Category Archives: News

App Roundup: BBM integrated apps for BlackBerry smartphones

It has been about a month or so since RIM launched BBM 6 and its BBM social platform status allowing for apps to integrate with BBM. At the time of its launch there were a handful of apps that came with BBM integration, but since then the list has grown quite a bit. Doing a search on BlackBerry App World gives you a whole load of apps with BBM integration, but not all apps show in the same search. So to make it easier for our NHCBBA readers thanks to Crackberry, here’s a round-up of all the current BBM integrated apps and games. Don’t forget you’ll need BBM 6 in order to avail of the BBM Social Platform, and not all apps are compatible with all devices.

Keep reading for the full list.

 

Continue reading App Roundup: BBM integrated apps for BlackBerry smartphones

AP Mobile world edition updates to v3.4.3 bringing BBM integration, push notifications, and more

If you keep up on current events around the world, or are interested in breaking news, you should check out the AP Mobile world edition BlackBerry application. Updated today to v3.4.3, the Associated Press app is now compatible with BlackBerry 7 devices. With this update, they have also integrated with BBM, so you can share news and interesting stories with your contacts at the click of a button! AP Mobile also has push alerts, so you can get pop-up messages or emails when there is breaking news.

Other new features include:

  • New navigation
  • Improved offline experience
  • Fixed video bugs
  • Breaking news alert: Get notified of breaking news in the app
  • Video support: Users can view Video stories using the native video player on their BlackBerry® device
  • Globalized: Users can select different editions for their news
  • Multiple language support: The application now supports Spanish and French languages in addition to English
  • Weather: Users can now easily view weather for their chosen location from within the application
  • Share stories and photos via email, SMS, Twitter, and BBM
  • Featured content is highlighted by our editors

As a downloadable application, AP Mobile updates and caches content throughout the day, thus keeping users in the know while on a plane or subway. It includes a complete set of news categories including Sports, Entertainment and Wacky News, plus AP’s award-winning photos. AP Mobile world edition is free in BlackBerry App World at the link below, and compatible with most BlackBerry smartphones.

More information and to download AP Mobile world edition[qrcode pix=120]http://nhcbba.com/downloads/AP_Mobile_world_edition[/qrcode]

via: CB

Extra! Extra! Tweet all about it! Are you a Blackberry Reporter? We Need you to help!

The movie Bruce Almighty was on TV recently; a 2003 comedy where a frustrated field reporter was lent the powers of the big G for a week. During the film, Bruce used his newfound powers to become “Mr. Exclusive” – being the first, and the only, reporter on the scene at major news that he himself created. Putting aside the divine powers, it can be argued that almost anyone can become a Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Exclusive – with the right tools of course.

The way we access the news is continually changing as mobile technology advances. I don’t know how many times I would catch the news on an application such as Viigo long before I would be able to sit down in front of the six o’clock news. Do you even venture to the newspaper stand to pay for a paper anymore? Why would you when you can read it online for free? The news has come and gone long before the paper hits the stands – the term “hot off the presses” no longer applies. Terms like “trends” and “feeds” have easily replaced it as they better reflect that instantaneous access we have. If you have a smartphone (or dumbphone for that matter) in hand, and you’re on the scene, you could potentially become a mobile reporter.

Continue reading Extra! Extra! Tweet all about it! Are you a Blackberry Reporter? We Need you to help!

10 BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 Powered Apps – Developers Sound Off!

The team at RIM has rounded up some of the many new and long time titles in App World that are now making use of the new BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 and its new Social Platform SDK APIs. This list is in no way extensive and some of the apps are still rolling out but its a good place to start. It includes some of the apps we have already mentioned on BerryReview and including the upcoming augmented reality Wikitude BlackBerry OS 7 app. Personally I am checking out Backgammon King when I have time today. I have always wanted to play Backgammon with friends instead of random strangers.

Each app below has an accompanying message from the developer explaining what they thought of BBM 6 and the social platform it is packing. Its great to see such a positive response from BlackBerry developers from games to business app developers.

All these links are to download from App World on your Blackberry..

Backgammon King (App World) – One of Magmic’s top games is now social. If you want to play against a friend , challenge a BBM contact to a friendly  game or send an invite to download and start the fun.

 

“Players have always been able to play Backgammon King against real opponents but playing against your friends took a lot of time and effort,” said Troy Johnson, Director Strategic Initiatives, Magmic. “Your BBM contacts are your friends and BBM 6 is making it incredibly easy to share Backgammon King with them and invite them to play in real-time. The ease of access to our product, the ease of sharing and the ease of player engagement are each major breakthroughs. Combine those attributes of BBM 6 with Magmics’ industry leading in-game chat design and you have an incredibly entertaining experience. Trash talking your best friend over a game of backgammon has never been easier and more fun. It’s no exaggeration to say, for Backgammon King, BBM 6 is a real game changer.”

Foursquare (App World) – Foursquare is all about helping you find new ways to explore the city. Earn points and unlock badges, profiles and status updates over BBM.

“RIM is a fantastic partner. We’re thrilled to be working with them to provide a better experience to millions of foursquare users around the world by integrating foursquare with BBM,” said Holger Luedorf, VP of Mobile and Partnerships for foursquare.

Huffington Post (App World) – The Huffington Post, a leader in implementing social features to reach and interact with its network of readers and bloggers, depends on the BBM Social Platform to continue to reach its audiences, even when they are on the go.

“The Huffington Post, a leader in implementing social features to reach and interact with its network of readers and bloggers, integrates the BlackBerry Social Platform to create a place where our users can continue to engage in up-to-the-minute news stories, blogs, and analysis,” said Paul Berry, CTO of the Huffington Post Media Group.    “As a BBM connected app, we make it simple for our readers to easily share and discuss the news. BBM 6 allows The Huffington Post to continue to reach its audience in a new way when they are on the go, and without having to compromise on the quality of their experience.”

Jingu (App World) – Jingu is an application for BBM only and it is focused on enriching the BBM communication experience and the BBM community with the addition of social chat, photo sharing, avatars, and more.

“Jingu users are engaging with BlackBerry Messenger in an exciting new way,” said Pankaj Gogia, Founder, Jingu Apps. “With BBM 6, ease of use is greatly enhanced with capabilities like updating your BBM profile picture directly from within the application. Jingu is dedicated to creating social networking applications built on the BlackBerry Messenger Social Platform that
leverage the new capabilities of BBM 6 and bring enriched and vastly immersive experiences to end users.”

Pocket Ants (App World) – You are the king of the ANTS- feeding, burning, fighting, and racing your ants. Now with BBM you can invite all your friends to rule an ant colony too.

“One of the keys to viral game sales is to allow users to easily invite their friends to join them in playing the games they love,” said Keith Pichelman, CEO, Concrete Software. “Integrating BBM into Pocket Ants has allowed the game to do just that.”

Poynt (App World) – Find businesses, people, restaurants, movies, events and weather info. Going out for dinner with friends? Find a great spot and share it.

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t immediately react to the ‘chime’ of BBM,” said Margaret Glover-Campbell, VP Marketing & PR of Poynt Corporation. “Being able to leverage BBM 6 to share search results provides a tremendous advantage to our BlackBerry smartphone user base who can now easily and quickly coordinate their social activities. The ability to share the app download directly within BBM is also exciting for us, given the immediacy and viral nature of the platform. From a development perspective, we see tremendous possibilities for future integration around connecting people while they’re on the go.”

PowWow Study (App World) – PowWow uses BBM integration to provide real time social event coordination. Connected BBM 6 users are directly invited and notified of events that are created using Powwow. With PowWow the latest information is made available.

“PowWow uses BBM 6 integration to enable real time social event coordination,” said Kathryn Lahrs, Founder, Lahrs Apps. “Users are directly invited and notified of events that are created with our application. With PowWow, the latest information is available and BBM chats can quickly be started if any further communication is desired. Through BBM 6 PowWow users can share their location information, which is displayed in BlackBerry Maps. There is also an option to check your contact’s availability directly from their calendars and to create an event with this information; this is a very useful tool in event planning and saves time in the process.”

ScoreMobile (App World) – Up-to-the-minute sports scores, players, stats, betting odds and more. You can invite BBM friends into the app to chat about the latest sports banter, share scores and more.

“Following sports is inherently social – fans are extremely passionate, and like to trash talk, comment, and generally share their opinions on whatever they’re watching,” says Dale Fallon, VP Digital Products, Score Media. “By integrating BBM 6 functionality right into the ScoreMobile experience, we enable our users to enjoy the game with their friends even when they’re not together. In a nutshell, BBM 6 integration allows sports fans to be social without having to leave the ScoreMobile app.”

Telmap Navigator (App World) – Telmap is a mobile location companion which now integrates with BBM to bring significantly enriched communication and interactions with users’ real-time locations.

“Telmap, a global location-based services leader, is very focused on serving all users’ needs by constantly enriching and optimizing their on-the-go experiences,” said Motti Kushnir, Telmap Chief Marketing Officer. “The integration between BBM 6 and the Telmap Mobile Location Companion significantly enriches conversations and interactions through BBM with users’ real-time locations. Telmap views this integration as an important pillar of our vision to provide a richer, more comprehensive experience to our users. We work hard to integrate our application with popular and useful platforms like BBM, to ensure added value to users who can now add location information to their interactions with friends.”

Unvired (App World) – Unvired Workflow by SAP allows users to take action on the workflow documents directly from their BB. The BBM integration allows sharing of screen shots/pictures with colleagues during collaboration.

“Unvired Workflow for SAP enables approval of SAP workflow requests directly from the BlackBerry smartphone. Unvired leverages the BlackBerry message list and BBM to provide a familiar BlackBerry user experience,” said Srinivasan Subramanian, CEO, Indience InfoSystems Pvt Ltd. “The BBM platform has been smartly integrated to enable employees to collaborate seamlessly. If the user has some queries while approving the workflow, they can BBM their colleague or Manager, transfer a screenshot of the workflow item and clarify. They can then approve or reject the workflow request. The BBM chat can also be emailed to maintain an audit trail. The BBM integration with Unvired ensures quick turnaround and collaboration between employees, not just for workflow but other usages like checking discounts for a customer, escalating a customer grievance and much more.”

Wikitude (Not Available Yet – BlackBerry OS 7) – Wikitude allows you to experience your BBM in a new way. By using the camera, simply pan around your mobile to contacts in Augmented Reality. You may even find new friends in your vicinity – a truly engaging and immersive experience.

“BBM 6 is the underlying mobile social network making Wikitude on the BlackBerry platform a very unique experience. An augmented reality (AR) browser with millions of interesting places is already a very compelling and new proposition, but bringing it to life with millions of people who can chat, meet and share in an AR environment has the potential to revolutionize how we interact with one another. With BBM 6 and Wikitude preloaded on upcoming BlackBerry smartphones our AR browser will be truly going social for the very first time,” says Andy Gstoll, CMO of Wikitude.

via: bbreview

Sympatico.ca Launches Free Mobile Portal App

sympaticoSympatico has launched their mobile portal app on BlackBerry App World. The free, bilingual app delivers Sympatico’s Canadian users access to news, music and entertainment stories, similar to what’s found on their Sympatico.ca portal. Sympatico’s mobile portal app also features a number of mobile features like location-based content including local weather, as well as push notifications for breaking news, a built-in QR code reader and the ability to share news items over social networks.

Download the Sympatico.ca mobile portal app for free in App World.

BlackBerry News Feeds gets updated to v1.0.1.7 in App World

BlackBerry News Feeds

BlackBerry News Feeds, RIM’s official RSS reader, saw an update back in April for BlackBerry Beta Zone members, which bumped the version number up to v1.0.1.5. Now it appears another update has been released, and everyone can download v1.0.1.7 through BlackBerry App World. If you don’t have access to App World, check the forum link below for OTAs. As per normal, there is no change log for this update, so if you download it and spot some differences, let us know in the comments below or in the forums what you find! Thanks rroyy!

For more information/check for the update in App World

[qrcode pix=170]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/21101[/qrcode]

Free Bloomberg App

Bring the power of the most trusted source for financial information to your BlackBerry, along with tools to help you analyze the world’s markets.

That source is now available to you on your BlackBerry. Bloomberg offers news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders/laggers, price charts, market trends analysis, customized list of stocks and more.

to get the app on your phone click this code or take a pic of it [qrcode pix=160]http://nhcbba.com/downloads/Bloomberg_Mobile[/qrcode]

Yahoo Releases Free Lightweight All in One BlackBerry App

yahoo app yahoo app2

Yahoo axed their all in one Yahoo Go BlackBerry app back in 2009 and has not really made a comeback to the BlackBerry platform since. They have released some one off fantasy and stock apps but now they have quietly added a new app. Jeremy let us know about the new Yahoo! app that appeared in App World this week. It gives you access to many Yahoo services like finance, news, messenger, and mail. They have also put the app on a real diet since their older apps used to be 1MB+. Its funny because Yahoo now mentions it being lightweight as the first feature.

Here is how Yahoo describes their new App:

What if you could get whatever you wanted, at the push of a button? That’s why we created the new Yahoo! for mobile, your instant access to a suite of Yahoo! services like Mail and  Messenger. Get the latest sports scores or upload and share your photos on Flickr . Stay up-to-date with Yahoo! News and Finance and much more.

Features:

  • Yahoo! Mobile is a very light weight application.
  • It gives you easy access to all your favorite Yahoo! properties with just one click.
  • Read through your favorite stories and happenings in your country.
  • Yahoo! Mobile can be downloaded on your phone for FREE* ( Data Charges may apply)

You can download the new Yahoo! App in App World

[qrcode pix=170]http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/33777?lang=en[/qrcode]

Has your inkwell run dry? The AP Stylebook for BlackBerry gives you a refill

Associated Press

I have to be honest with you; some days it’s difficult to put two words together. These days seem to coincide with the days my brain decides to bubble, lose molecular stability and then decides to ooze out of my ears. It’s at that point when anything I decide to write begins to sound like the ramblings of a mad man, who also has issues spelling korektlee…I mean correctly. Thank goodness I have my better half to point out every. single. mistake. I. make. (love you!).

Besides dealing with writer’s block, as well as spelling/grammatical mistakes, it’s also helpful to get a grasp on what impact you are making with your words of wisdom. Why you are writing about it? Who are you looking to reach out to? Where should you be sharing your valuable insight? It’s a lot to think about – when you’re already thinking about what to write. The other day, the Associated Press unleashed an application they call “an essential tool for writers” – The Associated Press Stylebook mobile. It’s designed to help you find your voice, through guidelines. The 2010 AP Stylebook includes:

  • A new Social Media Guidelines section, with information on using tools like Facebook and Twitter, as well as 42 separate entries on such terms as app, blogs, click-throughs, friend and unfriend, metadata, RSS, search engine optimization, smart phone, trending, widget and wiki.
  • New terms like; Great Recession- referring to the 2007-08 economic downturn that was the worst recession since the Great Depression, and tea party, for the conservative political movement, along with new entries for Alcoholics Anonymous, Bluetooth, Blu-ray, bondholder, Breathalyzer, flu-like, GED, International Space Station, mic -as the shortened form for microphone, hard line, high-five, Taser, thumbs-up and Ultimate Fighting.
  • The change in AP style from “Web site” to “website”

The app normally costs $24.99, but is discounted to $19.99 for early adopters- who will get the 2010 app, plus a free upgrade to 2011 this spring.

Pricing for the AP Stylebook is high, but if you’re looking to separate yourself from the rest of the pack, it may be worth a look. Check out the press release after the jump.

More information/download the AP Stylebook from BlackBerry Appworld

Continue reading Has your inkwell run dry? The AP Stylebook for BlackBerry gives you a refill

CNN Money Updated to v3.1

 

One of my most used apps CNN Money just received an update to V3.1 on app world. There is no change log but the UI looks a bit different. Same style but it looks more polished.

App description:

CNNMoney’s BlackBerry application delivers breaking business news and comprehensive market coverage—in a customizable format for your device. This application tops all others in the financial news category with real-time coverage of business news, analysis, data and charts.

Features:

  • Content delivered in real-time, direct from CNNMoney’s news feed
  • Breaking News Alerts
    Customized stock quote and tracking
  • Stock ticker, personalized to stocks you choose to track
  • Market updates and index tracking
  • Easy-to-share articles via e-mail
  • You can download the app at this link

     

     

    Source: BBR