Rounding up some of the top hosted exchange news for the week, TMC (News - Alert) reported that according to a recent press release, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) have awarded FIPS 140-2 certification to Research In Motion’s BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphones running on BlackBerry 7 and BlackBerry 7.1 Operating Systems.

“The FIPS 140-2 certification for BlackBerry 7.0 and 7.1 illustrates RIM's continuing commitment to providing industry-leading, secure, mobile computing platforms for our customers,” said Scott Totzke, senior vice president of BlackBerry Security at Research In Motion, in a statement.

The smartphones with FIPS 140-2 certification include BlackBerry Bold 9900, 9930 and 9790, BlackBerry Torch 9850, 9860 and 9810, and BlackBerry Curve 9350, 9360, 9370 and 9380.

TMC also noted that Microsoft (News - Alert) Dynamics will soon offer a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) service update that will include a cloud-based, cross-platform and native mobile application.

According to a company announcement, when Microsoft Dynamics CRM releases its next service update during the second quarter – perhaps in May – it will let customers access Microsoft Dynamics CRM on any device for Windows Phone 7, iPad, iPhone, Android (News - Alert) and BlackBerry mobile devices.

“In today’s hyper-connected world, customers need to be able to access their business-critical data on the device of their choice from wherever they are,” Dennis Michalis, general manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, said. “These advancements, combined with the strength of the Microsoft platform, make Microsoft Dynamics CRM an obvious choice for any business.”

TMC also had the news that back in 2009, Cloud Telecomputing introduced Glass, one of the first IP phones to incorporate Android on the desktop. As the company starts to ship handsets in quantity, others are rolling out their spins on Android desktop phones for the business world.   ESI and Panasonic have both announced new phones incorporating Android.

ESI showed off the ESI 250 smartphone for the Desktop at the evening ShowStoppers event at CES (News - Alert) 2012. The phone features a seven-inch color touch screen, Android 2.2, a standard numeric dial pad and some dedicated buttons for functions such as pulling up contacts, voice mail, hold, record and mute.

There's a big red light on the top right-hand corner of the phone to indicate call/hold status and a smaller blue light to indicate voice mail is waiting. ESI said it was planning to ship the phone in the second quarter of 2012 at a price around $300 for handset.