BlackBerry® Messenger is the instant messaging (IM) program that’s unique to BlackBerry smartphone users. You can instantly chat, send and receive pictures, and set your availability status using a familiar desktop IM look and feel—all from your BlackBerry smartphone.
A new version of BlackBerry Messenger will soon be available. We’ve been trying a leaked version of BBM 5.0 for a couple of months now and we couldn’t be more impressed with the new features:
Enhanced SMS -Allows for a conversational chat-like user experience with a single contact list for the most personal mobile-to-mobile communications
Avatars -Users can choose a picture from the BlackBerry Smartphone gallery and save it as their personal avatar, which will be seen by their contacts. They can also view other avatars in the contact list and zoom in on the avatars of contacts participating in a conversation by selecting “View participants.”
Large Media File Transfer -Users can send/receive large file transfers up to 6 megabytes for pictures, files and audio.
Enhanced Group Functionality -Allows for the ability to update, share & communicate with a subset community.
Bar-code Identity -A user can add a contact to the BlackBerry Messenger contact list by displaying a 2-dimensional bar code that invitees can capture with their device cameras.
Reliable Contact Backup and Restore -Contacts are backed-up on a server and do not require the need for BlackBerry® Desktop Manager.
The Deal of the Day was a huge success on BlackBerry Cool and we’ll continue running it every Friday. Each week, we’ll choose a new product and slash the price in half. This week’s deal is IM+ All-in-One Messenger.
IM+ All-in-One-Messenger by SHAPE Services is normally priced at $39.95, and today we’re giving it away at $19.97. IM+ has recently been updated to version 8.0 which supports MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo!, ICQ, AOL, Google Talk, Jabber, MySpace IM, Facebook chat, and Twitter.
This is a great messenger which you may have considered overpriced at first, but now affordable.
Custom Alert App BerryBuzz Opens it’s 2.0 Beta with a slew of new features.
BerryBuzz extends your default Blackberry alert system. BerryBuzz allows you to customze the LED color for many alert type and keeps the LED flashing for longer than the default 15 minutes your BlackBerry does.
In the 2.0 beta you’ll be able to customize LED color and set repeating alerts for: Emails, SMS, Instant Messanging via instango (an Instant Messaging app by the same developer), Calendar Events, Missed Calls, PIN messages, BlackBerry Messenger, and Facebook alerts. Also there is a new disco LED sequence that is quite hot.
To join the BerryBuzz 2.0 private beta, send an e-mail with subject ‘BerryBuzz 2.0 Beta’ to customerservice (at) bellshare.com. For more info on the beta, visit Bellshare’s forum. Want BerryBuzz’s current offering? Head over to our nifty BlackBerryCool Store.
Palringo’s Webby Award-winning, multi-service, Instant Messaging application is newly available in the BlackBerry App World.
Palringo users exchange voice, picture and text-based messages with contacts on many popular messaging services including Microsoft’s Windows Live/MSN Messenger, Facebook, AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Apple’s iChat, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber and QQ. This means that Blackberry users can chat, and share photo and voice messages, with all of their friends on many different IM and social networking services using just one application instead of switching between multiple, single-service applications.
Friendplay.com has launched a free instant messaging application for BlackBerry and Java enabled phones with Yahoo, MSN, Gtalk and AIM messaging connectivity.
Download your free copy by going to im.friendplay.com on your BlackBerry browser.
Instead of one-to-one chat sessions, users can create multiple chat rooms and add their friends into a frequently chatted friend list. Other than free chat, the application is able to backup your contact list so that you can retrieve your friend list which stores the phone numbers in case they have lost their mobile phones.
SHAPE has been getting some bad feedback about their IM clients but they’re listening and are making improvements to their applications. Their latest update to IM+ for BlackBerry includes voice-to-text functionality powered by Yap.
With the latest speech recognition technology, users will be able to dictate their instant messages and send them as text to their contacts in Facebook, AIM/iChat, MSN/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk and MySpaceIM.
Although I would use this product, it’s fun to joke about the social awkwardness surrounding voice-to-text instant messaging. What about the conversations you text that you don’t want people hearing? Let’s hope SEXting doesn’t make its way to voice-to-text.
I’ll let you know when a Beta version is out for you to try.
We love our BlackBerrys. We love them because they are our communicators—they connect us to the world through phone, email, SMS, IM, Facebook, and just about any other way that technology lets us get in touch with one another. But one of the great flaws of the BlackBerry OS is the way it notifies us of incoming messages. The blinking red-LED is great, but it doesn’t tell us anything about the nature of the communication. Did I get an email? An SMS? A missed call?
That’s where BerryBuzz comes in. Compatible with just about every BlackBerry you could throw at it, BerryBuzz lets you customize that LED. Want a turquoise LED for new Email, and a yellow one for missed calls? You got it. With BerryBuzz, you can tell what type of communication your BlackBerry is telling you about—just from a glance at the LED.
This isn’t ground-breaking news or anything but you can update your instant messaging clients to version 2.1.42. There doesn’t seem to be any features added or any real reason to download the update.
If you notice something new with the updates, comment and let me know.
In timely response to Nan’s first Power User editorial, Orangatame Software has released an update to TwitterBerry, their popular free Twitter app for BlackBerry. The two most important improvements are LED alerts and the ability to refresh timelines while not on the home screen; you can see a list of further improvements after the jump. We’d write up a quick review of the new TwitterBerry, but our friend Al Sacco beat us to it!
Welcome to the first installment of Nan the Power User. You’ll see me pop in from time to time with reviews, tips, tricks and ideas with a business twist. I’m the Chief Inspiration Officer at Salesby5, a marketing and consulting group in San Antonio, TX, where we dramatically increase sales for companies and organizations. Additionally, I am quite the BlackBerry fanboy/evangelist. I’ll welcome feedback and new ideas; I always like to try new things! One of my weapons of choice in connecting with others is to use Twitter.
In timely response to Nan’s first 
