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Kik Messenger, a free cross-platform mobile instant messaging service, has reached 450,000 users and the growth rate has doubled. Usage has peaked yesterday at 1 million messages an hour. This is a huge amount of growth considering the app had only 30,000 users a week ago. If you’re trying to download Kik, the company wants you to know that they’ve suspended downloads temporarily so they can upgrade servers.
Kik Messenger is available in App World.
RIM is hosting a developer webcast today to show off the BlackBerry PlayBook and how to install and use the new SDK. Creating apps for the PlayBook requires a little understanding of actionscript and Adobe Flash, but it’s generally an easy process. During the webcast, there will be RIM and Adobe experts there to take your questions so if you’re interested in making some PlayBook apps, you should definitely attend.
Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010
Time: 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST
Presenters:
RIM has recently introduced the BlackBerry Curve 3G in the Philippines and the device is said to ship with OS 5 and be BlackBerry 6 ready. There are already leaked versions of BlackBerry 6 for the Curve 3G available, so if you’re in the Philippines, feel free to take advantage. Also, if you’d like more info about the device, read our review.
BlackBerry 6 has some pretty cool social features with its new Social Feeds app but the RSS reader could be better. Anyone who is seriously into RSS feeds uses Google Reader and it’s a shame BlackBerry 6 doesn’t integrate. For those looking for a good Google Reader solution there’s BerryReader. The app has recently been updated with BlackBerry 6 support and the ability to share stories on Twitter and Facebook. Other features include:
Grab a copy of BerryReader from the store. The app is a little on the pricey side at $9.95 but it’s got a lot of features and a lot of work went into it.
The BlackBerry PlayBook is due to arrive in Q1 of 2011 and a lot of developers are plugging away at the SDK and thinking about what apps they’re going to build. At the BlackBerry Developer Group meeting here in Ottawa, Canada last night, we got a demonstration of the SDK by Anthony Rizk, founder of Zeebu Mobile and author of Beginning BlackBerry. The SDK looks incredibly simple and if your application is very graphics heavy (as is the case with BabyGO!), then porting your app to the PlayBook looks like a breeze. According to Anthony, writing the BabyGO! app for BlackBerry took about 2 weeks of development time, compared to about 4 hours for the PlayBook. Also, this 4 hours includes learning how to use the Flash tools which he had never used before.
But will BabyGO! be the type of app that users will be looking for when the PlayBook launches? Consider this: the PlayBook is launching after Christmas when most consumers who are interested in a tablet will have already purchased one. Those who are going to pick up a tablet will most likely be in enterprise, since it’s BES ready and a lot of employees who were normally locked out of the tablet market due to IT policies, will be able to bring their PlayBook on the network and start playing. A lot of these devices will still be locked down and in some organizations they may not be able to use any apps at all. There will also be a huge segment of users who don’t care about the iPad and are waiting for a PlayBook because they know their gadgets and they’re confident they’re buying a superior product.
Continue reading ‘What Apps Are Going to Perform Well on the BlackBerry PlayBook?’
S4BB are known for making quality apps that take a lot of data and condense it into an application. The company has packed the CIA World Factbook, with information about more than 270 countries, into an app and it’s currently on sale for a reasonable price. The app is based on 2010 data and includes information such as:
Check out the CIA World Factbook app that’s great for anyone traveling to foreign countries. The app is currently $4.99 (down from $29.99).
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