Blackboard 9.1. What's in it for us?

The latest version of Blackboard was launched last week. I was curious what this change has done for us, students. When I Google the new Blackboard, it seems like most changes are for teachers. You can find a nice overview of all the changes on this website. Besides the improved visual interface, there are some improvements for students as well. So, let's review a short outline of the changes:
 
Groups
Perhaps you haven't noticed yet -I hadn't- but there is a new interesting feature in your menu on the left: Groups. Here you can see in which group you're enrolled within the course. Students can also create groups themselves if the lecturer allows it. You can exchange files, send an email or start a discussion with your group members. You can even change your groupbanner and -color! It’s a pitty that the color combinations look like they've been randomly chosen (not very attractive) but it's a nice extra feature.
 
Other changes
- The standard display for announcements is no longer 7 to 30 days, but 'all announcements'. A teacher can fill in an expiration date and when the announcement is expired, it is no longer visible for students.
- The tool 'Assignments' replaces the former Digital Dropbox. A big improvement is that you can see which assignment you've uploaded. Assignments can be handed in multiple times (if allowed by the lecturer) and it's possible to hand in an assignment with a group.
 
Check out the manual of BB 9.1 for further explanation.
 
Mobile devices
For the English course, last semester, I've studied the desires of students for Blackboard and other e-learning projects. My results showed that most students have internet on their mobile phones, and there was a high demand (63%) for improvement of the Blackboard for mobile devices.
However, when I try to enter the new Blackboard on my mobile phone, it says: Proxy Error. Contact the system administrator. Therefore, I can conclude that Blackboard hasn't improved for mobile devices yet..it even got worse! There is an app called Blackboard Mobile Learn, but it is only available with a Sprint 3G/4G network Android or a Sprint 3G/4G network BlackBerry device, as well as the Apple iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. So that doesn't work for me with my Nokia.
 
Other results
The results of my study also showed there was a high demand for online reading, discussion groups and an online community. These changes seemed to have been taken into account while they created the new Blackboard. However, students also addressed the interest for synchronous communication and a general message board, which is not present yet. Furthermore, the study showed that bad usability was a major issue of Blackboard. Only 25% of the respondents was satisfied with the former Blackboard. It would be interesting to repeat this study and find out whether this number, but regarding the new BB, has increased.
 
Also, many teachers use Twitter or other social media in their courses. It could have been nice to integrate these facilities in the newest Blackboard.
 
Performance issues
The new lay-out is kind of spoiled because of the red text about performance issues that has been there since the launch of BB 9.1. Implementing a new system can cause many problems, which you cannot test in advance. However, the sign says the problems are the highest priority but I think 1,5 week is a long time to be fixed. Blackboard has also become slower in loading time, which is not really desirable for a userfriendly system.
 
Overall, I think Blackboard has improved a whole lot, but there are still some adjustments to be made.