BlackBerry Protect FAQ Spotted Online

We already have some pretty big signs pointing to RIM launching BlackBerry Protect sometime soon. I have had a bit of time to play with BlackBerry Protect but I know many of you have some question still about the upcoming service. Jim Kakacek spotted some FAQ for the upcoming service hidden on RIM’s website while he was searching around. Nothing really groundbreaking here but it really answers most of the questions people have about the service.

If you have some questions I highly recommend checking out the FAQ at this link. This is meant for the current beta customers but it should be the same for when it launches. On the other hand they do have a big warning in the title saying “Beta Customers Only. Content and software are subject to change.

Let us know if you spot anything good!

View the original article here

Addictive Doodle Jump Game Comes to BlackBerry

Dec 20th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

I have played Doodle Jump a few times on a friends iPhone and the game is pretty addictive. I personally prefer Texas Hold’em but some people like these kinds of games. Gamehouse has ported the very popular game from the iPhone and Android to the BlackBerry and it seems to be a pretty good game on my Torch. Some reviews in App World claim that it is not as good as the original but I guess that depends on if you have played those other versions before.

The BlackBerry version of the game follows the same concept of jumping up to the top with your Doodler. You take him up the graph paper by leaping from platform to platform using springs and other contraptions. I had a blast playing it but sadly there is no free trial. You can pick up the full version for $1.99 in App World at this link though it is sad that they are charging double the price of what the game costs on other platforms… Still it won’t break the bank.

Thanks Jonathan and Samantha for sending this one in!

View the original article here

Giveaway: 20 Copies of Breeze and Sp’s New Album Take 2 Includes their Hit Let’s Be Friends – BBM Song

Some of you may remember the song/Video “Let’s Be Friends Hit Me Up On The BBM”  from Breeze and SP, now they have a new Album that just released today. You can preview  and purchase their Album over at Amazon or itunes for $7.99.

I got to preview some of their songs and I like them, so if you have a wide range of taste for music including R&B and Hip-Hop you will enjoy their Album. Their BBM song is what got us in contact with them and is included on this new Album. The lyrics are clean meaning no curse words.

Check out their video below or preview the Album on Amazon or  even better you can purchase right from your BlackBerry from the Amazon MP3 store App.

Let’s Be Friends Hit me up on the BBM

Giveaway: Breeze and SP want to share the Album with our Berryreview readers wish you all a Merry Christmas.  We have 20 free copies to giveaway so simply leave a comment below  before friday the 24th for a chance to win a copy.

View the original article here

XIMAD Releases Two Bible Apps for the Holidays

Dec 20th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

XIMAD has been on a real role with their app releases. The latest in their catalog are two new Bible apps for the holidays. While there are quite a few Bible apps out there along with many free ones XIMAD spices it up with some nice graphics. You can check out a video of the apps below:

Mobile Video Link

The two apps are:

101 Bible Verses for $4.99 – Over 1000 of essential Bible verses on many important topics including Faith, Relationships, Money and Possessions, Attitudes and Emotions, Sin and Temptation and much more. All packaged in one easy-to-use application with the best graphics and handy features such as Verse of the Day, Favorites, Search, Send and much more!

Bible NIV $3.99 – The most beautiful and easy-to-use Bible application for your BlackBerry® phone. This application offers NIV translation of the New Testament and packaged with handy features such as Verse of the Day, Favorites, Search, Send and much more!

Let us know what you think of the apps and how they compare with the other offerings available. I am just not that versed with this market…

View the original article here

RIM Rumored to Acquire Gist Social Contacts Solution

RIM is rumored to be on the acquisition trail again according to a report by GigaOm. According to the rumor RIM is in late stage talks to acquire Gist which has a product out there that aggregates contact information from the web into a profile for each of your contacts. They plug their solution into quite a few systems including Outlook and Gmail with a plugin for Firefox and Chrome but I can see the value on a BlackBerry. Gist already has a iPhone and Android app so a BlackBerry integration can not be far off.

RIM has not done a whole lot with the address book on BlackBerrys. I thought this was them limiting themselves to the lowest common denominator that Exchange supports for BES but who knows. It could be they just needed a fresh idea of how to do it. I know they invested in Xobni through the partners fund for that reason so it stands to reason that RIM sees value in a social address book.

Have you ever used Gist (http://www.gist.com/)? I just installed it in Firefox and I will report back what I think. Let us know in the comments if you try it out!

View the original article here

Where’s the Smart Phone Device Innovation?

Think back to what the state of the smart phone market was through most of the 2000’s.

There was tremendous and rapid innovation in hardware – phones in 2009 looked totally different from phones in 2001. There were sliders, phone with keyboards, phones with dual hinges – because we hadn’t yet settled into the comfortable slate form factor that we use today, everyone was trying a different approach.

Today, nearly every smart phone – whether IOS, Android, or Windows 7 – looks nearly identical, with only occasional alterations to the formula. Even RIM has moved towards this design as well for some of its models. Since 2007 there has been amazingly little evolution design-wise, as the focus has shifted to the OS and to apps.

I’m bored. My hope for CES 2011? To see some truly unusual, groundbreaking hardware designs for phones. How about transparent or flexible displays? How about dynamic keyboards? How about something I’ve never seen before?

Look at the fashion world or the automotive world. These industries constantly evolve their aesthetic approach – distinct from functionality. They do this to avoid stagnancy and to keep consumers excited.

We need the same. Let’s hope we get a taste at CES.

Ethan Rasiel is General Manager at a Public Relations firm in New York City. The views above are his alone and do not represent those of his employer or any client.

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Updated: PicDial App “Makes Your Address Book Socially Aware”

Dec 20th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

UPDATE: Its looks like I fell for the scam. Even though PicDial touts in the main banner on their website and mobile website that they are free they are in fact a paid application with a free trial. EpicWalrus pointed out that the desktop sign up page says: “7 day Free Trial, then $1.99/month is billed by your carrier.” I personally would choose to not have anything to do with a company that uses such underhanded practices to dupe you in. I want to apologize for mentioning them.

PicDial by IQzone allows you to make your address book a little more socially aware by throwing in Facebook and MySpace pictures and status messages into the equation. RIM already allows you to pull Facebook and MySpace pictures into your contacts through the Address Book app but this app allows for full screen contacts to display. It provides you with a quick picture dialing interface which also shows the contacts latest status message when they call you.

Features of PicDial include:

PicDial automatically keeps your contacts’ social networking information current, allowing their most recent profile pictures and status messages to be displayed on both incoming and outgoing calls.Only photo caller ID to take over your entire incoming call screenOne of few applications that work across all major wireless carriers (Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile)It saves and backs up contacts that reside on your cell phone.  And if your phone is lost or stolen, as a PicDial subscriber you have the capability of easily retrieving contact information.

If this sounds like something you wanted on your BlackBerry and the built in integration is not cutting it for you check out PicDial at www.picdial.com and let us know how it compares. You can see a video tour of the app at this link.

View the original article here

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Wins Laptop Mag’s Readers Choice Award

Dec 20th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

In a welcome turn of events the BlackBerry Torch 9800 won the Laptop Magazine readers choice award for the best smartphone of 2010. That is a bit of an upset considering it was competing with devices like the myTouch 4G and the HTC Evo 4G and beat them out by about 500 votes. Out of the 11,000 respondents to the readers choice voting BlackBerry users counted in with 35.9% of the vote.

Very interesting stats indeed. Now imagine the results if RIM recreated the Torch with a 1Ghz processor, doubling the RAM, and bringing a drool worthy screen to the game. Seems like they would wipe the floor with the competition if they did! Oh QNX how long must we wait for you…

via Laptop Mag via CrackBerry

View the original article here

Mobile Business Explosion! Big Volume!

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PhoneBeagle Monitors Mobile Phone Activity - Track phone location and review SMS & Mms messages and call logs from a web account. For Android and BlackBerry smartphones. Secure data encoding protects privacy. Parental Monitoring solutions.

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Speck Products See Thru Case BlackBerry Pearl 8120

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The Sky is Falling! RIM is Dead! Ambushed by BlackBerry Killers!

Recently it seems like you cannot go a week without reading multiple reports on how RIM and the BlackBerry brand is slowly swirling down the drain. Most of these reports are just bashing RIM for not leading the pack in terms of features and not appeasing a ‘restless’ BlackBerry base. RIM has been playing catch up in some areas for the last year or so but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. Until then I think there is one point that really rings true through all of these reports. RIM needs to reboot the BlackBerry OS and device line and they need to do it ASAP. Yes that means no more device refreshes that just add another 256MB of RAM to a year old device. We need a experience that truly lives up to the BlackBerry Torch tagline of “Less an evolutionary leap more of a triple axel.”

Currently RIM only really wants to talk about their upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet and its space age QNX based OS. RIM has a very promising product in the BlackBerry PlayBook but they do not have 50+ million tablet users out there who are chiming for a new tablet. They have a whole slew of dedicated fans who want the BlackBerry experience without the compromises in the current BlackBerry OS. For RIM that probably means bringing QNX to BlackBerry PHONES as soon as possible. It also means releasing phones that are no longer limited to the aging 624Mhz baseband processor found in BlackBerrys for the last 2+ years.

I have multiple confirmations from sources at RIM that the next round of BlackBerry devices will be pushing a QNX based Flash/WebWorks OS but RIM has yet to confirm it. This is what RIM needs to be showing off alongside the BlackBerry Tablet OS. Current BlackBerry users are dying to know what RIM has in store for them or if BlackBerry 6 is sticking around for another year. It could be that RIM has huge plans for BlackBerry 6 and I know they are working on supporting a new baseband processor to finally move past the current aging hardware. It could be that all the BlackBerry 6 OS needs to truly fly is a dual core 1Ghz processor…

RIM practically invented the smartphone market as we know it and they are nowhere near dead with over 50 million users. The move to the Tablet OS from QNX is a clear sign that RIM realizes that the current BlackBerry platform is in need of a reboot and they are working on the problem. I have read a few reports claiming how RIM is in a death spiral but most of them just hinge on one or two facts with assumptions thrown in here and there. The best article I have read is more of a call for action from RIM by Michael Mace over @MobileOpportunity (via Business Insider). The article “What’s Really Wrong With BlackBerry” is a interesting read and gives a financial analysis that I do not have the expertise to write. Its point can be summed up into two bullet points:

The BlackBerry line needs to be given a several fundamental, visionary innovations that will give its core customers a reason to stay; andThe company needs to change its development process to guarantee proper design and integration in all of its products.

I totally agree with both of those points. RIM needs to come up with more reasons for BlackBerry users to stick with BlackBerry instead of just playing catch up with features from the competition. We need more sticky apps and functionality like BBM and push email. These are the features that make RIM stick out and I am hoping RIM has more of them in store. We also need a whole revamp of the whole legacy BlackBerry OS experience to bring the BlackBerry user base into the 21st century. Let me give you a perfect example. RIM has both BlackBerry Maps and BlackBerry Traffic. Why can’t they integrate the two and add turn by turn navigation for a full blown GPS? I know Google has done it before but their is a reason Dash Navigation had such an early adopter fan base before RIM purchased them. They were before their time. Separately BlackBerry Maps and BlackBerry Traffic are just sad alternatives to Google Maps.

I think the new QNX OS and UI design it is bringing would be an amazing foundation for RIM in an upcoming phone. The thing is that BlackBerry users who are sitting on the fence are not going to wait forever. What we need to hear from RIM what their plans are beyond BlackBerry 6 and what they are doing to blow the SMARTPHONE competition out of the water. Don’t get me wrong I am dying to get my hands on a BlackBerry PlayBook but the real measure of RIM will be what it has in store for redefining the smartphone market. At first the competition was copying RIM and their features but now the tables have turned in some areas like 3rd party apps.

What do you think? I am rooting for RIM since they have a history of creating awesome communication tools that get the job done and not toys. I know they have it in them to turn this all around!

View the original article here

OS 5.0.0.1036 Released for BlackBerry Bold 9000 and Curve 8520

Dec 16th, 2010 by the BerryReview Team

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 gets a nice version bump along with the Curve 8520 in this latest official update from Vodafone DE. The new official OS version is 5.0.0.1036 and we have no idea what is updated in it. Sometimes I wonder if even RIM has a change log for OS updates…

https://www.blackberry.com/SoftwareDownload/index.jsp?client=ePFa2PUdJ

https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=D840CC5D906C3E9C84374C8919D2074E

Thanks to everybody who sent this one in! via BBRocks & PocketBerry

Warning: This OS will not install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above. Don’t forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide.

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Jim Balsillie Goes “Over The Top” Answering Earnings Call Question

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Giveaway Winners: TeleNav, Bplay Theme, Whitesmoke, and Ubinav

A bit late but here are the lucky winners for the giveaways we ran the last two weeks. A big thanks to TeleNav, Bplay, Whitesmoke, and Ubinav for sponsoring these giveaways.  If you find your name listed below you have won whatever category you are listed under. Note that it may take a couple of days to get e-mails out  to everyone so be patient and we will be contacting you.  Congratulations to all the winners and keep reading because there are a few more giveaways on the way.

Here are the winning pictures submitted fro the TeleNav giveaway

View the original article here

Transpera Launches Mobile Video Advertising SDK for BlackBerry

Transpera let us know that they have launched a new mobile video advertising platform and SDK for the BlackBerry, iOS, and Android. At first I could not imagine how this could be a good thing for consumers but then I saw the demo video and it actually seems like a pretty streamlined experience. They are promising developers some pretty nice CPM’s so it may be that one video every hour is better than a persistent banner ad on the screen. Check out the demo of the platform on iOS below:

The main problem I see Transpera running into is that streaming video takes a bigger hit on your data plan and battery. Users on limited data plans would see their data buckets (150MB on Verizon and 200MB on AT&T) shrink at a much faster rate. That amount of data usage also takes a toll on battery life.

Some of the features of the Transpera platform seem to try to work around these limitation:

InstaPlay: Video ads download in the background, resulting in instant play back, eliminating any buffering, wait-times or stuttering.IntelliCache: Transpera’s proprietary multi-level caching technology ensures that ads aren’t repeatedly downloaded over mobile networks.Optimized Communication: Transpera’s proprietary communication client server protocol ensures mobile video ads are delivered intact regardless of network availability or reliability.Seamless Transition: Consumers are seamlessly brought into and out of the video ad-experience, without taking away from an in-app experienceCreative Execution for Mobile: Transpera’s mobile video ad-units have mobile specific calls to action that leverage the unique attributes of a mobile device, including click to call, click to locate, survey capabilities, social media sharing options and more.

I will have to see how Transpara works on an actual device before I can pass judgment. For example, downloading video in the background on my Torch might slow the whole device down and cached videos replaying might get annoying. On the other hand the SDK is supposed to work on all devices with OS 5.0+. Transpera’s managed to get a good number of developers and publishers on board including AccuWeather, CBS, Slacker, Wattpad and myTown along with others. In other words we may be seeing video ads on our BlackBerrys sooner than you think.

Developers can read more about Transpera at www.transpera.com or check out their developer portal at developers.transpera.com.

So what do you think about mobile video ads on your BlackBerry?

View the original article here

Amazon Kindle for BlackBerry Updated to v1.0.2.1

It has been ages since Amazon updated their BlackBerry Kindle App. The latest update brings them to version 1.0.2.1 from the previous 1.0.0.68. Not a huge version jump but they have not done an update since it was released. My guess is the new version adds support for more BlackBerry devices and fixes bugs but who knows.

You can pick up the updated Amazon Kindle app for BlackBerry at www.amazon.com/bb. Keep in mind it is still limited to US customers only which sucks.

Thanks Nikolaus for the tip!

View the original article here

Simple Solution: BlackBerry Lightning with 1Ghz Processor and WVGA Screen

I was talking to a friend about our previous post and it struck me. How many of RIM’s short term issues would be solved with a 1Ghz baseband processor, a high resolution WVGA (800x480px) screen, along with 1GB of RAM. They could even just call it the BlackBerry Lightning since it would outpace a Torch. RIM is after all a company filled with brilliant engineers so this has to have crossed their minds. Just think of how this would solve their short term OS problems until they get QNX ready:

Sluggish OS and the dreaded hourglass – While RIM has made huge headway in BlackBerry 6 the extra processing power and RAM should make this a no brainer.Slow app loading – A 33% boost in processing power along with a baseband processor that is not 2 years old would definitely help in a BIG way.3-5 minute reboots – Once again simply throw more horse power at the problemRebooting on app upgrades – See aboveCompetitive specs – This update could simply put RIM in line with the competition. Its as simple as that.Limited memory for 3rd party apps – While this was helped quite a bit with the 512MB memory built into the latest devices imagine what developers could do with double that.Sex appeal – With a shiny high res screen we could finally get some serious graphics on a BlackBerry and get even closer to real desktop-like web browsing on a BlackBerry.Slow browser – While the WebKit browser is light years ahead of the previous OS 5.0 browser it is still hampered by the slow 2 year old processor and limited memory. Check out the screenshot above.

I know what Mike Lazaridis would respond to my solution. The Ghz wars are not for RIM since current battery constraints just make them impractical. He said as much at the Dive Into Mobile conference. I have a simple answer to that. Throw a 3000mAh battery into the device and you will double the battery power. Have you seen how big the current Torch battery is? I would sacrifice a little heft for a serious boost in horsepower. They did this when the BlackBerry Bold 9000 came out why can’t they do it again? The 9000 had a battery that was more than 1/3rd of the device. The Torch has a battery that is almost half that size.

What do you think of my simple solution? I am no engineer but it seems like every other smartphone manufacturer has figured out how to put 1Ghz baseband processors in phones. Why can’t RIM? Just balance it out with a bigger battery… I am sure they are even working on this but no engineer in their right mind would continue using 2 year old processors in their cutting edge devices. Something tells me that RIM is working on a new baseband processor for BlackBerry 6 but they really need to get in front of this issue. There is really no good reason for RIM to continue using a processor that will soon be 3 years old… So it makes no sense for RIM not to come out and say it already.

View the original article here

Giveaway: Viira GTD on the go! Win One of 10 Copies

Viira was updated a few weeks back to v2.2 with quite a few features. Viira is a GTD (Getting Things Done) application that helps those with a hectic schedule stay on top of their most important things that need to be done.

Some key features include:

SMS tasks: You can now organize your SMS messages, file them by project etc and then view the senders contact card and even reply – directly from Viira(www.kartamobile.com/smsTasks )Torch support: Owners of a Torch (or Storm) can easily navigate between Viira’s views using the touchscreen.Enhanced UI: More intuitive, more stylish.Address Book lookup: You can quickly pull the senders contact card from an email task or an SMS task, directly from Viira.Faster startup: We dramatically increased Viira’s startup times, it is now available pretty much instantaneously after being started.

You can pick up this application for $29.99 (upgrade free to current owners)

Free 14 trial at this link

You can download Viira 2.2 from your desktop or point your BlackBerry’s browser to and download Viira 2.2 OTA.

Giveaway details: Leave us a comment and let us know what you would use this application for? Comments must be left before Monday December 20th.

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Free BePub Beta ePub Format eBook Reader v0.6 Released

Dec 16th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

Keeper has updated the BePub beta we mentioned before to a new v0.6 which adds some sweet functionality for OS 6 users along with shortcuts. Older OS 4.5+ and 5.0+ devices can still download the older version which works. BePub is still the only ePub reader for BlackBerry devices. We do have a few eBook options from a few companies but none of the applications currently support reading the popular HTML based ePub eBook format on your BlackBerry. That is why I am pretty excited about the updates.

Here is the change log of ePub v0.6 posted in our forums:

Slide/Fade effectsProviding all available System FontsFull Screen reading (Toggle ON/OFF using F key)Navigate to Next/Previous Chapters using N/P keys while reading a Chapter.Page Up/Down/Top/Bottom scrolling while reading chapter content(Using T/B/SPACE/SHIFT+SPACE keys)Page Up/Down scrolling at table of contents screen.(Using SPACE/SHIFT+SPACE)Automatically navigate to the last read chapter.Automatically navigate to the last read position of the last read chapter or you can press letter L.

You will need to remove any previous versions of the BePub app before installing this version since they kind of went backwards in version numbers. Still it is a pretty sweet app and I commend Keeper on the hard work!

For full instructions for BePub head to our forums. You can also post questions and feedback for BePub there.

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AIR MILES Reward Program in Canada Gets a BlackBerry App

I had never heard of Air Miles before but after getting over 7 tips from Canadians I thought it would be worth mentioning. The Air Miles Reward Program in Canada just released a BlackBerry app to easily access your rewards account. The app lets you find Air Miles sponsors in your area and get the latest news on bonus offers so you can keep on collecting from everyday purchases.

Features of the app include the ability to:

Check your account balanceEasy access to your account numberView a Sponsor map near your current location. Zoom in and out to see all of the Sponsors nearby!Browse featured rewards

The app also has a nice Foursquare like feature that lets you check in at a sponsors location. You can then see all the relevant offers at that sponsor along with sometimes getting a bonus offer while you are there. They recently released a v1.5 update of the app which added speed enhancements on key function along with better and faster location services.

You can pick up the Air Miles Rewards Program app at this link in App World. via IntoMobile

View the original article here

Giveaway: GPS Ski Maps Win One of 10 Copies

Planning a trip to your favorite Ski resort in North America in the near future? If so here is a chance for you to win one of 10 copies of GPS Ski Maps for the 2010-2011 Season. The application allows you to download maps to popular Ski resorts with Offline maps so that you can take it and use even if you have no data service.

Features Include:

View POIsSearchCustom WaypointsDistance Bearing ToolSeason/Lifelong summaryImproved vertical stats (Trail by trail stats -  only app mobile or desktop to do so)

The application is has different version available for all North American Resorts starts at $24.99, any 5 North american Resorts $9.99 and on sale any of your favorite resorts for only $7.99 on sale for $4.99. You can read more about prices at this link.  you can also find the application in app world at this link.

GIVEAWAY: This giveaway is for 10 copies provided by the developer for One of your favorite resorts. So if you are planning a vacation or will be going to a resort in the next few weeks enter to win a free copy. The application is also available for Android devices.  Simply leave a comment here before Monday December 20.  let us know if you have a favorite resort in the comments or what features you would like to see added.  you can also check out the contest page at this link the developer has created.

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Wizard’s Dungeon Classic Falling Blocks Game

Carbide Software let us know about their first BlackBerry game release Wizard’s Dungeon. The game reminds me of a game I used to play for hours on my original Gameboy. I cannot remember what the game was called but you have bubbles on the top of the screen that you need to combine with like colors to explode them before they reach you. I think of it as reverse Tetris.

The game has a fun back story with wizards and dungeons and lost souls in the orbs but that is secondary to the gameplay. I actually had quite a bit of fun playing the game on a friends device so I thought I would share it with you all.

You can pick up Wizard’s Dungeon for $2.99 at this link in App World. I have asked them to release a free trial so hopefully they will soon.

View the original article here

RIM Q3 Results Beat the Street – “Will See More at CES”

I just had a chance to listen to the RIM’s earnings call and the results beat wall streets estimates along with Apple. Things are looking good for RIM with record BlackBerry shipments at 14.2 million which is 40% over the same quarter last year. The also increased revenue 40% over the same quarter last year to $5.5 billion. Sounds peachy right? From the numbers (PDF) they seem to be flowing in cash.

RIM also shared some interesting stats and facts during the call (listen to the recording). Here is what I caught:

The BlackBerry Style 9670 is now accounting for a third of BlackBerry sales at Sprint. No word on how it is doing compared to other Sprint phones.RIM’s relationship with Verizon is still solid according to RIM with NEW products AND BlackBerry 6 coming to the Curve and Bold in early 2011. Shame we have to wait that long…There are now over 16,000 apps in App WorldThe PlayBook is coming in the first quarter of next year but RIM is not including estimates for it in their current forecast. This may mean it will ship near or after the end of RIM’s fiscal quarter on February 26thThe BlackBerry Torch is now in 75 marketsThe BlackBerry 6 platform may not be going away as fast as we thought. It will supposedly run on top of the QNX Platform but RIM is still coy on when…RIM sticks it to the current “Tablet” saying that they have an edge on the iPad with a dual core processor and business friendly designSupposedly some customers are delaying plans to roll out “Other tablets” to test out the PlayBook. Interest in the PlayBook is “overwhelming.”Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were both named co-chairmen of the board so they are now both co-CEO’s and co-Chairmen.

The last thing I caught was Jim Balsillie saying we will “see more (about QNX) at CES”. BerryReview will be covering CES live so I cannot wait to see what they have planned!

All in all I am pretty excited for RIM in this quarter. These next few months should have RIM making a huge turn around with the PlayBook and HOPEFULLY an announcement on what the next BlackBerry phones will be… I will report back if any of the analysts find something interesting in the announced financials.

View the original article here

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac v2.0 Now Available

BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac v2.0 has only been in the Beta Zone for 2 weeks and it is already fully baked. Adam over @CrackBerry noticed that the new version is now available for download to everybody on BlackBerry.com. According to Nsudicky over at the official BlackBerry Support Forums the new upgrade includes the following updates:

Wi-Fi Music Sync Device Switch Wizard Import and sync photos and videos with iPhoto and iTunes

You can check out these knowledge base articles on the new features in the update:

The new BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac v2.0 is available for download at this link on BlackBerry.com.

View the original article here

Dear RIM, Can We Please Get Touch Gestures for BlackBerrys?

Dec 17th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

One of the things that really gets me salivating when I watch BlackBerry PlayBook demos is the inclusion of gestures throughout the OS. In the current touch implementation on my BlackBerry Torch I am dying for some better touch gestures. While playing with the latest HP WebOS device I was amazed at the multitude of gestures that the device supports throughout the OS. RIM has added some gestures to the BlackBerry 6 OS but they definitely seem tacked on. I am regularly finding myself having to resort to the back button when a simple gesture or a multi-touch swipe down/up/left/right would do.

That is one of the key features that I hope RIM ports over from the Tablet OS to the BlackBerry phone OS. RIM tried implementing a stop gap measure with action menus if you hold down on the screen but it creates lag in your process by requiring you to hold down on the screen for a few seconds. They also let you swipe between chats and emails but that feature is not across the whole OS. For example, in the WebKit browser you cannot swipe between tabs…

In my dreams I imagine a interface where you can do something like touch the screen with two fingers and then swipe in a certain direction on a radial menu. The PlayBook does have some of these gestures like swiping up and down to switch between apps but I want more. RIM really hooked me early on with their intuitive menus that automatically change based on what the most common next action is. For example, in the messages app if you hit the menu button on an email the first option is to open it. Once the email opens the first menu option is to reply and once you are in the reply screen the first menu option is to send. Its simple yet brilliant. I want some of that simplicity in the touch screen controls… I know that the Torch supports multi-touch controls in the browser but why can’t we get things like a 3 finger swipe down opens the app switcher?

What do you think? Do you find yourself wanting more gestures on your touchscreen BlackBerry?

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What the News Feeds App Needs!

There is a good reason VIIGO was a successful application it had a ton of great features that I miss and since the release of the BB Torch and BB 6 I been left hunting an app that works as good a VIIGO did. So far there are a few contenders but none has all that I need.

I am not sure what exactly RIM is doing with the VIIGO team but my first thought was that RIM is going to take VIIGO and improve on the memory leaks, and slim it down a bit, but it doesn’t look like that was the case they started from scratch and released News Feeds. The name I don’t like it, they could have call it RSS News, RSS Reader, or kept the VIIGO name since the name was already there. What do you think it should be called or do you like the name News Feeds?

The application is still in the works but there are quite a few features that I really liked about VIIGO and would love to see on this application

Retrieve full articles without having to open the browser (XPRSS does this and so did VIIGO)Email body of the article not just the titlewhen sending to twitter it does not copy the titleImport from Google readerSend to 3rd party apps XPRSS does thisCustomization of feeds (move up or down)Ability to select multiple articles to delete or mark as read

There are quite a few other features that it lacks and will wait to see what they add in feature updates. My main point is that they should just look at VIIGO and all those cool features that made it popular and just add them to this application.

I really like the UI in the new app, and kudos to them for adding shortcuts.

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Slightly Updated RIM Apps Show Up in Bold 9700 OS Leak

Update: We have the OTA links thanks to Gadzone:

One of our readers, Ealvnv, let us know that the latest leaked OS for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 included some small version updates for a few of the official RIM apps. In it we see Facebook, Twitter, Podcasts, and App World have all gotten incremental updates from what I can tell. I do not have a 9700 anymore to extract them but I am sure the somebody in the community will get them out and about soon if RIM does not do it first…

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Text Message Blocking Added to Free Mr Number App

Mr Number is a slick and free (as in beer) app that lets you block calls on your BlackBerry. They just updated the app to also allow you to block text messages which is a nice perk. Mr Number is a very polished app especially when you consider that the app is free. The app even has its own sort of intelligence that blocks telemarketers based on their spam call patterns. They get over 2,000 reports a day about telemarketers and debt collectors and use it to automatically block spam calls on your BlackBerry.

Other features include:

Choose how to handle blocked calls (send to voicemail or hang up)Automatically block tens of thousands of known telemarketers – list updated dailyBlock individual phone numbers, a contact, an entire area code, or the worldBlock private and restricted numbersCustomizable whitelist: make sure the right people always get throughHistory of every call blocked and whyNotifications of blocked calls in your inbox (optional)Big easy on/off button in case you change your mind

You can pick up the free Mr Number Call Block app at this link in App World. Thanks for the tip Tashanna! via BBCool

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Devilish Touch Game Stars Dante and the 9 Levels of Hell

"’Abandon every hope, you who enter.’" – Dante, Inferno

Sorry for the depressing quote from Inferno but it is not often that you get a BlackBerry game themed after Dante and his 9 levels/circles of hell. Devilish is a new game for the Storm and Torch series devices by veteran theme developer Cocky Culture which has you playing as Dante. You need to take the small devil and make your way up the levels of hell with each ascending level having different challenges and enemies based on the book. Hooked yet? If not check out the videos below of the game in action:

The Devilish game is only available for the BlackBerry Torch and Storm series devices since it relies on the touchscreen for controls. You need to jump from platform to platform by touching the left or right side of the screen while chased by flying demons, flaming arrows, and the three headed Cerberus! The longer you press the further in each direction Dante will jump.

You can pick up Devilish for a reasonable $1.99 in the store at this link

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Holiday or Secret Santa Gadget Gift Ideas for Under $30

My crew of friends decided to have a Secret Santa event this year for the first time. I have never done one before so when I got my assignment I was scrambling for gift ideas. While our Secret Santa is limited to $20 I obviously found quite a few of my gift ideas that came to mind are slightly over $20. Since I spent quite a bit of time looking for ideas I thought I would share what I found and crowd source the effort. Please feel free to share your own gift ideas below if you have any. Better yet let us know what you would like to get!

At first I was looking for cellphone accessories like Bluetooth headsets or speakers and such but found that for under $30 the most you can get it a case or a memory card. Not very memorable gifts. For $30 you cannot even get one of the cool monogrammed ones though I think I will do a follow up post on what cellphone accessories make great holiday gifts. So I decided to think outside the cellphone box but still in the gadget world… Here are some of the sub $30 gadget gifts I found.

Whiskey Stones $19.50 @ UncommonGoods

 

These cool little stones try to play the part of ice in your Whiskey on the rocks. The best part is that they do not dilute the drink. Pretty cool gift for a drinker…

Buckyballs Original Chrome $30.50 @ Amazon

While these are slightly more than the $30 limit but you can pick up some generic knockoffs for about $20. They are loads of fun and let you make any shape you want to put on your desk.

Flying F*CK R/C Helicopter $19.99 @ ThinkGeek

It blew my mind that somebody actually made this… I am still speechless.

Mini Business Card Filing Cabinet ~$15 @ Amazon

This is a cute gift for a coworker or boss to organize business cards in a mini filing cabinet. Not sure how functional it is compared to just using your BlackBerry but still cute.

TV-B-Gone Universal TV Off Switch – $19.99 @ ThinkGeek

This is a great gift for a sneaky coworker or a friend who has a significant other that ignores them for the boob tube. It will switch off practically any tv just by clicking the button. A classic but goodie for under $20.

Phantom Keystroker V2 $12.99 @ Amazon

This prankster tool is loads of fun. A friend of mind has it and he has a blast tormenting people with it by just sticking it into any spare USB slot. The Keystroker emulates a keyboard and mouse and periodically makes random mouse movements, toggles caps-lock and types out odd garbage text and phrases. Switches on the side allow you to choose between keyboard garbage typing, caps lock-toggle, annoying mouse movements or all three. WARNING: I take no responsibility for what you or your friend does with the Phantom Keystroker!

Magnetic Bendable Flex Thinking Putty Classic Toy $12.40 @ Amazon

I have been a fan of the stress relieving Thinking Putty for a few years now. It comes in a few cool styles but my favorite is the Magnetic one. Loads of fun!

Meeting Cost Calculator – Bring TIM! (Time is Money) $25 @ Amazon

This gadget is a perfect gift for that guy who has everything at the office. It is meant to track how much money a meeting or phone call costs so that people do not bother you and keep things short. It is great for lawyers or anybody else who works on billable time.

Laboratory Flower Vases $24 @ Urban Outfitters

This gift is a perfect one for the ladies since it just looks cool. Really have no better description for it. Its the first vase I have seen that I can actually describe that way.

At about this point I ran out of ideas. I am still hunting for the perfect secret santa gift so PLEASE feel free to share your ideas in the comments! I am going to petition to go with one of the other secret santa variations next year. The Thieving Secret Santa sounds like fun!

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Giveaway: AstraSync 4.2 Win One of 10 Copies

AstraSync released an update recently with some nice new features. The application gives you PIM synchronization an alternative to BES.

Features include:

Device Alert Profile Integration with Monitor - AstraSync now works withMonitor (A new monitoring program for BlackBerry) to give closer integration with the device OS. Providing better network availability awareness, faster performance and integrated device profile alerts for new messages including; Status bar unread countIcon notification ‘Splat’LED notificationDevice audio profile integrated alertsCreate Meeting Requests – You can now create a new meeting request and send it to the attendees direct from AstraSync.Email Content Encryption - Email message data is now encrypted on the device, providing greater security should your device be lost or stolen.Kinetic Scrolling - message lists in AstraSync now support kinetic scrolling to make navigating large folders faster and easier.Message Store - AstraSync 4.2 includes a completely new message store system providing faster access to messages while taking up less device memory.Power User Options - More performance settings have been added for power users including control of Direct Push behavior, email truncation size, PIM status checks and AutoDiscover.

To find out more about this service you can visit this link and you can purchase the service for $49.00 a one year subscription cheaper than BES.

Giveaway: You  have a chance to win one of 10 1yr subscription by simply leaving a comment below and tell us if you have used BES services before ?.  Comments must be left before Monday December 20th.

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BlackBerry Style 9670 OS 6.0.0.413 Found Online

With the BlackBerry Style 9670 starting to launch on more carriers we are  seeing more leaked OS versions. The latest OS is 6.0.0.413 spotted by the BBLeaks team. This is a nice version update from the previous 6.0.0.407 so enjoy:

Download OS 6.0.0.413 at:

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Warning: This OS will not install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above and is not an official release.If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide.Don’t forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. Don’t forget our usual warnings: do not download and install these updates if you don’t know what you’re doing. Incorrect procedure or just bad luck could render your BlackBerry inoperative or unstable

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OS 5.0.0.1036 Released for BlackBerry Bold 9000 and Curve 8520

Dec 16th, 2010 by the BerryReview Team

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 gets a nice version bump along with the Curve 8520 in this latest official update from Vodafone DE. The new official OS version is 5.0.0.1036 and we have no idea what is updated in it. Sometimes I wonder if even RIM has a change log for OS updates…

https://www.blackberry.com/SoftwareDownload/index.jsp?client=ePFa2PUdJ

https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=D840CC5D906C3E9C84374C8919D2074E

Thanks to everybody who sent this one in! via BBRocks & PocketBerry

Warning: This OS will not install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above. Don’t forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide.

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BlackBerry Bold 9000 OS 5.0.0.1049 Found Online

Dec 16th, 2010 by the BerryReview Team

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is getting some real OS love today. The team at BBLeaks just spotted OS 5.0.0.1049 for it which is newer than the official release from today. If you give it a spin let us know what you find in the comments!

Download OS 5.0.0.1049 at:

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Warning: This OS will not install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above and is not an official release.If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide.Don’t forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. Don’t forget our usual warnings: do not download and install these updates if you don’t know what you’re doing. Incorrect procedure or just bad luck could render your BlackBerry inoperative or unstable

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BlackBerry Desktop Manager v6.0.1 b21 Released With Better Backup Encryption

Dec 16th, 2010 by the BerryReview Team

RIM has quietly slipped out an update to the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software bringing it to v6.0.1 b21. Nothing crazy new in this version but you can find some details below. Hopefully this new version fixes some of the bugs that have come up in the 6.0 release though according to the fixed issues they have improved backup encryption after the brute force attack on them.

Below you will find the list of fixed issues between the BlackBerry® Desktop Software 6.0.0 bundle 47 and the BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0.1 bundle 21:

The encryption of BlackBerry device backups may have left the backup files vulnerable to a brute force password attempt by a malicious user if the malicious user had access to the files. The updated version of the BlackBerry Desktop Software includes changes to the method used to generate the encryption key that encrypts the BlackBerry device backup file. The BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0.1 uses multiple iterations of the method to generate the encryption key, to help improve resistance against brute force attacks on the encrypted backup file. (DT 896848)If your device is associated with a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, and you performed a custom restore and the databases are read-only or already synchronizing wirelessly, you didn’t receive any warning that your data didn’t restore. (DT 755153)Occasionally, the error message “The operation terminated unexpectedly” appeared when you synchronized MemoPad. (DT 677881)The start date for a Microsoft® Outlook® task reset to the due date when changing the time zone your device uses. (DT 598687)The BlackBerry Desktop Software didn’t detect new music added to a blank music library. (DT 758229)The Unknown artist and genre always showed 0 songs in the summary and didn’t appear in the song count. (DT 755250)You received a synchronization error when you synchronized some pictures and you ran out of space on your device. (DT 752364)On Windows® 7, AVI files with AC 3 audio were transcoded without sound. (DT 757288)Sometimes, audio and video for MP4 video files were out of sync. (DT 733679)The status window for the Wi-Fi® music sync installation didn’t close if your device was disconnected. (DT 759258)iTunes album art wasn’t imported after installing Wi-Fi music sync. (DT 759000)With Wi-Fi music sync, you received an incorrect message when you change your music library between iTunes and Windows Media® Player. (DT 758226)

The new version supposedly also improves upon the following features:

Synchronization – Improvements have been made for synchronizing your organizer data.Microsoft® support – The 64-bit versions of Microsoft® Outlook® 2010 and Microsoft® Exchange 2010 are supported.Pictures – You can select individual pictures to synchronize to your device.Videos – You can synchronize videos to your device without converting the video file.Wi-Fi music sync – You can stream your music while you download it to your device and you can download music over an SSL connection.

You can pick up the updated version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager at this link

Thanks to everybody who sent this one in!

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Free Official BlackBerry Holiday Themes Available in More Countries

Dec 17th, 2010 by Ronen Halevy

For some ridiculous reason RIM decide to restrict the availability of the three free holiday themes they released. At first they were only available to users in the US and Canada but now they have expanded them to more countries. (Thx iBenRowe) The crazy part is that each theme has a different list of countries where it is available. It makes me wonder what the hell is going through RIM’s head when they do these kinds of things…

Here are the themes and the countries they are available in:

Australia
Bahamas, The
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Canada
Cayman Islands
Gibraltar
Ireland
Jamaica
Mexico
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
Singapore
South Africa
United Kingdom
United StatesAustralia
Bahamas, The
Barbados
Canada
Cayman Islands
Haiti
Ireland
Mexico
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
United Kingdom
United StatesAustralia
Bahamas, The
Barbados
Canada
Ireland
Jamaica
Mexico
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Zealand
Singapore
South Africa
United States

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