While at a press event yesterday for the T-Mobile BlackBerry 8520 I got a hands on preview of BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac. I was amazed to see that the application actually works during the demo I got from the project Manager Andrey.
I was very impressed with the functionality of the application. It fits in perfectly with the Mac look and looks MUCH cleaner than the Windows version. It does let you do application installs and OS updates but I am not sure how you would use a different carriers OS since they would have to release a Mac install file…
The app supports synching anything in the Apple Sync Services which includes multiple calendars and other mail and contact applications. I asked about Bluetooth and they said that will probably come in the future but not at the release. The music sync works quite nicely but I am not sure how video conversion would work. I really dig how it shows you your device along with some great information on the main screen. The Windows app devs could learn a thing or two from the Mac variant.
For all the Linux fans out there I specifically asked about future plans for Linux support but they have nothing definite to say other than “they are exploring supporting new options for customers.”
The only problem was that I had to run since I was already late to another meeting so I did not have time to futz around with screenshots using my camera. Luckily enough both Al Sacco and Adam Zeiss had time to stick around for some pictures.
