The Torch was not the only major announcement to come from BlackBerry holding company Research in Motion (RIM) yesterday. The group also debuted its updated BlackBerry 6 operating system, which brings a number of changes to the platform. 

 

“BlackBerry 6 is the outcome of RIM’s ongoing passion to deliver a powerful, simplified and optimized user experience for both touch screen and keyboard fans,” said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-ceo, Research In Motion.  

 

“Following extensive research and development to address consumer needs and wants, we are delivering a communications, browsing and multimedia experience that we think users will love, and we are thrilled to debut BlackBerry 6 on the amazing new BlackBerry Torch smartphone.”

 

To make life a little more simple for BlackBerry fans we at TechSmart have put together a breakdown of the most important features Blackberry 6 will bring to your smartphone. 

 

 

BlackBerry 6 brings a fresh look to the platform’s interface with the incorporation of multiple views. Icons are arranged on the Home Screen in five customisable views (All, Favorites, Media, Downloads and Frequent) that are navigable with a swipe of the finger. Users can organise where they want their icons to appear, and can add contacts or web page shortcuts directly to the Home Screen.

 

Also new to BlackBerry 6 are context-sensitive Action Menus. Within a given application, by clicking and holding the trackpad or through an extended touch of the display, users can bring common actions or tasks of an application to the surface. In addition, users can multitask by holding down the Menu key, which pops up a visual grid of all the applications currently running, so users can instantly switch between applications.

 

A  new Universal Search tool has also been integrated into the Home Screen. By clicking or tapping the Universal Search icon, users can search for any content on their handset, the web or in BlackBerry App World.

 

 

BlackBerry 6 integrates a new WebKit-based browser which renders web pages and email more quickly. It features tabs for accessing multiple sites simultaneously, a double-tap to zoom feature that can intelligently wrap text in a column while maintaining the placement of a page's key elements, and pinch to zoom.

 

 

BlackBerry 6 also features a new Social Feeds application which is intended to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds and provides integrated access to BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. 

 

Social Feeds streamlines user experience by providing an integrated view of friends’ activities across multiple social networks, and let's users post updates across multiple networks simultaneously. 

 

 

Although BlackBerry 6 will debut on the Blackberry Torch, RIM has confirmed that it will also be available on the BlackBerry Bold 9700, BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Pearl 3G, as well as future BlackBerry devices.

 

No official word has yet been given regarding the local release of BlackBerry 6 or the BlackBerry Torch.