The official announcement from RIM just came out earlier today:

I have exciting news for BlackBerry® smartphone users crazy about apps! BlackBerry App World™ 2.0 is now available in BlackBerry Beta Zone as an invite-based beta – make sure to sign up for a Beta Zone account so you can receive a beta invite! If you’re interested in learning more about what’s new in BlackBerry App World 2.0 – including new Top 25’s, barcode scanning, new billing options and more – check out my BlackBerry App World 2.0 preview.

 

Also, check out my video above and tell us about the top five apps you’ve downloaded with BlackBerry App World. BlackBerry App World is now in 65 countries worldwide (in six languages!) with over one million apps being downloaded each day, so we’re really excited to hear what you have to tell us about your favorite apps!

Servers down!

Right now it looks like the servers from RIM are overloaded and only a few people have success downloading the latest version. You can try when things are back up you can pick up the beta in the beta zone at www.blackberry.com/beta.

AppWorld 2.0 will bring you:

• Split Top 25 Themes and Top 25 Apps
• BlackBerry App World Barcode Scanning for download applications with a simple picture
• Advanced Billing Options
  • Credit cards – varies by region
  • Carrier billing – just pay for an app on your wireless bill
• BlackBerry ID – a new device independent user identification for downloading apps and easily switching devices

As always research in motion is quite secret about the upcoming devices but the latest rumors confirmed that there might be indeed a 4G Blackberry device company by the end of the year. Frost & Sullivan predicts the 4G BlackBerry phone – codename Triton – is expected to offer functionality designed specifically to help it compete with Apple’s iPhone 4. “The word is that they will have features such as a 5.0 megapixel camera with both front and back imaging, similar to the iPhone 4… for videoconferencing,” he says.

One problem of mobile data transfer is that the highBandwidthLeads toMassif data usage which slows down traffic agai. Nevertheless the BlackBerry platform could prove to be a valuable asset to manage bandwith.

“When you have 4G and you know for sure that there will be a lot of data consumed by users… you can expect to drive down your costs with the efficiency of the BlackBerry platform, which can provide optimum usage of data,” Sakpal says. “That’s a crucial advantage for BlackBerry over its competitors, and enterprises will definitely want to take advantage of that.”

Clearly a BlackBerry 4G would bring a massive benefit to the Blackberry platform and allows customers to use advanced applications in a corporate context as well as in the private context. From video-conferencing, streaming TV and application synchronization: all this and much more could be done on a 4G BlackBerry.

What do you think about the Blackberry 4G?

We have already seen pictures like the one below that show Barack Obama rocking his BlackBerry in the office:

Yet is not just impressing his own team with his “always on” mindset, he also shows the presidents of other nations what it is like to be a president in the 21st century.

I wonder what he was telling? Maybe: “Ok, so let me give you a short update what happened outside the bubble we president’s of the biggest nations in the world are living”….

The Financial Times reports that the United Arab Emirates discussed the possibilty of restricting or monitoring BlackBerry mobile phones. The main problem is that BlackBerry use internal encryption networks that are difficult to monitor.

The United Arab Emirates raised the possibility on Sunday of restricting or monitoring BlackBerry mobile phones, when the country’s regulator said the handsets were not covered by its laws.

“Currently, BlackBerry operates beyond the jurisdiction of national legislation, since it is the only device operating in the UAE that immediately exports its data offshore and is managed by a foreign, commercial organisation,” said a statement from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

 

“As a result of how BlackBerry data is managed and stored, in their current form, certain BlackBerry applications allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions.”

What do you think about this? Is this the End for BlackBerry smartphones in the middle east? Or will democracy and privacy win and communication will remain free – whether on Android, iPhone or on the BlackBerry in the middle east.

Read more in UAE raises prospect of BlackBerry curbs

Scheduled to be released in September 2010 we are all expecting a completely overhauled operating system. Here are some videos that give you an impression about the new operating systems and the main question remains: Will you get a new BlackBerry with OS 6? Let us know in the comments what you think!

The Original BlackBerry OS 6 Teaser Video presented at WES 2010

Another Sneak Peek!

A demo of the new BlackBerry9800 Slider Phone with OS 6

And two more videos in Chinese which gives you an in-depth look about the OS

But it’s not just the people at BBHacker.com who use it, also our customers are happy with our app. I just saw the latest customer review in BlackBerry Appworld:

A life changer..

Just10minutes really ‘knows’ exactly what slow’s me down, and works well with the berry’s todo list. Its helped me in two key ways:

 

First, its random task stops me looking at a mountain of tasks and feeling bad – and maybe skipping my task completely! That’s smart- I now feel 1000% more efficient. In contrast my Ipad only tweaks todos and feeds me eye candy, for a lowly 10% gain.

 

Second, it helped me delete my bad habits. I’ve become habituated to completing my tasks in the least possible time, so by the end of the day, I have the gift of more free time.. Multiplied over the days and weeks, these gains are far greater than the price. In my eyes, this is a Top app.

or

BBTran – The BlackBerry Translation Software

BBTran is a nice little application that comes as a free application as well as in a Pro version. Since the Pro-Version is just 3,99 I bought this app right away and I was using it on my BlackBerry to translate emails that I receive in different languages. I am based in Europe so I have to deal with at least 3 – 4 languages and not everybody always communicates in English, especially when you are just copied on as CC.

The nice thing with BBTran is that it uses web-based services like Google Translate, Bing, Mastro or Systran to translate your text. There are two modes available – one is the dictionary mode and the other one is the translation mode. The best thing is that it completely integrates with your BlackBerry. This means that when you receive an email, you just select on the menu “Translate this with BBTran” and your email will be translated into your native language. The screenshot below shows you what this looks like:

The only drawback of this app is (just as any other translation application) that sometimes the translated text doesn’t make sense. Translating is still a technically difficult task but with the integration of Google Translate two things are certain: 1) This is the best translation quality available and 2) The quality of translation with BBTran will improve at the same that Google Translate improves its services. Which will definitely happen.

The BBHacker Rating

Here is BBHacker’s App Rating for BBTran:

Usefulness: 10/10

User Interface: 8/10

Performance: 9/10

Price: 8/10

Where to Buy

• You can buy BBTran in the BBHacker Store.

Do you use BBTran? Let us know in the comments!

In order to synchronize your Outlook calendar with your BlackBerry calendar you would need a dedicated server or you can simply use another servce –Google Calendar. Google Calendar will be the “server” where all your calendar entries will be stored and then synchronized to your Outlook installed on your PC as well as on your BlackBerry.

Here are the steps ready to setup this configuration:

1. Setup Google Calendard, if you don’t have a Google account now is the time to create one.
2. Download Google Calendar Sync for your PC and install it.
3. Download Google Calendar Sync for the BlackBerry right on your device. The address to enter it on your device is http://www.google.com/sync/blackberry.html
4. If you have any other devices you can install it for many other platforms as well. Google Sync Services has a nice overview here.
5. Setup the sync application with your Google username and password and your devices will synchronize and you are ready to go.

This whole process should not take more than 15 minutes and is the perfect way to keep calendars on your computer and your BlackBerry synchronized.

We have already written about the pros and cons of attending the BlackBerry Developer Conference and RIM has a great conference budget calculator on the site. Nevertheless if you are entrepreneur or student and don’t have access to a corporate expense account the following tips might be helpful for you.

There are a few major cost-blocks when attending DevCon and we will discuss them in the following sections:

Conference Registration

Obviously the most inflexible cost-block is the conference registration. The only way to save money here is by booking early 1099 USD instead of 1299 USD (or 1399 for on-site registration). If you are student or academic you be able to attend the conference for just 199 USD or 399 USD respectively. You will also get a discount of 100 USD if you have attended a previous BlackBerry Developer Conference. Otherwise there is only one chance – book early.

Conference Hotel

This was the biggest shocker for me: 229 USD per night exkl. taxes and fees? I was like: Are you kidding me? So I set out and looked for a cheaper hotel – and luckily there are quite a few options around. The best option in my research is the hotel “The Mosser” which is directly opposite of the Marriot Hotel and is cheap but really good. You just cross the street and you are at the conference. The hotel has shared bathrooms (starting at 70 USD) but you can also have your own bathroom as well.

There are also some other hotels in the area, just check out the map below:

View Larger Map

Airfare

Another big cost-block is the airfare.Since there has been a lot already been written about cheap air tickets I will just link to an article from Lifehacker called “Five Best Travel Sites for Cheap Tickets”.

Transportation

First of all – you probably don’t need to rent a car at all. In order to get from the airport to your hotel you can either book a super shuttle (http://www.supershuttle.com/) which is around 34 USD round trip from SFO. But actually you can even save money here because you can just take the Bay Area Rapid Transportation (BART) Train from SFO which costs 17 USD round-trip. And you can check out on the map, it is just a few minutes walk from the BART Station at Powell street to the conference hotel or to the mentioned Mosser Hotel. The proximity of the BART station could also mean that you could take another hotel somewhere else and just commute in the morning.

Eating & Drinking

Frankly speaking during the conference you don’t have to worry much about getting food and drinks. There is full catering at the conference with breakfast and lunch. I think there is also one official dinner as well as some snacks in the afternoon. The food is actually quite good and so you don’t have to worry about starving. And if you are hungry, there are some super-markets and restaurants on Market Street and also around Union Square.

Did we miss anything? Do you have any insider tips for attending BlackBerry developer conference? Let us know in the comments!

Is it worth to attend the BlackBerry developer conference?

I have attended the last BlackBerry developer conference in San Francisco and there are several reasons why it is worth going there:

1. The sessions are excellent and you will never be able to get that much in-depth information straight from people at RIM as well as from other experts in the BlackBerry environment.
2. The material, videos and slides are really good and will provide a lot of ideas.
3. The food was pretty good last year, but the main keynote was too long. But overall it was an excellent conference experience!
4. You will have a chance to meet and network with people from the well-known BlackBerry applications as well as many other blogs. The inside knowledge you can extract in a short lunch conversation is something you can’t get anywhere else either.

That beeing said there are also some reasons that – for me personally – speak against attending BlackBerry devcon:

1. Sitting in the keynote session and hearing announcements is basically worthless because there are countless bloggers who publish the news in real-time online. So you can just sit at home and follow www.crackberry.com and you will hear all news instantly.
2. The sessions are excellent. But with the option to buy a DVD that includes videos and presentation of all sessions significantly reduces the value of actually sitting in the session. No need to spend several thousand dollars to attend a conference when you get all the content a few weeks afterwards.

With these Pros and Cons it should be more easy to evaluate if you should attent BlackBerry devcon. If you are planning to meet a lot of bloggers to promote your application, garther inside knowledge about the ecosystem and network in the community then this is a must-go event. If you just want to get inside knowledge about the latest developments on the BlackBerry platform you can also wait until the BlackBerry DevCon DVD is available a few months afterwards.

What do you think about the conference? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!