We’ve seen a lot of excitement from the community about BlackBerry® 6, and one of the new features I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about is Social Feeds. Since I worked on the Social Feeds app, I thought it would be great to talk about it in more detail with you. Social Feeds is designed to access and interact with your social networks including BlackBerry® Messenger® (BBM™), Facebook®, MySpace® and Twitter®.

When creating the Social Feeds application, we received inspiration from the part of BlackBerry smartphones that every user is likely familiar with – the Messages inbox. The Messages inbox provides a single point of access for all communications – email, texts, BBM, phone, and so on. One of the goals of the Social Feeds application was to create that same ‘BlackBerry inbox’ experience, but with a focus on social communications. As a result, Social Feeds is one single access point to stay on top of – and in touch with – all of your online social networks. Within the app you’ll see all of your friends’ latest Facebook status updates, tweets, BBMs and more (like your favorite RSS feeds).

Once you are in the Social Feeds application, your first choice is to decide what you want to view. Using the top navigation bar, you can toggle between the Social and RSS views, or filter down within the Social or RSS view for specific sources (for example, filter by Facebook or Twitter or MySpace items for the Social view, or different RSS feeds in the RSS view). Clicking on a specific social status update will take you directly into that social network’s application on your BlackBerry smartphone, and clicking on a specific RSS post will take you directly to that content via the BlackBerry® Browser.

One of my favorite features in Social Feeds is the ability to quickly and easily update all your social statuses at once. I’ve found it really simplifies managing my overall social presence. With this feature, I can write one update and then post it to as many different networks as I’d like, simply by selecting “New Post” from the Social Feeds menu and choosing which social networks I want to send my update to.

We’ve also worked hard to deeply integrate the communications and information from the Social Feeds app into your BlackBerry Contacts list. Simply by clicking on a contact’s name, you can see all the latest notifications and communications you’ve had with them (note: this feature requires users to allow automatic contact syncing in Facebook, and manual contact syncing for Twitter, MySpace and BlackBerry Messenger).

It’s been really exciting to work on the team creating a new ‘core’ social application for BlackBerry smartphones. One of my favorite things about the Social Feeds project (aside from creating the app!) was that I got to work with a number of different teams across Research In Motion® (RIM) and meet a number of new people – more new friends to check up on using Social Feeds!

Please post a comment and let us know what you think about Social Feeds, and which social networks you use daily. We hope you feel that Social Feeds is as useful for integrating your social networking as the Messages inbox is for integrating your daily communications.

Are you one of those people who lose often lose their phones and dont get it back? So you usually end  up buying new phones and get the headache of lost data and syncing the new phone. So you want to prevent your phone from losing, or at least get back the lost phone, right? Now, here is an app which will help you get back your BlackBerry phone. Roblock BlackBerry Theft Recovery is the app that you should get for your BlackBerry phone.

The app some advanced features which will tell you where your phone is if it gets lost. The app will be monitoring the SIM card in your phone. When your phone is lost, or stolen, the person who has the phone will, with most certainty, change the SIM card in the your phone. So, this change will be noticed by the app and the app will send an SMS to a predefined number (which will be done by your) with the details of the new SIM card in the phone. So you can easily get the details.

You can then wipe all the data on your phone with an SMS command, and track your phone’s location online on map. Great app to keep your BlackBerry safe. You can buy Roblock BlackBerry Theft Recovery for $9.95 from Handango for your BlackBerry phone over here. You can also download a trial version of the app. You can also buy the app from here.

BlackBerry app review: Roblock BlackBerry Theft Recovery is a post from: The BlackBerry Storm

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BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review – Power Traveler

The BlackBerry 9800 Torch has been touted as the "best BlackBerry that RIM has produced." While many have mixed feelings about RIM’s newest sizzling hot device (aka. The Torch), I was given the task of reviewing this device from the prospective of a person who travels/vacations a lot.

While OS6 boast some significant changes, I believe that OS6 was released prematurely. OS6 is still a bit too buggy to have been released on the Torch…even if the 9800 is true to its tagline: "Less than an evolutionary leap, more like a triple axle."

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry Torch 9800 review from the perspective of a Power Traveler

DataViz, makers of the popular Documents To Go application, announced sad news today for Palm fans. Though the company started out developing for Palm, they are not going to proceed in developing the Documents To Go solution for Palm WebOS. You can read all about that here.

More interesting than this news from DataViz though is the news they didn’t announce….. they were bought by RIM!! Though neither company has publicly announced it (yet), multiple sources have confirmed to us that RIM recently acquired DataViz for a reported $50 million cash (not material to RIM, so they didn’t have to disclose it publicly as they have done with other acquisitions like the QNX one). Jump on to LinkedIn and you can also quickly find that lots of former DataViz employees have recently switched up their profiles to Research In Motion as their current employer.

Yet another interesting acquisition by RIM. My guess is this is a bit of an enterprise play – put a BES in your business and every device gets the full version of Documents To Go for free. It would be sweet if that was the case for consumers too!! Add this bit of news to the mix and it’s no surprise then that DataViz isn’t persuing development for Palm… I’m guessing with time they may start to reduce or phase out work for other non-BlackBerry OEMs too (that one is just a hunch though).

I’d say it’s a smart buy for RIM. What do you think?!

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. DataViz, Makers of Documents To Go, apparently acquired and now owned by Research In Motion

With the 2010 CrackBerry App Awards party coming up fast on (the Wednesday night of the BlackBerry Developer Conference – click here for event details and to RSVP), it’s time to get the process started for choosing the winners that are going to be announced!

2010 CrackBerry App Award Categories

Crackies will be award this year in the following categories:

Developer Awards

• 2010 BlackBerry App Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Game Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Theme Developer of the Year

App Awards

• Best Game
• Best Business/Finance App
• Best IM/Social Networking App
• Best Location-Based App
• Best Music App/Service
• Best Health/Wellness App
• Best News App
• Best Productivity App
• Best Utility App
• Best Sports App

CrackBerry Editors’ Choice Awards

• While the developer and app award winners will be voted on by the community, we’re also going to hand out five Editors’ Choice Awards for the apps the Crack Team feels are absolute must-haves for every BlackBerry owner. 

How to Nominate your Favorite Apps and Developers

To nominate your favorite apps and developers to win a 2010 Crackie award, simply leave a comment to this blog post with the category name followed by the app or developer name. Just check the first comment – I’ll leave an example there.

The Crack Team already has a pretty good idea of some of the many apps that deserve to be in each category, but we want to make sure we don’t miss any so this is your chance to have your voice heard as to who should be nominated as category finalist. Nominations will close this coming Tuesday at Midnight PST. From there the CrackBerry Academy will work through the nominations and argue back and forth to determine the top five finalists in every category, who will then compete in the community vote which will happen here on the blogs later next week.

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. CrackBerry App Awards 2010: Want to nominate a BlackBerry app or developer? Do it Now!

As all the major carriers in Canada get set to release the BlackBerry Torch on September 24th, Best Buy is wasting no time in letting customers know they can be among the first to put the device in their hands. The pre ordering page has now gone up on the website, although you do still need to visit a Best Buy Mobile location to process the preorder. Oh ya, bring $50 with you as well as that’s the preorder cost.

• Check It Out Via The Best Buy Website>>

Source: MobileSyrup

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Best Buy Canada now taking pre orders for BlackBerry Torch

Hey folks, guess who has the reins on the roundup? Yee-haw! It’s been a pretty exciting week so far. We’ve seen multiple Canadian carriers finally announce when customers can pick up their Torch 9800. We’ve also seen the final reviews from our CrackBerry Idol hopefuls. Can it get any more exciting? But of course it can! This week we have 10 -one year subscriptions to Nobex Radio Companion up for grabs as well. Make sure you leave a comment to be entered into the draw. Have a great weekend buckaroos!

Freebies of the Week: NY Times, Senomix timesheets, My-Mobile

In Case You Missed It: PingChat! 2 , StopMail Pro, Home to Phone

New This Week: Ringtone Maker Studio, QuickInfo

Cool at BlackBerry App World: Find My Phone

Contest: Enter to win 1 of 10 one year subscriptions to Nobex Radio Companion!

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry App Roundup for September 3rd, 2010! Win 1 of 10 copies of Nobex Radio Companion

Become the Teacher’s Pet with these BlackBerry apps!

Doesn’t it seem like I have a bad habit of pointing out what some people fear and dread? It’s not that I get any pleasure out of it (bah-hahahaa). Like it or not, it’s almost time for school. It’s a new year; a year full of possibilities, memories and accomplishments. For some the joy (or pain) starts with a trip to get school supplies. If I were you, I would hold off on the sighing, whining and shuffling of your feet while the shopping cart fills up. Sharing in the excitement with your parents will probably pay off; and I’ll tell you why. Once the positive vibe is felt by all, you may find it easier to convince them that you need a BlackBerry this year. Tell them how it will keep you organized. Tell them how it will help you keep in touch. Tell them how it *ahem * won’t contribute to you social life. Tell them how you visited CrackBerry.com and read their Guide to Student Apps. Last year, we told you how to go back to school BlackBerry style. This year, I decided to expand on that list and give you another collection of applications; you know, for extra credit.

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. CrackBerry guide to BlackBerry school apps

T-Mobile has officially released OS 5.0.0.822 for both the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and BlackBerry Curve 8900. We’re seeing a trend now with the ol’ .822 as this joins both the Rogers and AT&T Bold 9000 releases. Surely there is some new and slightly improved goodness with this OS, so if you’re ready and willing give it a go. Its been a while since we’ve seen an update for either of these devices, so be sure to drop a comment and let us know how its working for you if you upgrade.

• Download OS 5.0.0.822 from T-Mobile >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Official OS 5.0.0.822 for the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and 8900 now available from T-Mobile

The native BlackBerry IM clients got another round of updates earlier this week. Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN Messenger and ICQ all now sit at version 2.5.63. These were all tested in the Beta Zone for a few weeks so should be good to go all around with some minor updates and even a new icon or two. Nothing major from what I can tell, but an update is an update. You can grab all the latest from BlackBerry App World.

• Download the native BlackBerry IM clients from BlackBerry App World >>

CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry Native IM apps updated to version 2.5.63