT group to change their infrastructure. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows each PlayBook (and BlackBerry 10 in the future) user to connect through the secure BlackBerry Infrastructure. This configuration provides the same level of security as today’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server solution, with the encrypted message traffic flowing between the device and the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion server behind the firewall. The only difference is that we connect to the email server using the ActiveSync interface instead of the proprietary MAPI protocol that we used previously. Some customers may not realize that ActiveSync is enabled on their Microsoft Exchange server by default and no changes are required to get a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet up and running on BlackBerry Mobile Fusion.

How does all of this work?

From an end-user perspective, the steps to connect are straightforward. Conceptually, from a management perspective, there are three options to connect your ActiveSync-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook into your work messaging environment (and these steps will also work for BlackBerry 10 smartphones when they are in market):

1. Direct Connection – If the ActiveSync interface of your email server is exposed to the Internet, a user can simply configure their account by adding the email address and password of the account from their PlayBook. This will provide full email and PIM connectivity and adhere to ActiveSync configured policies (listed in the Knowledge Base article below):
Read more: Exchange ActiveSync support for the BlackBerry PlayBook

2. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion managed – An administrator can enable and configure an end user to use BlackBerry Mobile Fusion for device management, and provision the email settings so that when a user activates their PlayBook, their corporate email is configured, a work perimeter is created, and the IT policies set on the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion server are adhered to. Once the device is managed by BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, the ActiveSync policies are no longer applied or adhered to with the exception of the wipe command. This option also supports management of a BlackBerry PlayBook connected into a hosted email system (i.e. Microsoft Office 365).
Read more: ActiveSync policy behavior when a tablet is activated on BlackBerry Device Service

3. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion with Mobile Data Services (MDS) – Similar to a BlackBerry Mobile Fusion activation, this option differs in that all work traffic on the device can be configured to route through the MDS component of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, effectively extending the boundary of the corporate network to include the BlackBerry PlayBook without the need for a VPN solution or exposing ActiveSync to the Internet to allow for email/PIM access. One outbound connection over port 3101 provides secure connectivity to your PlayBook users for secure remote access to email and applications – just like the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This is the solution recommended for security-conscious organizations that need to protect their corporate data.
Read more:

• Security Technical Overview – BlackBerry Device Service 6.0 and BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet 2.0.1
• BlackBerry MDS Connection Service Helps Make Connectivity a Simple Task

In order to understand the connectivity and Email/PIM synchronization differences between BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, let’s first take a look at a BlackBerry 7 smartphone connected to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server:

The BlackBerry 7 smartphone connects to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server using a 256-bit AES encrypted connection that carries email and PIM traffic from the server behind the firewall to the BlackBerry smartphone. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server connects to the email server using native email vendor-specific protocols.

Examining the connection to the BlackBerry PlayBook below, you can see the same BlackBerry DNA in place; we maintain the 256-bit AES encryption between secure endpoints on the PlayBook and BlackBerry Mobile Fusion server when using the MDS functionality to route the traffic.

The key difference is that instead of using the Mobile Fusion server to translate the native messaging protocols into BlackBerry messaging traffic, the PlayBook is making a connection directly into the mail server using ActiveSync protocols to synchronize email and PIM data to the device. This connection is then encapsulated within the 256-bit AES encrypted BlackBerry security connection ensuring that the same level of security that you have depended on for BB7.0 devices is also delivered on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The use of ActiveSync also provides support for customers who are using hosted or cloud-based email providers. End users are able to access their email while the IT group is able to maintain device security, as well as providing behind the firewall access to the Intranet and other applications.

Our Enterprise customers are very pleased that we have continued to use the trusted connectivity model in use today. With this model, there is no need to expose ActiveSync to the Internet or increase the investment in VPN solutions to include mobile devices—the PlayBook is simply able to access and synchronize email and PIM data from the server behind the firewall. Of course, email isn’t the only data that can be accessed. When using the MDS functions of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, employees also have the ability to access enterprise data and applications that are hosted behind the firewall.

This same architecture will be in place to support the launch of BlackBerry 10 devices. We’ve made a small change to the synchronization engine, and we continue to leverage the convenient connectivity and world-class security that the BlackBerry solution has provided our enterprise and government customers for over a decade.

In summary, BlackBerry is as secure as ever.

• We are using ActiveSync to give us greater flexibility and scalability to support more devices per user and more email platforms
• The use of ActiveSync gives customers greater choice in how they connect BlackBerry PlayBooks and BlackBerry 10 smartphones to server-based, hosted and cloud email systems
• The secure BlackBerry DNA remains; single outbound connection over port 3101, 256-bit AES encryption between server and device, no need to invest in additional VPNs and no need to expose corporate data to the internet

When considering emergency services, mobile technology has the capacity to provide great benefit in rapid availability of information, security, communication, and even GPS data for tracking locations. The BlackBerry® platform is well-suited to meet these needs and help to push police services forward into a new era of mobility that is secure, managed, accessible, and reliable.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police is holding their annual conference this year in Nova Scotia, and during the conference global engineering company Intergraph® is showcasing their new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet app Intergraph Mobile Responder. Mobile Responder gives personnel in the field access to a Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, allowing for real-time situational awareness. A CAD system allows for dispatchers to view comprehensive information about where officers are located and what they’re responding to, and allows for much more intuitive and rapid deployment of first responders. The Mobile Responder app provides the capability to initiate queries, view responses, dispatch reports, update unit status, and issue emergency requests.

In addition to the app showcase, a police cruiser will be on-site at the conference including a dash-mounted BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in place of the traditional notebook computer. With mobile hardware integration into police vehicles, apps like Mobile Responder, back-end management, and end-to-end encryption of data, technology is beginning to be utilized as a holistic solution for police forces with positive results.

We’re excited to work with Intergraph and be a part of the transformation of law enforcement technology. Would your work be enhanced by a custom mobile application or access to data in the field? Share in the comments below.