The PlayBook is coming along nicely. Lately, we’ve seen an upgrade to the Facebook application, as well as support for in-app purchases and charging improvements. The major updates that the general public are waiting for, such as local PIM applications, should be coming sometime this summer, and we think it’s really going to improve the overall PlayBook experience. As cool as the Bridge idea is, it’s sort of a pain to constantly connect your BlackBerry, and the Bridge Browser is pretty shoddy. For those of you who have a PlayBook, here are some apps we think you must have on your tablet (in no particular order):
1. Blaq – If you’re looking for a solid Twitter client for the PlayBook, we recommend Blaq. The app is a fun tablet experience because it’s a full featured Twitter client that takes advantage of the larger screen. Instead of having to click links and head to the browser, you can preview link content from within the Blaq application. Blaq also comes at a more than reasonable price of $1.99. Grab your copy of Blaq from App World.
2. GeeReader – While the BlackBerry News app is a great app, the fact that it doesn’t come with Google Reader sync makes it a dead-in-the-water product. Avid online readers have spent years cultivating their Google Reader feeds and it’s great to see a free app that syncs with your Reader account. The GeeReader app is fast, easy to setup, and will import hundreds of feeds nearly instantly. Grab GeeReader for FREE in App World. Continue reading ’5 Must-Have Applications for Your BlackBerry PlayBook’
Smarter Apps has a pretty obvious app development strategy that involves taking the top iPhone apps and porting them over to BlackBerry. It’s a strategy that probably doesn’t even bother the developers of the original app titles because many of them don’t seem to have any plans for BlackBerry anyways. Smarter Apps isn’t exactly hiding the fact that they’re copying these apps, as they choose names like Angry Farm and InstaPhoto. So what’s next for Smarter Apps? We’re going to guess that they’ll develop one of the following:
We’re just joking around and we actually really like Smarter Apps. We’re thankful somebody is bringing these cool apps to the BlackBerry platform. Their latest app, InstaPhoto, is just what you think it is. You can take pictures and apply a library of 25 preset effects, including tilt shift, custom borders, color effects, grunge textures and decorative frames. You can also share your pics with all your friends via Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr.
We’ve written about Magmic’s Texas Hold’em King Live several times because it’s probably the most advanced BlackBerry game in terms of features and monetization strategy. First, the game uses in-app purchases to allow poker players to buy more chips in order to play. Second, the game features its own in-app advertising that shows ads for other Magmic titles. Third, the app uses Pretzil integration to give users access to a plethora of avatars that can be used in-game. There are more great features such as their social integration, but we feel these three features really set them apart.
Recently, Magmic announced that it has passed over 600,000 active player accounts. This number translates into over 7,000,000 “All-Ins” and over 50,000,000 hands dealt over the last 6 months. These numbers add to the already impressive numbers for the THK franchise. Over the years, Magmic’s THK franchise has over 50 million installs across 5 major platforms. These guys were in the business of huge downloads before Angry Birds came around.
If you use Motek’s Code Mucher, you may have noticed being asked to join AppFriendly. The network promotes the fact that AppFriendly gives app recommendations and when you accept the terms and conditions, it downloads an odd app to your device. The AppFriendly app doesn’t have an icon but it does sit on your device running some sort of system process, as seen in the app management settings.
From browsing the AppFriendly network, it looks like Motek is looking to build a social network with profiles, social integration, app ratings and recommendations. The service is obviously in Alpha stealth mode because none of the links work, but it still gives you an idea of how it works and the features it will have. Motek already has a community around their apps where they give users points that can be redeemed for digital goods, and it looks like AppFriendly is a way of extending this ecosystem to other developers. When asked about AppFriendly, Motek responded with: “It’s in Alpha mode right now so we can’t say too much at this point but definitely will share more with you when it’s ready.”
It’s surprising how the City of Ottawa is making headway with RIM’s UX for the PlayBook and upcoming devices. When we first wrote about Teknision, the company responsible for much of the UX work, it seemed people were pretty stunned that it wasn’t TAT, the design firm that RIM is constantly touting in its press releases. It seems another Ottawa company, YOU i Labs, a company that helped work on the HTC Sense UI, has entered in a “significant partnership” with RIM. YOU i Labs works closely with Teknision, as seen in the above video.
Perhaps Ottawa is on the right path to reclaiming the Silicon Valley North title.
There seems to be a misunderstanding in the tech industry that just because BlackBerry users aren’t commenting on your blog or writing about the company, that RIM lacks a fan-base. It’s true that the amount of Internet buzz about BlackBerry does seem to be coming down. Most of the BlackBerry fan sites seem to be slowing down in traffic and have started covering more platforms than just BlackBerry. Take Pinstack.com for example. The site used to be a popular forum for BlackBerry users and now calls itself the “Smartphone Alliance” with more than just BlackBerry covered. PC Mag wrote about the same issue after analyzing the comments on a recent post about smartphone platforms and said:
But there’s one thing missing: I couldn’t find any BlackBerry fans.
This is a huge problem for RIM, which is losing market share every quarter at this point. The problem is only going to get worse if the company can’t muster even a weak cheering section for its products. RIM has relied on IT departments to buy its products for a long time, but with the ongoing consumerization of corporate devices, it has to muster at least some basic level of consumer engagement to succeed against Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
RIM does really well when it comes to the under 20 and over 30 markets in North America, but they are losing share of the mid-20 somethings to Android and iOS. The reason that you won’t see as much about BlackBerry on the Internet is because the 20 somethings control the tech blogging industry and the early adopters aren’t, for the most part, using a BlackBerry these days. Also, as BlackBerry is really popular globally, you’ll see more people writing about BlackBerry in a language other than English.
It’s a really basic point but so many tech bloggers are stuck in their small world of gadget obsessed, early tech adoption, and aren’t interested in a smartphone unless it has that new ridiculous app that Silicon Valley thinks will change the world but is actually really lame. Take the time to talk to someone who doesn’t read tech blogs and they’ll say they love their BlackBerry because the keyboard rules and it came at a really affordable price. They will also not care or know about Quora. But just because a smartphone’s demographic isn’t early adopters, doesn’t mean it lacks a fan base. It’s just that the fanbase isn’t reading your blog and generally aren’t early tech adopters.
