Top Blackberry NewsKeeping you up to date with all the latest Blackberry News!

Kristy recently filled us in on a new theme she designed called ‘Winter Scene’ Custom Zen. Main page icons are customized in a downhill fashion and images have that cool winterish look and feel. The icons are unique and go nicely with the backgrounds. I think this is an all around nice looking theme especially if your favorite season is winter. Now you can carry your own ‘winter wonderland’ with you everywhere you go :0)

OTA links are accessible via here.

Last week we held a contest for readers to submit their funniest or most embarrassing BlackBerry story. The BerryReview team had a good laugh reading some of the hysterical submissions. Unfortunately, we only get to pick three winners but we’d like to thank everyone who took the time to write their story.

The winners below will each receive a $20 gift card code to UniqueSkins.Com.

1. Trucky

2. Nikolaus

3. Sarah

We’d also like to take this time to give a big THANK YOU to the folks at UNIQUESKINS.COM – Custom Skins for your BlackBerry (and other electronic devices) for making this contest possible!

Callpod let me know about a futuristic new office toy that really woke up the inner geek in me. Essentially it is a Bluetooth system that allows 5 users with Bluetooth headsets to communicate over 300,000 square feet away. Mouth watering yet? It gets better…

The Phoenix base unit pairs with a mobile phone or PC (SKYPE) to make a call. All five users will be connected to that one phone line connection as participants.

I can’t imagine what the possible use would be for this device since you could essentially do the same with a simple conference call. On the other hand I guess if you are constantly conference calling together this may be useful.

Now I just want to play with one… You can check out a demo at this link.

You can read more about it on the product page. Sadly the price is not shown to the public but this is probably one of those toys where if you have to ask the price…

via Press Release

After Alltel yanked this over the weekend they now brought it back. If you were holding out for the latest official download that this is it. If you want to use it on another carrier you will need to delete the vendor.xml file.

Check it out at this link

BlackBerry Handheld Software v4.5.0.122 (Multilanguage)
Package Version: 4.5.0.122
Consisting of:

• Applications: 4.5.0.89
• Software Platform: 3.2.0.52
• File name: 8130uAMEA_PBr4.5.0_rel122_PL3.2.0.52_A4.5.0.89_AllTel.exe
• File size: 72.94MB

Thanks DavidB for sending this one in!

Users of Series 60 devices are may have heard of Qik before. It essentially turns the video camera on your phone into a streaming webcam. A bunch of readers just let me know that Qik has released a version of their application for the BlackBerry that really shows some potential. I don’t know what I would stream but I think it may be cool for launch parties and conferences!

Currently they are supporting the 8120, 8130, 8300, 8320, 8330, 9000/Bold, & 8220 Pearl Flip.

You can read more about the support on their blog or sign up at this link. If you already have a Qik account you can just download the application at: http://qik.com/dl/165.

How is the alpha release of Qik different?
In this alpha release, Qik on BlackBerry works a bit differently than the other devices.

• When you start Qik, a screen is shown with just one button – Stream. Press the center button to start streaming. This will bring up the camera application and you’ll be off streaming live to the web. When you are ready to stop, just press the center button again.
• Depending on the network condition, after you press stop, you may see a progress % on the top right hand corner indicating the video that is left to be sent. It is advised to wait for the stream to be completely uploaded prior to streaming again.
• In this version, the chat does not show up overlayed on the camera.
• For best performance, use BlackBerry OS 4.5 and above.
• Your BlackBerry should have a SD card and video capture should be set to the directory: SDCard/Blackberry/Videos.
• The video capturing mode should not be set to the MMS mode.

Thanks to Kira, Akash, & Tashanna for sending this one in!

FlyCast let me know that they will be releasing a public beta preview of their application that Nate mentioned last week. The new app looks promising and plans on delivering radio video and podcasts over wireless and WiFi networks. Talk about cool!

You can sign up to be notified when the beta is available tomorrow at this link:
www.flycast.fm/FlyTunesINFO.aspx?PAGE=blackberry

Lets hope it lives up to the hype I just gave it…

Stinsonddog’s free tips and tricks manuals are one of the first resources that I recommend to new BlackBerry users. In them Stinsonddog provides comprehensive lists of all the keyboard shortcuts and tips for every device. Until now he had collected the tips for all the 8XXX series devices but DavidB just let me know that he has updated his tips for the Bold. You can find the new tips PDF at the bottom of this link.

He has also setup a new domain/home for his tips at www.stinsonddog.com instead of the old convoluted Comcast address.

Kudos to Stinsonddog for the hard work!

via CrackBerry

Sgt-d let me know about a new application he is working on called BlackBerry Master Control Program. It is essentially a Javaloader GUI on steroids. He really has something going with this application. Right now it is only in alpha stage on its second public release but it looks promising. I really have to send some love out to all of the developers of applications such as JL_cmder, BBScreenShooter, CrackMem, and more who put in a ton of work to make these great free applications!

In case you don’t know what Javaloader is let me explain. It is essentially a command line utility that RIM provides in its SDK that lets you communicate with a BlackBerry device through text. Some creative developers have built up some free applications around the Javaloader application such as JL_cmder and BBScreenShooter. BlackBerry Master Control Program is trying to take this to the next level with an impressive feature set squeezing quite a bit more out of Javaloader.

This new application provides complete BlackBerry Device Management, including the ability to download and install BlackBerry Device Drivers, Operating Systems and third-party tools quickly and easily from a single graphical user interface.

Features include:

• Performs almost all JavaLoader functions graphically.
• Upgrade/Downgrade to any device OS that is installed on your computer – without having to uninstall other OS’s.
• Relocates OS files to the same locations as CrackMem, so you can switch between MCP or CrackMem at will.
• Easy to access shortcuts to the most common BlackBerry tools.

In my words you can:

• Load an unload modules
• Turn the radio off
• Factory reset
• Handheld wipe applications/filesystem/complete
• Recover memory
• View device log
• Install any operating system upgrading or downgrading with lots of options
• Take screenshots
• & Launch a bunch of other BlackBerry tools and utilities

You can currently download the application free at this link. This is in Alpha stage so only download this if you are willing to take the risk of using such a release. You can also catch more screenshots at this link.

Trimax84 over at the Crackberry Forums recently created a series of new themes for Blackberry devices 8100 & 8300. ‘Classy Corners’ is an awesome, well-designed theme that’s available in three colors; Cool Blue, Red Hot & Dark. The backgrounds are very crisp and clear and the icons, with their unique ‘classy corners’ style, are easy to read. There are so many variations of this theme, available for several different OSs, that I simply cannot list them all here. However, if you follow the links below you can access OTA files easily enough, especially if you are already a member of Crackberry forums. These themes are free but as you can see, Trimax put lots of work into them so feel free to make a donation if you are able.

8300 Links

8100 Links

Those of you who have not been keeping on top of the Javelin news might benefit from this nice video that the guys at MobileSyrup put together. They did a side by side review of the Javelin next to the Bold. Personally after seeing both I think that the Javelin formfactor is good but the screen on the Bold still puts the Javelin to shame. Even if it is a few pixels smaller the Bold screen is just jaw dropping.

You will also appreciate the short videos put up by iDay of the Javelin at this link. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Check out the video below: