Fox Mobile unveiled its Bitbop venture this week that promises to provide a wealth of TV and movie entertainment from a variety of top-tier studios, and if you can get past the fact that you’re actually going to have to pay for this content, it’s shaping up to be a pretty promising system when it launches later this year. There’s no live programming — just a database of show episodes and movies that you have your choice of either streaming or downloading for later consumption over 3G or WiFi — which makes it a little bit like using an on-demand service from your cable company. Bitbop was only demoing the BlackBerry version of its app at CTIA this week, but it looks like there’ll be iPhone and Android versions on the way; at Read the rest of this entry »

Following the iPhone app, PayPal has promised BlackBerry and Android users will soon be able to “bump” their phones together to transfer money.

PayPal hasn’t said whether it’ll only work between owners of the same OS, or if iPhones and Androids will soon be knocking heads to settle debts—like the latest version of Knocking Live Video, which sees both phones streaming video live to one another.

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It seems almost too good to be true, but it looks like the era of usable Gmail integration on BlackBerry might finally be upon us. CrackBerry is citing information that BIS 3.0 will be rolled out to North American customers in the wee hours of Sunday, March 28, when most of us are in a peaceful slumber (a good thing, considering that data services will be mostly down during the four-hour window). Out of the gate, 3.0 will offer Gmail label creation and deletion when using the plug-in along with support for OpenDocument file types and WMA audio, but the real meat should come shortly thereafter as two-way synchronization of read status and sent messages “will be added throughout the Spring 2010 by region.” Technically, Read the rest of this entry »

Are these grabs from RIM’s refreshed BlackBerry OS 6.0 or just fanart from some sleepy design school student meant to trick the tech press? We don’t know, but BBLeaks claims that they come “highly regarded as real from one of our best connects.” But before getting too worked up, it’s worth noting the bizarre similarities between these grabs (San Francisco, the weather widget colors, Haiti tweet, and font) and the slide pulled from that “Super Apps” developer webinar back in Read the rest of this entry »

Hang with us for a sec as we conjure up a speculative device from a sordid collection of rumors. By now we’ve all seen the leaked BlackBerry slider right? How about the “Mr. T” phone, heard of that? Maybe you’ve heard of it by its other codename of Talladega? The connection here is that all of these devices are thought to be one and the same although that’s definitely not confirmed by any stretch.

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It’s been a year or so since RIM announced that push APIs had become available to its Alliance Program members, and now it looks like the rest of us are finally able to get in on the action (at least those of us who are BlackBerry devs). Starting today, access comes in two packages: either BlackBerry Push Essentials (the free version) or BlackBerry Push Plus with a number of tiers that reflect different options and price points. So, what are you waiting for? If it’s good enough to Read the rest of this entry »

What looked like a drizzle last night seems to be turning into a full on downpour. The folks over at BlackBerry Leaks have gotten themselves even more facetime with that mysterious BlackBerry slider device — and it looks a lot better than we thought. Right now the theories are flying about just exactly what kind of phone this is, with BBL suggesting it might be the next phone in the Storm family, while Kevin over at CrackBerry has it on good authority that this new handset will be Read the rest of this entry »

Hey BlackBerry friends — we’ve got some news for you. The Engadget application (which is also available for the iPhone / iPod touch and webOS devices) has gone and gotten itself a little update on RIM’s platform. It’s nothing crazy, but we’ve made some bug fixes, and more importantly, added support for 5.0 devices (Bold, Curve, and Tour)! The devs also thoughtfully included keyboard shortcuts (T, B, N, P, and the spacebar) in this version for your convenience. All you have to do to Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon is today adding BlackBerrys to its stable of Kindle-compatible devices and also taking the opportunity to remind us that it’s working hard on Mac and iPad versions of its software. The app is a freebie download for Americans (sadly it’s not international just yet) and should offer the same functionality as its PC and iPhone brethren — namely automatic syncing via Whispersync and what Amazon hopes will be a seamless reading experience from one device to the next. There’s also an Read the rest of this entry »

See that Storm-esque device there? You may have noticed that the home screen looks positively nothing like the experience you’re used to — and that’s because it’s not. Shown off as part of a slide deck in RIM’s “Super Apps” webinar for developers last week, the company’s official explanation is that this is a pure, off-the-cuff mockup, not indicative of anything they’re working on for future devices or releases of BlackBerry OS. To be fair, when you take the shot in context with the bullet points Read the rest of this entry »