Selasa, 01 November 2011

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community


AT&T Stores Start Getting BlackBerry Bold 9900 Accessories

Posted: 01 Nov 2011 01:35 AM PDT

OtterBox

AT&T in its typical fashion has yet to release the latest BlackBerry Bold 9900 on their network. There have been quite a few signs pointing to its launch soon but even AT&T has been conflicted on the subject announcing it in their Twitter feed and the deleting it. Now we have yet another sign pointing to a launch soon. Bla1ze over @CrackBerry got sent a picture of an OtterBox case branded for an AT&T store that has already made its way to an AT&T store location.

Anybody want to guess when AT&T will get off their lazy bums and release the 9900? This is getting to be as bad as the Bold 9000 launch but at least AT&T does not have an exclusive this time.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, November 1, 2011, 4:35 am. | AT&T Stores Start Getting BlackBerry Bold 9900 Accessories | Leave a comment |


Turbo Grannies & Zombie Rider Released for the PlayBook (Marmalade SDK)

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 07:08 PM PDT

 Turbo Grannies 2 Zombie Rider

We told you a bit back that Imperial Game Studio was porting Turbo Grannies and Zombie Rider to the BlackBerry PlayBook. I am happy to report that both games are now available and are quite fun to play on my PlayBook. They were both built on the Marmalade SDK which has been leading to some slick PlayBook games. The graphics are nice but not where the game really shines. It mixes some sly humor with some downright easy to pick up yet addictive gameplay.

 Zombie Rider 2 Turbo Grannies

You can pick up both Turbo Grannies or Zombie Rider in App World for a VERY reasonable $0.99:

Check out a video of Turbo Grannies below:


Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 10:08 pm. | Turbo Grannies & Zombie Rider Released for the PlayBook (Marmalade SDK) | Leave a comment |


DevCon Americas 2011 Highlights: A Developer’s Perspective

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 03:06 PM PDT

Welcome to DevCon

For the fourth year in a row, I headed down to the San Francisco area for the annual BlackBerry Developers Conference (DevCon). By now many of you will have read the announcements and press releases so instead of rehashing them here let me share some first-hand experiences and highlights from the perspective of someone who has been developing for BlackBerry for a while now.

Lots of new faces at RIM. Surprisingly or not, many familiar faces of senior RIM execs from previous years were no longer to be seen. Clearly, the winds of change are blowing in Waterloo. I am hoping and crossing fingers that the new senior management steers the ship in the right direction.

The Android Player. One word for this one: amazing. The idea of the Android player is to run existing Android app on the Playbook, and subsequently on BBX devices. During DevCon RIM reps were manning booths that helped developers do exactly that – take their Android .apk files and show them how to transform them into Playbook apps.

RIM engineers have done an incredible job here. Even though the player was in beta all it took for the Android version of my app Viira to be repackaged as a Playbook app was a command line incantation – and that's it. No code change required whatsoever and it ran beautifully without a glitch.

The Android player runs as a background system process so running Android apps on the Playbook is entirely transparent to the user – there is no need to manually start the player. The Android player will be pushed as part of the Playbook OS updates ensuring that Playbooks around the world have an up-to-date version. Expect to see the Android player in the 2.0 update to the Playbook.

No Java on BBX. To be honest, when RIM announced that Java will not be a supported way forward to develop on the BBX platform it left a lot of developers scratching their heads and wondering what the future of BlackBerry will look like. Has RIM gone mad? People were feeling anxious, to say the least.

One senior technical rep that I have gotten to know over the years put things in good perspective for me. With 70+ million non-BBX BlackBerry devices that will be around for some time to come (see no mention of QNX point below), does it make sense to worry [and get your panties in a bunch] yet? (stuff in brackets added by author)

Cascades: the way to the future. Developing rich next-generation user interfaces on the BBX platform rests on the shoulders of cascades brought over by RIM's acquisition of The Astonishing Tribe (TAT). The demos presented clearly demonstrated some futuristic looks and capabilities. However being a bit of a sceptic here, from what I saw I wasn't fully convinced that cascades will necessarily make it possible to develop bread-and-butter apps with ease. Only time will tell.

No mention of QNX devices. Normally, RIM gives developers a peak into the future of BlackBerry as early as possible. For this year's DevCon, that glimpse did not include the much-anticipated and rumoured QNX devices. In short, QNX device availability was not mentioned at all. Does this mean that RIM does not plan on releasing those any time soon or does it mean they are simple mum to not distract potential buyers and upgraders to the new 9900 series and Torch models? Your guess is as good as mine on this one.

Conclusion

Overall, I have to say that this has been one of the most useful DevCons that I have attended. It was amazing to see the BlackBerry ecosystem mature from the "early days" of 2008 where people were trying to get their minds wrapped around what in retrospect looks like basic apps and concepts to the present where so many rich, complex and sophisticated applications and frameworks were presented. The RIM technical reps were incredibly helpful and that alone made the cost of admission well worth it.

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Posted by viira_dev for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 6:06 pm. | DevCon Americas 2011 Highlights: A Developer’s Perspective | 3 comments |


Free AccuWeather v1.3 Adds Support for OS 7.0 Devices

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:09 PM PDT

Accuweather Accuweather2

Back when I got my BlackBerry Bold 9930 I was saddened that AccuWeather did not support the latest devices. Now that I am using a Curve 9350 I noticed that AccuWeather has updated their app to support the latest BlackBerry 7 crop and the app looks really good. It is having issues on some older Storm devices but my Curve is running just fine.

You can pick up AccuWeather v1.3 in App World free

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 3:09 pm. | Free AccuWeather v1.3 Adds Support for OS 7.0 Devices | One comment |


Old School Race Multiplayer Slot Car Racing Game for the PlayBook

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 10:55 AM PDT

 Old School Race Old School Race2

Andrea from @Creeostudio let us know that they have brought their cross platform slot car racing game "Old School Race" to the PlayBook. The game is multiplayer enabled so you can play with up to three other friends on your PlayBook. You also have the basic control you did with those old school slot car racing trigger controllers. Right now they are taking suggestions for improvements and plan to add tracks and new options in the future like online multiplayer and different features for each car or multiple gears. I am just glad you don't need to try to keep and fixing the racing contacts on older cars… :)

Old School Race3 Old School Race4

You can pick up Old School Race Multiplayer for $1.99 in App World. Check out a sample of the gameplay in the video below:


Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 1:55 pm. | Old School Race Multiplayer Slot Car Racing Game for the PlayBook | Leave a comment |


Happy Halloween From BerryReview! Don’t Forget To Create a Zombie Avatar

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 09:13 AM PDT

Zombie Avatar

Its hard to believe another year has passed by. The BerryReview team want to wish all of our readers a happy and safe Halloween weekend. Things have been pretty hairy up here in the northeast with a freak snow storm but hopefully that won't ruin the festivities. Just as a reminder from last year you can have quite a bit of fun if you create your own zombie avatar for BBM and other profiles out of any picture of your face. You can do it free at www.makemeZombie.com.

Let us know if you have any other special way you celebrate Halloween with your BlackBerry! Extra credit if it involves a fun Halloween prank or costume!

RonenVickyLuc
zombieronen2converted_thumbVickyLuc
GregSemsLuis
GregSemsMe
NateSummerJohnnyB He is  already Green
NateSummeryoda2180x135
DavidEvanBull
DavidEvanbull

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 12:13 pm. | Happy Halloween From BerryReview! Don’t Forget To Create a Zombie Avatar | 3 comments |


Slick Castle Warriors 3D Game for the BlackBerry PlayBook

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 06:55 AM PDT

Castle Warriors 

We have yet another Unity 3D game to play on the PlayBook thanks to Union and GameResort. They just released Castle Warriors over the weekend and the game is awesome! Its a real time strategy game where you leak your armies against evil creatures.

Features include:

  • 12 varied battlefields linked in one epic campaign
  • intuitive touch controls give you full command over your troops
  • Three levels of difficulty provide just the right challenge
  • Upgrade your castles for new defenses

You can pick up Castle Warriors in App World for $2.99. Check out a promo video for the game below:

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 9:55 am. | Slick Castle Warriors 3D Game for the BlackBerry PlayBook | 3 comments |


eBay for BlackBerry Gets Small Update to v2.0.0.47

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 06:33 AM PDT

ebay BlackBerry ebay BlackBerry2

RIM rolled out a small update to eBay for BlackBerrys over the weekend and it looks like a worthy update. I thought at first that it was just an incremental update but DoPy sent over a change log he spotted for the update. The new v2.0.0.47 adds a:

  • Navigation Bar: shows the currently selected screen and a cursor for when navigating between options
  • Tool tips: now provided to indicate what the icon on the navigation bar is for
  • Shipping Option": updated so only one option show at first and the user can add more or remove ones they don't want
  • Selling items: When selling an item, the user is provided with several return options when available

You can pick up the latest version of eBay for BlackBerry in App World. Somebody just needs to tell eBay that RIM updated their app.

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Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 9:33 am. | eBay for BlackBerry Gets Small Update to v2.0.0.47 | Leave a comment |


IM+ for the BlackBerry PlayBook Finally Available! Multi Network Instant Messaging

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 06:20 AM PDT

im_playbook_bb_screenshot0 

The saga of Shape Services trying to get their IM+ multi network instant messaging client approved for the PlayBook is finally over. The app has been stuck in App World approval pending limbo for almost 6 months! Now it looks like Shape and RIM finally came to an agreement and released IM+ for BlackBerry PlayBook users. Here are some of the main features:

im_playbook_bb_screenshot2 im playbook_ads

  • IM+ lets you  chat in Windows Live Messenger/MSN, Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo! , AOL/AIM/iChat, ICQ, Jabber and MySpace from one application.
  • The app also supports multiple accounts per service and stores chat history for each conversation on device.
  • Both landscape and portrait screen orientations are supported.

You can pick up IM+ for the BlackBerry PlayBook now for a special introductory price of $9.99 in App World. Hopefully Shape will consider lowering the price or releasing an ad supported version if there is sufficient demand.

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 9:20 am. | IM+ for the BlackBerry PlayBook Finally Available! Multi Network Instant Messaging | 12 comments |


Official New York Times Crosswords Game for the BlackBerry PlayBook

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 05:45 AM PDT

New York Times Crosswords2 New York Times Crosswords

Magmic has brought their hugely popular official New York Times Crosswords game to the BlackBerry PlayBook. The licensed app gives you the official daily puzzles along with access to their archive of over 6,000 classic puzzles. The initial week of puzzles is free after which you can extend your subscription based in increments of a month to a year through App World.

Features of the game include:

  • Play more than 6,000 classic puzzles from The New York Times archive 
  • Play the daily puzzle from The New York Times newspaper 
  • Compare their solve times with friends online 
  • Compete against top players via the online leaderboards 
  • Solve puzzles on the grid or directly from the clues list 
  • Automatically highlight related clues 
  • Check or reveal letters, words or the entire puzzle

After the one week free subscription you can choose one of three subscriptions:

  • One year for $16.99
  • Six months for $9.99
  • One month for $2.99

Check out the New York Times Crosswords for the PlayBook in App World

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, October 31, 2011, 8:45 am. | Official New York Times Crosswords Game for the BlackBerry PlayBook | 3 comments |


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