Blackberry smartphones have a wealth of free applications available for them which can let you get more out of your device. In this article, Blackberry Free Themes Applications take a look at some of the best free Blackberry applications you can download to your device to have more fun with it, and be more productive at the same time!
1. Yahoo, Windows Live and Google Talk IM clients all updated to v2.5.108
If you're fond of using either Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger or Google Talk on your BlackBerry device you'll want to hit BlackBerry App World and check for updates. RIM has uploaded new versions of all three, pushing them to v2.5.108. What version you have installed now will of course depend on what OS you're running and whether or not you've updated them previously but either way the latest and greatest are available now so get to it.
2. BlackBerry App World
A new BlackBerry App World beta has just been released to the BlackBerry Free Applications Beta Zone. The latest update bumps you from v3.0.1.20 to v3.0.1.28, although no change log is listed in the 'What's new?' section as of yet it looks to just be a maintenance release and doesn't bring any drastic changes to it. If you spot anything, be sure to drop some notes in the comments. Enter the BlackBerry Beta Zone
3. Blackberry Amazon Shopping Application
Amazon, one of my favorite places for shopping, just released their own application for the BlackBerry smartphone. I was wondering the other day when they were going to release a mobile app since their mobile version of the site is not that great.
What I really like about this application is that it has a scrolling menu at the top that lets you scroll through all their menus, which makes it really easy for browsing.
It lets you sign in to your account if you already have one, and it shows you items that you recently searched for. One of the things that really impressed me with this application is how fast it processes your searches and how easy it is to browse through it, at least on my 8900.
OTA Download: www.amazon.com/bb
4. Pandora for BlackBerry
Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your BlackBerry. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it.
Already a Pandora user? Even easier. Just sign in. Pandora on BlackBerry is fully integrated with Pandora on the web. Enjoy all your existing stations - and create new ones right from your BlackBerry.
http://www.pandora.com/blackberry
5. Free BBNotePad 1.1.2 Final is out
BBNotePad is a simple text editing software with the following functions:
- Open and save text files in BB memory and BB SD card(Max 64,000 bytes)
- Open ANSI, UNICODE, UNICODE-BE and UTF-8 text file formats.(Windows formats with BOM)
- Save file in UTF-8 format.
Download:http://krzysztow.com/BBNotePad/bbnotepad/1.1.2.Final/BBNotePad.jad [OTA]
6. BlackBerry Messenger
Chatters of a feather flock together. That's the impetus behind BlackBerry Messenger, RIM's instant messenger for BlackBerry users that skips over SMS fees and goes straight to your pal's IM in-box. Version 5 takes a huge leap forward with a ton of new features: tiny thumbnail images of your contact so you don't forget who you're talking to, photo-sharing for files up to 6MB, and the ability to chat with groups of friends in addition to individuals.
Your method for getting those friends also gets a twist. You can use the person's unique BlackBerry PIN or their e-mail address to find them. If you're in the same physical space, one of you can also display your 2D "QR" barcode for the other to optically recognize through the BlackBerry's camera. Lest you fret that managing multiple open chat windows confuse you, you'll find that pressing the Menu key cues you up to switch among open conversations.
Our major complaint is that it's a beast of an app to download, especially if your data connection is weak. While using it over the data network is fine when you're not transferring files, you'd better be in a
www.blackberry.com/messenger
7. Facebook for BlackBerry - Free BlackBerry software downloads
Let's face it. Unless you're rocking a touch-screen BlackBerry, you just don't have the real estate for the gargantuan app you would need to really appreciate Facebook. If you've ever seen Facebook on an iPhone, you'd see where you'd miss out with a hugely interactive interface, smooth swiping, pinch and zoom photos, and so on. Yet Facebook and RIM have made the best of it with this app. The newsfeed includes a status bar for your immediate updates, and tiny thumbnail photos smaller than your fingernail. You can sort the feed by news, updates, photos, and links, but you'll wait each time for the page to load anew. You'll also wait for a reload if you'd like to travel farther down the timeline.
There's commenting, liking, poking, writing on a friend's wall, and viewing your message in-box and friends. While the photo uploader makes it handy to scroll through your image collection, you can't upload videos from your BlackBerry. You're able to invite a friend via e-mail, but not search Facebook's site for pals who have already joined.
The app makes up for this in part with some integration into the BlackBerry environment. You can mash contacts (and their itty-bitty profile pictures) into your address book, and trigger a wall or private message or a poke from there. Facebook events might also wind up in your calendar, like birthday reminders. You'll also receive notifications of new Facebook messages if you've configured the app for that. While there's plenty of room for improvement, using Facebook for BlackBerry is the only tenable choice
www.facebook.com/BlackBerry
8. Opera Mini
The user interface in Opera Mini 6 is more usable than ever. The hub of the app is the Speed Dial feature, whereby you can set one-click shortcuts for up to nine of your favorite sites. Just like in the desktop version, these display thumbnail previews of the sites to make things as clear and simple as possible.
Opera Mini utilizes a tab-based interface, meaning that you can load multiple pages at once simply by clicking on the plus arrow in the top right-hand corner. Version 6 includes the ability to open links in the background, just by holding down a link and selecting 'Open in new tab'.
http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/blackberry/
3. Blackberry Amazon Shopping Application
Amazon, one of my favorite places for shopping, just released their own application for the BlackBerry smartphone. I was wondering the other day when they were going to release a mobile app since their mobile version of the site is not that great.
What I really like about this application is that it has a scrolling menu at the top that lets you scroll through all their menus, which makes it really easy for browsing.
It lets you sign in to your account if you already have one, and it shows you items that you recently searched for. One of the things that really impressed me with this application is how fast it processes your searches and how easy it is to browse through it, at least on my 8900.
OTA Download: www.amazon.com/bb
4. Pandora for BlackBerry
Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your BlackBerry. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it.
Already a Pandora user? Even easier. Just sign in. Pandora on BlackBerry is fully integrated with Pandora on the web. Enjoy all your existing stations - and create new ones right from your BlackBerry.
http://www.pandora.com/blackberry
5. Free BBNotePad 1.1.2 Final is out
BBNotePad is a simple text editing software with the following functions:
- Open and save text files in BB memory and BB SD card(Max 64,000 bytes)
- Open ANSI, UNICODE, UNICODE-BE and UTF-8 text file formats.(Windows formats with BOM)
- Save file in UTF-8 format.
Download:http://krzysztow.com/BBNotePad/bbnotepad/1.1.2.Final/BBNotePad.jad [OTA]
6. BlackBerry Messenger
Chatters of a feather flock together. That's the impetus behind BlackBerry Messenger, RIM's instant messenger for BlackBerry users that skips over SMS fees and goes straight to your pal's IM in-box. Version 5 takes a huge leap forward with a ton of new features: tiny thumbnail images of your contact so you don't forget who you're talking to, photo-sharing for files up to 6MB, and the ability to chat with groups of friends in addition to individuals.
Your method for getting those friends also gets a twist. You can use the person's unique BlackBerry PIN or their e-mail address to find them. If you're in the same physical space, one of you can also display your 2D "QR" barcode for the other to optically recognize through the BlackBerry's camera. Lest you fret that managing multiple open chat windows confuse you, you'll find that pressing the Menu key cues you up to switch among open conversations.
Our major complaint is that it's a beast of an app to download, especially if your data connection is weak. While using it over the data network is fine when you're not transferring files, you'd better be in a
www.blackberry.com/messenger
7. Facebook for BlackBerry - Free BlackBerry software downloads
Let's face it. Unless you're rocking a touch-screen BlackBerry, you just don't have the real estate for the gargantuan app you would need to really appreciate Facebook. If you've ever seen Facebook on an iPhone, you'd see where you'd miss out with a hugely interactive interface, smooth swiping, pinch and zoom photos, and so on. Yet Facebook and RIM have made the best of it with this app. The newsfeed includes a status bar for your immediate updates, and tiny thumbnail photos smaller than your fingernail. You can sort the feed by news, updates, photos, and links, but you'll wait each time for the page to load anew. You'll also wait for a reload if you'd like to travel farther down the timeline.
There's commenting, liking, poking, writing on a friend's wall, and viewing your message in-box and friends. While the photo uploader makes it handy to scroll through your image collection, you can't upload videos from your BlackBerry. You're able to invite a friend via e-mail, but not search Facebook's site for pals who have already joined.
The app makes up for this in part with some integration into the BlackBerry environment. You can mash contacts (and their itty-bitty profile pictures) into your address book, and trigger a wall or private message or a poke from there. Facebook events might also wind up in your calendar, like birthday reminders. You'll also receive notifications of new Facebook messages if you've configured the app for that. While there's plenty of room for improvement, using Facebook for BlackBerry is the only tenable choice
www.facebook.com/BlackBerry
8. Opera Mini
The user interface in Opera Mini 6 is more usable than ever. The hub of the app is the Speed Dial feature, whereby you can set one-click shortcuts for up to nine of your favorite sites. Just like in the desktop version, these display thumbnail previews of the sites to make things as clear and simple as possible.
Opera Mini utilizes a tab-based interface, meaning that you can load multiple pages at once simply by clicking on the plus arrow in the top right-hand corner. Version 6 includes the ability to open links in the background, just by holding down a link and selecting 'Open in new tab'.
http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/blackberry/
