The iPhone and Palm Pre have a leg up on other smartphones in one crucial department: they both offer tabbed browsing. Word across the Interwebs today says that the browser in OS 5.0 will finally bring tabbed browsing to BlackBerries.I have to admit, I love tabbed browsing. On both the desktop and on my phones, I always have multiple tabs open and jump from tab to tab in quick order.

This feature is extremely useful on smartphones when you need to be able to compare the information on two separate Web pages. It lets you switch back and forth without having to reload the sites each and every time.

The current browser on RIM's BlackBerry devices gets the job done, but doesn't compare to what's offered by the competition: namely Apple, Google and Palm. According to CrackBerry.com, that's going to change with the next major OS release from Research In Motion.

Despite this major new feature, CrackBerry found that it didn't work all that great. They have a gallery of screen shots, that show how the feature requires the use of the BlackBerry menu system to open up new tabs and call up older ones. That isn't very user friendly. On devices such as the Storm/Storm 2, I would hope that users could touch a portion of the screen to call up new tabs.

Still, having the option is better than not having it at all.