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BlackBerry theme roundup for June 8, 2011 - Win a free copy of NextGen from BB-Freaks!

Hey everyone, welcome back to the BlackBerry Theme Roundup! If you have developed a theme you want to share or be featured in the contest, or if you just see a really good one out there somewhere, send it in! Send an email to themeroundup[at]crackberry.com for consideration. In the meantime, check out this week's picks and enter to win a free copy of NextGen by BB-Freaks! Contest details after the break.

BowBerry by MariaG Girls, if you're looking for a cute pink and black theme, check out BowBerry by MariaG. With shades of pink throughout, the custom black icons and text really pop. I love the font and little bow details on each screen that make this a cute and girly theme. OS 5 devices get a sliding hidden dock, and those on BB6 have the standard layout. BowBerry is available for $3.99 for BlackBerry 8330/50i, 85xx, 89xx, 9000, 9630, 9700, and 9800.

For more information/screenshots and to purchase BowBerry

Facile by Madboy Looking for a wallpaper friendly theme with access to a ton of apps right from your home screen? Take a look at Facile by Madboy. This theme features four menus on your home screen (apps, media, messages, and utility). Apps holds a dock of 5 user defined icons that show when you click the word Apps. Media, Messages, and Utility each contain 4-5 items in text form that provide quick and easy access to a multitude of applications. I really like the font and layout of Facile, and love that there is so much hidden away yet still within easy reach. This theme is designed for 480x360 devices on OS 5.0 and BB6, and you can grab it now on sale for just $1.49 (regularly $2.49).

For more information/screenshots and to purchase Facile for OS 5.0 devices For more information/screenshots and to purchase Facile for BB6 devices

Element by iHeartMyBB Element brings to you a wallpaper friendly homescreen with subtle custom features. The semi-transparent banners, dotted signal meter and large numeric battery meter bring a minimalistic feel to the theme that will look great with almost any wallpaper. The hidden mini dock and OCD slots provide the ability to maximize your homescreen space, while still having access to all your much needed apps and icons, with the added convenience of hotkeys. 9800 users can enjoy easy access to their calendar by touching the date on the home screen in both portrait and landscape mode. Element supports landscape navigation on Torch. Fonts are defaulted throughout the theme for font friendliness, with the exception of the home screen. You'll definitely want to take a look at the individual screenshots at the link below. You can pick up Element on sale now for $1.49 (regularly $2.49) for your BlackBerry 9630/50, 97xx, or 9800.

For more information/screenshots and to purchase Element

RockON by Adastra Communications Music lovers this one is for you. RockON features a unique half circle dock on the home screen, with all of your meters, clock and date in the middle. While this doesn't make for the most wallpaper friendly of themes, I can see how it would have a lot of potential for change, if that's your thing. The wallpapers throughout are all music oriented, which really pulls the theme together and keeps the flow, while making it interesting and fun. RockON is on sale currently for $3.99 (regularly $5.99) and is compatible with BlackBerry 8330/50i, 85xx, 89xx, 9000, 91xx, 93xx, 95xx, 96xx, 97xx, and 9800.

For more information/screenshots and to purchase RockON

Refresh by IOneStudios Summer is basically upon us, and it's time to bust out the bright and cheerful themes to match the season. Refresh is just that, full of bright icons, beautiful backgrounds, and awesome little details like the custom battery and signal meters. You also get a hidden today for most devices, so you'll never miss what's important. I especially like the color scheme in messages and menus, and the font is awesome too. You can pick up Refresh in BlackBerry App World for $2.99 for most BlackBerry smartphones.

For more information/screenshots and to purchase Refresh

NextGen by BB-Freaks BB-Freaks is at it again, and this time they've developed a series of themes called NextGen. Available in five different colors (green, red, orange, purple, and blue), NextGen will bring a totally new look to your BlackBerry. If you use media frequently on your device, you will especially appreciate the 3 static icons for Music, Pictures, and Videos on your home screen. You also get 9 user defined icons, so everything is right there for you with no hunting around. The home screen graphics are impeccable, and while those that are addicted to wallpaper changing will likely want to pass on this one, I know there are many of you out there that will really appreciate the transformation that NextGen gives your BlackBerry. You can pick up NextGen for $5.99 for BlackBerry 85xx, 89xx, 9000, 91xx, 93xx, 95xx, 96xx, 97xx, and 9800.

For more information/screenshots and to purchase NextGen Green Edition For more information/screenshots and to purchase NextGen Orange Edition For more information/screenshots and to purchase NextGen Purple Edition For more information/screenshots and to purchase NextGen Red Edition For more information/screenshots and to purchase NextGen Blue Edition

Contest: We have 50 copies of NextGen to give away this week, courtesy of the ever generous BB-Freaks! To enter to win, leave a comment below. One entry per person please, and the contest ends this Sunday at midnight PST. Good luck!

Possible BIS outage across Europe and North America

We've been getting plenty of users in North America and Europe letting us know their has been some issues with BIS as of late. Many folks in the UK have spoken up in the CrackBerry forums and for some North American users BIS over WiFi has been down for what is going on 48 hours now. Some carriers are advising that it is due to a BIS update that is rolling out now but -- the accuracy in that info cannot be confirmed at this time. What about you all, any issues? If so speak up in the comments or in the forums.

Discuss more in the CrackBerry Forums

Quick Tip: How to Transfer Contacts from the SIM Card

A very close friend of mine just upgraded to a BlackBerry Torch. As a newbie, she was so excited that she almost forgot about her address book. How was she going to transfer her contacts from her regular phone? Would she have to add each number all over again? What is one to do?

Before panicking and thinking you have to manually input each and every one there's a simple answer: the SIM Card. The SIM card is a little chip located near your battery that holds your personal phone information. It lets you switch devices by simply sliding out of one device and placing in another. Utilized by GSM Networks (i.e. AT&T, Rogers, T-Mobile) it can also be used to store your address book when transferring from the old device to the new one. Just remember to copy your contacts to your SIM first. How many entries a chip can hold varies depending on the card and how old it is. When I switched from my RAZR I was able to store around 200 entries. If you're over capacity you'll need to repeat this process.

You can also access by going through the Setup Wizard on your device.

As you can see from the video it's an easy process to transfer contacts back and forth. Once loaded you'll be able to use device manager to save your information going forward.

Profixel for BlackBerry - Create free avatars right on your device!

Getting tired of your same old avatar on BBM/Twitter/Facebook, or looking for a way to pass a few minutes and feeling creative? Check out Profixel, a FREE app for your BlackBerry that you can use to make a fun and unique pixel based avatar for any number of uses! Profixel includes 2 pre-loaded templates that you can use as a starting point. After choosing one, you use the menu button to bring up a color palate, and from there you can alter the template however you like, one pixel at a time. If you're stuck, and in need of some creative inspiration, you can check out some sample avatars that are included in the app. Once you have your avatar the way you want it, simply save it to your device, and you can use it as your profile picture or avatar anywhere you choose.

Also from within the app, you can upload your avatar to the Profixel Fanpage on Facebook, and you can email it! I was also informed that once the final BBM SDK is released, Profixel will be updated so that you can set the picture as your BBM avatar from within the app as well. So go ahead, let your creativity flow, and create yourself a fun new avatar on your BlackBerry!

For more information/screenshots and to download Profixel FREE

Active Alerts - an early warning application

The National Weather Service provides forecasts and warnings for the United States. Its official task is to provide “weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy.” Recently, with the number of tornados and flooding that have tragically affected so many people, being alert and being prepared is key. In BlackBerry App World, an application called Active Alerts was recently released. Through Active Alerts users can learn of current alerts and what to do in response to the situation.

These alerts can be filtered through various options which include; location (by choice or by GPS), type, severity and type (you know, in case you want to ignore tornadoes or fires). Users can then decide what interval to use when refreshing alerts. Once set up, you can then navigate through the specified alerts. Details will include all of the affected locations, effective date/time and probability. Tapping into the power of notifications, Active Alerts can cause your Blackberry to sound a tone or vibrate when the alert is of an extreme and/or severe nature. It’s another level of personal security you can use, especially if you live in an area prone to such disastrous activity. Active Alerts is available for $2.99 from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download Active Alerts for BlackBerry smartphones

YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus updated to version 2.3.4 - 20 copies to be won!!

In the United States, YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus is a popular (and free) visual voicemail application. In my opinion, it’s the way voicemail services should be. Think about it. Why should we have to go through voice prompts and have to skip through messages so clumsily? With YouMail, voicemail can be scanned through to access them in the order you want to. It’s especially helpful to be able to look at the time of call, the caller’s name and the message length (supports up to 2 minutes in length). What you do with your messages is up to you. You can forward off messages as blog posts, tweets, to Facebook or even archive them for life. Additionally, you can manage unwanted callers, record personal greetings, and actually read the voicemail message instead of listening to it. YouMail was recently updated to version 2.3.4. Among its updates, two stand out as substantial additions:

One-Touch Community Greetings and Management. A new navigation bar lets you easily access greeting settings, like what greetings play for your callers, and how you want to handle “blocked” numbers. In addition, the YouMail greetings community, with tens of thousands of greetings, is just a few clicks away from within the app itself.

Number Search Available In-App. It's YouMail's belief that once you receive a call from an unwanted number, you should never have to receive a call from that number again. In this latest update, YouMail's Caller Search lets you quickly do a Google search right from the “menu” key, so you’ll know the real story behind any phone number you're not familiar with.

YouMail offers a free service, as well as premium services. Through the Premium service, you are able to save 5000+ messages and support messages that are 5 minutes in length or longer. You also get Privacy Manager – enabling you to get phone numbers with Blocked or Unknown numbers. The app itself is free from the CrackBerry AppStore. If you want to upgrade to a premium service, rates start at just $1.99 per month.

Contest: We have 20 annual basic transcription packages to be won. That's a savings of $8.99/month. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to be entered. Contest ends this Sunday at midnight PST.

More information/download YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus

BlackBerry Desktop Manager updated to v6.1.0.35

Word is in that BlackBerry Desktop Manager (PC version) has updated to v6.1.0.35 and should be available for download. This version adds some fixes and it looks like support for BlackBerry OS 7 is built in as well. Most users are reporting they are prompted to update when they open up Desktop Manager, but a few have said they had to manually check for updates. Regardless, it should be available for all so get to downloading! Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.1 adds new features and important enhancements to media and synchronization:

Discuss more in the CrackBerry forums

Live Pong With The BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Using Hardware Acceleration!

A little while ago I let you know about a few free Pong games for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Games are continuously being added to App World for the PlayBook so it’s always nice when a new one comes along. I was lucky enough to catch a new version of Pong in action at a recent event where the players use a new type of game enhancement called “hardware acceleration”. The players in this game are @w4lnut and @ellebetz, both of which do their best to beat the other player. This version of Pong includes varying levels of difficulty, custom speeds, no limitations as to where the ball can go and more.

Check out the video below for more!

Disclaimer: If you do try this with your PlayBook, BlackBerryRocks.com and/or the people in this video are not responsible for any damage caused to any property.

Free & Premium Snow Boarding Game For BlackBerry PlayBook, A Throwback To Microsoft Windows SkiFree

If you’re an old-school fan of Microsoft then you no doubt have played SkiFree, a classic arcade snow boarding game for Windows developed back in 1991. I’m always looking for new games to try out on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and being a fan of SkiFree, I was happy to find that developer Matthew Dutczak published his own version of SkiFree in App World called Snow Boarding. The game comes complete with sound effects and different snow boarding tricks but unfortunately, the abominable snow monster doesn’t pop out and eat you (yet?). From the description:

Experience the rush of retro snowboarding action!

In this throwback to the late 1980′s, you take control of a snowboarder hitting the slopes for some serious carving! You’ll be challenged to score tricks & race against the clock to unlock new and more difficult courses. Heck, you can even spray the slowpokes on the course for bonus points!

Good luck, dude!

There are two versions of the Snow Boarding game, one is free, ad-supported with limited levels, the other is available for $0.99 with no ads and more levels. For more info check out the free version here or the premium version here, both in App World. Feel free to share your high score and awesome trick skills in the comments!

Vodafone Posts A Sneak Peek Video Of The BlackBerry Bold 9900 – Coming Soon!

If you’re on the Vodafone network and have wondered what the next big BlackBerry launch for you will be, the answer to that question is the BlackBerry Bold 9900! Vodafone recently posted a sneak peek video of the “Bold Touch” showing off some of its unique features. The video is only 44 seconds long but at least you know it’s on the way and who’s complaining about seeing a little more of this device . Watch the sneak peek video below or check out the Bold 9900 on Vodafone’s site to register for updates and more info!

Free Evernote App For BlackBerry Updated To Version 3.1.305 With Improvements

Yesterday the free Evernote application for BlackBerry smartphones was updated to version 3.1.305 with a few improvements. It’s been a while since the app was last updated but it looks like Evernote has not forgotten their BlackBerry fans. This app allows you to capture text and audio notes, pictures and upload files while on the go which you can get access to from a few different platforms like a PC, Mac, the web or another smartphone. Here are the changes for this version:

You can download version 3.1.305 of Evernote from BlackBerry App World or for more info go to evernote.com.

BlackBerry Bridge App Officially Updated To Version 1.0.0.93 In BlackBerry App World

There’s been some buzz around the BlackBerry web that a new version of BlackBerry Bridge was made available for download. Today it looks like RIM is finally rolling out version 1.0.0.93 of the Bridge app to everyone through BlackBerry App World. A changelog is not available for this version but I’m sure it includes a bunch of fixes for issues being experienced by users. For more info and to download the new version of BlackBerry Bridge check it out here in App World.

Be sure to let us know in the comments if you notice any differences !

SugarSync for BlackBerry Updated to v2.0

It has been almost a year since SugarSync updated their BlackBerry app to v1.5. Luis pointed out to me that my favorite cloud synching solution has updated their BlackBerry app to v2.0 under the radar. I am not sure what is new in this update but I am currently downloading it. From the feature list it does not look like they have finally added auto synching to the BlackBerry but hopefully that is coming along with a PlayBook client.

You can pick up the updated SugarSync v2.0 in App World. Let us know what you find since there does not seem to be a change log I can find. If you don’t already have a SugarSync account I highly recommend setting one up since in my opinion it beats out the competitors like DropBox and offers 5GB of free storage.

More on BerryReview

YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus App For BlackBerry Updated With Mobile Access To Greetings & Number Search

YouMail let me know they’ve released a new version of their Visual Voicemail Plus application for BlackBerry smartphones. Now at version 2.3.4, the app now lets users access some website content right from the BlackBerry app. Here are the new features in this version of the YouMail app:

“YouMail is known for great caller ID and its greetings community,” said CEO Alex Quilici. “We’ve extended the application to make it easy to find even more information about callers and to easily find and use pre-recorded greetings.”

YouMail is available to post-paid mobile users in the US on all major carriers including AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile. YouMail can also be used to unify a user’s mobile voicemail with their voice messages from VOIP service providers such as Google Voice, MagicJack, OOMA, and Vonage.

I’ve used YouMail since early 2008 and couldn’t be happier with the service. It’s a very useful voicemail app/service that every BlackBerry owner should try if they’re looking for a better, alternative voicemail option. To download the YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus app you can find it here in BlackBerry App World or for more info go to youmail.com.

Avoid Parking Tickets with Free Double Parked Timer App

BelowZeroSoft let us know about their latest creation called Double Parked. The app performs a very simple function and performs it with style. It simply lets you punch in what kind of parking area you left your car it and create a timed countdown to when you need to move your car. It really is that simple but they add a bit of flair with custom alarms that are easy to set.

You can pick up the free Double Parked app in the store at this link

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DreamBerry: RIM Should Add Push to Talk Features to BBM

While writing up about the new LoudTalks push to talk service I could not help but think about BBM. RIM could have a real hit on their hands if they integrated push to talk features to BBM. I know that it would be walking a fine line in terms of keeping carriers happy but in this mobile game it is either innovate or deteriorate. RIM did a brilliant job of adding Groups to BBM but I think adding voice or better yet video streaming would make it 10 times cooler!

BBM already has the infrastructure to send peer messages and audio files between devices. I already know people who use the BBM voice note feature to send messages back and forth. It would be downright brilliant if RIM would simply add half duplex push to talk groups to BBM. It would be a huge hit for businesses who have been looking for a more modern push to talk groups solution. Better yet would be the ability to streamline taking a video and streaming it to multiple people in a group.

What do you think? Do you see RIM ever adding push to talk voice capabilities to BBM? I am kind of curious to see if a developer will be able to create their own push to talk service using the new BBM peering APIs…

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Giveaway: 5 Copies of IM Talk and IM All In One Messenger Winners

The IM+ Messenger giveaway went good and we have more to give back thanks to the guys from www.shapeservices.com. Today we bring you their popular application IM+Talk which allows you to connect with your Skype friends chat or call them over Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE right from your BlackBerry.

Right now there is not a Skype application for BlackBerry but thanks to the guys over at ShapeServices we have five copies to giveaway to our readers.

App Features:

You may make free VoIP calls via Wi-Fi or via 3G/EDGE if you select “VoiP only” or “VoIP preferred” in IM+ Talk “Settings”.

VOiP calls work in half-duplex mode so you would need to use the convenience key of your Blackberry to switch between “talk” and “listen” modes (like a walkie-talkie).

When you are not in Wi-Fi zone, you can still make calls using callback. In this case both the contact person and you will get the incoming call. This is because when you use callback you are actually making two calls: one – to Skype contact or to phone number and another – to your callback number. Both calls are charged according to standard Skype rates, therefore Skype credits or Skype subscription are required for all incoming and outgoing calls in IM+ Talk.

The application cost $29.95 a one time fee through app world or on their website. For a chance to wins simply leave a comment below before Friday June 10th.

IM+ winners are below and if you see your name expect an e-mail from later today.

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