BlackBerry Messenger 5 is now officially available from Research in Motion. You can pick it up over on BlackBerry App World, or, download it OTA by visiting http://blackberry.com/messenger from your device.
BlackBerry Messenger 5 features include:
- Personalize BlackBerry Messenger with a display picture
- Add friends by scanning barcodes or sharing PINs
- Share pictures, videos, voice notes and more with multiple contacts at once
- Create groups of friends, family or colleagues and instantly share calendars, lists, conversations and updates
- See what your friends are listening to by viewing their song titles
- Organize conversation lists by date
- Send and receive text messages
- Back up and restore your contact list
If you have a BlackBerry running OS 4.5 or higher, BlackBerry Messenger 5 is definitely worth picking up. I fully expect it to jump to the number one spot on App World’s most downloaded apps within a few days at most.
I received an email this morning from BitStream letting me know that Bolt, a third party mobile web browser that works pretty well on the BlackBerry, is now out of Beta.
Many of the most significant upgrades occur “under the hood,” but you are sure to notice the results – v1.5 is the most reliable, fastest browser we have ever released – more than 15% faster than Beta3.
Here are some of the new and updated features in Bolt 1.5:
- Server upgrades (make v1.5 15% faster than Beta3)
- Cache support that enables directly browsing back to a previously visited page
- Download manager that downloads files directly within BOLT on JSR 75 capable devices
- Dedicated search bar, enabling search on popular search engines directly from BOLT
- Enhanced column width control that auto-aligns the text to columns for ease of reading
- Enhanced video support that includes inline media playing capability even on low-end devices.
- Support for streaming videos of any length
- Volume UP/DOWN controls in the inline media player
- Ability to rearrange the subscribed feeds using the ‘grab’ feature
- Access to History links from the URL window with inline editing OFF
- One click access on Home Page that ensures the cursor jumps to the desired widget
by Robb Dunewood on October 6, 2009 · 1 comment
European online media provider, 7digital, has partnered with RIM to bring over 7 million DRM-Free tracks to the BlackBerry, and today, with the launch of 7digital’s U.S. based service which offers single tracks for $0.77 and most albums for $7.77, has released the 7digital Music Store BlackBerry app for the Curve 8900, Bold, and Tour.
Browse the latest charts, preview the latest tracks and discover, purchase & download high quality, DRM-free MP3 music directly to your BlackBerry smartphone.
You’ll also get an integrated advanced media player that imports your existing playlists and MP3 music so that you can carry your music collection wherever you go.
- High quality, DRM-free MP3 music store
- Latest charts, new music and weekly features
- Flexible downloads via wireless carrier or WiFi with auto-replace
- Integrated advanced media player
- Headset, speaker and Bluetooth audio streaming support
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Well, what do you know… BlackBerry Messenger 5 will launch globally in just a couple of days on October 7th and it actually will be called BlackBerry Messenger 5.
Kevin from CrackBerry.com received the following email:
BlackBerry® Messenger 5.0
Launch Date: Global – October 7, 2009
BlackBerry® Messenger is an instant messaging application that allows BlackBerry Smartphone users to send and receive instant messages with other BlackBerry Smartphone users.
BlackBerry Messenger 5.0 is the latest release.
Features:
- Enhanced SMS -Allows for a conversational chat-like user experience with a single contact list for the most personal mobile-to-mobile communications
- Note: BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and later is required for the SMS functionality.
- Avatars - Users can choose a picture from the BlackBerry Smartphone gallery and save it as their personal avatar, which will be seen by their contacts. They can also view other avatars in the contact list and zoom in on the avatars of contacts participating in a conversation by selecting “View participants.”
- Large Media File Transfer - Users can send/receive large file transfers up to 6 megabytes for pictures, files and audio.
- Note: BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 is required to receive large media files.
- Enhanced Group Functionality - Allows for the ability to update, share & communicate with a subset community.
- Bar-code Identity - A user can add a contact to the BlackBerry Messenger contact list by displaying a 2-dimensional bar code that invitees can capture with their device cameras.
- Reliable Contact Backup and Restore - Contacts are backed-up on a server and do not require the need for BlackBerry® Desktop Manager.
I’ve been using a leaked version of BlackBerry Messenger 5 for some time now, and, I’ve got to admit, it is a really well put together BlackBerry application. Can’t wait for this thing to come out.
I just received an interesting email letting me know about Best Buy Mobile’s new free Mobile-Web Connected Cloud Server, mIQ, (press release here) which will launch next Monday, October 12th.
The mIQ service allows smartphone users to take the information captured on their mobile devices and access it from an easy-to-use Web interface on any computer. Once a user signs up for this free service – contacts, text messages, calendar events, calls, photos, videos, and phone settings – are seamlessly uploaded from the mobile device and safely backed-up in a personal mIQ account in the “cloud.”
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by Robb Dunewood on October 1, 2009 · 1 comment
As great an email device as the BlackBerry is, one of the things that you can’t do is flag your emails for follow up. Well, once again, BlackBerry developer extraordinaire, Fabian Heuwieser, creator of about a dozen or so extremely popular premium and free BlackBerry applicatoins, has released LaterFlag.
LaterFlag is a free BlackBerry app that does what your BlackBerry should do (and will do in OS 5) out of the box. As the name implies, LaterFlag simply allows you flag your emails and set their priority as high or low.
You can download LaterFlag OTA directly to your device here. You can see other applications from Fabian Heuwieser here.
by Robb Dunewood on September 28, 2009 · 0 comments
As many of you may already know, AOL Radio, powered by CBS Radio, is one of the more popular internet radio services available and they have recently released AOL Radio for BlackBerry to join the likes of Slacker, Pandora, iHeartRadio and others with their own BlackBerry internet radio client.
Blackberry Bold owners can now take everything they love about AOL Radio with them on the go, including all 250+ AOL Radio stations and 150+ CBS Radio local and HD stations. Additional features include the ability to bookmark your favorite stations, find out what you’ve recently listened to, automatically find which local CBS Radio stations are in your area (via GPS) and even song skipping.
AOL Radio for BlackBerry is currently only available on the BlackBerry Bold although I would assume versions for other BlackBerry devices are in the works. AOL Radio for BlackBerry is a free download and you get it it from BlackBerry App World via the the following link.
AOL Radio for BlackBerry: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3484
[Via AOL Radio Blog]
