Research In Motion on Tuesday announced a major milestone for its on-device software portal BlackBerry App World: 1 billion downloads served. ”The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps,” RIM’s Alex Kinsella wrote on the company’s blog. “BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!” While the achievement is still impressive, RIM did confirm to BGR that the 1 billion figure includes application updates, however, and not just initial application downloads.

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Apple is set to give the world its first look at iOS 5 next month at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference, and a new report from 9to5 Mac suggests one of the new features in the coming operating system update may be an over the air updating mechanism. Apple’s iOS updating system is currently a mixed bag — it often takes an excessive amount of time to download a new OS build, back up a device, apply an update and then restore the device from the back up, but it also means restoring devices and switching phones is extremely simple. 9to5 Mac claims to have confirmed with multiple anonymous sources that updates delivered following Apple’s iOS 5 release could take advantage of a new OTA update mechanism that will deliver incremental updates directly to devices rather than to iTunes. The report specifically notes that Apple has been in talks with Verizon Wireless regarding OTA updates, though the feature would obviously be available to any carriers that agree to deliver the updates over their networks. OTA updates would certainly be a welcome addition to iOS — let’s just hope we also get a solid new notification system so those OTA update messages aren’t quite as intrusive.

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Apple’s iOS platform is now on its fourth iteration and from the second it was announced, iOS has been arguably the most cohesive and advanced mobile operating system in the world. That’s not to say iOS is perfect, as competing operating systems like Android have greatly accelerated their advancements in near light-speed fashion. With Apple’s next version of iOS due to hit in the coming months, here’s what we have to see in iOS 5.

For starters, notifications. This is a must, and Apple is well aware of that fact. How the company will end up integrating a revamped notifications UI into its almost clinically polished OS is up for grabs, though we could see Apple taking a page out of webOS’ book with unobtrusive yet meaningful notifications that peek out / push down into view, for instance. Apple did, after all, hire Palm’s webOS architect recently.

Apple really hasn’t let users customize their notifications settings at all thus far, and it might be time the company has a change of heart. It would definitely be a big surprise and an even bigger departure from Apple’s current philosophy, but a “profiles” type app that manages notification settings and options for all apps would be ideal. It might be similar to how RIM does it — set your custom notification tone, vibrate settings and more, all in the same app for anything you want to customize. Apple’s current setup is especially frustrating with hundreds of millions of iOS devices out there playing the same exact “ding” email alert tone. We get the branding aspect of it, but it’s time to let users customize their SMS, email, and notification sounds and settings.

Apple also has to open up access to its filesystem to be taken seriously as a viable modern-day smarphone OS. We understand that the filesystem is hidden so users don’t have to see it or manage what’s in it, and there are valid security concerns with giving apps the ability to write to any location, but a default or set list of locations all third-party apps could write and read to would be ideal. And the fact that Safari can’t upload a file from the iPhone itself is kind of insulting.

Additionally, we get the fact that iTunes is the preferred method of loading media to the device, but back to that filesystem… there is no reason why files like MP3 tracks or AVI video files downloaded from the device itself can’t be stored into some default location for later playback.

Apple is rumored to be switching to the cloud for a lot of its services, and we hope the company extends this concept to wireless device syncing. We should be able to enter our Apple IDs and have devices load our most recent backup over the air along with all our apps and settings.

An improved lock screen would be a welcome addition as well, with more information being able to be shown while the device is locked. This would save users the time it takes to unlock their phones just to see if they have a new email message waiting for them, and so on.

We’d also like to see a user-editable dictionary (we know it exists for some languages on the phone, but we’d like this to be universal and it needs to be reworked, too), the ability to use FaceTime over 3G, real gesture support and a few other improvements here and there.

Let’s be honest — none of these things are integral to the success of Apple’s next iPhone or any other iOS-powered devices. People will keep buying them either way because as a whole, they’re still amazing devices. But Apple is a company that got where it is by building incredible experiences and, often times, by leading instead of following. Apple’s iOS platform is now falling behind in several key places, including some areas of the overall user experience. For a company that puts so much time and resources into UX, I can’t help but wonder how much further Apple will let things slip before it reassumes a clear lead.

We already know just about everything there is to know about RIM’s upcoming GSM and CDMA BlackBerry smartphones, and now it’s time for an up close and personal look at the BlackBerry software we can all look forward to in 2011. Enthusiast blog N4BB has obtained what it claims to be RIM’s software roadmap for the 2011 calendar year, and it certainly looks the part. The biggest revelation on the leaked slides is undoubtedly the mention of BlackBerry OS 7, which the roadmap reveals as being set for core integration this coming November. It is unclear whether or not we’ll see OS 7 on devices this year but all of that empty space on the third quarter makes it look like RIM will be very focused on the next version of its OS in the second half of 2011. Also set for launch this year are two BIS updates — one this month or next month (BIS 4.0), and a second due toward the end of summer (BIS 4.1). Finally, we can see a bunch of apps set to be updated in the near future, including Twitter, Facebook, RIM’s Social Feeds app and more. Hit the break for a few more slides.

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A new source contacted BGR on Thursday with details surrounding much awaited Android 2.2 (Froyo) updates for the Samsung Epic 4G and the Sanyo Zio from Sprint. In line with previous rumors, the Samsung Epic 4G will apparently be updated to Froyo starting on February 21st — though our source claims the build number will be EB13, a later build than the EA17 update referenced in earlier rumors. The update will be delivered over the air (OTA), and will be rolled out across the country over the course of four days. Listed changes include improved Bluetooth device support, Bluetooth voice dialing, Flash Player 10.1, GPS enhancements, improved OS performance and ability to install applications to external storage. Hit the break for details on the Zio.

Sanyo’s Zio smartphone will begin receiving an OTA update to Froyo on February 21st as well, and it will be rolled out over the course of five days. The Zio’s update will be build number 2.200SP and listed changes include the addition of Swype, Sprint Zone 2.5.5, Sprint ID activation improvements and better battery life. Zio users will have to accept three separate downloads related to this update and it is recommended that they connect to Wi-Fi before beginning the process.

Web-famous Windows watcher Paul Thurrott has come forward with new details surrounding a pair of upcoming updates for Microsoft’s mobile platform. Some details jibe with earlier reports, while others are definitely news to us. According to Thurrott, two major updates are due this year. The first, dubbed “NoDo” (possibly short for “No Donuts” — mocking Android’s Donut update, which may have been perceived as minor), will find its way to end users some time in early February. Among the features to be found in NoDo are the “copy and paste functional addition, support for the Qualcomm 7×30 smart phone chipset, a CDMA location stack, and a number of software fixes.” Later in the year, we’ll see another update currently called “Mango” internally, which will apparently bring “Internet Explorer 9 with with the Trident 5 rendering engine, HTML 5 and Silverlight, and gesture support.” Mango may include some some new entertainment features as well.

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Following word that the release of Nokia’s E7 smartphone has been delayed, some uplifting Nokia news comes from Beijing Tuesday morning. IDG reporter Mikael Ricknäs is in attendance at the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference, and he has relayed some tasty tidbits from the show. First, Nokia apparently has some big things in store for the Symbian OS in 2011. The somewhat stale UI will be a primary focus, which is of course great news for Symbian users. Of course we’ve known that the Symbian UI would be overhauled in 2011 for quite some time now — Symbian^3 was intended to be a major behind-the-scenes update, while Symbian^4 and S^5 would address more user-facing issues. The only difference now is that the S^4 and S^5 monikers have wisely been dropped.

Getting into specifics, an update in Q1 2011 will include more than 50 enhancements, such as an overhauled Web browser UI. Second and third quarter updates will bring “a new look and feel for the user interface, a more flexible home screen, an updated HTML5 browser and an easier software update experience.” Nokia will also issue more powerful hardware next year as it reportedly prepares to release 1GHz and dual-core devices. Finally, Nokia is planning to release hardware with “true zoom camera” technology in late 2011 or early 2012. While Nokia did not clarify what this new camera technology is, it could very well bring optical zoom to Nokia’s smartphones.

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Sure it’s a tiny bit later than many expected but OS X users can now finally get their mitts on Apple’s 10.5.7 update for OS X. Just open your trusty old Software Update utility and go to town.

The 10.5.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3397
For detailed information on security updates, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Highlights of this latest Leopard update include fixes to sync issues, widget updates, resolved issues with logging into Gmail, improved parental controls and improved video playback on newer Macs. So what are you waiting for?

Big news today for our friends up north who have been plagued with cold sweats and night tremors ever since November when SMS service was disabled in Canada. When the service was initially killed, Twitter cited billing issues as the reason. It may have taken a while to resolve those issues, but Rogers has just announced a partnership with Twitter that will revive SMS and allow users to both send and receive tweets via text. What’s more, the new deal applies to both Rogers and Fido customers. Canadians, rejoice! Shortcode 21212 has officially been revived and any and all texts exchange will be covered by your SMS plan. In other words, feature phone users no longer have to worry about how to tell all their friends about the string of minutia that combines to make up each day. Woo!

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As rumors of Snow Leopard continue to swirl, it looks like Apple will be stringing Leopard along for quite a while longer before the next iteration of OS X debuts. According to reports, Apple has seeded a new OS X build to developers and testing is currently under way. The new build, 10.5.7, is said to focus on maintenance, security and synchronization. Apparently the seventh variant of Leopard is a pretty substantial improvement even in its current form — specific areas Apple is targeting with the update include graphics drivers, Time Machine, printing services, screen sharing services, MobileMe syncing, Mail and AddressBook syncing, AirPort services, text services and iCal. Beyond that, about 70 code corrections are said to have already been identified in the build. Needless to say if this rumor turns out to be true, we’re certainly looking forward to seeing an update that will resolve a healthy amount of the issues currently plaguing OS X. Of course we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves; we likely still have a few months before 10.5.7 sees the light of day considering testing has just begun.

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Apple has finally released its much anticipated Safari update this morning along with a host of performance upgrades and feature additions. Tagged Safari 4 beta, the new version is available as a download from the Apple site only for the time being and will not update automatically via the Apple Software Update system. In terms of notable enhancements, here are some highlights:

• Top Sites (pictured above) – A graphical representation of your most frequently-visited websites with one-click launching
• Cover Flow – Browse bookmarks and history with Apple’s Cover Flow UI
• Full History Search – Keyword history search with Cover Flow UI
• Tabs – Tabs now appear above the address bar
• “Nitro Engine” – Lame name, solid performance — Safari now executes JavaScript 4.2 times faster
• Windows Native Look – Safari 4 beta for Windows now adopts the look and feel of a standard Windows program

So who’s excited? Are any non-Safari users going to give it another try with this release?

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