Kamis, 25 Agustus 2011

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

Interview with BBM Music Senior Project Manager Nick Patsiopoulos

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:02 PM PDT

360x480_BBCM_Media_Player 360x480_BBCM_All_Songs_Who_Add_to_Playlist

I had the pleasure to talk to Nick Patsiopoulos, Senior Project Manager for BBM Music at RIM, yesterday about their latest announcement. This is a pretty big announcement for RIM with them entering the social space with a music app. According to Nick the BBM launch gave RIM the opportunity to take advantage of the huge BBM social network to build a BBM Music app with social built in from the ground up. There have been many attempts to make personal music social but there have been very few successes and Nick mentioned that most of them have been trying to bolt on social to a personal music service. BBM Music on the other hand is "Social front and center." The cloud based BBM service starts off with social by you adding music and your whole music experience is based on your social graph. After the jump I dig deeper into RIM's new BBM Music beta but let me know if I missed anything you want me to follow up with Nick on!

What exactly is BBM Music?

BBM Music is a cloud based social music platform with "Social front and center". It differentiates itself by being built around social networking instead of having social networking bolted on. It creates a personal profile for users that becomes a "personal music profile on steroids" allowing you to select 50 songs that "define yourself and your history."

How does BBM Music work?

Each BBM Music user can select up to 50 songs that they choose to represent themselves. These 50 songs become something you identify with and others can experience through you. Every month you can switch up to 25 of those songs which also extends those songs into your social graph. You can then look at your BBM contacts and listen to their full songs like it is yours. With BBM baked in you can chat right from the app and comment on your BBM friends profiles or song selections.

So how much does BBM Music cost?

New BBM Music users will get a one month free trial of the service after which they can enter in their payment information to extend it for $4.99 a month.

What if a BBM Music user does not pay the monthly subscription?

BBM Music users will still be able to use all the features of BBM Music without a subscription except for the ability to listen to songs. That means you can still select the 50 songs you recommend and view others recommend so you still have access to the whole social BBM Music scene including comments and chats. Your BBM social network will not get access to the 50 songs you select though.

Is BBM Music tied into your BlackBerry ID?

Definitely!

How about purchasing music that you listen to through BBM Music?

In countries where the Amazon MP3 store is available you will be able to purchase music you listen to in BBM Music if its available. In some locations it may link to the carriers music store.

What countries is BBM Music open to in the Beta? What about at full launch?

During the beta BBM Music is limited to the US, Canada, and the UK. It will be available later this year in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Will there be a desktop website/app counterpart?

BBM Music is a pure mobile experience. (I forgot to ask about the PlayBook)

How does the BBM Music songs get to your device?

The songs are played through a progressive download. At the same time as songs are playing it is caching the song to your local storage for listening later. You also have the ability to manually cache songs or profiles to your device for listening on the subway. (Sweet!) Songs are also automatically cached based on certain preferences.

What happens when everybody has BBM Music? Will you have every song available?

If you think of it this way "250 contacts with 50 songs each more or less means you have music to listen to for every hour of the day for a month." (Math more or less works at 3-4 minutes a song) During the beta the BBM Music connections is limited to 140 BBM Music contacts until launch but it can scale past there.

What made you decide on the $4.99 price point? Are there advertisements?

There are definitely no advertisements. At $4.99/month it is roughly half of what other mobile music services charge.

What made RIM decide to create BBM Music now?

RIM has been making a strong push into social and with BBM 6 just launching this was a perfect opportunity. RIM saw the gap in what others were providing and plan to fill that gap.

How has the beta of BBM Music been going on campus at RIM headquarters?

BBM Music is one of the biggest if not the biggest internal betas ever done at RIM. Users have pride in their music selections and it has been truly viral. We have been constantly bombarded by users who want in on the beta.

What part of BBM Music has users coming back?

There is a constantly updating timeline of what is going on in BBM Music in your social graph. You get to see what your friends choose as songs and what they are listening too or commenting on. You also get a sense of pride by getting to see how many times the songs you selected were listened too.

Will BBM Music be launching in the Beta Zone or App World Test Center?

During the limited beta it will be in the Beta Zone. You will be able to invite friends to the app through the app itself but during the beta they will also have to download it through the Beta Zone. (Really hope they fix that ASAP)

Thanks Nick! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us with the BBM Music launch!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 25, 2011, 12:02 am. | Interview with BBM Music Senior Project Manager Nick Patsiopoulos | Leave a comment |


RIM Releases BBM Music Social Music Sharing & Discovery Beta

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:01 PM PDT

 360x480_BBCM_Wall 360x480_BBCM_All_Songs_Who_Add_to_Playlist

We have been hearing rumblings but now it is official. RIM has released BBM Music in a public beta in the Beta Zone for the US, Canada, and UK with more countries coming soon. BBM Music is RIM's attempt to differentiate the BlackBerry platform with social features built on their latest BBM 6 functionality. It lets users build a catalog of 50 songs to define themselves with the ability to change 25 of those songs every month. You then invite your friends on BBM and you can play both your catalog along with all of your friends selected songs. The bigger your BBM contact list the bigger your collection. You easily get to see what songs your friends chose and listen to their full tracks. Better yet you get to keep track of how many of your friends listened to your tracks. It also gives you offline listening so you can listen to songs on the subway (Sweet!). RIM currently has a catalog of 2+ million songs to choose from and they are hoping to grow it significantly when it comes out of beta.

360x480_BBCM_Media_Player 360x480_BBCM_My_Friends_List

The BBM Music app will offer up a free month for users after which you will have to pay $4.99/month to listen to full tracks. If you don't pay then you still get access to all the social features but you will only be able to play 30 second previews. The social features are slick letting you leave comments on songs and even start a chat around them. Check it out at www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic

Key features of BBM Music include:

  • Music made social – BBM Music is a cloud-based, social music service that allows you to share and discover music with your friends, creating a continually evolving music library:
    • Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. You can refresh your profile by swapping out up to 25 songs each month.
    • Invite your BBM friends to subscribe to BBM Music and to join your BBM Music Community.
    • With each friend that is added to BBM Music, you grow your music collection since the songs from the profile of each BBM Music friend are available to you at any time.
    • Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are shared with your BBM Music Community, and each member of your community shares up to 50 songs from their profile with you.
    • Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience – the more friends who join your community, the more songs you can listen to.
    • Easily discover music that your BBM Music friends are listening to, and comment on your friends‟ songs and playlists.
    • You can create multiple playlists from music in your profile as well as all of your friends‟ profiles, and with one click you can shuffle the entire collection of music from your BBM Music Community. You can even see which friend contributed each song while it plays.
    • Within your BBM Music app, you also see a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community. It gives you a chronological view of community updates, including who added new friends, which songs were added or removed, which playlists were created and what comments were made by your BBM Music friends.
  • Listen to Full Tracks – BBM Music subscribers can listen to full tracks from their friends‟ profiles – not just previews.
  • Offline Listening – Music can be saved to smartphones for offline listening, allowing users to access songs even when they don‟t have wireless coverage.
  • Topping the Charts – Keep track of how many friends are listening to your tracks.

RIM Announces BBM Music – A New Social Music Sharing and Discovery Service
New Cloud-Based Music Service Makes Music a Social Experience

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced BBMTM Music, a new BBM (BlackBerry® Messenger) service for socially connected music fans.
BBM Music is an easy-to-use cloud-based service that enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends. The size of the music library continues to grow as new friends join the community and each user can select music from a catalog with millions of songs from leading music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI.

"More than 45 million customers already love the social communication benefits delivered through BBM and we are thrilled to be extending the experience into a uniquely social and interactive music service," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "We have partnered with leading music companies to provide a „full track‟ music sharing and discovery experience that will provide users with quality music on demand and allow them to connect with friends on a whole new level."

Key features of BBM Music include:

  • Music made social – BBM Music is a cloud-based, social music service that allows you to share and discover music with your friends, creating a continually evolving music library:
    • Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. You can refresh your profile by swapping out up to 25 songs each month.
    • Invite your BBM friends to subscribe to BBM Music and to join your BBM Music Community.
    • With each friend that is added to BBM Music, you grow your music collection since the songs from the profile of each BBM Music friend are available to you at any time.
    • Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are shared with your BBM Music Community, and each member of your community shares up to 50 songs from their profile with you.
    • Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience – the more friends who join your community, the more songs you can listen to.
    • Easily discover music that your BBM Music friends are listening to, and comment on your friends‟ songs and playlists.
    • You can create multiple playlists from music in your profile as well as all of your friends‟ profiles, and with one click you can shuffle the entire collection of music from your BBM Music Community. You can even see which friend contributed each song while it plays.
    • Within your BBM Music app, you also see a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community. It gives you a chronological view of community updates, including who added new friends, which songs were added or removed, which playlists were created and what comments were made by your BBM Music friends.
  • Listen to Full Tracks – BBM Music subscribers can listen to full tracks from their friends‟ profiles – not just previews.
  • Offline Listening – Music can be saved to smartphones for offline listening, allowing users to access songs even when they don‟t have wireless coverage.
  • Topping the Charts – Keep track of how many friends are listening to your tracks.

"A major component of online music continues to be about community, and the ability to discover new artists and music through word of mouth," stated Rob Wells, President of Global Digital Business for Universal Music Group. "BBM Music dynamically and elegantly integrates the excitement of this social music discovery process with a high quality music service, enabling tens of millions of BlackBerry users to experience new music and to share those experiences with their friends virtually anywhere and at anytime."

"We are pleased to be partnering with Research In Motion on their BBM Music service. RIM and its large base of BlackBerry Messenger users represent an exciting platform for expanding the reach of commercial digital music around the world," stated Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business, U.S. Sales and Corporate Strategy, Sony Music Entertainment. "The combination of a premium music solution and instant messaging will enable viral music discovery and emphasize the social power of digital music. It also offers an effective way of serving younger consumers by integrating music into the fabric of an important hub of their digital activity."

"A dynamic social music experience is a powerful way for our artists to connect with fans and also for fans to discover music by interacting with each other," said Michael Nash, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy & Business Development, Warner Music Group. "Addressing more than 45 million BlackBerry Messenger users with a service tailor-made for its mobile community, BBM Music has the opportunity to reach a broad and engaged audience."

"We are very excited to work with Research In Motion to bring our artists‟ music to BBM‟s huge and very loyal user base," said Mark Piibe, Executive Vice President of Global Business Development at EMI Music. "BBM Music‟s unique social discovery experience offers fans a
great new way to discover music, share their favorite tracks with their friends and build a stronger connection with the artists they love."

"The widespread adoption of mobile devices provides the perfect foundation for consuming and sharing music. Brands that want to deliver a unique interactive experience must create services that are mobile, social, and contextual," said Maribel Lopez Principal at Lopez Research and Constellation Research Group.

A closed (limited) beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting today in Canada, the United States and the UK. The BBM Music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD* in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.
For more information about BBM Music, and to sign up to be notified of its availability in your country, please visit www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic.

* Pricing may vary by country and will be announced upon availability in each country. Data charges may apply if music is downloaded over wireless networks in conjunction with limited data plans. Check with your network operator for the terms of your data plan

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 25, 2011, 12:01 am. | RIM Releases BBM Music Social Music Sharing & Discovery Beta | Leave a comment |


RIM Sending Out Invites to Desktop Software 7 Beta Zone Program

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 05:39 PM PDT

Desktop Software Update

A tipster let us know that RIM is sending out invites to Desktop Manager in the Beta Zone. I am not sure how they are deciding who the pick but I have heard a couple reports since from other recipients. Supposedly the UI has been upgraded but other than that the change log is very cryptic. RIM has not yet sent the keycode out so we do not have a screenshot but hopefully we will soon.

According to the change log in the release notes the only changes are:

  • This release includes new synchronization software for organizer data (calendars, contacts, tasks, and memos) with a refreshed user interface.
  • You can import individual pictures and videos.

More as we get it!

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 8:39 pm. | RIM Sending Out Invites to Desktop Software 7 Beta Zone Program | One comment |


OS 7.0.0.353 Leaked for Bold 9900/9930 & Torch 9810, 9850, 9860

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 05:15 PM PDT

imageWe have been hearing from sources that RIM has been seeding them devices with OS 7.0.0.353 so we knew it was coming out. Thanks to N4BB you can give it a spin for yourself. Supposedly it is a solid build and RIM is putting it into carrier testing internationally. Let us know what you find!

Download Bold 9900 OS 7.0.0.353 from:

Download Bold 9930 OS 7.0.0.353 from:

Download Torch 9850 OS 7.0.0.353 from:

Download Torch 9860 OS 7.0.0.353 from:

Download Torch 9810 OS 7.0.0.353 from:

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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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 8:15 pm. | OS 7.0.0.353 Leaked for Bold 9900/9930 & Torch 9810, 9850, 9860 | One comment |


9360 With T-Mobile Branding Poses for the Camera

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 03:56 PM PDT

IMG-20110824-00661We knew that this device is headed to T-Mobile but if you wanted further proof check out the new images our friends over at PocketBerry have spotted.  The tipster said that the device is really thin.  This is the next generation of the curve line that will feature BlackBery 7.  I am not a big fan of this new devices but the blacked out look reminds me of my old 8900 which was all black.

 

IMG-20110824-00664IMG-20110824-00665

Source: PocketBerry

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Posted by Luis Merlos for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 6:56 pm. | 9360 With T-Mobile Branding Poses for the Camera | Leave a comment |


BlackBerry Development – A Developer’s Perspective

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 02:54 PM PDT

Don Turner is programmer and founder of UK based app development company Chonk Limited and the MusicRoom BlackBerry app.

Problems-solutions

I was honoured to be asked by BerryReview to write an article on what it’s like to be a BlackBerry developer. I have been a Java programmer for 14 years, and developing specifically for BlackBerry for the last 9 months. At times it’s been wonderful but it has also been incredibly frustrating. Below I have detailed the things which have hindered me along the way, as well as what has worked well. Hopefully this will help anyone looking to develop for BlackBerry, but most of all I am hoping my constructive criticism and compliments help RIM to create a world leading app market which developers love to be a part of.

I'll start with those areas which I have found frustrating and feel could be improved.

THE BAD

It's difficult to get started

The first step for most would-be BlackBerry developers is the BlackBerry Developer Zone website. Unfortunately, and there's no polite way of saying this, it is a confusing mess of information which is difficult to digest and infested with ‘Marketing speak’.

This whole site could benefit from being restructured with a single objective in mind:

Helping new developers to create excellent apps in the least possible time

I'm no Apple fan, but Apple have got it right with their developer website. It's clearly laid out and exceptionally well written. Also, there is a whole series of videos on best practice for developing apps. By contrast, videos on the BlackBerry Developer Zone website are few and those that are there are a few boring PowerPoint presentations with poor quality audio narratives; not exactly inspiring stuff!

Of course, RIM have a more difficult job with their four different approaches to development – PlayBook, Themes, WebWorks and Java – but this is no excuse for poorly written marketing waffle.

The BlackBerry developer forums are a bit better if you have a specific question, but the minimal involvement from RIM employees means that there are hundreds of unsolved problems and finding what you're looking for can be a time-consuming and fruitless task.

The developer forums could definitely benefit from much more involvement from RIM employees. A higher priority should be given to registered BlackBerry developers to enable RIM to give help where it's needed most.

Confusing environment set up

I only have experience with native (Java) apps so can only comment on the set up required for this approach. The easiest set up, and the one advocated by RIM, is to install the confusingly named 'BlackBerry plugin for Eclipse'. This is actually a bundle of Eclipse Helios (3.6) with some customizations done by RIM for developing BlackBerry Apps. You cannot download this 'plugin' without Eclipse, which means it's not really a plugin but a custom IDE. If RIM could just call it 'The BlackBerry Java IDE' it would be a lot less confusing to new developers – who cares that it's built on Eclipse?

Signing server process/outages

If you want your app to run on a real device (not just in the simulator) and it uses the BlackBerry APIs (which it will if it does anything useful) you must have your app signed by the RIM code signing servers. There's no easy way of saying this, these servers regularly fail. Last month they were down for 4 days, during which time it was impossible for any developer anywhere to deploy an app to a real device for testing. Such is the scale of the problem that there's even a website (not run by RIM) to check the server status: http://www.isthesigningserverdown.com

RIM, please, for the sanity of all BlackBerry developers, remove this ridiculous process for signing apps. There are strong cryptographic techniques for allowing developers to sign their own apps. Apple do it. Google do it. You really should do it too. I know more than one developer who has quit BlackBerry development because of the extreme inconvenience caused by this problem. At the very least, next time please communicate an estimate of how long the servers are going to be down for during an outage, rather than the token post-outage apology you gave us last time.

ON TO THE GOOD

OK, enough of the bad points! There are plenty of good reasons to develop for BlackBerry.

Writing code is easy!

If you are a good Java programmer you will love BlackBerry development. Java is a wonderful language to work with – no memory management, no pointers! Lovely strongly typed variables and clearly defined design patterns. This is more of a good point of Java itself, but it was a good choice by RIM as Java is an excellent OO language, with a much easier learning curve than C,C++ and especially Obj-C.

The only thing to watch out for is that RIM uses its own modified version of J2ME which means when copying in other libraries you often have to make changes to ensure it's compatible with the RIM runtime environment.

Coding user interface elements is also relatively easy. You can have a Hello World application up and running in around 15 lines of code.

Great IDE

Eclipse is a great IDE. It has loads of features which are extremely useful to a developer, including code-completion, automatic documentation lookup and my personal favourite: one click refactoring. You can also download and install new BlackBerry SDKs from inside the IDE which is much simpler than hunting around for new SDKs on the BlackBerry website and having to install them manually.

Short release approval process

At time of writing my record for having a release approved on BlackBerry App World is 18 hours. This is a fantastically quick time to have a new release out to new users, bearing in mind that it must be tested manually by RIM prior to being approved.

Useful stats provided by the BlackBerry Vendor Portal

The vendor portal provides some extremely useful stats about app downloads, which you can import directly into Excel for further analysis. Particularly useful information includes the device types which are most popular (so you can ensure your app runs absolutely perfectly on these devices) as well as OS versions so you can stop supporting old JREs as soon as they become obsolete.

A few good souls on the forums

It should be said that there are a few people who should be congratulated for providing such excellent support to new developers. These aren't RIM employees, but are just extremely generous individuals, who strive to help new users, despite having a constant deluge of new questions. To Peter Strange, Simon Hain and all the other guys who actively answer developer questions thanks very much for your help – I salute you guys!

Number of users on BlackBerry App World

One of the biggest surprises for me was the immediate number of downloads of my app upon launch – over 3,000 in the first 24 hours! We've now had over 100,000 downloads of the free version of our app (www.musicroomapp.com if anyone's interested) and that was in the 10 weeks since launch.

Don't be fooled by all the doom and gloom surrounding RIM at the moment, there are around 50 million BlackBerry users who are all chomping at the bit to get their hands on high quality apps, and they have cash to spend!

That's it. Hopefully this has been a useful insight into the trials and tribulations of being a BlackBerry developer. Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Useful links

I found these links extremely useful when developing for BlackBerry:

Vendor Portal for BlackBerry App World™ – Login

Java Development – BlackBerry Support Community Forums

BlackBerry Development – Knowledge Base

appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/

developerlife – Tutorials » Working with BlackBerry list fields – Tutorial

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Posted by donturner for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 5:54 pm. | BlackBerry Development – A Developer’s Perspective | 8 comments |


3rd Party Apps Work Over Bridge After OS Update

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 11:15 AM PDT

This was not announced by RIM with the recent OS update but 3rd party apps including Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook work now when you have it connected via bridge. This means you don’t have to have Wi-Fi connection to use your PlayBook. I tested this as soon as Poky from BlackBerry India told me about it. Facebook, and Blaq worked as soon as I opened the apps. I know it works because I am nowhere near a Wi-Fi connection. The regular browser also works. Not sure if RIM did not mention this because they did not want to make the carriers mad or it is a glitch. I think this is really awesome the fact that it works and I hope they do not do away with it.

Let us know if yours also works over Bridge?

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Posted by Luis Merlos for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 2:15 pm. | 3rd Party Apps Work Over Bridge After OS Update | 27 comments |


Leaked Poster Shows Verizon BlackBerry Torch 9850 Coming

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 10:54 AM PDT

blackberry-torch-9850-verizon-flyer

Quite a few Storm users have been wondering if Verizon was going to carry the all touch BlackBerry Torch 9850. The 9850 is RIM's chance to fix what they failed with the Storm and it seems to be popular. Verizon has remained hush about any BlackBerry but the Bold 9930 but a leaked poster scored by Adam @CrackBerry shows some hope. It shows the BlackBerry Torch 9850 with Verizon branding. While I still recommend the 9930 above all I know quite a few people who love their touchscreen typing and the resolution is gorgeous.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 1:54 pm. | Leaked Poster Shows Verizon BlackBerry Torch 9850 Coming | 2 comments |


Rumor: QNX Smartphones Will Run Android Player – PlayBook Native Email Coming in September

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 10:20 AM PDT

TopsecretGirls

Bloomberg has been fanning the rumor mill today with some tidbits from "three people familiar with the plan" for RIM's QNX OS. These "three people" requested to not be identified because the effort is obviously not public but they are confirming that QNX BlackBerry smartphones will also run the Android Player in "early" 2012. According to one of these "people" the Android app player is the same one as RIM is working on for the PlayBook and it is being "tweaked to fit the different screen size and resolution of various BlackBerry models." They also said that RIM plans on having this Android player installed on the QNX phones at launch and not as an upgrade like they are doing for the PlayBook.

One of the people also confirmed that RIM is planning on issuing a PlayBook OS update in September that "adds a dedicated email program and BlackBerry Messenger." Two of the people stated that the PlayBook Android Player "may come later on in the year."

In other words these rumors don't really confirm or deny anything we didn't already know or assume. Still aren't rumors fun? :)

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 1:20 pm. | Rumor: QNX Smartphones Will Run Android Player – PlayBook Native Email Coming in September | One comment |


Apply for RIMs Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook Closed Beta!

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:22 AM PDT

Native SDK

I know quite a few devs who cannot wait to get their hands on the native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook. This is you chance since RIM has just put out a form for developers to apply to be part of the closed beta for the Native SDK. Here is how RIM describes the SDK:


The Native SDK provides you with the ability to create rich and compelling games for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet using C/C++, the Standard Template Library (STL) and Open GL ES 1.1/2.0. The Native SDK includes a number of POSIX compliant libraries, as well as support for accelerometer, device orientation, and a variety of other functions to make porting your existing games as easy as possible.

The Native SDK includes the industry leading QNX® Momentics® Tool Suite, which is an Eclipse-based integrated development environment. QNX Momentics provides unparalleled memory profiling, application debugging, and memory usage statistics, giving you the tools you need to debug sophisticated programs, including hardware accelerated OpenGL applications. QNX Momentics is designed to provide you with a safe, secure, and powerful environment to quickly and efficiently build applications for the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Throughout the beta they will be pushing out updates to QNX Momentics to include more APIs for games so things will be in flux. To apply for the closed beta fill out this form, and RIM will contact you with more information. Space is limited in this preview and space will be granted on a first come first served basis. RIM is also working on expanding the beta for anyone interested in the coming weeks. Woot! More details on RIMs DevBlog.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 11:22 am. | Apply for RIMs Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook Closed Beta! | 2 comments |


Analyst “Guess-timates” US BlackBerry 7 Sales are “Healthy”

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:07 AM PDT

Torchatt98102_thumb BlackBerryBold9930frontlowres_thumb BlackBerryTorchfrontlowres_thumb Torchatt9810_thumb

I always love financial analysts and their pseudo-statistical-science extrapolations. The one we get to write about often is Mike Abramsky who is the managing directory of global technology research for RBC Capital Markets. According to the Financial Post, Abramsky checked with 40 retail stores in the US to see what their stock of the new BlackBerry Torch (9810? or 9850?) and BlackBerry Bold (9930) to see what things look like 2 days after they went on sale on August 21st. For some reason he glossed over Verizon and their Bold 9930 launch on August 15th… Here is what he reported back:

"On the one hand, sell through of the Torch 2 at AT&T appears light, with no sell-outs (similarity with the existing Torch could explain why). On the other hand, sell through of the Bold 9930 and full touchscreen Torch 9850 at Sprint appears healthy, with 20% of stores sold out of the Bold 9930, reflecting its novelty/popularity."

So in other words the Bold 9930 is doing well on Sprint and is driving an upgrade cycle for many users. On the other hand many AT&T users are waiting for AT&T to get off their lazy… and release the flagship Bold 9900. I can tell you I know the floodgates are opening at many enterprises who have opened the door to BlackBerry Bold 9930 sales on Verizon and Sprint due to pent up demand. My guess is the same will be true at AT&T and T-Mobile once they release the 9900.

Either way isn't it nice to no longer hear every day from analysts how RIM is doomed? Its interesting how all of these BlackBerry 7 device deliveries have suddenly shut them up…

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 11:07 am. | Analyst “Guess-timates” US BlackBerry 7 Sales are “Healthy” | 6 comments |


Lost and Recovered My PlayBook on a Flight

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:04 AM PDT

IMG-20110819-00160Some of you may know this already if not, I recently got married to my wonderful wife Janett. On the way back from the honeymoon we were in a bit of a rush to get out of the plane to catch our connecting flight, I grabbed my carry-on and forgot my PlayBook on the backseat compartment. I normally never let go of the PlayBook like that but this time I completely forgot about it until it was almost time to board the connecting flight. I checked with the American Airline personnel if somebody had turned it in but no luck so I was getting used to the idea it was lost. I had quite a few family pictures on it that we had taken during the trip so I was a bit disappointed at myself for leaving it there. Usually we hear horror stories of bad service, and a sad ending to the story…… I decided to tell this story because it is BlackBerry related and has a good ending to it.

Luckily I place my BerryReview business card on the inside casing I have on the PlayBook. I was not expecting this but the next day at 7am I had a call from Michael at American Airlines letting me know that they had my BlackBerry PlayBook. I gave them my shipping address and asked them to bill me for the shipping. Within two days I had my PlayBook on hands.  Not sure whether somebody turned it in or the crew found it, but I am grateful for their service and returning my device.  The device can be replace but all the stuff I had stored in it was not which is why I was really lucky to get it back and a big thanks to AA for doing so.

So one reason why it easy to recover my PlayBook was the fact that my case has pockets for business cards, and I had placed my BerryReview cards inside. Another good thing is to keep it password locked. Without a password anyone who finds it can easily access all your data in it.  But the first thing would be simply not forgetting it, ;) .

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Posted by Luis Merlos for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 11:04 am. | Lost and Recovered My PlayBook on a Flight | 5 comments |


Free Tetris for the BlackBerry PlayBook Updated to v2.2

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:47 AM PDT

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I have no idea what is new in this update but after the upgrade Terrence let us know that EA Games free Tetris has been updated. The app went from v2.1 to v2.2 with no change log. My guess is it has something to do with OS compatibility since AIR and Flash have been updated but it could improve the game. Let us know what you find!

Tetris in App World

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 10:47 am. | Free Tetris for the BlackBerry PlayBook Updated to v2.2 | Leave a comment |


Rugby World Cup 2011 Gets Free BlackBerry PlayBook & Smartphone App

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:37 AM PDT

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I cannot say that I know so much about the Rugby World Cup 2011 but they just released a slick app for both the BlackBerry PlayBook and select BlackBerry smartphones. The app includes BBM 6 integration for the smartphone app to share content, status, and even live match in-app chat. You also get access to live match coverage, real time live commentary, stats, and video highlights.  The app is available in English, French, and Spanish though an odd assortment of smartphones are supported.

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Check out the free Rugby World Cup 2011 app in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 10:37 am. | Rugby World Cup 2011 Gets Free BlackBerry PlayBook & Smartphone App | One comment |


Guardly Personal Safety App Comes to BlackBerry – Free & Subscription Options

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 06:37 AM PDT

BlackBerry Guardly

Guardly let us know that their useful personal safety app is now available for BlackBerry. The app was launched on the iPhone in April and Guardly says it has really caught on with "students, real estate agents, social workers, travelers, those afraid to walk alone at night or concerned about dating or domestic violence." In a nutshell Guardly is a mobile alarm system for your BlackBerry. The free Guardly Alerts service lets you send location based emergency alerts to up to 15 contacts by voice call, sms, and email.

They also offer a subscription Guardly Connect service that has been discounted to $1.99/month or $19.99/year and lets you connect to those same 15 people through a voice conference, Instant Message, and provide real time location data.

Definitely worth checking out if you need a personal safety system like this in a dangerous neighborhood. Personally I would recommend simply avoiding situations that require you to think of installing such an app but sometimes that is unavoidable. Check out Guardly at www.guardly.com or pick up the free app in App World.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 9:37 am. | Guardly Personal Safety App Comes to BlackBerry – Free & Subscription Options | Leave a comment |


BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.7.2942 Now Available – Allows Differential Updates

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 06:26 AM PDT

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As we suspected RIM has rolled out a new OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook today. This update to v1.0.7.2942 is not going to be really noticeable other than faster pairing and bridge use. On the other hand it adds a key feature under the hood. RIM can now perform differential updates to allow them to update only parts of the OS instead of the whole thing. That way we have smaller downloads and faster updates.

The main noticeable features are:

  • Improved Wi-Fi® connectivity to WEP networks
  • Faster pairing between a BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet via the BlackBerry® Bridge™ app, and faster attachment opening via BlackBerry Bridge.

Otherwise everything else is mostly bug fixes. RIM clearly states that this update lays the groundwork for future updates by saying "differential updates feature will also come in handy as we prepare for more feature-packed BlackBerry Tablet OS updates later this year. =D"

We get the hint… :)

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 9:26 am. | BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.7.2942 Now Available – Allows Differential Updates | 16 comments |


BlackBook v4 Adds OS 7 Support & More Features

Posted: 24 Aug 2011 05:14 AM PDT

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The popular BlackBook app has been updated this week to v4.0.0.109. In case you don't know BlackBook is a way to create a second completely hidden address book on your BlackBerry. I have never used it before but supposedly it filters those contacts and conversations into BalckBook and hides them from the main phone logs. There isn't even an icon for the app you just have to type in a certain code (default of the END CALL button 5 times in a row) to view the hidden information. Creative right?

So what's new in BlackBook 4?

  • BlackBerry OS 7 Compatible!
  • Multiple Email Addresses for contacts
  • Revamped App Interface
  • HTML Email Supported
  • User Pics in Contact List
  • Various speed enhancements …

Current BlackBook owners can pick up the updated version for $0.99 otherwise the app is $3.99. You can pick it up in the store or App World.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 24, 2011, 8:14 am. | BlackBook v4 Adds OS 7 Support & More Features | Leave a comment |


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