Research in Motion (RIM) has released another video for the upcoming BlackBerry 6 operating system. The video clearly displays a touch interface, something which we saw for the first time in April 2010 when the company showed initial glimpses of the new platform at its annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium conference in Florida. I spoke to the company’s CTO David Yach about the interface and he confirmed that touch was a big part of it, but wouldn’t be cornered on what was planned from a hardware perspective. Rumours abound of an announcement of a new device to supersede the Storm platform forthcoming from RIM in the next couple of months. BlackBerry 6 will also be compatible with most of the brand’s current models.

This morning Mike Lazaridis, the CEO of Research in Motion showed us this video during his keynote at BlackBerry WES 2010. It’s a sneak-peek at BlackBerry 6, the new version of the operating system that is expected to be launched by July 2010 for all BlackBerry users.

The new OS is an impressive evolution from the current look and feel of the BlackBerry interface and includes BlackBerry’s new WebKit-based HTML5-supported browser and tight integration with social media via a system called Social Feed that brings together all of your social networks in one, integrated view. The use of pop-up menus is also intelligently incorporated to allow for quick access to functions in an intuitive way.

Search has also been built into the home screen, with the ability to search either the internet or your device.

If the video is anything to go by BlackBerry 6 is going to be a big deal, but I’ll reserve final judgement until I’ve actually used it.

The Fins have landed their latest evolution of mobile messaging in South Africa. Nokia Messaging was previously available as a global Beta, but is now ready to roll and MTN has been signed as the first local partner for the service – which will no longer be free if you switch over to the official release. I’ll state up front that I’m honestly confused by this announcement.

Nokia says that their Messaging service is easy to set-up and use with push e-mail services that support up to ten personal e-mail accounts on one device.

Nokia Messaging supports all leading consumer e-mail solutions including Gmail, Windows Live, Hotmail and Yahoo! mail as well as local email services from MWEB, MTN Play and Webmail. (more…)