Blackberry Unlocked

With RIM set to announce their BlackBerry App World offering any day now, we figured it was about time for us release the beta of our new and improved CrackBerry On-Device App Store Client!

Our standard web store at software.crackberry.com makes it easy for you to browse and purchase apps from the convenience of your computer and has been hugely popular – it power millions of product views and hundreds of thousands of downloads each month. And a few months ago we introduced our mobile-optimized store at crackberryappstore.com, which allows you to browse, buy and download more easily via your BlackBerry's web browser. Our new App Store client is a full-out BlackBerry application that offers an improved on-device experience and some compelling new features, including Deal of the Day (only available via the app store client). Add in the fact we offer free trials on lots of apps, carry thousands of themes, have regular sales and discounts and now offer paid apps for as low as 99 cents and this is a BlackBerry app store you'll want to have on your device and be checking into regularly! 

Get CrackBerry App Store Beta: For more information on the CrackBerry App on-device app store client, click here. To download the app store client, visit http://crackberry.com/appstore from your BlackBerry's web browser.

Beta Feedback: We already have plans to rollout some improved features over the next few weeks, including device-specific versions (ie. Storm-optimized version), support of Paypal (currently pay via credit card within the client; Paypal is currently available in our PC store at software.crackberry.com), and support of coupon codes. In the meantime, we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions. Be sure to email it in to crackberrysupport@mobihand.com. We'll pick the top 20 emails received over the course of the week and reward those people with $15 of free app money!

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. New: CrackBerry On-Device App Store Client *Beta*

So who can out bench press, as well as compress? Who can claim their file management kung-fu is strong? That's what I was hoping to find out. Last week, we took a look at Terra Mobility's File Manager Pro. Taking a look at some of your comments, the obvious choice would be to see how these two file management solutions compare. The big difference was cost. File Manager Pro is $11.95 and BBFileScout is Donationware (please give generously). Besides the price tag, I wanted to see who offers more; does one outperform the other?

As I mentioned in my review of File Manager Pro, the features found within the application are essential to anyone who wishes to manage large amounts, and various types of files. Though my trusted BlackBerry does an excellent job of helping me manage my projects, reports and CrackBerry reviews, I always hoped to take it to another level. And now for a look at BBFileScout, as well as how it stacks up to File Manager Pro. It's going to be a zipping and extracting good time!

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BBFileScout – Review and Comparison to File Manager Pro

An awesome new weather application has been released from the makers of Berry Buzz. Introducing Berry Weather, a visually impressive weather application for BlackBerry devices running 4.2.1 OS and higher.

While being visually stunning Berry Weather has many other highlights built right into the application, let's have a look at them.

• Current conditions including "Feels like" temperature, wind, pressure, dew point, humidity.
• Customizable homescreen icon with fully customizable temperature and weather advisory badge.
• Support for different themes (Widgets, Simple and Simple Dark)
  
• Get instant access to current conditions plus detailed 7-day and 24-hour forecasts for over 72.000 locations worldwide. Get weather advisories and alerts for any location within the U.S.
  
• Keep up to 10 locations at the same time and switch between them.
• Weather advisory notifications, Support for custom LED colors using BerryBuzz.
• No subscription fee

And best of all, Bellshare and CrackBerry wanna give away 50 copies of Berry Weather to CrackBerry readers, just leave a comment on this post up until Sunday, April 5th, Midnite PST for your chance to win a free copy, that's a $9.95 value for free folks! In the meantime there is a free trial available as well, check it out and if ya dig it, be sure to comment you just might score yourself a free copy. Good luck, everyone!

• Learn More About Berry Weather In The Shop CrackBerry App Store >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Berry Weather Launch And Give Away!!

A hot new theme from Elecite strikes two chords with me mainly because it captures two things I love – video games and BlackBerry. PSB is a Playstation3-based theme which looks great and flows well on all the devices it supports.

PSB is set up in a column structure with 4 icons at the top that when touched on reveal a row of four more icons going downward which allows for 20 icons in total on the main screen of your device. Only the first column is customizable though. Icons are nice and fluid and fit the theme perfectly. The only issue I have with this one is that I would have loved to see the Playstation wave red rather then the blue one, but hey that's just me.

PSB is available for the Bold, Storm and 8900 Curve but in my opinion looks best on the Storm as the screen real estate really shows off the slickness of this theme and as it is a premium theme it will set ya back $6.99.

• Grab PSB Theme From Elecite And Give Your BlackBerry A PS3 Makeover >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Elecite Releases Playstation 3 Based Theme!

With CTIA kicking off in Las Vegas, Andrew Berg of WirelessWeek got some time with President and Co-CEO of RIM, Mike Lazaridis before things got too busy in an effort to get his insight and thoughts on what the future may hold for RIM.

An interesting read for anyone who wants to know what the Co-CEO has on his mind, while nothing earth shattering was revealed about RIM's future or upcoming devices it is good to see the reaction to some of the more pressing questions asked. Overall, reads as a great interview but doesn't really hit the mark as some of the questions asked appear to have been danced around. But I guess being the President and Co-CEO of RIM you can slide a little on the answers and say you were protecting your companies interests? Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.

• Read The Full Interview Online Over At Wireless Week >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Mike Lazaridis Speaks On RIM's Future!

In three hours I'll be boarding a plane for Las Vegas to attend CTIA Wireless 2009. Normally I'd post the traditional "Welcome to Las Vegas" graphic, but instead I thought I'd drop some of my favorite old content up here as quality filler while I'm stuck at airports and on airplanes for the better part of the day. Yesterday was a bit of a rough one for the BlackBerry Storm, seeing as how the editors of one of my favorite sites, Engadget, awarded 'ole Stormy the title of Worst Gadget of the Year. Ouch. No hard feelings — to each his own and you'll get no arguments from me against the fact there's work for RIM left to do on their touchscreen offering. At the same time, there's no doubt that good or bad or inbetween, the BlackBerry Storm inspired the Smartphone Contest of the Year. So to get over the sad news, I proudly bring to you once again Pudding Wrestling for a BlackBerry Storm (possibly NSFW if your employer doesn't like pudding or good looking girls)! And ladies, for your fix you can check out Kevin Vlk running through 20 miles through Chicago shirtless for a Storm. There we go… I hope we all feel better now  

CTIA Wireless 2009 Coverage: It should be a fun show, with BlackBerry App World likely to make a buzz and hopefully RIM will have another surprise or two up their sleeve for all of us addicts. I'll be reporting back as best I can, and like our CES coverage, will follow up next week with a bunch of hands-on video and reports for everything that doesn't make it up to the blogs this week.

CTIA Twitter Coverage: With Twitter all the rage these days, remember you can tune into both @crackberry (story links) and @crackberrykevin (my thoughts) to get CTIA delivered tweet by tweet. I'll be sure to send some pics to our CrackBerry Flickr page as well. Talk to y'all from Vegas!

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. CTIA Wireless 2009 Special Coverage: On Location in Vegas!

It was pop icon Andy Warhol who is credited as first saying that we all get "15 Minutes" of fame in this world. Now, some of us get a little more than our allotted "15 Minutes" and some of us get a little less.

Very recently, my friend and colleague, (our beloved CrackBerry Kevin) met me in New York City for what turned out to be our "15 Minutes." Now, Kevin is pretty famous and has gotten more than 15 minutes of fame – but this was a pretty cool thing we did for CrackBerry Nation – so watch the video above for the end result and read on for the details behind it all after the jump!!

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerrius Maximus – Part X – Our "15 Minutes"

This information has been floating around for a while now, but it seems this time around we can toss the 'official' flag over it rather then just the 'rumor' one. With CTIA just around the corner, it seems as though a lot of companies are already giving up some of the goods as to what they will be announcing at the Las Vegas Mobile showcase event, Skype included.

Come May BlackBerry users will be able to get in on the Skype action as reported by Reuters who spoke with Skype's Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag who also verified it would become available for iPhone and iTouch users as well.

One thing that was brought up was resistance from carriers to support the services as it may be revenue impacting for them to which CCS Insight Analyst Ben Wood declared carriers need not worry as the usage of Skype on mobile devices actually increases revenue for the carriers due to other services customers may utilize such as data. The only other concern may come from roaming agreements, but thus far have been unfounded and he used carrier 3 UK as an example where Skype has been used on their network with no detrimental effects.

IM+ for Skype has been available for BlackBerry for a while now, but can be a bit tricky to setup and will set you back $29.95. Good news about the official Skype client is that it will be free. Anyone been waiting for a true Skype client to use on their BlackBerry? 

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Skype Coming To BlackBerry In May!

Here is a great application from the folks at Toysoft that caught my eye the other day mainly because of the fact it allows you to set different ringtones for specific times of the day. So say for example you are at work and you want to just have some nice basic ringtones for the possible business atmosphere you may be in, you can set it so that it will only play those tones. Then let's say you get off of work and you wanna kick some Flo Rida or maybe you'd like to hear some Steve Miller Band while you're away from the office, you can do that too.

Aside from setting "time of day" ringtones you can also have it set to play random ringtones as well. All you need to do is assign a folder with specific ringtones in it and set it to random and away you go. Next time you get a call you never know what's gonna play, unless of course it's a contact that you have assigned a ringtone too, as it does not change those ones. RandomTones is available for the BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.75+ and comes with a free trial. After the trial it will cost you $4.95 in the Shop CrackBerry App Store.

• Download The Free Trial Of Random Tones From Your Storms Browser >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. RandomTones For BlackBerry Storm!!

We all know that the BlackBerry App World is coming at some point in time, be it April 1st or shortly there after. There has also been some talk of application developers holding off their applications from release just so that they may be loaded into the App World to debut upon launch.

While I was looking at the forums last night I came across a thread where CrackBerry forums member brucem76 posted a question asking which software was most needed, but still absent from the BlackBerry platform. Personally for me, it's a native blogging application for Wordpress such as the one that is available on the iPhone. Sure there are work arounds for it but none really offer what a native application could.

So I ask you CrackBerry Nation, what BlackBerry applications are missing? What applications would you all like to see developed for BlackBerry that just doesn't exist yet? Be sure to drop your app desires in the comments… maybe you can attract the attention of some developers out there who can make it happen.

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. What Do You Want For BlackBerry Applications?