News and Rumors

• Discuss this in the forum

RIM has been keeping right on target with their projected December OS 7.1 release. Sprint customers over the past 24hrs have been seeing OS 7.1 being pushed to their devices. At this time the downloads are not appearing on Sprints download page, and appear to be OTA only right now. Its nice to see OS 7.1 rolling out before the end of the year. If you have been fortunate enough to get this update please share with us your findings/fixings.

• Discuss this in the forums

• improved browser speed,beating all tablet browsers including iOS 5
  
• implemented A2DP (Headsets, audio devices)
  
• updated App World, now includes swipe-down menu bar that enables Help & Payment Options
  
• upgrades for Bridge connection
  
• undefined Media enhancements
  
• LED notifications, has a new setting called Sounds & Notifications

• Discuss this in the forum

The awesome and FREE photo editor app for BlackBerry, Photo Studio, has just been updated to v0.9.8.17! With the update comes many new features, including the ability to share your photo creations directly with BBM contacts from within the Photo Studio app. Here is the full changelog of features for this update:

• BBM Connected, now you can share your photo directly from Photo Studio.
• New 55 frames in Christmas Pack 1 and Christmas Pack 2.
• New effects in Effects Pack (Sharpen and 6 Lens effects).
• New output formats: normal and large, save photos with better quality.
• Crop improvements with several selection modes.
• UI improvements, bug-fix and more.

Get updated and share your own Photo Studio creations with us!

• Download Photo Studio in BB App World
• Discuss and share your own Photo Studio creations with us in the forums

With recent statements made today in a RIM conference call by co-CEO's, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, how should we feel about the BlackBerry OS roadmap to BlackBerry 10? I have a brief theory on what the route will look like.

Let's take a step back for a second. If you remember, the current OS 7 was in line to be called OS 6.1. There were even leaked OS's with the 6.1 branding. However, in the end the OS 7 was the prevailing label due to "enough differences" as stated by co-CEO Jim Balsillie during a Q&A Investors Call back in April.

Now jump back to today. The next significant OS release is slated to be called OS 7.1, but could it become OS 8? Is there enough differences to warrant the jump? No, but given the time we have left via a numerical sequence from 7 to 10 it makes sense. BlackBerry OS 7.1 could simply be a RIM internal name before it becomes public as OS 8. This would put a OS 8 (7.1) release at early Q1 2012, with OS 9 on schedule for Q2/Q3 leaving OS 10 tracking on time for Q3/Q4.

This jives with a alleged leaked roadmap of devices set to launch in 2012 and a statement made by Lazaridis that the BB 10 launch window will come toward "the latter part of 2012." Either way the order ends up, there are going to be some rapid changes for RIM next year. Let's hope for an early Christmas in 2012.

• Discuss the BlackBerry OS roadmap in the forums

In light of RIM's conference call today, not only do we now know that the first BlackBerry 10 devices will run with a dual-core LTE capable chipset, but also RIM's co-CEO's, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, will be cutting their annual salaries down to $1.

According to Forbes, Jim and Mike both receive $1,175,664 per year. And while they may not receive annual bonuses, they both receive limited stock awards which investment terms are unknown. Either way, it's good to see them put their money where their mouth is.

Update: The particular chipset RIM hopes to use won’t be available until the middle of 2012. Lazaridis concedes that the launch window for BlackBerry 10 devices will come toward "the latter part of 2012."

• Discuss this in the BBOS forums

Find out how Anna, President of Gandang Kalikasan Inc. makers of Human Nature, juggles her daily tasks and her family duties with the help of the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

• Tell us how you utilize your BlackBerry for business in the forums

Well, it's obvious what the BlackBerry device model is in this picture, but can you guess what celebrity is holding the device? Anyone? First to guess correctly gets a cookie!

• Tell us who the mystery BB celeb is in the BBOS forum

Developer Tapptil has just shared with us that they have released a Winter Edition of their awesome paint app, Lil Painter (check out the BBOS doodle), and right now the Winter Edition is on sale for only $0.99 in BB App World so it's a great time to pick it up for the holidays. I've tried most of the paint apps for the PlayBook and this one by far has the best graphics and user interface I have come across. If you download the app be sure to share with us a screenshot of your artistic creation!

• Download Lil Painter Winter Edition in BB App World
• Discuss and share your artistic creation with us in the forums

With FILM for BlackBerry PlayBook you will never miss another great movie again! Film by Cappow gives you an overview of the current movies latest movies coming to cinema. In addition, Film offers you high quality movie trailers with the ability to rate and review! Film is available in BB App World at only $0.99 for a limited time.

• Download Film for PlayBook in BB App World
• Discuss and get more details about Film in the BBOS forum

Many people have been wondering about the benefits of rooting/jailbreaking your PlayBook. The short answer to this is that rooting opens the door for creativity. Since the release of the DingleBerry jailbreak we have seen just how creative people can be, now we can do things like installing the full android market. Thanks to the creative minds of developers other things like being able to access Hulu are becoming more attainable as well.

Now thanks to Guillem Mateos over at the elTecnoBlog we will soon be able to access USB devices from our PlayBook's. This will be a great feature, hopefully soon we will be able to save files directly to a USB drive, eliminating the need to use a PC for some quick files transfers. What do you think about USB support on the PlayBook?

• Discuss this in the forum

It was merely 6 months ago that BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing was initially launched. The app was silently updated this week to v2.0

BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing App v2.0 brings many tweaks & updates, including:

It seems just like yesterday that BOLT Browser was announced to us as a top third-party alternative to the native browser for our BlackBerry devices. Well, tons have happened since that day in 2009 & we've seen the native browser grow exponentially to become the default choice for many, due to the amazing advancements with webkit browser. Sadly, BOLT browser has met it's end & will be discontinued due to “economic circumstances”.

I remember using BOLT as my primary browser when I first got my 9700 a few years ago. But, ever since the native webkit browser's arrival on BlackBerry OS6, I've used nothing else. Maybe Bitstream noticed a lack of users & decided to concentrate their efforts elsewhere?

• Discuss BOLT Browser in our Forums

At the recent BlackBerry DevCon Asia 2011 held in Singapore, Alec Saunders, VP, Developer Relations & Ecosystems Development at Research In Motion, shed some light on the common misconceptions that developers have about developing for RIM. Does this myth-busting session hold true? Let us know your thoughts!

• Discuss this with us in the forums