Download the BlackBerryCool app at this link http://www.joemobi.com/dl/1360/ .

The changelog is as follows:

All OS 7 devices supported
Push notifications
Category selection
Search blog posts
Removed old “pull” notifications (to save battery life, since swapping to push)
Thumbnail images added if blog has image
Article and Comments separated into “tabs”
Various bug fixes

UPDATED: The hidden icon is fixed.

If you’re an Android user, you can download the Android app that now has Push Notifications.

Stay tuned because a PlayBook version is coming.

You can also scan this QR Code to go to the download page:

Here is a transcript of some of the questions from the event where we learned about the PIM apps on PlayBook.

Q: If the BES server sits behind the firewall, and you’re concerned about security, are the two email accounts (the personal and the corporate) still separate? In the sense that if I want to send myself a note to my personal account it still goes through the Exchange Server outside the firewall, right?

A: Yeah, so the question was about security within the multiple emails. With this setup, if I send a message from my corporate account to my personal, is it still going back behind the firewall? Absolutely. The infrastructure is the exact same and we’re not doing anything to compromise security. When we get into the BlackBerry Balance portion of the presentation, we’ll talk about resonant data on the device how that is segmented off and protected. Even locally on the device you can’t copy and paste things from one perimeter into another. In that sense, yes, it would go back through the infrastructure, to your Exchange Server, and then follow the guidelines that you have set within your organization.

Q: What do you do about S/MIME?

A: S/MIME on the first iteration of the 2.0 software will not be available initially but will available shortly after.

Q: Will PlayBook 2.0 have the ability to color code the messages?

A: So the question is about setting a border color to denote whether it’s corporate or personal. I have not seen that on the PlayBook but granted I’m not on the final build. We’ll have to get back to that.

Q: Can you edit and spell check on the native email app?

A: Yes, absolutely. The logic we have on the BlackBerry in terms of type ahead and word prediction is all in the 2.0 code. You will have the spell check capabilities.

Q: How fast do the native PIM apps sync with your BlackBerry? Is there a delay?

A: It’s all relatively the same time. I haven’t noticed any delay on messages getting delivered to the PlayBook versus my BlackBerry. Most of the time it’s device, then shortly after PlayBook.

Followup Q: And it’s all the same Push infrastructure?

A: Yes. The infrastructure is essentially the same. The way it works on your BlackBerry is essentially the same as it works on your PlayBook. So the same secure, push channel that you’re accustomed to on your BlackBerry.

Q: Any difference in the ressource requirements on the server side?

A: We’re actually doing those tests now. One of the things that we’re improving is that today on BES you have a 2,000 user limit, with the new infrastructure we’re actually increasing that to several thousand more. We’re reducing the size of your infrastructure including unnecessary load and resources. While I don’t have final numbers on load balancing, the numbers that are coming in are next to nothing. So the normal 1 to 1 correlation to what you have.

Q: What about PIN messaging? As in PIN-to-PIN messaging. We didn’t see that.

A: Yes, and I won’t show you. I don’t believe PIN-to-PIN messaging is in the first iteration but I’ll have to check.

Q: What about Bridge?

A: In version 2.0 there are improvements to the speed of Bridge. There’s not many UI changes, just mostly improvement and small functionality. We’re not abandoning Bridge. While the 2.0 will have performance improvements there will be some updates down the road.

Q: Version 2.0 won’t have cellular connectivity?

A: So 2.0 is just software. The cellular devices or the “4G PlayBooks” will be available roughly around the 2.0 software release. The 2.0 software is designed to run on your current, WiFi only PlayBooks, but we will have 4G PlayBooks around the same time as that 2.0 software.

Q: In many government organizations we don’t have WiFi access. Everything is land based. So I rely on the Bridge for my functionality and we love the video chat but the problem is we can’t use it. Is there a way for us to get access to more of those apps through Bridge?

A: We’ve seen that already. The last update to Bridge allows some applications to use the connection to get out to the Internet. We’re going to of course increase the functionality of core apps to utilize Bridge.

Q: Is the PlayBook 4G being delayed?

A: We have been in testing for several months on 4G devices and on multiple carriers. Several groups are actively testing them and I have not heard of any delays. As of today (November 22nd), I have not heard anything that would put us off schedule from our early 2012 release.

Q: Will the PlayBook come in other sizes?

A: Of course we’re obviously investigating sizes and what makes sense for a larger screen. So yes, I don’t know the exact size and I can’t show you anything, but we’re looking at other sizes.

Q: Does the 4G capability imply voice functionality?

A: Not at first, besides the video chat. There is no ability to make a call from PlayBook to landline call. That’s not the final answer though. Initial release will be strictly data and video chat. There are also third party apps that will let you make a call from PlayBook to landline but not from RIM.

Q: Current video chat – can it be extended from PlayBook to something else?

A: We have teams that are working right now to make it an endpoint to a corporate video chat solution. So we’re in discussions about how that’s going to work. There’s definitely a roadmap for video chat that lets it do more than just device to device.

Q: What about segregating the Address Book by corporate and personal?

A: From a group perspective? The contacts are in one general list and there’s no way to see if they’re a personal or business contact. The device will know based on the service it’s pulling from. Any new contact will be corporate by default (I believe).

Q: What about synchronizing multiple Address Books into one?

A: I have not tried it so I can’t give you a definite answer just yet. I imagine it would still just dump it as one Address Book but I’d have to verify.

Be sure to read our post with screenshots of the upcoming PlayBook PIM apps.

Size, Weight and Feel

The Blackberry Torch 9850/9860 has a really sleek design and a refined look. When you first pick it up it immediately feels great in your hands, especially being held horizontally as it has new curved ends for an all new feel for gaming and typing with the full screen keyboard. It’s a very respectable screen size at 3.7” and the solid design make the phone feel like it was well made and not with cheap plastics. The battery door is made of metal and gives it a nice solid feel however, it does add a little to the weight. Weighing in at 4.76oz it weighs 1oz or about 20% less than the Torch 9810.

I’ve put this device in the hands of several people (including my wife who has a Style 9670) and asked them what they thought of the size, weight and feel. I received very positive feedback from them and they all seemed to really like the weight. They commented on the fact that it felt like a really solid phone. Even my wife said that she doesn’t like touchscreen devices but she really enjoys the styling and the placement of the buttons; especially the full lock key on the top of the device.

Compass

It really makes me happy to see that RIM is finally putting useful technology into their phones and listening to what people want. The Torch 9850/9860 comes fully loaded with a digital compass that enables the use of applications like Wikitude’s augmented reality application.

As great as this feature is, I really don’t think that it’s been perfected yet as I found myself getting quite frustrated having to calibrate the compass several times when trying to use it. I found myself flipping and rotating the phone while walking down the street. I was getting very weird looks from people wondering what the heck I was doing to my phone.

Hardware

RIM has finally upgraded the processor family in the new lineup of blackberrys. In the last generation of phones the fastest processor was 624Mhz and now the slowest processor is 800Mhz, while the higher end phones (Torch, Bold) run a beefed up 1.2Ghz chip. They’ve also added more memory to the new phones, actually the Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 come with 8GB of internal memory, however, the Torch 9850 only comes with 4GB of internal memory. I know it supports up to a 32GB card but come on. Why give one of the higher end BlackBerrys only 4GB of internal memory? Especially when recording HD video takes up so much space, this just doesn’t make any sense to me with memory being so cheap these days.

Screen

I’ll be the first to admit that touchscreen devices for RIM haven’t always been great. I’m very confident in saying that the Torch “Touch” 9850 is by far the best full touchscreen device that they’ve ever made. It finally all comes together, having the new 1.2Ghz processor with OS 7 and Liquid Graphics makes this phone a joy to use and the quality is finally up to much higher standards. It has a large, High-Res 3.7” 800×480 WVGA Transmissive TFT LCD display that produces an extremely crisp and clear picture that will make it hard to put this device down. Rocking out 252ppi (pixels per inch) adds a whole new dimension of clarity that really brings this phone up to standards with the current cell phone market. Sliding through menus and pinching & zooming is a very pleasant experience which I really enjoy showing off to my friends and family. Using the Torch 9800 for scrolling through pictures, menus or anything that would require fluidity is almost painful after using this phone. All in all a great screen that is a huge step up from any previous device.

Input (Virtual Keyboard)

RIM said that they’ve improved the touch keyboard for a better experience and more accuracy. I haven’t really experienced this. The keyboard is still really great and I don’t really have a lot of bad things to say about it but I really don’t think it’s that much improved over previous ones. The Torch 9850 being a full screen device the on-screen keyboard is larger and does feel more accurate. Overall, it’s still missing that refined touch. I still find myself making spelling mistakes and auto-correct just isn’t good enough to know what I’m trying to say. Having a bigger on-screen keyboard and larger device that is conformed to your hands for quick to thumb typing is still a better experience than typing on my Torch 9800.

I did have one major issue with the keyboard that I really hope they fix. In the middle of a text message I would get an error that said “device input error, restarting device”. I thought that it was a one time thing however, it happened to me a few times and OS updates never fixed it. I hope in the next version of the OS RIM get this issue resolved.

Battery Door

Keeping with the theme of full touch screen devices having a metal battery door the Torch 9850 doesn’t change things up. The door is made of a strong, but thin metal that really gives the device a nice feel with a coating that almost feels like satin. The metal door is very easy to remove with the simple push of a button and just as easy to replace. Sporting a polished chrome BlackBerry logo on the back, this battery door really does give it a more refined feel and makes it feel more solid. I’m definitely a fan.

Blackberry OS 7

When I first got my Torch 9800 with OS 6 I had really high expectations and was hoping for a really great device with a much needed update to outdated software that was falling behind the pack.

Unfortunately to say, I wasn’t super impressed with OS 6. The dpi on the screen was low, the motions were choppy and loading applications seems to take a lot longer than expected. I’m very happy to say that all of those issues are a thing of the past and OS 7 has really impressed me and given me some insight of great things to come from BlackBerry.

When I tested the new Torch 9860 at the BlackBerry OS 7 release event in downtown Toronto the representative told me that the web browsing experience was about 40% faster compared to OS 6. I disagree. I thought it was about 80-100% faster, depending on what I was loading. Finally a much improved and better experience browsing on a BlackBerry, as this one probably one of the biggest complaints for BB fans. Also, with HTML 5 support you really can’t go wrong.

The icons while similar to the previous ones have been refreshed with a new feel and new design. Full of detail and color they work hand in hand with the high res and high DPI screen to bring a more refined look.

The voice search is a great new feature in OS 7 giving a “hands free” option for fast searching on your device. Press the microphone icon in the search and you’ll be prompted to say a search word or phrase, Only about a second later your results will be on the screen. Testing this several times I must say that I’m actually really impressed. If there’s little to no background noise this feature was 100% accurate and about 90% with medium to high background noise. Very respectable. What’s needed is for RIM to make the voice a little more user friendly and connect actions. See more about this from this article on BlackBerryCool.

Internal Specifications

Screen/Sensors

TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors
480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (252 ppi)
Optical trackpad
Multi-touch input method
Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
Magetometer (Digital Compass)

Communication

CDMA 800 / 1900 / CDMA2000 1xEV-DO
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / HSDPA 2100 (EDGE ONLY in Canada)
v2.1 with A2DP + EDR
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz)
Full GPS + A-GPS

Media

5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus
Geo-tagging, continuous auto-focus, image stabilization, face detection
720p HD Video recording

Battery

Li-Ion 1230 mAh
Talk Time – up to 6 h 50 min
Music playback – up to 50 hours

Memory

4GB of Storage (This should be 8GB like other OS7 Devices)
768MB of RAM
Up to 32GB with microSD card

Processor

1.2GHz processor, Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon

Media

This device is truly a media powerhouse with an upgraded 5mp camera with autofocus, HD 720p video recording and a refreshed music player. It has all of the bells and whistles to keep you entertained for hours. I’ll start with the camera. The Torch 9800 took good pictures however the 9850 takes better pictures. I find the lighting better and the pictures are just slightly better quality all together.

When I heard that the new OS7 devices were going to have 720p HD video I was very excited because the standard 640 x 480 video was sort of terrible. The video quality is finally clear and smooth along with decent sound getting slightly distorted when what you’re recording is very loud, like at at a concert. For an HD camera built into a cell phone you really can’t go wrong.

The built in music player has also been refreshed and has a much more fluid feel and is incredibly smooth when scrolling through music. Loading up the album covers still takes a second to load initially but once it’s up its good to go. One thing I really like is fact that when you are listening to a song you can scroll through the album covers while still listening to your first song. If you like what you see more than what’s playing just click on it then it begins to play. A new feature in the music player that I found is when your playing a song the artist name and album are now clickable buttons. When you click on artist it shows all songs by that artist, same with the album, it brings up all of the songs you have in that particular album. I find this makes searching for your favorite songs much easier.

General use

Phone quality is very good. I think this is the first phone I’ve had that people don’t complain about not hearing me clearly or asking me to repeat myself several times (which I hate). The speakerphone is quite good as well. I’ve noticed that there is some type of sound amplification that kicks in after the first ring and I’ll have to turn the volume down or it gets distorted and sounds terrible.

SMS and MMS are still very easy to use, which I believe is why a lot of people use BlackBerry. Big buttons on the bottom of the texting screen allow you to add attachment easily, view contact info or even move on to the next unread item in your SMS inbox. BBM 6 is very cool with OS 7 and with Wikitude, you now you can see your BBM contacts that are in your vicinity.

BlackBerry is trying very hard to integrate BBM more into people’s lives, and with the recent release of apps like BBM Music, it’s proof that they are going in the right direction. One massive thing that was fixed with BBM 6 is scrolling in your contact list when it’s expanded used to be incredibly choppy and laggy. I’m happy to say that this has been 100% resolved with the new version of BBM, Liquid Graphics and the new hardware.

Conclusions

Pros:

New design, great feel
OS 7 + New hardware = All around better experience
HD Video recording
Auto focus camera
Digital compass

Cons:

Only 512MB Storage, other OS7 phones have 768MB
No NFC
Digital Compass need calibrating constantly
Battery life – Lower capacity battery than previous phones
Only runs EDGE on GSM Mode (9850 Only)
Tiny mute button

Final thoughts

All in all this is a great addition to the OS 7 line up. Though there are a few things that could be improved upon before the BBX phones come out. I think they could have a better quality chrome bezel around the phone as mine started to peel up within a couple of weeks with regular use.

Launching applications on the Torch 9850 is much better than any previous BlackBerry. The lag between clicking the icon and the launch of the app is now a fraction of a second. RIM is still catching up with the Android / iPhone competition in this department. Until BBX comes out, we’re still stuck with J2ME-based phones that don’t handle the whole app experience very well.

RIM has been judged pretty harshly since the release of these phones and people claim to be let down by RIM. I disagree. I think this is a small leap forward into what we will see from RIM in the near future: a great device with a solid OS. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best full touchscreen device that RIM has released and I’m excited to see the next generation BlackBerrys.

Fine tuning with the new technology will be key if RIM ever wants people actually using these features. I eventually gave up on having to calibrate the compass and it was very frustrating. I still see the hour glass every now and again, and I still need to pull the battery about every 4-5 days. App World bogs down the device, and there is minor checkerboarding in the web browser. I’ve learned to accept these quirks as I really love the whole BlackBerry experience. These are all things that I hope RIM has solved in the new, highly anticipated BBX platform.

I would definitely recommend this device to anyone looking for a little more touchscreen experience from their current Torch 9800.

There was no demo given of the new BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat app so we can’t confirm any of the features. What we can speculate about is that because the Video Chat app now leverages the PlayBook’s PIN, we can assume that the experience of adding people to Video Chat will be much more connected. It doesn’t take much imagination to think RIM will allow you to tap a PlayBook recognized PIN and simply select “Add to Video Chat”. Again, we can’t confirm this but it seems reasonable.

The email client on the PlayBook is simply awesome. RIM has taken the time to create an email experience on the tablet that feels like the smartphone experience, but takes advantage of the tablet’s larger screen. The email experience on your tablet has all the features you would expect including read, write, zoom in and out of email, mark priority etc. The demo of the email experience looks ready for launch and there’s little doubt that RIM will hit the expected February 17th launch date.

The calendar experience on BlackBerry has a fun tablet twist to it too. When you’re really busy on a particular day, the calendar numbers get bigger giving you a quick glance at what your day looks like.

The contacts section of the PlayBook is powered by Gist and if you’ve downloaded the Gist app for your smartphone, you will see it’s a very similar experience. The Gist element is great on a tablet because with all the added screen real estate, you can really delve into a contact and learn more about them without straining your eyes reading a lot of details.

We’re looking forward to when all of this launches on February 17th, 2012. Also mentioned at the event, was that the PlayBook BlackBerry keyboard accessory that we’ve seen a few pictures and video of is coming “early 2012″. RIM can’t push this keyboard out soon enough. It’s going to be the ultimate tool in leaving your laptop behind. More pics below. Let us know if you have questions.

The Bold 9790 is exactly what we love about RIM and BlackBerry. It combines the fast, super-efficient qualities of a QWERTY BlackBerry, and provides a touchscreen experience that comes in handy when navigating apps and menu structures. The fact that this powerful device will also come at a lower price point means that even those on a budget will be able to afford it.

There isn’t much to say about this BlackBerry without going into a full review. A brief experience with the keyboard was very pleasant and while it had a bit of a different feel to it than the Bold 9900 (more of a Curve experience reminiscent of the chicklit keys), it was still awesome.

The fact that you get a Bold 9900-style experience in a smaller form factor at a cheaper price point is incredible. Developers and some industry analysts may complain that it’s continually fragmenting the market, but from a consumer standpoint that doesn’t matter if developers are porting their apps. BlackBerry OS 7 will still have a significant lifespan regardless of BBX, and we expect most developers to make their apps compatible. Many OS 6 apps work just fine in OS 7 and require no extra development work. In the end, the Bold Touch 9790 will surely be a hit in Asian markets, as well as in North America where consumers want a great BlackBerry experience at a lower price point.

NOTE: We claim that the price will be lower but nothing has been announced. We’re simply making the assumption based on the fact that RIM has said during our hands-on that it expects them to be cheaper, but in the end it’s up to the carriers.

What sticks out most about a touchscreen BlackBerry is the fact that RIM is making a device that does not have a keyboard, something that is a core advantage of BlackBerry devices. One would think that a company that specializes in keyboards would be an industry leader when it comes to virtual keyboards, but this hasn’t been the case. The first Storm had a frustrating screen that wouldn’t let you type as fast as you wanted. The Storm2 tried to improve on the device by having multiple contact points, but it didn’t really help. Now, with the Storm3 and Curve Touch, RIM has an all touch device with nothing that really differentiates it from the competition. It’s almost as though RIM has given up on the virtual keyboard experience but its simply making all touch devices because market research dictates they should. This doesn’t seem like a good way to run a company.

The virtual keyboard experience on the Curve Touch and all modern BlackBerry virtual keyboards simply isn’t good enough for anyone that is serious about being fast and efficient with their device. The experience feels much slower for someone that is used to leveraging the power of the keyboard to get things done faster. Here are some simple ways a virtual keyboard makes the BlackBerry slower:

You can’t use Universal Search without first pressing the Search icon. With a physical keyboard, you simply start typing from the homescreen. This isn’t the case with a touchscreen and searching in general is much slower with the keyboard.

When you’re inside an app, you can’t navigate as fast. To navigate 200 BBM contacts, you have to be able to just press the first letter of their name. In Twitter, you may find yourself pressing ‘t’ to get to the top of the stream. You can’t do this with a touch device without first accessing the keyboard in the menu. Even then, it’s slower.

For someone who does a lot of typing on their device, my brief experience with the Curve Touch was really disappointing. There are constant headaches such as the fact that the virtual keyboard doesn’t change based on what fields you are filling out. The keyboard should know you’re in an email field and put the @ symbol front and center; but it doesn’t. That being said, if you don’t use the keyboard then the added screen real estate is wonderful. This is probably the target market of the device but as someone who is clearly not the target market, it’s hard for my first impressions to be anything but negative. If I could somehow just look at this device from the perspective of someone who purely consumes content, I would probably be really happy with the layout and design.

The one positive thing I can say about the virtual keyboard software is that RIM gives you the option to enter text in either full keyboard, reduced keyboard (think Pearl) or T9 (double tap). This is helpful as a reduced keyboard is pretty good for entering common text. The problem is when you try and type something like “Narnia” in reduced text, it’s nearly impossible and you have to switch to full keyboard. This shouldn’t happen.

We’ll have a full review eventually, but until then, my first impressions of the device have less to do with the Curve Touch itself, but more to do with a beef with RIM’s disappointing virtual keyboards. The company has been working on virtual keyboard technology since the launch of the first Storm over 3 years ago. RIM seems to have not made enough progress in the virtual keyboard software department.

Use this QR Code to download the app or hit this link from your BlackBerry browser.

We’ve updated the BlackBerryCool native app to support Disqus comments as well as some bug fixes. The app looks a little nicer too although the icon isn’t great if you’re using a dark wallpaper. The BlackBerryCool app also supports Android, so if you hit the download link or scan the QR code, you can grab the Android version.

Press Menu > Check for Update to update your app. Or go to joemobi.com/dl/1360 from your BlackBerry browser to download OTA.

Being shipped a new device that looked nearly identical to my current Torch 9800 only worsened my fears. The body of the phone seems to be cut from the same mold. It’s such a mirror image of the Torch 9800 that only Torch owners will know you even got a new device. If you’re one of those people who feels the need to show off your new phone you’ll probably feel unfulfilled with the new Torch.

For those who care more about actual performance, this is the device for you. The new Torch is nearly twice the phone that the old Torch was. This has to be the most significant update with the smallest jump in model number I have ever seen. After a week of using the new Torch, I found myself eating my words because my faith in team BlackBerry had been restored.

Better processor: more multitasking

I was a big fan of the Torch 9800 but I found it a little underwhelming when it came to battery life and multitasking. The processor on the Torch 2 runs quite a bit faster than the old Torch 9800’s. Clocking in at 1.2GHz, it’s almost double the rate of the Torch 9800’s 624MHz processor while maintaining some pretty decent battery life. Counting Megahertz is somewhat futile when comparing smartphones; one chip’s 624MHz can potentially outperform another’s 800 MHz. It’s more about how the chip works in conjunction with all the other engineering elements.

I’m not sure if I’m able to say that the new Torch is twice as fast but I am willing to put myself on the line for saying that it’s at least 50% faster than it’s predecessor.

Keep in mind that the Torch 9810 is still new and has yet to be fully optimized. When I first got the 9800, there was an OS update that came a month after launch that optimized battery, cut boot times in half and made navigation a bit smoother and more responsive. Right now my Torch 9810 has what seems to be a 3-minute boot time that I hope will be cured in the first update.

Liquid Graphics: OS lag reduced to acceptable levels

My biggest criticism of the Torch 9800 was that the extra flair put into the animated navigation was laggy. Users could really tell that they were causing a delay because actions were carried out about a second after you made them. I noticed the delay most when I wanted to mark my messages as read, I would have to wait for the OS animation to complete or the message will still be marked unread after exiting back into the messages list. Small stuff I know, but waiting for a computer for the sole reason of “seeing a pretty fade” is just bad design.

I know that all this OS glitter is something that consumers apparently demand. Why bother animate a smooth transition between two screens if you can just cut there? If I could turn off all the swipes and fades in favor of a less resource-intense cut, I would.

All this to say that Liquid Graphics has corrected the noticeable lag between OS transitions, and improved response time for swipe-based navigation, as well as pinch to zoom navigation.

Design: exactly the same as the Torch 9800

I’m very pleased that they didn’t change the design. The upside is all the advantages of the old Torch remain: a well-balanced, large touch-screened, keyboard-driven super-phone. Your old Torch 9800’s cases, skins, battery doors, Micro SD cards, batteries, data cables and chargers are all compatible with the Torch 9810.

A couple of things they have improved are the lightweight metallic body and the new and improved slider hinge. The new Torch is now a bit lighter, more rigid and it takes a lot less coordination to open.

The white space represents the Torch 9800 screen resolution

Display: 3.2 inch diagonal touch screen display with more pixel density

The New torch has a 640×480 display, up from the 9800’s 480×360 display. The display is about as bright and you probably won’t be able to tell too much of a difference between the two models until you realize that your font is a couple of points bigger than what is was on the old Torch.

If you love tiny fonts and packing as much detail as you can on to a mobile screen, you’ll be thrilled about the new Torch’s increased pixel density. There are close to 80 percent more pixels on the 9810 and I didn’t consider the 9800 to be lacking in this department at all.

Optical trackpad: still awesome

There is nothing to report here except for that since the dawn of smartphones, RIM has continually developed some of the best controls schemes designed specifically for mobile. Some users still feel nostalgia for the old scroll wheel, and I think everyone can agree that the new trackpad was an incredible upgrade to the sometimes-temperamental multi-directional scroll ball.

More app memory and more on-board storage

The Torch 9800 had 512MB of application ROM while the Torch 9810 boasts 768MB. With 50% more installed app memory, you can install a few more apps and games before noticing those extra-long boot times. The on-board drive space has been doubled too with 8GB for photos, music and other files. The Torch 9810 has a MicroSD slot that can accept a big 32GB card, bringing the total storage up to 40GB. While this is an improvement, it seems like storage is fast becoming a cloud-based service and we’re no longer concerned with RIM’s choice of SD Cards.

New: Magnetometer

A new addition the Torch 9810’s swiss army knife of features is the magnetometer. This new hardware will pave the way for Augmented Reality apps as well as better navigation apps. The two apps of note are the first party Compass app and the Wikitude augmented reality suite. It seems the software that powers the magnetometer needs a lot of work as I find that it asks me to recalibrate the compass every time I start a magnetometer-app, and several times while using the app too.

Camera and Video

While the old and new Torch both sport a 5 megapixel camera, the new Torch has some under the hood upgrades. Face detection allows the autofocus to choose faces to focus on rather than a distant light bulb that you unintentionally centered.
Also the video recording got a significant boost. The Torch 9810 can record in 720p (1280×720), up from VGA (640×480).

The camera sensor uses a CMOS sensor. CMOS is a great sensor with the exception of taking pictures or shooting video with a lot of motion. When there’s a lot of motion, the top part of the photo gets recorded before the bottom part and your image gets skewed. Same thing happens for video too, a round ball will turn oval when traveling quickly. This isn’t criticism so much as the limitations of CMOS in general. This type of distortion is called Rolling Shutter Distortion.

I love the new 720p video recording. The “send to” menu item is also a nice touch. Directly sending a 720p video to your YouTube account is a feature that is sure to see a lot of use.

Click here for a larger image.

Navigation nirvana: Universal Search

Universal Search has changed the way I access my BlackBerry. Introduced in BlackBerry OS 6, Universal Search allows a user to simply type in a word or two and your BlackBerry will present you with a screen full of highly-contextual options.
Begin typing a person’s name and the BlackBerry will show you the communications, social networking posts, calendar events and all the emails you’ve exchanged with them separated by accounts.

The big improvement OS 7 has made in this regard is how it lets developers tap into Universal Search by using something called Extend Search. This allows users to specifically search using any search engine they please, or specifically search within any app. The extended searches appear right below the universal search results and works wonders for reducing the time it takes to access the information you need.

RIM has also introduced Voice Activated Search that takes a sample of your voice and sends it to a RIM server to decipher it and turn it into text. It takes about 2 or 3 seconds for it to do it’s thing, definitely faster than typing on your BlackBerry with one hand.

These features are not unique to the 9810 but rather come with BlackBerry 7. For more about cool features of BlackBerry 7, check out this link.

App World: available apps

With every new device there is always a two-month period in which very few apps have been ported. As of the writing of this article (August 2011) there are 13402 apps, 1308 games and 7083 themes available for the Torch 9800. Compare that to The Torch 9810’s 1990 apps, 169 games, and zero themes.

I’m not sure what RIM can do to have more apps ready for new devices when they launch but it wouldn’t hurt to try something like making the emulators available for developers earlier.

Faster network: better browsing

So the Torch Webkit browser now supports HTML 5 sites as well as JIT (just in time) javascript acceleration. I really noticed the HTML 5 content right away because embedded YouTube videos would load on-page as opposed to taking me into the YouTube viewer. I also noticed that the faster network connection meant no buffering when accessing multimedia content.

The documentation says that BlackBerry 7 gets up to 30% faster browsing than speeds than BlackBerry 6 and up to twice as fast as OS 5. I didn’t really notice any speed difference whatsoever between BlackBerry 6 and BlackBerry 7. Maybe it’s the rendering of the page that’s bit faster but the act of waiting for stuff to request then load is still as slow as dial-up.

The Torch 9810 has an HSPA+ radio, which is a small leap ahead of the 9800’s 3G radio. For me, this has breathed new life in to my BlackBerry Playbook’s Bridge Browser. I noticed lower access times, actually watchable online videos and tolerable wait times while loading web sites. As a result I’m packing the Playbook with me now instead of leaving it on my desk or coffee table.

Full version of Docs to go comes standard

RIM has included a full version of Docs to go on the Torch 9810. Right out of the box editing and viewing of office documents re-affirms BlackBerry’s business edge. I think that this is the first usable version of Docs To Go because of the new screen size. I’ll have no problem emailing myself a document or spreadsheet and working on it as I travel.

Should I upgrade?

If you use your phone to show off your sense of gadget style, are hoping to upgrade to BlackBerry OS 8 or buy a phone every second year, this is probably a model that you can skip.

If you spend more than 20 minutes per day on your BlackBerry, buy a new phone every year, are owed a device upgrade from your carrier, are a fan of the Torch 9800, or own a BlackBerry Playbook, you should without hesitation get the new Torch. It performs so you can outperform.

The BBM Music Service is a media app built on top of BBM using the BBM Social APIs. The app features a pretty stellar music catalog that current has around 10 million songs from the big four music labels: Universal, Time Warner, EMI and Sony. Before you write-off those labels as being too mainstream, recognize that many of the indie labels you love are actually owned by the big four but operate under a different name so you still think they’re cool. I’ll go into the catalog more later in the review.

Read the announcement post for the basics on what the BBM Music Service is all about.

Social Experience

The cornerstone of the BBM Music Service is the social experience around music that’s augmented by BBM. Adding friends to the BBM Music Service is incredible easy. When you initiate the friend adding process, you get a list of friends who have BBM 6 and the Music Service installed, making it easy to grab friends right out of your contacts. The downside to all of this is that you’re very limited by your own contacts and the technical requirements. When RIM says they can leverage the 40+ million BBM users, what they don’t say is that a very small portion of those users have the latest BBM 6 and an even smaller portion will end up buying into the BBM Music Service.

It’s awesome to see your song list jump when you add friends, but it should be noted that when one of those users backs out of the service or doesn’t continue after the free trial, you lose those songs.

After using the app for a couple hours, I was able to amass 7 friends (4 pending – WTF guys!?) and 126 songs. That’s not too bad considering the app is in extremely limited beta. The only downside to adding people is your library can get filled very quickly with a lot of junk you don’t like. There is an “ignore song” feature but adding friends does quickly mess up your music vibe. Also, it looks like adding friends’ music to your library also messes with the recommendation engine. This is something that should be fixed in the beta. Don’t recommend me songs based on what other people like, recommend based on what I like.

The Cloud

The fact that the BBM Music Service is a cloud app makes it really handy for changing devices. Migrating from a BlackBerry OS 6 device to a BlackBerry 7 device kept all my songs and everything was in place. When you migrate, it says “would you like to swap the device” and you only have 5 of these. This probably has to do with protecting the music from sharing accounts, but it’s important to know that you only can do this 5 times.

There seems to be a lot of negative reaction from the media to the 50 song limit. The limit isn’t actually bad at all considering you can delete songs and continually curate your lists. Also, there’s nothing stopping you from collaborating with your BBM Music Service friends so there’s no duplication and you all get access to more songs in total.

Discovery

In terms of music discovery, the BBM Music Service was actually really good. I consider myself outside the mainstream when it comes to music tastes and I was able to find somewhat obscure artists on the service such as Paramore, Kreayshawn, Boys Noize and Ninjasonik. There were even a lot of remixes in the catalog. Now, it’s not perfect and there were a few relatively mainstream artists such as Justice and Two Door Cinema Club that returned nothing, but as far as discovery goes the BBM Music Service was really impressive. I guess we don’t give The Big Four enough credit.

The fact that you have to go into the options and select “Show Explicit Content” and set a password was so lame it’s hard to imagine that somebody actually insisted that feature exists. Did a team of moms make this app or is this RIM legal’s doing?

The BBM Social APIs

It’s good to see RIM using their own BBM Social Platform and it doesn’t seem like they’re using any hidden APIs or functionality. This is really important because it’s inspiring to other developers. If you use hidden APIs that developers don’t have access to, you send the message that only RIM can make a successful app. When RIM “eats its own dog food”, it tells developers that they can do it too.

The problem with RIM using its own BBM Social APIs is that the platform isn’t great when it comes to user experience. There’s a lot of waiting as the app verifies, grabs permissions and generally just hangs while it talks to a server. We have talked about this before but RIM really needs to be less paranoid when it comes to the BBM Social Platform. The BBM Music Service is a great example of how this paranoia with the BBM Social APIs creates a negative user experience.

Where The App Should Go

Integration with Vevo and YouTube – The app has some integration with Amazon which is cool because it lets you buy the music to transfer it to your desktop. What’s needed is more integration such as the ability to watch the music video or grab the lyrics to the song.

Featured DJs – The Staff Picks are pretty lame and considering all the work BlackBerry and Diplo have been doing, it would be great to see someone like him take over the Staff Picks section.

Rewards - It would be cool if I could be rewarded for curating a popular list of songs or inviting lots of users to the service. Many storage services for example will offer you larger online storage accounts for inviting friends to the service. If my invitations result in someone paying $5 per month, I should be able to have another 5 songs at my disposal.

Self promotion – There should be some way of linking to your BBM Music Service profile. Many BBM users like to leave their PINs for others to add them on BBM (take a look at our Facebook page), so why can’t we have something similar for the BBM Music Service. Being able to promote your account with a QR code or link would increase the number of songs you have access to and would make it a more social experience.

Final Thoughts

The BBM Music Service app is a lot of fun but I can’t help but think it could have been bigger. We live in an age where software sells hardware and the best thing RIM can do is to create more platform services that developers can use to make apps and build businesses. Rather than spend all this time creating an app with their own APIs, perhaps RIM should have figured out a way to build music into the current BBM Social APIs where all developers could have used music to augment their applications. If RIM had negotiated a music deal with the Big Four and offered developers a way to hook into the music service, it could have resulted in far more music apps being developed than just the BBM Music Service. The service is a great start but I’m reminded of what Zappos Co-Founder Tony Hsieh once said: “Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger”.

Click to make larger

We’ve been hearing rumors about it and now the BBM Music Service is official and announced. Everything we heard about the service is true: for $5, you get 50 songs and access to a catalog of music that will be around 10 million songs total. There will also be at least one month free for every user that signs up for the service.

The way the BBM Music Service works is simple. When you sign up for the service, you get to choose your 50 songs from the catalog. You then begin to socialize with others around your music experience and meet new people. When you add friends, you also get access to their 50 songs. As users socialize more, their catalog of songs they have access to and can listen to for free grows. This encourages you to make more friends and it also motivates you to promote the app to your friends so you can also listen to their 50 songs.

One aspect of this service that we believe will be really powerful that RIM may not have considered, is that it will be a powerful promotional tool for artists. Using the service, DJs and anyone in the music industry can promote themselves on the service and gain followers. They will then be able to add these friends not only to their BBM Music Service network, but also to their BBM contact list. Imagine a DJ that says “follow me on the BBM Music Service to listen to my favorite tracks. Also, add me to BBM and get access to VIP deals.”

Key features of BBM Music include:

• Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. You can refresh your profile by swapping out up to 25 songs each month.
• Invite your BBM friends to subscribe to BBM Music and to join your BBM Music Community.
• With each friend that is added to BBM Music, you grow your music collection since the songs from the profile of each BBM Music friend are available to you at any time.
• Up to 50 tracks from your personal profile are shared with your BBM Music Community, and each member of your community shares up to 50 songs from their profile with you.
• Enjoy a truly social community-based music experience – the more friends who join your community, the more songs you can listen to.
• Easily discover music that your BBM Music friends are listening to, and comment on your friends? songs and playlists.
• You can create multiple playlists from music in your profile as well as all of your friends? profiles, and with one click you can shuffle the entire collection of music from your BBM Music Community. You can even see which friend contributed each song while it plays.
• Within your BBM Music app, you also see a visual timeline that shows the recent updates of all users within your community. It gives you a chronological view of community updates, including who added new friends, which songs were added or removed, which playlists were created and what comments were made by your BBM Music friends.

A closed (limited) beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting today in Canada, the United States and the UK. The BBM Music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 USD in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For more information about BBM Music, and to sign up to be notified of its availability in your country, please visit blackberry.com/bbmmusic.

We’ll have a Beta Review of the service shortly so stay tuned.

We often hear that developers, while great at coding and thinking of cool apps, sometimes find it frustrating to come up with a good pricing structure for their app. When you’re working on a really cool product that you’re eager to take to market and get feedback on, the last thing you want to do is spend days coding the app to fit a pricing structure that may or may not even work. Here at BlackBerryCool, we’ve talked to a lot of developers about pricing methods they’ve tried, and we thought we’d put together some hints we have heard that seem to work.

1. Don’t look to iOS – $1 is hard to make a living on

Often times BlackBerry developers will look to Apple and competing apps on other platforms for an idea of how to price their app. If you’re comparing to iOS, your app may end up around $1 and if you’re looking at Android it will probably end up being free. Realize that while $0.99 may be a good starting point for a coin flipping app of some sort, or an easy theme, but if you’re building an app that you’re looking to make a business out of, start with something that will gross a decent amount of revenue. Also, BlackBerry still comes with higher barriers to entry which ties a premium to the app price. In the end adding a dollar to the price won’t hurt the customer’s pocket but it could be double your revenue.

2. Compete on two fronts: features and price

Before coming up with a good price and launching your app, you should be checking out the competition and seeing what other apps are out there. Make a spreadsheet and list out the various competitors, price, and feature sets. This should give you a good overview of how your app fits. Does your app fall behind others in terms of features? Consider pricing lower or adding a unique feature or two. Differentiating your app is an easy way to hone in on a subset of users that are looking for different use cases of an app and willing to pay more.

3. Long term support brings long term costs

If you’re going to be updating this app over a long period of time and it will require continuous support – go subscriptions. Recurring revenue is not only a good way to sustain the development of the app, but it’s a great way to build a business. As your app portfolio grows and you have several apps with recurring revenue, you can start to budget for overhead costs and potentially build a big enough budget to hire. Charging for updates is another way to support long term development, but getting users to update is hard enough. It’s easier if the billing is in the background and updates come free.

4. In-app advertising will give you headaches

We have spoken to several developers with popular apps that have said many of the ad services have been killed by acquisitions and it is very difficult to get the ad spaces filled. Often times what will happen is that your app will ping the ad server such as AdMob, and it won’t return an ad. The best way to handle this is to have your ad return an in-house ad for another app you’re selling. This is one way you can monetize your unfilled ad inventory but it requires a decent portfolio of apps.

A theory on why mobile ads aren’t doing as well as they used to is that when the large players acquired the smaller ad networks (eg. Apple acquired Quattro and Google acquired AdMob), these companies killed off the sales teams that were crucial in attracting partners to the ad platform. The big guys expected the inventory to fill itself with their pre-existing partners but you still need hustlers constantly attracting new ad buyers.

You may be able to squeeze more money out of the small inventory with some creative coding. The more intrusive you make the ads, the more likely you are to make money. The Jared Company has a free screencapture app called Screen Grabber that displays an ad and it isn’t all that obvious how to click away from it. The company may be making some decent money on that app but there’s a ton of screencapture apps on the market and it’s increasingly difficult to differentiate.

5. In-app payments are the future

It has been predicted here before on BlackBerryCool – eventually all apps will be free. More apps are moving to a free trial and in-app payments give another layer of depth to the free trial system. While all apps will eventually offer a minimal amount of free trial, those with in-app payments will be able to further monetize the app by charging for unlocking features or offering progression through a game at an advanced rate.

Final thoughts

Take a look at the Top Grossing apps in Mobihand and their prices. Here are the Top 3:

1. Tether $49.99
2. BeBuzz $5.99
3. BerryWeather $9.99

These apps are priced in such a way that the developers realize the cost it takes to create an app and the value that the user derives from the product. Some might think that Tether is too costly given the alternate tethering solutions, but there are countless users that loved the simplicity and were willing to pay. While we’re not telling developers to charge an extreme amount, we’re saying that most developers need to be far more bullish on app value. Combining a more bullish price stance, a free trial, and the ability to unlock additional features at a price will help you design an app that you can build a business on.

The new BlackBerry 7 devices are out in the wild and being tested and there are reviews starting to pop up today as RIM’s review embargo is lifted. What really makes these devices is a combination of hardware and software and while the hardware review will be up shortly, here is a glimpse at some features that you’ll appreciate from the software side of things. There were a few features that we’ve left out of this Top 10 list because they were hardware dependent. Features such as HD video recording are really awesome, but it may be more hardware than software at work.

Here are some fun features of BlackBerry 7 in no particular order:

Manage Panels

One thing we liked about BlackBerry 6 was the introduction of panels, but there was a lot of redundancy. For example, many of your Favorite apps would also appear in your Frequent apps. In BlackBerry 7, you can customize which panels are visible.

To use custom panels, go to:

Homescreen > Options > Manage Panels

Add to Existing Contacts

One of the more frustrating elements of adding contacts with your BlackBerry is there was no “add to existing contacts” field and you would have to either create a new contact or navigate to the contact and copy and paste. Now the feature is baked right in.

Custom Search Engines

It’s great to see that custom search engines are built into BlackBerry 7. One of the downsides is that it isn’t all that easy to add custom search engines and it would be nice if it were as easy as Firefox. We’ll have a tutorial coming on how to add a variety of search engines for those not sure how to enter the search fields properly.

Device Switch

The device switch options located in the Setup app, has some really helpful features for backing up and restoring your device. The app allows you to backup and restore using the SD Card which helps if you’re not big on using data. Another great backup tool is BlackBerry Protect which is preloaded on the device (more on that later).

To access the Device Switch app, head to:

Setup > Device Switch

Voice Activated Universal Search

Voice activated universal search is a fun feature if you’re on the move and don’t feel like looking down at your device and tapping away. Now, it can also be a pretty embarrassing feature if you’re searching for something you don’t want others listening to. This feature is also available in the Google Mobile app but now you also get the added benefits of searching your device.

To use the Voice Activated Universal Search app:

Tap Search then tap the mic icon

Liquid Graphics

Liquid graphics is a somewhat vague term but it’s pretty clear that RIM needed something to describe the fact that the latest devices use a combination of increased processor power and OpenGL 2 to create a fluid and lightning fast homescreen. This is also the reason that BlackBerry 7 isn’t backwards compatible – because the BlackBerry 6 devices didn’t have the OpenGL 2 support. When you pick up a BlackBerry 7 device, you can really feel the difference.

HTML 5 Video Support

HTML 5 is fast becoming a great new standard for the web and many sites are specifically adopting HTML 5 video. Popular video sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and others have either already implemented HTML 5 video or have a beta player available to the public. We’ve taken the browser to some great HTML 5 video sites including the above at videojs.com and the browser performed tremendously.

BlackBerry ID Integration

One of the more frustrating elements of BlackBerry 6 was having to constantly re-enter your BBID. Now, the BBID is baked into the BlackBerry experience and apps can access it. We’ve also experienced App World has had a huge improvement with this new feature as you don’t have to constantly enter your BBID each time you download an app.

Great Suite of Preloaded Apps

BlackBerry 7 comes with a host of awesome apps that make the overall BlackBerry experience more enjoyable. These apps include:

Social Feeds 2.0
BlackBerry Messenger 6
Wikitude
Docs to Go Premium
BlackBerry Protect
BlackBerry Balance (for BES users)

Browser Speed Improved by 40%

Last and CERTAINLY not least is the fact that the Browser in BlackBerry 7 is now 40% faster than it was in BlackBerry 6 and 100% faster than it was in OS 5 (official percentages from RIM). The new browser may not be faster than the iPhone 4′s, but it certainly is fast enough to make browsing a pleasant experience. Remember on OS 5 devices when you didn’t even bother using the browser? Those days are completely gone.

More pictures from the event available from PhotoJunkie.ca.

First of all, can you believe these model numbers? RIM couldn’t have made them more confusing. I have been writing about BlackBerry for years and I simply cannot remember what device they’re talking about when they say 9850, 9860 or 9810. The 98xx doesn’t even represent the same device anymore. You used to be able to write 97XX and you knew the 9700 and 9780 both looked the same, but not anymore. From now on, we’re going to refer to the devices by name only. The following seem most appropriate:

Bold 9900 = Bold Touch
Torch 9810 = Torch 2
Torch 9850/9860 = Storm 3

Recently, we attended the BlackBerry 7 Fan Night in Toronto and we had an opportunity to get some quality time with RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 7 devices. There are a lot of things to say about these devices with some Pros and Cons for each of them. Generally, these devices are everything we saw last year but turned up around 40%. The user experience is faster, with homescreen switching and app launching all happening much faster (Liquid Graphics), and the web browsing experience is also much faster. The Torch 9850 and 9860, aka the Storm 3, seems to be RIM bringing back the all-touch experience (with trackpad), and it’s probably the most risky of the BlackBerry 7 devices.

Before we go into why you should or should not get these devices, we should make a mention of why you should or should not care about BlackBerry 7. BlackBerry 7 is the stepping stone between BlackBerry 6 and QNX. It’s an awkward transition (most are), as BlackBerry 7 does not support BlackBerry 6 and will not be upgradable to QNX. If you get a BlackBerry 7 device, hopefully you have the cash to upgrade to QNX in Q1 of next year.

BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860

The Storm 3 is the riskiest of the three devices that were recently announced by RIM. The Bold is the flagship and will do great in terms of sales and the Torch 2 will be able to ride on the success of the first Torch. The Storm 3 is the wild card in terms of success and the device being shown at the BlackBerry 7 Fan Night had some decent hardware but it’s the software that makes the device and this isn’t clear yet. Everything that will make the Storm 3 awesome isn’t out yet and probably won’t be out for some time. Sure, the initial preloaded apps are great, but if there aren’t any developers taking advantage of the Augmented Reality APIs or the BBM Social Platform, the Storm 3 won’t reach its full potential.

Why you should buy:

• Feels great in your hand.
• Screen resolution is great and rich media looks awesome.
• Magnetometer will make navigation, games and apps much better.
• New virtual keyboard design makes typing much easier.
• Video records at 720p HD.
• 5MP, zero-shutter lag camera.

Why you shouldn’t buy:

BlackBerry Torch 9810

The Torch 2 is a decent upgrade for those who either own a Torch and want the same form factor, or those who wanted a Torch 1 and can afford the upgraded version. The Torch is a great form factor as it truly combines business and pleasure. The touchscreen and full QWERTY allow you to experience rich media and type out important emails all from the same device. It also embodies a core advantage of BlackBerrys which is choice. With the Torch you have the choice between a touchscreen and keyboard device, making it an easy sell for a wide range of users.

Why you should buy:

• 4G speeds on AT&T
• 5 megapixel camera with HD 720p video recording
• 8 gigabytes of onboard storage
• Slightly improved keyboard over the Torch 1 (a little more ergonomic)
• Magnetometer will make navigation, games and apps much better.

Why you shouldn’t buy:

• Still a fairly bulky device.
• Not too much differentiating it from the Torch 1
• No NFC

BlackBerry Bold 9900

We believe the Bold Touch is definitely the best device out of all three. The Bold line is the flagship device at RIM and while we would have loved all three devices to have NFC, it turns out the Bold Touch is the only one with NFC support. This is sort of like how OpenGL was only enabled in a few CDMA devices which made it not viable to develop games using the OpenGL standards. NFC will be featured on other platforms so it’s not completely the same, but it definitely takes some of the fun out of NFC to know that only one BlackBerry supports it, even though RIM committed to NFC. The Bold Touch’s real advantage is what made the Bold 9000 the best – the keyboard. The form factor of the Bold Touch is reminiscent of the 9000 but brings a modern feel to it. The device is extremely lightweight and beautifully designed. The touchscreen is great too as it gives you another input method to browse the web and scroll. This device is everything we love about BlackBerry and we hope that when the QNX devices launch, we’ll see a big upgrade to the Bold line. RIM – can we have the scroll wheel back? That would be the ultimate in nostalgia.

Why you should buy:

• NFC support
• Thin and lightweight – making it the slickest BlackBerry ever
• Iconic in every sense – keyboard, screen and form factor.
• Touchscreen gives a great browsing and navigating experience.
• Superior build quality.
• Magnetometer will make navigation, games and apps much better.

Why you shouldn’t buy:

• If you can wait for QNX then do it.
• If you’re looking for a bigger screen you may prefer Torch 2 or Storm 3.
• If you have big fingers then the touchscreen may be awkward.

Final Notes:

It seems like the 2011 devices are the end of an era in a sense. They will all ship with BlackBerry 7 and which will not be upgradable to the QNX platform so whether you pick up these devices seems dependent on your purchasing cycle and whether you can afford to wait until Q1 2012. If you buy a smartphone every year, then these devices are definitely good enough to hold off until QNX, but if you buy a smartphone only once every two years, we recommend you wait. The QNX platform, assuming it will be like the PlayBook, just has so much cool stuff that’s possible for it such as OS emulation on your smartphone. Even though we don’t know for sure yet, we imagine the QNX smartphone being the first smartphone to run every app on the market. Consumers who love their BlackBerrys will appreciate the new toys and functionality that these devices bring and will definitely keep you entertained and productive until QNX arrives.

BlackBerry 7 looks just like OS 6 but the software performance is tweaked and the overall experience is much faster. When you’re browsing the homescreen and switching between screens, the device performs really well. One of the downsides of OS 6 was the lag you experienced when perusing the apps; but this is gone now. BlackBerry 7 also brings with it the new APIs that will help developers make more engaging apps such as Augmented Reality apps. Another major advantage in BlackBerry 7 is the updated web browser. Browsing on a BlackBerry 7 device is much faster and the browser is around 40% better than the browser with BlackBerry 6.

The real downside to all of this is that there are still a few major issues we have with the BlackBerry Platform and its user experience that are simply not addressed in the latest OS. For example, the devices still take a long time to boot up and downloading apps still makes your device nearly unusable. Alsop, while it’s great to see new APIs being released for BlackBerry 7, there doesn’t seem to be any news around improving the developer tools. BlackBerry developers are still stuck with some major frustrations such as having to use the awful simulators.

Click through for a few reasons why you should or should not care about BlackBerry 7.

Why you should care:

• If your device can upgrade, you should be able get the benefits of better performance.
• The web browser is much better with BlackBerry 7. The checkerboarding is almost completely gone.
• Augmented Reality APIs and Wikitude make for a really fun BBM experience.

Why you shouldn’t care:

• It’s not QNX and it’s still feels a lot like OS 6.
• BlackBerry 7 devices will not be able to upgrade to QNX.
• Performance still negatively impacted when downloading apps.
• Apps still require a reboot after installation.
• BlackBerry Maps didn’t seem any better. It was hard to test because the maps didn’t even load (could have been a network issue).
• The device still takes too long to boot.

Still want to know:

• Will themes be any better on BlackBerry 7?
• Also not sure if performance is any better when handling many apps.

What else do you want to know?

Remember those horrible BBM lounge parties? Companies can waste lots of money trying to be cool.

With BlackBerry Messenger 6.0 now available for download through App World, users around the world will be upgrading and able to leverage the functionality of the BBM Social Platform that developers have implemented. To recap, the BBM Social APIs give developers access to the following:

• Access to user’s BBM contact list
• Ability to leverage BBM for chat in-app
• Update status and avatar
• Use BBM as a data pipe

With these features in mind, there’s plenty you can do with the BBM Social Platform to create new and innovative apps. Here are 5 apps that would be cool using these new APIs.

1. Virtual Gift Giving

Facebook Gifts was a really popular service and millions of gifts were given and many purchased for friends. The reason it was so popular is probably the basic premise of gift giving which is “it’s the thought that counts.” Sure, all of us would prefer a real chocolate cake over a virtual chocolate cake, but the fact that your friend spent $1 to say she’s thinking about you means something and is appreciated. The same concept would be huge on BBM. It would be huge for both flirting and animosity. You could send your BBM friends both nice gifts (eg an ice cream cone) or mean gifts (eg a brown paper bag for their face).

2. Music Sharing App

The BBM Social APIs allow you to use BBM to send data. One of the obvious ways this should manifest itself is a music sharing app. How many times have you seen someone on your contact list with their status set as the song they’re listening to? It’s very popular and it would be great if I could click on that link and download the song my friend is listening to. It may or may not work for the App World guidelines, you would have to look into that and maybe use some sneaky wording.

3. Dating App

People love to share their PINs and meet people. If you’ve been to the BlackBerryCool Facebook page lately, you may have noticed there’s a ton of people sharing their PINs and trying to meet each other. Even App World is filled with reviews with people leaving their PINs in the hopes that someone would add them randomly and it will blossom into a love affair. Now that you can access the BBM contact list, chat and update statuses, why not leverage that as a dating app?

4. Photovine for BBM

Photovine is a photography app by Google that lets you create a vine (sort of like an album) that people can add photos to. As people add photos to vines, they tell their own stories about the moments, images, and ideas that define our lives in a way that’s social, creative, and fun. It would be awesome to see all of this done over BBM. You can simply start the vine, and request your BBM friends begin adding to it.

5. Scavenger Hunt app

With the ability to share video, pictures, files, audio and location over BBM, you have all the right ingredients for a scavenger hunt app. The way the app would work is that you boot it up, find friends on BBM who want to play, and the app sets goals for each of you to do. The app could tell both of you to take a picture of a bottle of water, and then audio record yourself asking someone what their favorite food is. The first person to finish the race wins.

Have you checked whether or not your app is being pirated? A development shop recently reached out to BBCool to say that they’ve noticed a particular Mobihand user that has been purchasing their software and then posting the JAD files on his website and Twitter. This software pirate is from Malaysia and sells a $10 VIP membership to offset the cost of buying the apps. According to the developer it’s getting really bad and the download rate for pirates apps is 2 to 1 compared to paid, and it’s all coming from this one guy. Obviously, we’re not going to write the pirate specifically because we don’t want to drive any traffic to him.

We’ve been on a tirade against Mobihand lately and this is just one more reason we don’t think developers should be giving them their intellectual property. When speaking with developers, the general consensus seems to be that only 10% or so of sales comes from Mobihand and the rest from App World. The reason why developers are staying with Mobihand these days seems to be because they want a closer relationship with the bloggers and giveways through Mobihand make it easy to reach out to the community. But if only 10% of your revenue is coming from Mobihand, you should consider simply finding other ways to reach out to the community. Sure, App World has its downsides, but if your software is being pirated then it’s worth losing that 10% revenue and finding a new way to market alongside bloggers. Gift cards are an easy giveaway as they can be sent remotely.

Also, if you just email us and tell us about the app, chances are we’ll write about it and don’t need your giveaways. While they’re always fun to have, it’s not essential. The blogging business is shifting these days as bloggers are making less from Mobihand and traffic for most BlackBerry sites seems to be somewhat on the decline. RIM is in a slump right now and while there are tons of BlackBerry sites out there, there are very few that are actually generating much traffic. The industry will have to shift away from Mobihand as they’re not paying enough to merit working with.

So developers, if bloggers are dropping Mobihand, your revenue from them is minimal, and they’re letting your software be compromised by pirates, what reasons do you have left to stay with them?

We’ve already had some really awesome submissions for the BBM Apps Hackathon Event in NYC. Remember, if you want to win a free trip and sweet prize pack, all you have to do is email us your app idea at tips@blackberrycool.com. We’ve also had a few questions from developers about what apps they should write and how they can best position themselves to win the hackathon. Here are a few tips for developers interested in the event:

Games are Obvious

We’ve already had a bunch of entries for games for the BBM Apps Hackathon and they seem like a pretty obvious choice. Sure, games are the most downloaded category of apps for smartphones but they’re also the most obvious choice for BBM integration. It would be great to see some devs finding new and innovative ways of using BBM to connect people.

Adding BBM Functionality is Easy

RIM definitely wants to see devs showing up with apps and adding BBM functionality but that’s so boring. If you have an app, it makes sense to add some BBM integration to help users promote your app but don’t use that at a hackathon. It would be great to see developers actually creating apps from scratch rather than just showing up with apps they’ve already made and integrating them with BBM.

Remote Teams Help

You can’t win a trip to NYC as a team and only individuals can apply, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a team helping you remotely. If you’re going to be hacking an app together, have a designer and someone who can help you make the app look finished and clean.

Bring Code

There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t bring code to the hackathon. In a traditional hackathon, you have to create the app from scratch and you can’t bring code with you. RIM hasn’t outlined any specifics about bringing code to the event so you may as well set up any backend infrastructure and anything that will take up time at the event. Also, if you have time, you may as well write as much of the app as you can before the event so your demo looks really clean. There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t.

There’s also a few things RIM sort of dropped the ball on when it comes to this hackathon. What’s really strange is that there doesn’t seem to be a grand prize for the hackathon. If you’ve ever been to a hackathon, you know they generally end with a demo and presentation of the winner with some sort of prize. It’s the prize that motivates the devs to come out to the event. By only giving a prize to the winning dev who applies, RIM might have a really poor turnout for the event. Also, the fact that they don’t allow teams and you can bring code shows that they seem new to the whole hackathon thing. The point of a hackathon is that you’re supposed to show up and create an app on the spot. It seems RIM doesn’t really care about the specifics of the hackathon, and they’re more interested in just getting some devs using the BBM Social Platform. If the company was more interested in a true hackathon, it would probably inspire more devs to participate.

Remember, send us your app ideas to tips@blackberrycool.com and we might choose you as the winner and send you to NYC with a sweet prize pack.

UPDATE: Please email tips@blackberrycool.com if you are going to enter. We need to know to help give out the prizes.

RIM is hosting a BBM Apps Hackathon Event August 11-12 in NYC. It’s an exclusive event that gives developers the opportunity to participate in an apps-building marathon using the highly popular BBM Social Platform. RIM experts will guide participants through different development approaches and techniques that leverage the viral/social functionality of BBM Social Platform and best integrate with applications.

BlackBerryCool will be identifying the best developers for the Hackathon Event and giving away one trip to the event, $500 spending money, and a BlackBerry Bold 9900.

To be eligible for the Hackathon, the developer must:

• have an idea for a new BlackBerry® application that incorporates BBM
• have the capability to build a BlackBerry smartphone app with their idea
• have a laptop with all the software, accessories and equipment needed to build their app, including a laptop loaded with BlackBerry® WebWorks™ or BlackBerry® Java®
  be a resident of the United States, District of Columbia (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, New York and Florida) or Canada (excluding Quebec)
• be able to travel to attend the BBM Apps Hackathon Event (“Event”), August 10-13, 2011, and be able to confirm such availability within 48 hours of potential winner notification from RIM
• understand that the Event will be filmed and that by participating in the BBM Apps Hackathon Contest, consent to the filming of their developer story and the use of their image

Ideally, the winner will have a BlackBerry app that they want to integrate with BBM.

Click through for the rules of the contest and more details or head over to bbmnyc.com to get started.

A quick recap:

The eligibility criteria that developers need to meet to enter this contest include:

• have an idea for a new BlackBerry® application that incorporates BBM
• have the capability to build a BlackBerry smartphone app with their idea
• have a laptop with all the software, accessories and equipment needed to build their app, including a laptop loaded with BlackBerry WebworksT or BlackBerry Java
  be a resident of the United States, District of Columbia (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Florida) or Canada (excluding Quebec)
• be able to travel to attend the BBM Apps Hackathon Event (“Event”), August 10-13, 2011, and be able to confirm such availability within 48 hours of potential winner notification from RIM
• understand that the Event will be filmed and that by participating in the BBM Apps Hackathon Contest, consent to the filming of your developer story and the use of your image

NOTE: New York residents are eligible.

More information about the event is at bbmnyc.com and details regarding Contest Rules at bbmnyc.com/contestrules.

To help developers build apps using the BBM Social Platform, RIM is also offering the following series of webinars:

Integrating with the BBM Social Platform, One Step at a Time.
Step 1: Viral Distribution and the BBM Contact List
Date: Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

Integrating with the BBM Social Platform, One Step at a Time.
Step 2: User Profile and Custom Profile Box
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

Integrating with the BBM Social Platform, One Step at a Time.
Step 3: BBM Chat and Embedding Chat within your App
Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Time: 2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST

RIM has announced that BlackBerry WebWorks SDK 2.1 is available for BlackBerry smartphones. The update comes on the heels of the WebWorks SDK for the Tablet OS and provides similar functionality and APIs to the smartphone OS.

The new capabilities that WebWorks developers can now leverage include NTML & BASIC Authentication support, Camera API, Top Banner Indicator API, Enhanced Push APIs and improved rendering speeds for some applications. The WebWorks SDK also gives developers access to better app monetization methods such as better integration with the BBM Social Platform.

Developers can learn more about the new APIs at this link and can download the latest WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry Smartphones here.