I got a chance to learn more about RIM’s new smartphone offerings in a WES session. Three of RIM’s experts were in attendance: Andrew Bocking, Product Marketing Engineer, Carlo Chiarello, Director of Product Management, and David Smith, Director of Product Management. The group went into details about the new devices and their accompanying accessories. I’ve posted the audio, which is a good listen if you’re interested in learning more about the major announcements, and I’ll follow up with more shortly.
Topics include (in chronological order):
New device overview
Device product lines overview (how the new devices fit into the entire device lineup)
New chargers and accessories
OS 5 overview (which Bocking called “BlackBerry 5”)
BlackBerry 6 (lots of small details about the user interface and design philosophy)
Tvider is a free app that lets you share pics, video and audio on Twitter. There are two main ways of sharing files, by uploading on the spot with “InstaPix”, “InstaVid” and “InstaAudio” or using a feature called “MemWhiz” which lets you select a file and attach a Tweet to it. The app is available for most BlackBerrys except touchscreen devices.
Chalk Media, the company acquired by RIM that specializes in mobile video services, today announced Chalk Pushcast Software 5.4. This is the latest and newly branded version of Mobile Chalkboard, which is a tool for delivering audio and video to BlackBerry devices, most often for training purposes.
Chalk’s Pushcast Software 5.4 features a new UI, deeper integration with BES, SSL security for web access, and support for OS 5.
Audible.com is now available as a BlackBerry application. The app lets you shop, sample, download, and playback audio from Audible’s catalog. The application is free, and it’s compatible with the BlackBerry Storm, Bold, Curve 83xx, Pearl and 8800.
If you download the application, you receive a free copy of Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded audiobook.
There are two ways to install Audible for BlackBerry:
Send a TXT message with the word “blackberry” to 35620.
We talked with Rick Segal from the $150 million BlackBerry Partners Fund recently to go over the broad strokes of the venture capital initiative, as well as some of the finer points about the firm’s goals and their partners. Currently, they’re taking applications not just for BlackBerry developers started, but any mobile software projects. With the iPhone and iPod App Store in full tilt, this is a ripe opportunity for entrepreneurs to tap not only the lucrative BlackBerry scene, but all mobile platforms. Any developers out there who really want to catch the the Partners Fund’s eye should check out the competition they’re running at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in October, where winners will get upwards of $150,000 in investment prizes…
If you missed the video on Viigo, you’ll get another chance to see them in May. They offer a full-featured RSS reader with a ton of pre-compiled feeds. If the defaults aren’t enough, you can select from hundreds of feeds in their database (including your truly), or add your own in a variety of different formats. Best of all, it’s free, so go ahead and give it a shot. If that doesn’t sound enticing enough, it’s a fair bet that we’ll finally be able to learn some details on the mysterious Project Tango at WES. Tango will add a new audio feature, with podcasts being the most likely suspect, but who knows what else the new channel will be used for…
If you missed the 
