DBrand makes vinyl skins for the BlackBerry Z10. I personally don’t use skins on my phone and I am hesitant to do so because I am very specific and precise with these types of things. That being said I was nervous applying the skin, but the first thing that was a positive was that the skin removed easily when I was refitting the device with the skin. There was no sticky residue which was positive as well. One suggestion I would make is for the skin piece for the top and bottom to cover the full piece because part of the skin is cut a little smaller for the screen itself, which I can understand but looks a little odd. I think it was noticeable because I was putting it on a black z10. The skin is easy enough to put on without following any instructions which was provided by DBrand.

The skin I had was the white leather skin. It was a nice look on the device something I could definitely carry around. The feel of the back piece was not bad and gave the device a little bit of a grip to it. That is nice especially if you have the skin on a red or white z10 which has a smooth back. I personally don’t like white especially if it gets dirty but I didn’t see that with the white leather skin. It does not add any bulk to the device which is a great for me, I do not like bulk because I put my phone in my pocket. For anyone who wants a nice white look to their z10, I definitely recommend getting the white leather skin for the z10. I did try removing the skin like a week later for another skin to test and I had issues removing it. This may be because i dont really have much fingernails but I was able to remove it after a few tries.

You can find this and more skins at DBrand.

The post White leather DBrand skin review is from N4BB.COM

Apple’s MacBook’s sleek and simplistic look has always captured my eye. The classic silver with black accents is very appealing to me. After seeing the first BlackBerry Z10 ‘Oreo’ on CrackBerry, I just had to do something similar.

Though, I didn’t want it exactly the same. I needed mine to be original and with a little more flair. Enter dbrand. The company makes very high quality vinyl skins for electronic devices.

A fellow Canadian company, dbrand, saw it fit to support the BlackBerry Z10. They offer multiple skin variations, such as leather, titanium, and carbon fiber.

The skins are made of authentic 3M vinyl, so there’s never any adhesive residue left on your device. The company says they’ve “meticulously measured each of the cutouts on our skins for the BlackBerry Z10 hundreds of times, down to the micro millimeter. It literally isn’t possible to find a better fitting, higher quality BlackBerry Z10 skin than the one you’ll find at dbrand inc.”

The best part about dbrand vinyl skins are their quality. They are not just images printed on the vinyl. They feel exactly as they look. Everyone, including myself, who had the opportunity to feel the Carbon Fiber Z10 Oreo was quite impressed that you could ‘feel’ the design.

It was quite easy to apply the skin on the Z10. I’ll admit, I applied it during the BlackBerry Live 2013 keynote, in the dark. I have a knack for detail so I did have a few tries before the cut-outs lined up perfectly. Though, the best part about the application process is there’s no messy spray or the use of a squeegee to rub out any bubbles.

Each dbrand skin covers nearly the entire right parts of the device. This ensures the design looks natural. It certainly fooled people into thinking I had a custom-made BlackBerry Z10.

To accomplish the ‘oreo’ effect, I simply used a white OEM battery door. Ross will likely use this same carbon fiber skin from dbrand to make a “Limited Edition Carbon Fiber Z10″ for his red Z10.

You can even mix and match the skin’s colors. For instance, there is white and black carbon fiber designs. I could have gotten black carbon fiber for the front and back of the device, while using a white carbon fiber for the sides. This comes at no additional cost.

The vinyl skins at dbrand are top-notch and priced very, very reasonably. You can pick from three different styles with different color variations at a price of only $20.

dbrand makes customizing your BlackBerry Z10 a breeze, without having to send it away for the customizations. Check out all of the dbrand vinyl skins for the BlackBerry Z10 at dbrand.com.

The post Presenting the Carbon Fiber BlackBerry Z10 Oreo is from N4BB.COM

I live in America, where soccer (or football, if you prefer) is not exactly the most popular sport. Sometimes it’s hard to stay up to date on your favorite league, team, or player. Thankfully there’s a newly updated app in BlackBerry World that will keep you tuned in to everything happening in several soccer leagues from all over the world. That app is Soccer Ticker by PT Inspira.

Features

Soccer Ticker is the one app to rule them all when it comes to soccer updates. Users can check on the scores of past games, view schedules for upcoming games, stay connected with the players by viewing their tweets. This is only a fraction of what this feature rich application does. Let’s break down a few more of this app’s features.

Matches

After first downloading the app, and creating an account and signing in, you’re taken to the Matches screen. From here, you can view a list of the most recent games and their scores, as well as the schedules for upcoming games. Selecting a game with the tiny “Free” icon takes you to the Ticker of that game. From here, you can choose to receive alerts from the app, follow along with progress live, view stats, and even invite contacts to follow along the game with you.

Ticker

From here, the users can view a stream of highlights from recent games. Tapping one of the photos takes you to a summary of what occurred. While viewing the story, users can press the overflow menu and choose to share the story via BBM, Facebook, Twitter, or even to set it as your BBM status. Selecting Twitter at the top of the screen will take you to a stream the most current tweets from different teams in the league you have selected.

Season

From here, users can review the schedules and outcomes from this month to several months back. Select standing, and you can see which team has the best record. Leaderboard allows you to see the top three players who have scored the most goals or has the most assists.

Overflow Menu

Pressing the overflow menu from anywhere in the app allows you to choose which league you would like to view. Another great feature, and probably my favorite in the app, is the ability to send a message to one of your BBM contacts from pretty much anywhere in the app. Press the overflow menu and select BBM Chat and you’re taken directly to your contacts. Select whom you want to message, type out your message, and then one quick swipe and you’re back in the app. I almost wish this feature was built into every app. It’s like the convenience of the Hub, without actually getting into the Hub.

Should I download it?

Even if you only remotely like watching Soccer, this is a pretty necessary app to own. Since the app is free and only 7 MB, you really have no other reason to acquire it. Head on over to BlackBerry World and get it today!

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I had the pleasure of trying this puzzle game called Sequent. It is available in BlackBerry World for only $0.99 cents. This game is written by Jason Carter who has also written WordsPlus, which is a built for BlackBerry app.

This game is like other four picture, one word games with an additional twist included, which is that each set of pictures has a certain sequence. It gives a little more of a challenge to the game. There is also a nice feature of guest mode where you can give your phone to someone to play the game.  Sequent is a little bit simplistic in layout but still nice. The home button and coins is at the top with the pictures in the middle. The hint/skip option is right below these pictures and a done/submit option and a reset option.

When you choose the picture, you will see a red box pop up or if there is no picture in the spot like in the picture the bottom right corner shows this. One feature I think would be nice in this is to show which box was chosen in which order, perhaps like 1 inside the box for first and so on. This would be especially helpful if you put your phone down for a few and forgot which you chose first. At this moment, you have to reset or choose the rest of the items and submit. Another thing I’ve seen sometimes, I may accidentally pick a picture and I can not unselect it at that point, I have to reset the puzzle.

If you want to skip a puzzle or need a hint, you can do so using the hint/skip button which is 75 coins for a hint and 150 for a skip. You hit the word for the option, which you would like to do and select the option and agree to it in the pop up box. If you need more coins, you can get these as in app purchases depending on how many you need. 600 is 99 cents, 1500 is 1.99 and 4000 is 2.99.

This game is 100 levels at this time and difficulty increases as you go through the levels. I personally have been playing this game for several hours on and off and I am at level 68 as of this writing. Another feature that is available is that you can reset the game and start from the beginning again. The developer has stated that more levels will come in future updates. If you love puzzle games, I recommend this game for you. This game was just released today so like any new app there will be certain things that need to be refined in future updates but nothing that will ruin the fun of the game.

For More Information and to download, get it in BlackBerry World here.

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We all know BlackBerry for one thing and one thing only, their beautiful Qwerty keyboard.  Today as more markets begin selling the Q10 i wanted to give you guys a review on the device. Its not a Z10 or an iPhone killer but it might be the best BlackBerry ever. Lets dive right in .

Introduction

After the release of the Z10, BlackBerry is set to release worldwide their first Qwerty BlackBerry10 device dubbed the Q10. The iconic keyboard makes a furious comeback in a sleek , stylish and extremely powerful device. The company has placed a huge bet on the success of this device and we will see how it stacks up against the competition.

Hardware

• Dimensions - 119.6 x 66.8 x 10.4 mm (4.71 x 2.63 x 0.41 in)
• Weight-139 g (4.90 oz)
• 16GB Internal storage
• 3.1″Touch display
• 720 x 720 resolution, 330ppi
• 8MP Rear Camera
• 2MP Front Cameree
• 4GLTE Ready
• QWERTY keyboard & touch screen
• Up to 14.4 days* standby time (3G)
• 1080p HD video recording
• Up to 13.5 hours talk time (3G)
• NFC
• 2100MAH battery
• BlackBerry 10.1 operating system

Design

 

The Q10 is a true BlackBerry from the absolute gorgeous design to the most comfortable keyboard on a modern smartphone. I never thought I would see a larger keyboard than the 9900 but to my surprise the Q10 has larger keys (30 percent larger according to BlackBerry)that are laid out in a straight line form. This is achieved by removing the very familiar navigation bar and trackpad. The back of the device is a beautiful glass weave that is a new material exclusive to BlackBerry. The device is wrapped around a beautiful black metal that aside from being scratch resistant it gives it a very luxurious look. On the back side there is a metal band that Is placed very thoughtfully to raise the phone when you place it down and avoid scratching the lens of the camera. Every aspect of this device is extremely thought out and in terms of pure design BlackBerry hit a homerun.

Battery Life

 

The Q10 sports a beefed up 2100mah battery that promises a healthy full day of charge. To compliment the large battery BlackBerry has taken advantage of the OLED screen and has created a dark theme. The dark theme than can be found in the BBM, Calendar, contacts and various other applications is not only cool but extremely practical. I put the device through vigorous use and I m happy to report this is one impressive battery performance. If you weren’t happy with the Z10 battery you will be very happy with the Q10.

Productivity

One thing that sometimes eludes these reviews is how productive you can be with your device. BlackBerry knows that their customer is a busy individual that is always on the move. The Q10 is one of the most productive devices I have ever had the pleasure of using. The Instant Actions allow you to “type and go” and complete tasks in a minimal amount of time. I can start typing ” tweet” type my message and press send and bam the tweet has been posted.

Instant Actions 

The presence of a keyboard saves a lot of time as you can start typing at any time thus saving you time of opening an application and having to bring up the keyboard. Typing emails, texts, or BBM’s is a breeze, a feeling extremely familiar with Bold 9900 users. This is BlackBerry’s bread and butter.

Fun

 

So here is the same old question, tool or toy?. The smaller screen is not ideal for watching movies and doing heavy intense media stuff. To BlackBerry’s credit they have gone above and beyond to make sure that if you have some down time,  the Q10 will also be fun to use. From listening to music or watching YouTube videos or playing really high intensity games like Need For Speed. Games like Angry Birds are available and are easy to play on the Q10′s smaller screen. Browsing through BlackBerry World’s game section Q10 owners will be extremely satisfied.

BlackBerry 10.1

 

After spending some time with the Q10 I feel that BlackBerry took all the initial negative feedback and made the necessary adjustments. Everything from better email experience to being able to copy and paste phone numbers to the call screen. BlackBerry 10.1 brings a fury of new improvements especially on  the notifications side where now you can have custom notifications for each contact. This was an issue for a lot of Z10 users who had been spoiled but the amazing notifications on BB7. Talking about BB7 you now have the ability to PIN message your buddies like you could In older devices.

For those of you who use BBM as a social network you ll be happy to know that now you can actually just “like” a picture like you do on Facebook. Nothing incredible here but definitely a nice touch. Last but not least BlackBerry has added a very cool HDR mode to improve on an already impressive camera.

 

BlackBerry World

Skype on the Q10

When I first received the device I was very happy to see Skype pre-loaded. Unfortunately that was it. Most of the applications that already existed on the Z10 were no where to be found. I was extremely disappointed to be honest but I was hoping that upon release we would see an influx of apps and boy was I right. Most apps are now available including Skype, WhatsApp, Blaq, BlackBerry travel, The Score, ScoreCenter, Kayak, Maxim, Untapped, GasBuddy, HHS, Flixter, MLB at Bat ,and NHL GameCenter just to name a few. BlackBerry World is growing fast for both Z10 and Q10 so check frequently as more more apps become available.

Keyboard

I really wanted to spend a little more time on this FANTASTIC keyboard. If you have ever been a fan of Qwerty devices this is your dream. The operating system compliments the use of keyboard which is something I honestly didn’t expect. Combining the larger keys on the Q10 with a very fast OS has been a breeze to type and use this device as my main driver. I can’t wait to read the reaction of BlackBerry users who purchase a Q10. Below you can see a comparing video between the older Qwerty BB7 devices and the Q10.

Recap

Good

• Keyboard
• Software
• Design
• Battery Life
• Dark theme

Bad

• Smaller Screen

Summary

A lot of people are way passed the full keyboard device. Most people want a large 4 to 5 inch device that is extremely media friendly. The Q10 unfortunately is not a device for those people. This is a device build specifically for the people who want a pure communication device with no compromise. The operating system is fluid beautiful fast and is only on its first generation. For the first time you can have a full Qwerty device with out having to settle for a phone that can type a long email in seconds and at the same time play Angry Birds. I believe BlackBerry has done a phenomenal job with this device and like I said in my first impressions post , I have now officially switched to Q10 full time and I am not planning on a full touch screen any time soon.

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Gameloft released The Dark Knight Rises last week for the BlackBerry Z10 and I’ve been playing it off and on since then with the intent to let you know if it is worth the $2.99 purchase. Great graphics, story, and voice acting are nicely juxtaposed with a huge file and long load times, both of which make this game a riddle even The Caped Crusader would have difficulty solving.

The Good

The Dark Knight Rises looks great. It has amazing graphics that look stunning on the Z10. It also has pretty solid voice acting and fairly easy to use controls.

There’s just the right amount of difficulty to keep you glued to the game for a good amount of time, but it’s not so hard that you want to throw your phone against the wall and never play again.

You play as Batman and the story is pretty much the same as in the feature film, with a few things thrown in here and there to make it playable. The game starts shortly after Selina Kyle has robbed Bruce Wayne’s fingerprints while disguised as a maid in his mansion. (If you haven’t seen the movie, seriously, what’s wrong with you? Go watch it!) Your first mission is to track her down and get information from her, all the while learning the controls of the game and defeating the obligatory henchmen along the way.

As you progress through the game, you receive weapons upgrades and vehicles, which is teased from the beginning. This promise helped me push through the more frustrating aspects of the game, which I’ll outline below, and was worth the wait.

The Bad

After purchasing the app I was amazed at how massive the file is. It’s just shy of a full gigabyte; 911.4 megabytes to be exact. That’s the biggest app I’ve ever downloaded, and it took no less than 20 minutes to download. Thankfully I was connected to a WiFi network at the time. Should you choose to purchase it, do the same and connect to WiFi.

Once I got the game downloaded, it took a bit long to load up for the first time. I cut it some slack because it was the initial run. However, every time after that, it took just as long. There were many times where I opened up the app to play a little, but had to close it once I got it up and running because my moments of spare time had passed.

The controls on the game are easy, but that’s after you get used to them. Had I not been playing it for the purposes of writing this review, I would have given up shortly after the first mission because I was annoyed with the controls. However, once I got past that steep learning curve I was able to continue with the game.

Did I mention it’s a huge file? Because of this I want to delete it. I feel like it’s taking up precious space on my phone, even though I have plenty of space left over. To make matters worse, I know I won’t be able to delete it until I finish it because if I do delete it before hand, I’ll feel as though I would have wasted the space for sure, not to mention the $3.00 it cost to purchase the app.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a fan of Batman and the Christopher Nolan trilogy, you’ll enjoy this game. However, there are more than enough reasons to pass and save the two bucks for a game that is overall more enjoyable.

Drop me a comment below and let me know if you’ve downloaded The Dark Knight Rises and what you think about it.

The post Review: The Dark Knight Rises Game on BlackBerry Z10 is from N4BB.COM

Skype has officially been launched for BlackBerry 10. Though, it is currently only a preview build, which is available for the BlackBerry Q10.

However, if you’re like me and have a Dev Alpha C, you can still run the app. However, it’s no where near as fluid as on an actual Q10.

You can see our original rundown of the Skype app for BlackBerry 10 with a video chat here. For the full walkthrough of the Android ported Skype, check out the video below:

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Blaq was finally released this week for the BlackBerry Z10, and after just one day of playing with it, I’ve already decided that no other Twitter app, including the official one that is integrated into the almighty Hub, deserves a spot on my phone. I was asked to integrate my review of Blaq into a list of the best Twitter apps available for BlackBerry 10, but I simply could not come up with reasons as to why you would ever want to download any other app. Here are five reasons why Blaq will replace every Twitter app you’ve ever used.

1. Multiple Account Support

   This is probably the biggest flaw missing from the official Twitter for BlackBerry (T4BB) app. Many people, myself included, run multiple accounts. I have my personal account and the account I use for BlackBerry mega fan purposes. Since I got my Z10 back at the launch event in January, I’ve been completely neglecting my personal account. 

   There are other apps out there that support multiple accounts, but none of them do it as fluidly and seamless as Blaq. The other two apps I’ve used are Tweetings and Neatly. The former is an Android port, while the latter is native built. My experiences with both have been nothing short of frustrating. Neatly constantly freezes and Tweetings is just bad all around. Normally I’m not one to bash an app straight up, but the lack of a good, dependable Twitter app has been an issue that has bugged my about BlackBerry 10 since launch. Plus I spent money on those two apps, and they don’t do what I need them to do.

   Blaq is different. It makes tweeting from multiple accounts a breeze. This is coming from a guy who used two different apps on the 9900 because he hated swapping accounts. On Blaq, all you have to do to switch accounts is swipe down from the bottom, select accounts, then pick the account you want to use. Your timeline loads in a flash and you can Keep Moving without missing a beat. This brings me to my next point…

    

2. Real Time Updates

   Blaq allows users to set an interval as to when you will get updates to your Twitter feed. It’s not exactly push notifications (which is good because that would do some serious damage to your battery life), but you can set updates from anywhere to every five minutes to an hour when you’re not actively looking at your timeline.
   
   If you do happen to be scrolling through your timeline, the app will automatically update once you get close to the top. New tweets usually come in pretty seamlessly; I got some without realizing that I was already at the top of my timeline. If you reach the top and there are no new tweets, a simple scroll will pull your new tweets in after showing you the pictured screen.

3. Gorgeous Intuitive User Interface

   I absolutely love the fluid and intuitive of BlackBerry 10 and how gorgeous it looks when swiping to and fro with all sorts of fancy gestures. It’s honestly my favorite aspect of the OS, and one of the main reasons why I’m not too fond of apps ported from Android apps. Blaq did a splendid job of building an app that caters to all the gestures and motions that can be used in BlackBerry 10. Swipe down from top of the screen to bring up settings and account options. Swipe down from the top of your feed to refresh your timeline. Swipe right to bring up the menu of which timeline you want to look at. Swipe right from a tweet in your timeline and choose if you want to favorite, retweet, or reply to that tweet. After having my Z10 for a couple months, these swipes and gestures are second nature to me.

   Not only does Blaq integrate all of these to make for a simple experience, it also looks stunning. The app has a dark theme and easy to read font in five different sizes, as well as a menu that a pleasing color palette when choosing which timeline you want to view. At first the color coded options threw me off just a little bit; I would have preferred a theme of similar colors to give it a little bit more of a minimalist feel. However I learned that the timelines are that color for a reason. When one of those timelines has new tweets, a small circle of that color will appear at the top left of the screen. A simple swipe to the right and tap on that color brings up that timeline.

Is Blaq the perfect Twitter app for BlackBerry 10? No not just yet. For that to happen for me, I would need an joined timeline of all my accounts (like SocialScope for legacy devices) and Hub integration. Is Blaq the best Twitter app currently available for BlackBerry 10? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. Buy this app. Don’t bother with T4BB. I’m actually planning on deleting it, as soon as I hit publish on this article.

Blaq can be downloaded from BlackBerry World for $2.99, and believe me, it’s very much worth every penny.

The post Three Reasons Blaq Will Replace Every Twitter App On Your BlackBerry 10 Device is from N4BB.COM

Now that thousands of us have our hands on the much anticipated BlackBerry Z10, it’s time to get in to the business of properly protecting and accessorizing them. Take a moment to check out the Zebrawood case from Case-Mate’s Crafted Wood Collection for a classy looking option that you’re sure to love.

The Zebrawood case is nothing if not sharp looking; I’ve been using it for a few days and everyone has commented on how sleek it looks on my Z10. The case itself has a silver plastic edge  that has a metallic look to it, and a back side made from natural wood materials. The contrast of metallic and wood makes the case and your phone a very modern looking device to be carrying around.

The case consists of two pieces, a thin back with a rubber-like material that adds a little bit of cushion should your phone slip out of your hands, and a top portion that covers the rest of the phone. On the top piece, there are slots cut out so you can have easy access to your camera, volume rockers, charging/HDMI ports, and the speaker on the bottom.

Overall, the Zebrawood case is a great looking carrying solution that adds a certain level of sophistication to your phone. I only had two small issues with the case; the volume rockers are a little hard to get to because of the thickness of the top piece of the case, and the metallic looking plastic is just that, plastic. It give the case a slightly cheap feel to it, which is ironic because the case costs $80.

You can purchase the Zebrawood case, and many other great looking cases, from Case-Mate’s website.

The post Review: Case-Mate Zebrawood case for BlackBerry Z10 is from N4BB.COM

The BlackBerry Z10 is nearly out in every market around the world. Accessories manufacturers are now chomping at the bit to get new Z10 owners to purchase their 3rd party products.

The latest accessory for the BlackBerry Z10 comes from Mapi. Their Nais leather belt case has recently been released, which features an executive vibe.

The Mapi Nais leather belt case is composed of 100% european leather. The quality is quite sturdy with its edges held in place by buttonhole stitching.

The inside of the Mapi Nais leather belt case is composed of microfiber, which gives it a faux suede feel and adds soft protection to the Z10.

The BlackBerry Z10 had a nice snug fit in the Mapi Nais leather belt case, but it wasn’t too tight of a fit. Just the right fit so the Z10 will not move around too much within the case.

The case has a belt clip, which swivels 360 degrees. The clip itself feels very well built. The swivel mechanism feels of hard plastic and clasps into place with each turn.

Once attached to your belt, the Mapi Nais leather belt case doesn’t move around at all. The belt clip firmly held the case in place.

A concealed magnet keeps the case clasped shut. The strength of the magnet is fairly good and effectively gets the job done. Once clasped the opening flap did not come loose.

The Map Nais leather belt case really has no faults. However, it did present an interesting “which way does it go in” scenario. Naturally, I wanted to position the Z10 within the case so the audio jack was visible.

I also thought the opening on the side of the case was for the volume keys.

Apparently, this was the incorrect way to insert the BlackBerry Z10. As, you can see it would only give you access to the volume down key.

I had to double check Mapi’s website to see if they presented the proper way. The correct way given is to insert the BlackBerry Z10 in the opposite direction, thereby only giving you access to the charging port.

While that’s fine, it would make more sense to have had proper access to the audio jack and volume keys. The case is meant to be taken on the go. I hardly think you’ll need access to the charging port while out and about.

All in all, I have been quite satisfied with Mapi’s Nais leather belt case. For those who enjoy a belt case, you can’t go wrong with this one.

The Nais is available in three different colors: black, brown, and the clay brown pictured in this review. You can get this 100% leather case for the reasonable price of $40.

• Check out the Nais leather belt case from Mapi

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Eufloria HD was released for the BlackBerry PlayBook a long time ago, and maybe most of you have already played it but if you haven’t, then you should. With cool graphics, nice music and a gameplay to keep you hooked, Eufloria is a game that every PlayBook owner should at least try.   Here’s our review:

Eufloria HD takes you on missions across galaxies where you have to conquer asteroids by spreading your seedlings throughout them. You’ve got a mother tree to begin the game, this tree grows your seedlings and you use them to move on to new asteroids until you colonize them all. With over 20 levels and different game modes, Eufloria is sure to keep you hooked to your PlayBook.

You can plant a new tree on each asteroid and when they grow, seedling start growing out of them. You need a specific amount of seedling before you can colonize an asteroid, and a lot more if the asteroid is already colonized by the enemy, in which case you might have to gather seedlings from different asteroids to beat them. This is was makes the game fun and challenging.

The first few levels are slow since they are tutorials, they guide you through the game and how it’s played. Once you get past the 10th level, things start getting interesting. The game never gets too complicated, but that does not mean it’s a piece of cake either. Each level has an increased amount of difficulty that’ll help you solve the next without getting frustrated. It’s just the right amount of complicated.

You can set the game to move at your own pace by leaving it at the default speed or speeding it up a bit to make it move faster if you’ve already mastered it. I do wish it could move a bit faster since the first few levels are way too easy and a little repetitive and you sometimes wish you could just skip through them.

Eufloria HD is available for PlayBook and also BlackBerry 10 for just $2.25 on BlackBerry World. I highly suggest you get it and become addicted, now!

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When you’re constantly searching online, reading news, checking Twitter or other social networks then you’ve probably come across something you wanted to read, but was in a language you don’t speak. Language is no longer a limitation, thanks to apps such as iTranslator PRO that make translating fast, easy and accurate.

iTranslator PRO is a cool translation app created by TrustBe and available for BlackBerry 10, very simple to use and straightforward. You can choose from over 50 languages to translate from and to.

There are three buttons at the bottom of the app. New query deletes any translation you were doing so that you can make a new one. Languages lets you choose which language to translate from and to.

History shows all the translations you’ve done, which I think is a pretty cool feature this way you don’t need to translate the same thing twice, you can just see it in the History.

iTranslator has another cool feature called Instant Translation, which is very similar to Instant Search on Google. It basically translates everything as you type. It’s fast and does a very accurate, would say even perfect translation.

If you’re constantly finding yourself translating stuff, and even if you don’t, I highly recommend this app. It is available for BlackBerry OS 5 and higher, including BlackBerry 10. For only $1.50 it’s definitely worth having.

• Get iTranslator PRO for BlackBerry 10 in BlackBerry World

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The new BlackBerry Z10 runs the proprietary BlackBerry 10 OS (see our Z10 review here).  In case you think it’s related to older BlackBerry operating systems, think again.  To put it in perspective, OS X and iOS have more in common than BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 7.  BlackBerry has built an operating system from the ground up.  The foundation of QNX was used to provide a stable, real-time operating system that could provide a rock solid, secure, and powerful platform upon which to build future BlackBerrys.  This is what has taken BlackBerry so long to put together, and what will determine the success of their new platform.  After years of development and refinement, here it is.  Let’s dive right in.

User Interface

The BlackBerry 10 user interface is centered on three main views: the “Hub”, multi-tasking pane, and the app grid.

The Hub is the messaging and communication center for every type of notification.  Whether its phone calls, emails, twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBM, texts, appointments, tasks, it’s all there.  The Hub itself is an aggregation of all these types of media into a single list.  You can go through the hub to power through all of your recent notifications, ideal in situations where you have many messages from different types of media.  Upon first booting up the Z10, the Hub does take a few seconds to populate.  You can either use the “Hub” directly, or choose a specific category of media, such as Twitter for example.

The app grid is what you’ve seen on iOS and Android for as long as they’ve been around and it really isn’t too different here on BlackBerry 10.  Each app icon does have a dark rounded silhouette making darker backgrounds look better than lighter ones.  I would have preferred the style found on the PlayBook, but it’s very subjective.

The multitasking screen shows your currently running apps as active panes.  It is not like Windows Phone 8 in the fact that only apps that are running are shown. Apps are either static, update with information, or show a smaller icon of the app.

Universal Search

The universal search feature has been a must-have for any smartphone in the past couple years, and it’s great to see that BlackBerry 10 has it from the get-go.  The universal search function scans and indexes the entire Z10 for your search query.  You can further customize which apps it searches in as well.

The universal search is accessible via the bottom of the main app grid or multitasking screen.  It works very well and finds what you need very easily.  It is very similar in function to the great one found on BlackBerry 7, but looks much better.

Phone

As far as phone apps go, there hasn’t been much innovation going on.  Give people a dial pad, contacts, and a list of recent calls and they’re as usually pretty happy.  On BlackBerry 10, receiving a call is possibly one of the best experiences.  As you receive a call, a bar drops down and gives you the option to answer or refuse the call by pulling the bar down or up.  The action is very fluid and prevents “pocket answering” calls.

There are three main tabs in the phone app: Calls, Contacts, and Dial Pad.  The Contacts tab is the same as the contacts app, while the Calls tab lists the most recent calling events.  Pressing on the Dial Pad gives you the traditional tones with each key press.

Swiping down from the top gives you no shortage of calling options such as call forwarding, call audio, voice mail, holster behaviour, bluetooth, smart dialing, call waiting, call blocking, fixed dialing numbers, hearing aid mode, TTY,and Call Summary.

BBM

Almost synonymous with BlackBerry, BlackBerry Messenger(BBM) is a huge reason why people buy BlackBerry.  The unrivaled reliability, integration, data conservation, features, security and ubiquity are the primary reasons for its success.  On BlackBerry 10, BBM has been completely revamped to follow the BlackBerry 10 UI.

Almost all the features in BBM 7 are found in BBM 10.  BBM Groups, broadcast messages, picture/video/file messaging, PIN/Barcode/NFC/e-mail adding, emoticons, voice calling, music player integration, they’re all there.

But there’s more.  The rumoured BBM Video chatting is a new highlight that allows contacts to video chat each other, much like Apple’s Facetime.

Keep in mind that you can’t make BBM Video or BBM Voice calls without Wi-Fi, yet.  Let’s hope BlackBerry at least enables BBM voice-calling without Wi-Fi.  BBM Video chatting works as well as can be expected.  The call quality naturally depends on your Wi-Fi connection but I’ve generally found it to have about half a second one-way lag in the call.

Remember

As a new addition to the OS, the Remember app is also one of the simplest.  As an analogue to the old Memo Pad in BlackBerry 7, Remember helps you, well, remember things.  Only this time, its more sophisticated (partly because you couldn’t get any simpler than Memo Pad).  You can now input content and organize them into various folders, all while marking them with tags for quick reference.  Each entry can be in text, voice, video, or website form.

Remind you of another popular app?  Perhaps Evernote?  Well, those who use Evernote are in for a treat, the app itself is integrated with Evernote so all your notes are seamlessly loaded onto Remember.  The Evernote folders are marked with a special icon.

In addition, Hotmail or Outlook users (as if there is any difference these days), have automatically synced folders in Remember.

Print to Go

Originally appearing on the PlayBook a while ago, Print to Go is a great app.  It’s one of those apps that you’ll rarely appreciate until you use it.  Print to Go allows you to virtually “print” a document to your device over Wi-Fi as if it were a printer.  I won’t go talking about it like it was the second coming of Christ, as it really is just a glorified PDF printer.  It’s the amalgamation of a few neat concepts that makes it shine though.   Since not much has changed, read on here to read the Print to Go review on the PlayBook 2.0.

Docs to Go

The native document suite on BlackBerry smartphones has been called Docs to Go for a while now.  Despite the same name, it is again like BlackBerry 10 in that it is a completely different suite altogether.

Under the “Docs to Go” umbrella, there are three distinct apps: Word to Go, Sheet to Go, and Slideshow to Go.

Each can be secured using a password and BlackBerry’s uber-secure BlackBerry balance framework which lets the presentation exist on the work side of the device.

Using the HDMI port on the Z10, you can present your content to an audience very easily.  Another very interesting use is when you use the document suite while sharing your screen during a BBM video call, allowing you to semi-collaborate on documents in real-time.

Word to Go

Word is Go, you guessed it, is the Microsoft Word document editor.  You can create new word documents, edit them, and save them.  Thankfully, that’s not all.

The quick formatting options are quite reasonable for a mobile document editor.  At the top bar, you have the typical text formatting options such as bold, italic, and underline.  You can control the justification, indenting, and also add bullet points as needed.

At the bottom of the screen, you have general file-level options, such as Close, Save, Share, Find, Word Count, File Info, Save As, Format, and an option to hide the formatting bar.

The full formatting options are the most interesting ones.  With these, you have the power to add lists of different types, create lists within lists, add sub/super-scripts, choose among four different fonts, change the font size/color, highlight text, lock capital letters, strikeout your text, change the margins, change the line spacing, and that’s just about it.  It’s also nice to see undo, and redo buttons when editing anything. The app itself is clean and a very solid offering on BlackBerry 10.

Slideshow to Go

First thing to note, you still cannot (technically) create a PowerPoint presentation on your phone. You can only edit currently existing ones.  However, this can easily be overcome by opening up a blank PowerPoint presentation saved on the Z10 and selecting “Save As…” to create a new blank slideshow.  Since you can’t add any images or videos though, don’t expect to make impressive slideshows with Slideshow to Go.

The transitions on the pre-loaded demo slideshow are impressive (especially the pixelating one).  Unfortunately, you can’t add transitions or animations at all.  While presenting, you have the option to view your notes (but not edit them).  You also have most of the formatting options as Word to Go.  In short, this is a great PowerPoint viewer, but a poor PowerPoint editor.  At this time, you can only edit the text in PowerPoint presentations.

Sheet to Go

For spreadsheets, BlackBerry Z10 users can go with Sheet to Go.  It’s not a bad offering at all.  The interface is very similar to Word to Go, so you’re instantly familiar with the UI.  Navigating the sheet is quick and effortless.  Sheet to Go supports quite a few formulas, such as SUM(), ODD(), DATE(), etc.  It didn’t seem to recognize more obscure formulae, such as ROUNDUP() or WORKDAY(), but I doubt I’ll find too many people heartbroken over these.

You can actually resize columns and rows very easily, something that was impossible on previous BlackBerry smartphones. Most of the text formatting options are there from Word to Go.  You can’t unfortunately create more sheets, but you are given three to start out with.  While this solution isn’t ideal, if you do ever require more, you could always just make a new excel file.

You can easily select multiple cells and format them, move them, or copy them.  You can even do the same with rows and columns.  The undo and redo features are there too.

Overall, the entire document suite has that native BlackBerry 10 feel.  The smooth scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, a modern UI, a “suite” of useful options all required impeccable execution on BlackBerry’s part. The implementation is quite remarkable considering the modest size of the Z10.  At 4.2”, the UI makes clever use of the screen real estate and looks to be well thought through.  The suite has quite a few must-have features, while still remaining quite easy to use.  While it is not a game changer in the world of smartphone document suites, it is certainly up there with one of the best.  Straight up, I’m impressed.

BlackBerry World

Now let’s forget the three-piece suit.  It’s app time!  First off, BlackBerry has renamed their “BlackBerry App World” to “BlackBerry World” for a variety of reasons: simplification of their brand, a generalization to music, videos, and shows, and because their Annual conference in Orlando is now named “BlackBerry Live”.

Let’s first talk about the elephant in the room–then proceed to kick it out the door.  Apps.  The bane of BlackBerry’s existence?  Not quite.  BlackBerry World has over 70,000 apps at launch, the largest number in a first generation platform EVER.  And this isn’t just some reference to total app number (including PlayBook and older BlackBerry apps).  This is the total number of apps for BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

It is on pace to blow by Windows Phone.  And what about all those apps made for older BlackBerry devices?  Relegated to the old BlackBerry App World, never to be seen again (on any BlackBerry 10 smartphone at least).

BlackBerry 10 apps ≠ BlackBerry 7 apps.  In fact, BlackBerry 10 apps >> BlackBerry 7 apps.  The old apps that you may (or may not) be familiar with on BlackBerry 7 are non-existent on this platform.  This is good news, as the older tools provided by BlackBerry were limited, harder to implement, and honestly made most apps look like garbage.  BlackBerry 10 is a whole different story.

Now, onto BlackBerry World itself.  The user interface is very fast.  At the top of the screen, you can see the main featured images of some of the most popular apps.  Just below, you get a view of the top trending app under BlackBerry’s new trending engine. Further down, you’ll see previews of the paid games, apps, music, videos and TV shows.  The side menu allows you to narrow down your search to apps, games, music, videos, or all your downloaded content.  Each category is very easy navigate once you get used to how BlackBerry 10.

You can search for apps using the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.  Swiping down from the top of the screen gives you the option to scan an app barcode off someone else, check downloads, adjust settings or go to help.

The settings menu is quite simple, but sufficient for its purpose.  You can set parental control, payment options, control where music and movies are saved to, and force apps to download over Wi-Fi.  It’s also interesting to note that apps over 50Mb will not download without Wi-Fi access.

The app selection isn’t phenomenal. And this is to be expected for now because there is honestly extremely few BlackBerry 10 users at the moment because it technically isn’t out yet for the vast majority of people.  Remember when the iPhone and Android platforms launched?  The app selection was either non-existent or horrible (both is possible too I guess). Twitter, Foursquare, Angry Birds, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress, and tons of other big-name apps are all on BlackBerry 10.  And yes, Skype will be coming soon.  But no, there isn’t any Instagram, or Netflix, or <insert game of the month> here (yet).

The point to take home is that while BlackBerry 10 doesn’t have all the apps that Android or iOS have, the developer tools and support that BlackBerry has as of now is unrivaled.  Apps will easily come to BlackBerry 10 as users come to BlackBerry 10.  The BlackBerry 10 app store is and will be the fastest growing mobile app store for the next few years, even with 70,000 apps already.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hit 200,000 within a year.

For now, it is way too easy to whine about lower number of apps when Google and Apple get a free ride for treating their developers poorly.  I’d even argue that many of the native BlackBerry 10 apps are superior in design and performance when compared to what you find on Android or iOS.  It is also my opinion that too much weight is being associated to apps, and this is due to platforms which have used third-party apps as a crutch to their lack of innovation in the operating system department. BlackBerry has done a remarkable job in catering to developers and the app selection is astoundingly good considering their situation.

Calendar

The native BlackBerry 10 calendar has a similar look to the calendar app on the PlayBook.  You have your typical Day, Week, and Month views.  In the Week and Day views, you can pinch to zoom to adjust how much of the day is in view.  The Month view has a neat feature that shows larger numbers for the days that have the most amount of appointments and events.

The settings menu allows your personalize your calendar just the way it suits you.  You can set the default view, the first day of the week, the first week of the day, working hours, the standard meeting duration and a whole host of features that you’d naturally expect in a BlackBerry.

The calendar supports tons of different calendars, including Gmail, Hotmail, and Outlook, Facebook, and all their birthday and holiday calendars as well.  For those using the desktop program Outlook, the BlackBerry Link Desktop software syncs calendar events from your desktop as well.

All-day events show up at the top of the calendar.  If there is more than 2 “all-day” events, the calendar simply says “+2” events.  Adding a new event is easy and fun.  You can pick up and move the new event to wherever you want on the calendar and it follows your finger.

Switching between weeks, days, or months is as simple as a swipe, as you’d expect.  The interface is very fast and smooth, and you can move around the app without any stuttering.  After all, this is BlackBerry 10.

Overall, I’ve found that the appointments that I have made on the Z10 sync beautifully with my Hotmail and Outlook calendars.  Gmail still seems to be an issue.

Browser

The Blackberry 10 browser is one of the highlights of the entire platform.  It dominates browser benchmarks and it is extremely fast.  The user interface is quite different than anything you’re used to.  The address bar is located at the bottom of the screen, along with two buttons that allow you to control the tabs and other actions and settings. Swiping down from the top of the screen simple tells you what page you’re on, nothing more.

You have the usual browser gestures such as pinch to zoom, double tapping to align to text, and flick scrolling.  The experience is very good.  No checkerboarding at all.

As far as synthetic browser benchmarks, we’ve used HTML5test.com and Sunspider.

The Z10 scores 485 points plus 11 bonus points at the HTML5 test.  This is the highest score of any released mobile browser (and desktop browser) ever, only bested by the pre-release Tizen 2 browser.  In real life, this means that the BlackBerry 10 browser is very good browser in terms of compatibility.

To test browser speed, the most commonly used benchmark is SunSpider.  This benchmark measures how long it takes the browser to render commonly-used JavaScript functions (highly cpu-dependent).  The results of this test are disappointingly low at a score of 1755 +/- 6%.  I would have expected it to be at least beat the 4G PlayBook and its OMAP4460 at its score of 1453.  Because of this, I’m willing to bet that with some updates the browser can catch up in this benchmark.  As of now, the iPhone 5 sits at the top of the pile with an amazing score of 914.7.

Contacts

The contacts app generally the same across most platforms.  You have a list of contacts and you select one to get more info, you know the deal.  For BlackBerry 10, it’s the same deal.  You can “link” contact information from different places like on Android to organize contact information better.  As usual, you can create different fields and add that contact information as you see fit.  Contacts from Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, BBM, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, and your Sim Card can all be brought into your contact list.  You can also sort your contacts by these categories as well.

Sliding your finger down the right side allows you to “power scroll” your way through the list by first name.  This may come in handy if you’re best friend is Zack.  Of course, you could always perform a search and find a contact that way.

Pictures

The pictures app is organized into three sections: “Recent”, “Camera” and “Albums”.  The first two are self-explanatory, and the last one simply groups your pictures by source.  To edit a photo you’re looking at, simply press the pencil icon at the bottom and you’re brought into the picture editor.

The picture editor allows you to enhance and apply filters a picture that you select.  There are the usual things to adjust such as saturation, contrast, brightness and host of others.  The effects can be either selected or literally dragged over the photo to help you see the difference.  Pictures can also be cropped, rotated as well.  The app is fun to use and works great.

While it is by no means extensive in features, it is a very good app. Compared to the more mature offerings such as iPhoto, it does come out lacking quite a few features and the fact that you have to open up a separate app just to edit a photo doesn’t help prove BlackBerry’s new “flow” philosophy.

Music

For music, the Z10 has a dedicated music app that can play songs, organize them into playlists.  Par for the course for any music app.  Because of the DLNA support, you can now play them wirelessly to another device with DLNA support.  You can also share them via the share menu in a whole bunch of ways.  The songs do take a second to play, which is a little slower than I had expected.  This could be due to the read speed of the memory card however.

You can go back to the “Now Playing” screen by clicking the icon on the top right of the screen.  Through the general settings menu, you can toggle to skip songs by holding down the volume up or down keys.

Videos

The videos app shows videos you have either recorded using the camera, or videos you have on the media card.  The interface is fast and smooth and has very few options.  While playing a video you can pinch to zoom, display it over Wi-Fi via DLNA, set it automatically repeat, share it, or edit the video.

Yes, you can actually edit videos on BlackBerry 10, but it’s pretty limited.  The first menu, you can trim to the right size.  In the enhance menu, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, color and volume.   In the transform menu, you can crop or rotate the video as well.

The app is a great simple app for play and quickly editing videos on the fly.

Compass

The compass app is a great example of the polish and modern design of BlackBerry 10.  The main user interface is a floating 3D compass that point you North, as it should.  It also adjusts its visual orientation using the gyroscope so that the face of the compass always points upwards.  This makes for a stunning effect as you tilt and turn the device.

Maps

The native Blackberry 10 maps apps, on paper is a combination of BlackBerry’s previous maps app and their BlackBerry Traffic app.  The panning and zooming about the map is usually fast and fluid.  The GPS kicked in right away to instantly find my location within a few meters.  There are two main tabs at the bottom of the screen: “Maps” and “My Places”.  The “Maps” tab obviously displays the maps.  The “My Places” tab is what previous BlackBerry users would recognize as “BlackBerry Traffic”.  Simply put, it’s just a list of favourite locations that you can navigate too.  The app also reads the addresses of you contacts so you can navigate to them if their address exists on the phone.  What’s different this time around is the fact that you have visual turn-by-turn navigation instead of just a voice telling you when to turn.

As far as I can tell, the maps work well enough.  I’ve accurately used the GPS, turn-by-turn navigation, and search to find places nearby. However, compared to the king of maps, Google Maps, it just can’t compare.  There is no street view, no map tilt, no latitude-type features, no check in, no 3D, no terrain, no transit info, no bike lanes, no satellite view, no landscape view, no zooming in navigation view, etc.  On top of this, the maps load up slower, there are bugs in the colours of parks, the search isn’t very clever, maps don’t cache after the app is closed, maps don’t render properly all the time when panning, you can’t exactly navigate from a location other than your current one, and so on.

Bottom line, by today’s standards it’s still super basic and doesn’t step up the plate.  Google Maps and even Apple Maps and Nokia Maps wipe the floor with it in every category.  And it’s understandable.  This is really the first attempt at the maps app on a completely new platform.  We all remember the overblown Apple Maps fiasco.  Honestly, with a standard like Google Maps, I think Apple did quite a decent job considering the situation.   Google has had plenty of time to squish all the bugs and upgrade its software over the years.  While I believe BlackBerry Maps is a good start, it is no way going to match any of the other major competitors anytime soon.

To be honest, part of me believes that BlackBerry isn’t even going to try.  Why compete with the very developers that you’re trying to attract?  BlackBerry has put huge emphasis on third party applications and giving developers the tools and support to make amazing applications on BlackBerry 10.  In fact, I would bet that BlackBerry would love to have Google maps or some other map app come and be the #1 map app on the platform.  I wouldn’t mind either.  I used Google maps on the Z10 (ported over from Android) and it actually works great.

Story Maker

BlackBerry is aiming for something fun with this one.  The idea?  Throw some images and a song together and you’ve made a story!  The premise is simple, and the implementation is as well.  You can choose among 6 types of themes to customize the visual appearance of your movie.

It’s incredibly quick to use and the result, while basic, looks good.  You can re-order images, enhance them, decide how long they play, change the movie titles, or crop images.  To re-order the images, you have to be precise on how long you press and hold.  Too short and you haven’t selected them.  Too long and the menu comes up.  A little more refinement could be used in the UI, but overall it isn’t bad at all.

When you’re happy with the result, you can save it as a 720p video and it shows up as a story in the app’s main screen.  The simplicity of BlackBerry’s Story Maker almost makes Apple’s iMovie feel professional-grade.  On the plus side, Story Maker is incredibly easy to use.

BlackBerry knows how that Story Maker is unlikely to be used to make the next blockbuster movie. I am disappointed that there isn’t any proper video editing solution.

Most people don’t need a full movie editing suite in their pocket.  On a tablet it’s a different story.  For a quick slideshow, its simplicity is its strongest suit.  If you think about it, I have yet to see a wedding slideshow beat a “story” from Story Maker.  Brides, this one’s for you!

Games

With the acquisition of Scoreloop a while ago, BlackBerry has made it clear it wants to take gaming seriously.  The games app on BlackBerry 10 is a social gaming network like Xbox live and Game Center on iOS.  Games is a cloud-based service, allowing you to save precious game progress, scores, and unlock achievements.  You can add friends from your timeline, check their achievements,

YouTube

The native YouTube “app” is more like a web launcher.  Actually, it is a web launcher.  It runs well enough on BlackBerry 10 though that it’s hard to find too much to dislike.  The mobile site is very easy to use.  Scrolling is fluid.  And videos load up just fine.

You can’t adjust the video quality, and there isn’t much to do beside searching and playing videos.  This isn’t an exclusive app to BlackBerry 10, so talking further about it would just be a review of the YouTube mobile site.

Newsstand

Here we have another Newsstand app from another fruit company.  BlackBerry’s newsstand app looks much like its BlackBerry World app, only it sells magazines instead of apps, games, movies or TV shows. When loading, you instantly get the feeling your dealing with beta software.  The app talks to you in the third person and forces you to “authenticate user” (whatever that means).  Once in the app, you have two tabs on the bottom: “Store” and “Search”.  Both are pretty simple to understand.

The user interface is smooth and fast just like BlackBerry World.  The top of the screen has a strange dial that lets you “tune” the type of magazines you want.  It works fairly well, but you have to be precise as you don’t have much of the screen to work with. You’ve got a featured section, as well as a new arrivals section.

Swiping down from the top of the screen, you can change which countries’ magazines show up in the app.  You can also directly send your feedback to developers, check your downloads, and adjust your download preferences (Wi-Fi only or enabled downloading over mobile network).

The magazine selection is good, but it’s far from stellar.  I found lots of popular magazines like Marie Claire, National Geographic, Chatelaine, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Flare, Motor Trend, Good Housekeeping etc.  On the other hand, I couldn’t find House & Home, Vogue, FHM, or anything on hockey. The search function can be incredibly slow and frustrating, doesn’t give you room for typos, and doesn’t offer any suggestions like Google normally does.

On the main screen, there is an awesome feature that seems to make most magazines free to download.  At least that’s what I got from it.  It might represent downloading a brief trial version that expires, but who knows?  It technically isn’t “buying” the magazine, but all I know is that I was able to browse through the latest Motortrend magazine for free.  And free is always good.

Voice Control

Once Apple’s Siri came out, voice commands became the next must-have feature on any smartphone.  While being slightly gimmicky, proper voice command applications do have a place on smartphones.  While Siri and S-Voice are known to demonstrate lots of “sass” and respond more humanly than traditional voice command systems, BlackBerry just doesn’t get it.

Try a “What’s the weather today?” and the Z10 will default to a web search.  In fact, try anything other than:

• launching an app
• searching the device
• searching using Yahoo, Google, or Wikipedia
• browsing to a website
• checking the current date or time
• create a “Remember” entry
• scheduling a meeting
• sending an email, text or BBM
• update Twitter and Facebook

…and you’re looking at a web search.

The actual voice recognition software that BlackBerry 10 uses is quite good, in fact.  It rarely gets anything wrong and the voice is fairly pleasing (I happen to like her with a British accent). But after using Siri or S-Voice, Ms. BlackBerry (I’m calling it that for now) just doesn’t understand typical questions.

For weather, you’re going to have to say “Launch weather” to get your weather app out.

Ms. BlackBerry can’t tell jokes, understand silly questions, calculate anything, map a route for you, or give clever responses.  It’s straight to business.  Clearly, Ms. BlackBerry

Calculator

The native calculator app is the same one from the PlayBook.  While it doesn’t really follow the same theme as the rest of BlackBerry 10, it does work well.  Swipe down from the top and you’ll notice, like the PlayBook, it comes with a unit converter and tip calculator.  The unit converter is quite easy to use and has support for most the most commonly used units.  The tip converter is simple but well done as well.

The animations are very welcome and help create a premium iOS-type experience.  The only gripe I have is with the strange color scheme.  I would have likes to see it follow the same style guidelines as the native Compass and Clock apps, which are first-rate.

File Manager

The native manager is the type of application you really don’t want to use unless you absolutely have to.  On a mobile device, it is typically a pain.  On BlackBerry 10, you can open, copy, move, rename, zip, share and check the properties of any file within the file manager.  It is much, much better than the garbage version on the PlayBook Tablet OS.

The functions within the File Manager are easy to use and cover most of what you would need in any file manager.  The framework of BlackBerry 10 allows you open up virtually any file within the file manager seamlessly, without noticing that you’re actually moving from one application to the next.  The one exception I’m looking for is the ability to edit photos from the file manager.  I’ll be looking for this integration in the future.

Swiping to the right is my favourite part of this app.  Native Dropbox and Box intergration.  Hell. Yes.  As a frequent user of cloud storage (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive), this is a blessing.  The file manager easy accesses files in the cloud as if they were local.  This is the way to go.  You don’t even need a distinct Box or DropBox app anymore.

This is exactly what I’m been talking about for years.  BlackBerry 10 is designed to allow apps to function within apps, creating a vertical structures with extensive integration between these vertical structures.  This saves me two icons worth of room on the app grid and creates a superior experience without the clash of the different branding between individual apps.

The File Manager in BlackBerry 10 is a great example of the interconnectivity in BlackBerry 10 between different services and applications.

Settings

The setting menu can be accessed from the homescreen via a downward swipe from the top of the screen.  It somtimes takes a second or two to load properly, and I’d like to see it pop up instantly every time.  There is also a bit of jittering when scrolling in the menu, which is inexcusable considering the consistent speed at which native Cascades apps run.

Inside the menu there are tons of options, and it isn’t worth the time to go over all of them.  The important ones are: “Accounts”, “Notifications”, and “Network Connections”.  In Accounts, you can set up tons of e-mail addresses, and Twitter, Evernote, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

You can’t add secondary Twitter accounts, which is unfortunate as you’ll have to reply on Android ports for now.  I can’t imagine too many people complaining about that though since if you do enough tweeting, you might spend enough time in a designated app anyway.

Adding a Facebook account syncs up Notifications, Events, Messages, and Birthdays right to the Hub for a great Facebook experience without actually experiencing Facebook. Which is exactly what many people want, perfect!

The Evernote account is synced up to the Remember app, as discusses in that respective section.

Email accounts are easily added and sync right up (by default) to the Hub so you can efficiently manage your messages.  You can choose whether or not accounts sync contacts, calendars, messages, and even tasks.

Help

The help app on BlackBerry 10 can usually be accessed in different contexts, where the content depends on the app you’re in.  Navigating the help menu is annoying…unless you turn off data.  Then it’s awesome!  For some reason, the help menu spends way too much time retrieving content rather than actually showing it when you have data access.  Ridiculous?  You bet it is.  Anyway, by turning off any data connections, you can zoom through help topics instantly.

Information in the help topics is laid out clearly and is easy to read.  The topics are extensive and help you throughout the entire OS.  While I don’t think that many people read these things, it’s good to have if you can’t figure out how to perform a specific action for some reason.

Adobe Reader

The native PDF reader in Blackberry 10 is probably the same PDF reader on the Playbook with a new paint job.  And that isn’t a good thing.  The rendering is slow, the pages aren’t cached, and calling it “bare-bones” is a bit of an understatement.

The one thing I found that was nice to see was the native slider bar giving the ability to scroll through pages easily.  There is a single page mode that is barely useful.  Double tapping zooms in or out, but you can always just pinch to zoom.

This is another case where third-party PDF apps are going to dominate the playing field.  Despite this being an offering from Adobe, they clearly did not put much effort into adding features.  BlackBerry is the one that was left to update the software, and they have other priorities (and rightly so).

Camera

The BlackBerry 10 camera is one of the main selling features of the Z10.

There are three modes that the camera runs in.  the first is your typical “Single shot” mode.

The second the “Time Shift” camera mode is a feature that BlackBerry has been showing off for months prior to the launch of BlackBerry 10. Using patented technology from Scalado (now owned by Nokia), the feature allows you to adjust your photo and the faces it contains independently in time.

The feature works very well, as it even picked up a distant face I was Skype-ing on a laptop.  You adjust many different faces in a single photo and is a great feature to have when dealing with subjects that can’t sit still (like babies, pets, and some friends).

The last camera mode is “Video”, which records video instead of pictures.

In the main camera menu, you have five scene options: Auto, Beach or Snow, Night, Action, and Whiteboard.  You also have a Burst Mode, Stabilization Mode, and Normal Mode to choose from.  You can easily alternate between the front and rear-facing cameras in the menu.  The camera takes quick pictures and lets you view or edit them right afterwards with a touch of a button.  In the swipe-down menu, you have the option to enabled saving to the media card, and geotagging photos.

While the software is good.  You may notice you can’t take a panoramic shot, and there isn’t too many other features to play with.  The usual “Tap-to-focus”, is more of a “drag-to-focus”, in which you drag the focal point to where you’d like your focus to be.  This works reasonably well, and while there is continuous focusing, having the camera pre-focus on a designated spot should allow you to take an in-focus picture quicker.

Clock

The clock on BlackBerry 10 is one of the best clock apps I’ve seen.  The modern analog clock has a nice design while incorporating some useful functionality.  The alarm clock can be set by dragging your finger around the analog clock to the exact time you want to wake up.

A world clock is available as well, where you can add times from many different cities around the world.  Of course, you have stopwatch and timer functions, which both look and work very well.  The stopwatch uses the same interface to set the time as the alarm clock.

You can also choose between the analog and digital clocks in the swipe-down settings menu.  I would usually choose the digital clock as it’s easier to read while half asleep.

Bedside mode is a must-have feature for many Blackberry users. The ability to disable any types of notifications while asleep is great to have.  Bedside mode isn’t very flexible however.  In previous BlackBerry operating systems, you could customize how bedside mode would work.  For example, you could choose to allow phone calls and disable all other types of messages.  This is not the case in BlackBerry 10.  In order to receive emergency phone calls at night, you can’t have bedside mode on.  Of course, you can switch the device to silent every night, but you would have to remember to switch profiles all the time.  I hope that further updates to BlackBerry 10 include more customization of notifications.

Summary

The software, while basic, works well and is a solid foundation for the platform.  BlackBerry 10 lacks many of the features that you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy III, or the polish of a mature OS like iOS, but it offers a compelling alternate that has more room to grow than iOS or Android.

There are two perspectives of BlackBerry World for two types of people: ones who are BlackBerry users, and those who aren’t.

Those who are BlackBerry users will look at Blackberry World and notice that you have lots of major apps that millions of people use every day.  You have Twitter, Facebook, Angry Birds, theScore, Nobex, WordPress, Flixster, Foursquare, ESPN, the Economist, etc.

Those who aren’t BlackBerry users will see that it doesn’t have many major apps that millions of people use every day.  There’s no Instagram, Hulu, Pandora, Temple Run, Spotify, Whatsapp, Netflix, Minecraft, Tumblr, Skype (confirmed to be coming soon), Flickr, Google Maps, Shazam, Tap Tap Revenge, Flipboard, Seesmic, GetGlue….etc. The list goes on.

These apps are awesome and help make Android and iOS great.  But they will come to BlackBerry 10 in time as the number of users on BlackBerry 10 increases.  While I, and many others remain unimpressed with the current selection of apps, I am excited for the future of BlackBerry 10.  Not because of what it is now, but because of what will become of it.  The philosophy over at BlackBerry is best likened to the phrase “If you build it, he will come” from the movie “Field of Dreams”.  BlackBerry has built a great app environment with BlackBerry 10 and with some more users, it will flourish as a mobile platform (even more so than Windows Phone).

Current BlackBerry users will be thrilled with the selection of apps already in BlackBerry World.  If you are a Blackberry user like myself, you will appreciate the quality of apps, the stability and modern UI of the platform and the integration present through BlackBerry 10.

The post BlackBerry 10 Review is from N4BB.COM

Introduction

This is by far the most important product launch in the history of Research in Motion (now known as BlackBerry).  Not only is the BlackBerry Z10 simply a new smartphone for the company, it runs a brand new platform, comes at a critical time, and has undergone a huge redesign.  BlackBerry as you know has changed forever.  It is in no way similar, related, reminiscent, or even vague acquaintances with older BlackBerry smartphones.  It simply shares a similar BlackBerry philosophy and name.

This review is organized into two major sections: Hardware and Software.  Both are completely new and require in-depth analysis and discussion.  I will try my best to take a look at both.

Hardware

Specifications

With a modern dual-core Snapdragon CPU running at 1.5 Ghz, the Z10 flies along and maintains 60fps of BlackBerry 10 goodness throughout 99% of the entire OS. It’s great to see BlackBerry include 2 GB of RAM in the Z10 (especially when 1 GB was originally rumoured), equivalent to the top of the line smartphones these days.  This should allow for great multitasking and a future-proof handset.

The Z10 comes with all the usual sensors, bells, and whistles that you’d expect in any smartphone.  We will cover them in the following sections.

Design

The BlackBerry Z10 looks like the iPhone 5.  There, I said it.  And it’s undeniably true.  The shape is the same, the size is nearly the same, the colours are the same, the rear camera and flash positions are the same etc.  But this isn’t a bad thing, nor did BlackBerry copy Apple.  The iPhone 5 was only just released about 4 months ago, and you can’t design, produce, and ship millions of smartphones in the span of 4 months.  It simply isn’t feasible.  If it is an iPhone look-a-like, its a damn good one.

There are also some differences that you’ll be bound to notice.  The Z10 is slightly thicker, the branding is significantly different, the textures are different, the button and port configurations are completely different, the Z10 has no front-facing buttons etc.

The BlackBerry Z10’s design is a complete encapsulation of BlackBerry’s modern image. The front of the Z10 is dominated by a 4.2” touchscreen, along with matte black top and bottom bezels.  The lack of buttons, and the simple lines give the device an uncommon industrial elegance. While it may sound contradictory, one look at the Z10 and it makes complete sense.

Take a look at the back of the phone and you’ll immediately want to touch it.  The soft, textured backing found here is almost unheard of on other smartphones.  While you’re usually dealing with a hard metal or plastic feel, the Z10’s back surface alone kicks it up into the big leagues.  The textured rubber feels more of the steering wheel of a Ferrari than a smartphone.

Overall, I’ve yet to see many smartphones feel and look as good as the Z10.  It’s really right up there as well with some of the best like the iPhone 5.

Dimensions and Weight

When it comes to smartphones, larger and thinner is the trend.  While the Z10 isn’t the thinnest smartphone ever made, it is still the thinnest BlackBerry ever made.  At 9mm, it sits firmly in the realm of mediocrity these days.  Don’t let the sting of the word “mediocre” mislead you.  Most times, uber-thin smartphones come at a price (such as battery life).  The battery is a large reason behind the thickness of a phone, and BlackBerry didn’t want to compromise on battery life.

The lateral size is obviously proportional to the screen size, and with a 4.2 inch screen, the smartphone is a great size.  It is slightly larger than the iPhone 5, but noticeably smaller than the Samsung Galaxy III.  BlackBerry has hit the sweet spot in term of size.  The Z10 is a great device for multimedia and you won’t feel like a clown if you want to make a call or take a picture (which is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid these days)

The Z10 weighs exactly 136 grams.  It feels lighter in the hand that you’d think, but not ridiculously light like the iPhone 5.  Personally, the weight of a smartphone makes little difference below 150 grams so I have no problem with the weight as it is.

What is important to me is the weight distribution.  A smartphone should weight more at the bottom than at the top, allowing for a better balanced phone while typing.  This is true for the Z10.  While it isn’t perfectly balanced, it’s good to know that BlackBerry has kept this in mind.

Radios

4G LTE

For any modern smartphone to be taken seriously, it must have 4G LTE support (let’s pretend the Nexus 4 doesn’t exist).  The Z10 isn’t going to be the exception.  While the older BlackBerry smartphone we’re marketed as “4G”, it was really just 3G+ service that carrier marketing departments got carried away with.

But what does this mean?  Well, it means that the Z10 is up there with the best of the best in terms of data speeds.  While it really depends on the carrier, location, time of day, and everything short of phases of the moon, 4G LTE speeds are generally in a class of their own.

In our testing we’ve seen solid download speeds of 54 mbps and 11 mbps upload speeds on AT&T.  Fast by any standard.

HSPA+ at 21 Mbps

In the event that LTE coverage isn’t available, you can default back to good ol’ HSPA+.  The speeds aren’t bad as the service peaks at a theoretical 21mbps, giving you about half that on a good day.  If you’re got the benefits of dual-carrier downlink technology, you could even end up doubling your network speeds, getting you up into 4G LTE range under good conditions.

EDGE

Away from civilization?  No problem, the Z10 can even fall back on the slow, but pervasive EDGE service.  This is assuming that your carrier supports the older technology.

Ports and Connectivity

The Z10 is charged through a microUSB port on the side of the phone.  While I would have liked to see it on the bottom, it’s no big deal really.

As far I know, there is no USB OTG support at the moment for this port. Right beside the charging port, BlackBerry has included a micro HDMI port for connecting the Z10 to an external display.

The last port is the headphone jack on top of the phone.  This may come across as either good news or bad news depending on which side of the headphone-jack-location debate you’re on.  I can honestly say that as long as it’s not on the side so the cable doesn’t get tangled inside pockets, I’m a happy camper.

SIM and SD card

In a triumph of practicality and value, the Z10 offers a microSD slot for a variable amount of removable storage up to 32GB.  This brings the grand total of storage up to 48 GB.

Both the SD card and the SIM card are neatly tucked away in the device.  The microSD card is hot-swappable as it doesn’t require the battery to come out first.

NFC

Taking queues from previously engineering in the Bold 9900 series, the NFC antenna is embedded into the battery door.  This design should save space inside the device.  You can see the two contacts in the photo below.

Screen

The screen of the Z10 is something to marvel.  At just under a million pixels crammed into a 4.2” display, the result leaves pretty much puts every other smartphone in the world to shame.  With a pixel density of about 356 pixels per square inch, the Z10 bests the iPhone’s “not-so-retina” screen and all other smartphones with displays under 5 inches in size.

The viewing angles are excellent, and the brightness is very good.  On the old Torch 9860, the colour of the screen would shift at sharp viewing angles from blue to yellow.  This isn’t a problem anymore on the Z10.  The screen does dim slightly when rotating at sharping viewing angles, but is a very minor effect.  Plus, complaining about slight changes in the screen color/brightness at >170 degrees viewing angles is just ridiculous.

Buttons

At the top of the device, there is a slim brushed aluminum lock button. The right side of the Z10 sports the familiar volume keys with the mute button between them.  The mute button has a bump on it which helps you navigate the volume keys without looking.  The keys are identical to the buttons on the Dev Alpha B device that has been given out to developers for app testing.

The buttons provide a decently satisfying click when pressed and have just about the right feel to them. The rest of the device lacks any other buttons, in an effort to streamline the design and focus on gestures to accomplish tasks.  While I agree that it does help with the design, I am a huge fan of the dual convenience keys on older BlackBerrys.  While the gestures and UI do allow you to be quite efficient, sometimes browsing for a specific app you’ve installed is less fun than a push of a button.

Speakers

Smartphone speaker are a bit of strange topic as they obviously aren’t going to be very good.  The nature of loudspeaker systems is that proper projection of the entire acoustic spectrum from 20-20kHz is incredibly difficult on such a small device.

That said, the speakers are  adequate and are probably as good as most smartphones.  The lows are slightly muffled but audible.  The mids are crystal clear, and the highs are slightly tinny.  Unsurprising for a smartphone, but a decent offering none-the-less.

During a phone call, the call quality seemed to be good.  I wouldn’t call it outstanding, but its definitely at least par for the course in the smartphone world.  The calls came out clear and I had no problems hearing the other person on the line.

Battery

Smartphone batteries are designed to last the entire day for the average user.   Abusers, on the other hand, take this matter quite seriously.  This is especially true with BlackBerry users.  So with intense browsing, BBMing, music playing, video chatting, etc. the Z10 has to be able to last as long as possible.

With 1800 mAh at the ready, the Z10’s battery life will last most people the entire day.  The battery capacity is larger than the iPhone 5, but smaller than the larger Samsung Galaxy smartphones.  You’d then expect the Z10 do fare reasonably well throughout the day, and you’d be right.

Expect about 8 hours of talk time, and 305 hours of standby time.  For audio playback, you’re looking at a solid 60 hours.  For video, its down to about 10 hours.

In my experience, the battery life has been average for a smartphone.  The battery meter does act funny for the first few days as it calibrates itself, but after that you should be set.

Camera

The rear-facing camera on the Z10 contains an 8MP auto-focus sensor capable of recording 1080p video.  The sensor is back-side illuminated, paired alongside a Milbeaut Fujitsu M-9MO image signal processor with a 64MB frame buffer.  The lens system itself is composed of 5 elements, providing an impressive aperture of F/2.2.  There is, of course, a single flash for those low-light situations.

The Z10 has a proprietary “Enhanced Super Resolution 5X Digital Zoom” that allows you to pinch to zoom while framing a picture in the camera.  The rear-facing camera also comes with 4DOF video stabilization to keep your shaky hands from creating the Blair Witch Project 3 by accident.

The front-facing camera is less sophisticated (and doesn’t need to be) with only a 2MP sensor.  It does comes with image and video stabilization, 3X digital zoom and can record 720p video.

Summary

The BlackBerry Z10 definitely a huge step up from BlackBerry 7 smartphones in many respects.  For most purposes, it’s not even comparable. It has officially kicked itself up into the league of modern smartphone platforms such as Android, Windows Phone 8, and iOS.   When it comes to notifications, design, stability, hardware, security, user interface, and speed, the Z10 gets top marks.

The hardware on the Z10 is a solid offering and consistent with the specifications of most high-end smartphones.

If you’re asking if the Z10 will save BlackBerry, you’re assuming that the fate of BlackBerry rests on a single phone.  There’s also a good chance you thought the Playbook was a failure.  And you’d be wrong on both counts.  Success is not measured by the battles won, it is measured by how much you tip the scales in your favour.  Trends in smartphone platform marketshare are measured in years and it takes years to change the game.  It is rare for any closed platform to remain on top for very long.

BlackBerry started failing on its phones ever since BlackBerry 5 smartphones years ago.  Every older BlackBerry since then has missed the boat trying to improve a severely limited older platform, until the Z10.  The BlackBerry Z10 is a huge step in the right direction after the PlayBook, which was basically designed as an app launcher for the new platform.  I truly believe that BlackBerry has a winner with this smartphone in the long run.  It won’t be the best selling-smartphone of the year, and it won’t be the most liked either.  But its BlackBerry that has momentum to gain with BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry isn’t just back, they’re ahead of the game.

 See our full review of BlackBerry 10 operating system here.

The post BlackBerry Z10 Review is from N4BB.COM

Research In Motion is on the forefront of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Usually, I do not give promotion to unrelated products, but Vizibility’s new NFC business cards fit right in with BlackBerry.

My Vizibility business card arrived a few days after I returned from BlackBerry Jam Asia. If only it had arrived before, I could have been using it to easily share my contact information.

Vizibility offers a couple of unique packages to allow you to determine which features are critical. The Vizibility NFC business card also has a QR code on the front for non-NFC capable phones to still access your information.

Check out the video below on my Vizibility NFC business card and learn more about the service at Vizibility.com.

On a BlackBerry? Click here for mobile YouTube video

The post Review: NFC Powered Business Card from Vizibility (Video) is from N4BB.COM

I’m a sucker for tower defense games.  I mean, who doesn’t like watching waves upon waves of creeps meet their inevitable doom passing through a maze of your carefully orchestrated death traps?   Today, I’m looking at Radiant Defense, a tower defense game for the BlackBerry PlayBook by the gaming wizardry of the folks over at Hexage.  Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Plot

Hordes of deadly alien creeps are attempting to invade Earth! Oh no! In order to protect the human race, you must destroy all the aliens coming out of the invasion vortex who head directly for the blazing hot spiral reactor.  Even though they’ll burn up and disintegrate in the reactor, if the reactor goes out, there will be no way to close the invasion vortex and then its game over.  Why not just keep them all closed?

Well, there’s an incredibly persistent (and borderline hilarious) “Supercreep” bent on taking over who tends to opened up invasion vortices and flooding them with creeps.  This is a creep who loves to be bad, and it fairly bad at being bad.  And you can’t help but laugh at his trash talk and futile and immature attempts at psychological mind games.

With the help of a commander and “doc” to guide you, it’s up to you to save the world!

Gameplay

This is a pure tower defence strategy game, complete with customizable paths and a varied array of weapons which hold advantages and disadvantages against certain enemies and scenarios.

At the beginning of a mission, you’re given some blocks called “modules”.  Using modules, you can create detours for the creeps.  You may be supplied with only one or perhaps many.

By killing creeps, you get money.  By finishing the level, you get an additional 10% of your total money (up to 50$).  Providing some incentive to keep a stash of cash handy and play efficiently.

You also get a score.  This score depends heavily on your total money after each wave.  If you’re ridiculously good at this game, you may be able to see your score in the Hall of Fame.  Clearly, my name isn’t on the list.

If you do happen to let a few enemies touch the reactor, its no big deal.  The reactor can typically take 10-20 enemies before showing you the “game over” screen.   If you know you’re not going to survive the wave, you can retry the wave as many times as you like.

Don’t confused this as a sign of an easy game.  You can definitely come to a point where you will lose no matter what you do and be forced to retry the entire mission.  Your strategy and positioning from previous waves is crucial in ensuring you are in good position to survive the next.

The key information is located at the top of the screen: your score, number of available modules to place, how many creeps you can let through, and have many more waves to go in the mission.  There are 11 mission in total, with anywhere from 8 to over 50 waves per mission.  You also a star rating, ranging from 1-3 stars depending on how well you completed the mission.  I made it a point to get three stars on all levels, and it was challenging.

There is typically a huge, ridiculously-hard-to-kill boss creep during the last wave.  Be prepared to have enough firepower to kill it, because it isn’t always a walk in the park.

Strategy cannot be underestimated in this game.  Without it, you will never come close to beating the game.  There is very, very little luck involved.  Which is what I like.  While the game starts out fairly easy, it does get progressively harder.  You will undoubtedly have to revise your strategy to account for things you have overlooked, or when situations change.  While I have definitely struggled on a few levels at the beginning, I have found that clever use and stacking of the more advanced weapons is the key.

Once I have beaten the game, I did find the levels too easy and longed for a “Hard Mode” where the defense strategies I developed can be improved further.

Weapons

Unlike most tower defense games, Radiant Defense kicks it up a notch in the weaponry department.   The array—no, the arsenal of weapons at your disposal is outright diabolical and ungodly.  From the Pandora Biocid Dispenser, to the Judgment Day Gauss Gun, I’ve found myself revelling in my evil laughter upon the very thought of using them.

With money, you can buy weapons and other structures designed for maximum creep-annihilation.  Without buying any of the in-game upgrades, you’ve got three main weapons:

Beliah Gun Turrent

Starcrusher Cannon

Solaris Disruptor Laser 

The gun turret is your bread-and-butter creep destruction tool of choice. The cannon is a slow, but powerful gun.  The laser is a precise  weapon, ideal for those fast enemies.

While these weapons are useful and sufficient for the beginning of the game.  You’ll soon feel longing for some deadlier weapons.  Luckily, after saving up $200 and buying a research unit solves this problem.  You can then deploy:

Pandora Biocid Dispenser: a poisionous gas gun

Stormguard Tesla array: an electric shock generator

Tachyon Warp Generator: slows down your enemies

Judgement Ray Gauss Gun:  fires a super-strong laser pulse

Neutron Core Megablast: damages all enemies on the screen

With weapons like these, getting a research unit in later missions is pretty much a necessity.

Hexage cleverly implements in-game expansion packs that give you access to the more exotic and cruel weapons for a more complex strategy.  Each costs 99 cents.

There are four expansion packs:

Burning Pack:  Flamethrowers and Searchlights

Science Pack: Omega cannon and Power Blades

Explosive Pack: Seraphim Missiles and Mines

Xenobiology Pack: Psionic Terrorshock and Recuperators

As recuperators and searchlights can drastically improve your game, I don’t know if I could have beaten the game without them.  Since this game is free, buying these expansions seems almost a no-brainer.

If you manage to beat the entire game without these expansion packs, I salute you.  This game can get hard without these advanced weapons.

The three special rechargable weapons (Psionic Terrorshock, Omega Cannon, and Neutron Core Megablast) provide some real-time gameplay to the mix.  You can use these weapons during the level when they are charged.  They can be extremely useful at times, yet remain a very expensive initial purchase.

Enemies

The enemies are as varied as you can imagine.  From regenerating space slugs, to psychic creeps with anti-kinetic forceshields.  After you’ve played this game, you’ve seen it all.  The in-game descriptions of the enemies may reveal their weaknesses and strengths to certain weapons.

While you start off fighting against seemingly harmless aliens, more and more strange-looking aliens emerge in later mission.  Some are armored, some are fast.  Some regenerate and some come by the hundreds.  You may fight only three extremely powerful aliens in one wave, or face swarms of hundreds of minion aliens.

Some enemies can wiggle around and move fast, making it more difficult to hit some of them.  As soon as they exit the invasion vortex, they’re cannon fodder.  Having the perfect combination of weapons makes all the difference.

What’s neat is that as you progress in the game, you’ll start seeing more and more enemies on the main menu screen.  With each 100,000 points, another enemies appears and can “dance” on the screen.  This is a charming addition that you’ll have fun with as you try to populate it as much as possible.

Graphics

Like most Hexage game, the graphics are top-notch.  Despite the simplicity of their games, the graphics are rich in detail, fully-animated, and follow a dark futuristic space theme, complete with supersaturated colors and heavy contrast.  Each monster glows with  a presence, foreshadowing the extraterrestrial evil within.  The glowing explosions and fiery embers of the weapons burn brightly in truly arcade fashion.  Running on the spacey all-black-everything PlayBook, the graphics were almost designed for it.

The weapons are all distinctly unique.  The animations are smooth and very responsive.  There is actually nothing to complain about here.  Radiant Defense is extremely polished, as with all Hexage’s games.  This does come at a cost though. While running the game, the PlayBook will heat up and battery usage will be quite high.  This is especially true with a 4G PlayBook, which has a smaller battery.  I don’t think the battery would last three hours with this game running.

The modern, minimalist design is carried out throughout the game.  Each object has a 3D looks, providing some real depth to the playing field.  The contrast on the object icons on the bottom bar is well done, making it easy to distinguish each deadly gun or tool.

Sound and Music

The soundtrack of the game resembles trace-y futuristic elevator music.   It’s good but gets annoying pretty quick.  I end up just turning it off.  I find it helps me think.  With the awesome speakers on the PlayBook, this game’s music sounds pretty good though.  The only problem with the music is that it’s not epic at all.  Remember the music on StarCraft?  Yeah, its not that epic.  But then again, this game ( and probably ever other game) isn’t as epic as StarCraft.

The sound effects are decent and don’t take anything away from the game.  That’s a good thing though.  You don’t want annoying sound effects.  They have to be subtle and realistic.  You can also control the sound effect levels from the options menu.

Summary

When I first started playing this game, I was addicted.  Hook, line and sinker.  Despite loving most tower defense games, this remains my favourite out of all of them.  The enemies are unique.  The graphics are stunning for 2D game.  The weapons are sinister.  The Supercreep is evil in his intentions, yet human in his amateur ways.  The animations are polished. The strategy is complex.  The game is hours and hours of fun, and fulfilling to those who strive on turn-by-turn strategies with each wave of enemies.

In short, this is my favorite game on the PlayBook at the moment.  Angry birds, shmangry birds.  Hexage has a very compelling tower defense game that is almost impossible to dislike.  The in-game purchases and expansion packs are ingenious additions.  Not only are they decent value, but this strategy definitely allows you to try out the game for free.   After reviewing it, I have no doubt that many that play it will feel the need to buy the expansion packs; not only because it feels good to support developers, but because it is actually worth the money.

The post Radiant Defense: An Awesome Tower Defense Game for the BlackBerry PlayBook is from N4BB.COM

After more than a year, and amid the drama, speculation and buzz surrounding BlackBerry 10, Research in Motion has rather silently delivered on their promise of a 4G BlackBerry PlayBook.  Putting aside the improved processor, 4G radio, and NFC,  you’d be hard-pressed to find any difference between it and the original PlayBook.  Yet, this could be considered a milestone in itself, marking RIM’s first true 4G LTE device.   In this review, we take a look at the new 4G BlackBerry PlayBook in all its 4G LTE glory.

Take a look at the unboxing video of the PlayBook if you haven’t already!

Straight to the Specs

• PlayBook OS 2.0.1.668
• 1.5 Ghz Dual-core TI OMAP 4460
• 1 GB RAM
• 32 GB Flash storage
• 7″ Display at 1024×600 (~170 ppi)
• 5MP rear camera, 3MP front camera
• dual 1080p recording
• 405 grams
• 4G LTE/HSPA+ antenna
• Bluetooth 3.1,  NFC, GPS, Magnetometer, Accelerometer, Gyroscope
• 4800 mAh

Design

As you may have already postulated, the new 4G BlackBerry PlayBook looks almost exactly like the original.  It’s black.  It has the same oh-so-smooth matte-textured backing.  As far as design goes, it’s essentially the same tablet: elegant, bold, and stylish.  Get ready for some déjà vu.

The differences, though quite a few do exist, are pretty subtle.  Let’s start with the more obvious ones.  Peeking at the bottom edge of the PlayBook, the words “4G LTE • 32GB” should let you know that this is no ordinary PlayBook.  Just to the right of that, where the serial number is located, more sets of generally unimportant numbers are visible.

Being a data-enabled tablet, it does require a SIM card.  This card slides in a tray that pulls out from the bottom of the tablet which takes quite a bit of force to open up.  You won’t find this tray on the Wi-Fi only PlayBook for obvious reasons.  Inserting the SIM card was fairly simple.  The tray was very hard to remove without feeling like you were going to break something, though.  Once inside, it initially did not read it properly the first time.  However, re-inserting it again was the charm and it was good to go after that.

Thanks to my trusty micrometer, I found that it’s actually ever-so-slightly thicker than the original 16GB PlayBook.  And by slightly, I mean we’re talking fractions of a millimeter, so I wouldn’t panic just yet.  All that extra 4G goodness has got to go somewhere right?

According to RIM, the 4G PlayBook weighs the same 425 grams as the original.  But why not double check?  To my surprise, despite being slightly thicker, it actually weighs less on my scale!  About 4.7% less to be exact.  I measured a weight of 426 ± 1 grams on the original PlayBook, and this 4G PlayBook weighs in at only 406 ± 1 grams.  I’m guessing that’s all the extra battery that was taken out.

Remember that overblown power button fiasco with the original PlayBook review units, where the shallowness of the button made it aggravatingly hard to press?  Well, I am pleased to announce that RIM has not only solved this issue, but have even raised the button higher than before.  The power button has thus redeemed itself.  See for yourself!

And then there are the REALLY subtle differences that many will never even notice.  The shape of the rapid charging contacts has been changed.  No joke!  The three pins on the original PlayBook are cylindrical with slightly concave indents on the tips.  In the 4G PlayBook, the contacts are now run-of-the-mill cylindrical pins with flat tops!

This. Changes. Everything.  I know, I know, I must be kidding, right?  Not exactly, this is a big deal for me.  Charging the original PlayBook with a rapid charging stand has been a frustrating experience for me.  My Wi-Fi PlayBook doesn’t charge unless I use a secret kung-fu magic finger hold so the pins make contact.  With the new PlayBook, I can just place it on the stand and know that when I pick it up, it will be charged.  I don’t know how RIM managed to mess up magnetic charging contacts in the first place, but they sure made my day with the new 4G PlayBook by fixing it.

And we at N4BB don’t miss a thing.  The contacts on the inside of the audio/headphone jack have been flipped around 180 degrees.  The LED itself looks slightly different as well. The BlackBerry logo on back of the PlayBook has also been indented about half a millimeter as well.

Changes for the better?  Doubtful, but not for the worse either.  These are either slight differences between each PlayBook or minor overall manufacturing changes.

Display

The display, on paper, is the same 7” 1024×600 (WSVGA) capacitive touchscreen as on the original PlayBook.  But there are differences.  Compared side-by-side with the original PlayBook, the 4G PlayBook’s screen is noticeably yellow-er.  Of course, this is very hard to notice on its own. I’m not sure if this is a problem with this particular 4G PlayBook, or the all of the 4G units.  I would say this is a slight step back from the high quality screen we’ve seen from the original PlayBook.  It’s gone from great to merely average.  In the image below, the 4G PlayBook is the one on top.

The contrast is very similar as the original’s, as well as the saturation.  The 4G PlayBook is not as bright as the original PlayBook screen. The viewing angles are also not nearly as good, despite being still acceptable.  Outside, the 4G PlayBook’s screen naturally doesn’t fare as well.  With the Wi-Fi PlayBook’s screen being brighter than almost every tablet screen out there, you could make out the screen in direct sunlight.  This is less the case with the 4G PlayBook.  I’m no longer dazzled by the display quality, merely satisfied.

The screen isn’t resistant to fingerprints and smudges so don’t expect a flawlessly shiny display without using lint-free gloves while handling it.  The PlayBook comes with a cool BlackBerry-branded screen cleaning cloth, and you will probably make good use of it.

Sensors

The new 4G PlayBook is packed with features, much like the original.  It has a 6-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor, magnetometer, and a GPS.  Not much new here.  They all work sufficiently well…except the GPS.  While trying to use the (barely functional) Bing Maps bundled with all PlayBooks it could either a) not find a GPS signal or b) it thought I was in Guelph (500 km away).  Close, but no cigar.

I’ve even tried the Android Navigation app.  Apparently I’m still in Guelph.  That rules out the chance that it is an app-specific error.  Nevertheless, the GPS works great on the Wi-Fi PlayBook and I see no reason why the GPS in the 4G PlayBook would malfunction.  This is very strange behavior indeed.

4G Connectivity

With both LTE and HSPA+ radios, the 4G PlayBook allows you to have ultra-fast data speeds in major cities, and still reasonably fast speeds everywhere else.  We at N4BB were particularly excited for the LTE capability.  Thanks to Telus, we have access to a theoretical peak download speeds of a blistering 75 mbps over LTE.  There’s also HSPA+, but that’s slower and not as cool.  Let’s start with the LTE results using the “Speedtest” App in App World, here’s what we found.

By struggling to barely get two bars of LTE signal in my area, the 4G PlayBook managed a home-internet-shaming feat of 46.371 Mbps with an average of 22.182 Mbps.  The upload speeds consistently hover around the 1 Mbps level.  With such speeds, the PlayBook is one quick tablet on Telus’ LTE network.  Fortunately, if you happen to wander outside the present LTE coverage, good ol’ HSPA+ is there to keep you connected.  So let’s test out the PlayBook’s HSPA+ speed next.

The 4G PlayBook finishes the test with a very typical result of 7.679 Mbps max and 6.117 Mbps average download speeds.  The upload speeds settle in at around 0.681 Mbps max and 0.536 Mbps average. I did have a full 5 bars of HSPA+ signal to work with so I doubt the speeds get anywhere better closer to civilization.  Not to complain though, as it simply matched my Wi-Fi connection speed.  The fact that HSPA+ pales so much in comparison to LTE makes the HSPA+ result as lackluster.

Also, refusing to label HSPA+ as 3G , 3G+ or 3.5G speeds (even though it is), it is simply called “4G”.  LTE connectivity is simply labeled 4G LTE to differentiate itself from HSPA+.

Audio/Visual

For audio recording, dual microphones are located on the top of the PlayBook and provide stereo sound.  Similar to the original, this is still quite a rare find in a tablet and very welcoming to see.

Front-facing and rear-facing cameras with resolutions at 3MP and 5MP respectively provide very respectable image resolutions when taking pictures.  Much like the original PlayBook, the sensor isn’t amazing, so you won’t be taking great pictures in low light, or up-close (due to the lack of autofocus).   Here is a sample I took of a cup of coffee in medium lighting conditions.

Notice the lack of focus?  That’s because all PlayBooks have a fixed focus camera that requires at least a few feet of distance to an object to focus on it effectively.  And the noise?  Yeah, its not the best sensor I’ve seen.  I think it’s safe to say that this is not a replacement for your Hasselblad, nor should it be.  It’s a mediocre tablet camera.  As with most small-sensor cameras, you can only get great shots with a lot of light.

The stereo speakers are once again, identical to the original PlayBook and awesome.  You obviously won’t get studio quality sound out of any tablet, but the Playbook can dish out some serious volume without losing much in terms of quality or in the low-end . That in itself is quite an accomplishment.

Connectivity

Standard charging and data transferring is done through the Micro USB port.  The Micro HDMI port is still there and so is the magnetic rapid charging port for rapid charging.

The Wi-Fi antenna is still a welcoming 802.11 a/b/g/n.   The Bluetooth radio is 3.1 +EDR (updated) with support of the following Bluetooth profiles: Dial-Up Networking (DUN) Serial Port Profile (SPP), Secure Simple Pairing (SSP), Human Interface Device (HID).  That’s a great step forward from the 2.1 + EDR Bluetooth the original PlayBook had at launch.  Hopefully this will be updated to version 4.0 in the future.

As advertised, the 4G radio sets it apart from the PlayBook of old.  LTE (700, 1700 MHz), HSPA+ (2100, 1900, 1700, 800, 900 MHz).  Covering “faux” G (HSPA+) and the real 4G LTE bands, the 4G PlayBook is a truly portable tablet solution.

Unlike the original PlayBook, The 4G version technically has an NFC antenna. However, for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t.  You apparently can’t use it until BlackBerry 10 comes along.  I have to admit that I’m not heartbroken because I’m not missing out on much.  NFC on the BlackBerry platform basically serves to add BBM contacts and transfer stuff between BlackBerry smartphones.  Since the PlayBook doesn’t have BBM yet (natively), you’re left without a way to transfer documents, contacts, or appointments over NFC.  Since the Playbook has great native contacts, email and calendar apps, I don’t see this as a problem, although the very act of integrating an NFC antenna helps to future-proof this tablet in case NFC usage explodes.

Chipset

If you looked up the word “beast” in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of the 4G PlayBook.  You asked for more power, and you’ve got it.  Let me introduce you to the 1.5 Ghz Dual-Core TI OMAP 4460 (conceivably it could even be the 4470).

Let’s check the numbers:

Fossil Speed  is an online benchmark site.  Although the numbers fluctuate quite a bit, we’re just getting a qualitative measure of how much of an improvement the 4G PlayBook’s chip is over the original PlayBook chip.

Right out of the gate, the CPU speed test just goes to show that the new chipset can flex its mighty OMAP 4460 CPU.  The new 4G PlayBook clearly beats the original PlayBook by a factor of about 2.

As far as boot up times go, rebooting the 4G PlayBook takes exactly 3 minutes and 5 seconds, while booting from the off state takes a quicker 1 minutes and 28 seconds.  Why the big difference?  Well, the shutdown time on the PlayBook is significant and does take quite a while.  As we compare this to the Wi-Fi PlayBook, we will stick to OS 2.0.1.668 to keep it a fair test. The Wi-Fi PlayBook reboots in 3 minutes and boots from the off state in exactly 2 minutes.  With a 50% increase in clock speed, it makes sense that the 4G PlayBook boots up nearly 50% faster from the off-state.

And of course, there’s the inevitable comparison to the new iPad, which has upgraded camera, screen and processor.  The PlayBook does pack quite a bit of firepower to seriously give the iPad a run for its money.  Of course, the iPad’s graphics processing ability would still be greater.  I think the 4G PlayBook’s faster processor, NFC radio and 4G radio could even qualify for a “new” prefix in front as well.

Battery Life

Battery life is always a complicated question to answer.  With the new faster chipset in the 4G PlayBook, you might expect that the battery life would be less than the original’s.  But this depends on what you’re doing: watching video, keeping it on standby, or web browsing.   However, the plot thickens…Riddle me this, Batman: How does the 4G PlayBook end up with a smaller 4800 mAh battery, despite being slightly thicker?  At least the smaller battery is what allows it to become lighter than the original PlayBook.  Consequently, I’d expect the 4G PlayBook to lose if it came down to battery life.

Carrying through with my unscientific test on battery consumption, I’ve fired up the same apps and had both on maximum brightness and kept the 4G PlayBook with a 4G(HSPA+) and  Wi-Fi connection.  I wanted to see what would happen under typical usage conditions.  After about half an hour of doing identical tasks on each tablet, I could tell this wasn’t going to be good.

With the Wi-Fi PlayBook having a battery life of about 7 hours.  The 4G PlayBook would barely make it past 4 hours.  Turning off the 4G radio, the 4G PlayBook settled into it a groove, matching the Wi-Fi PlayBook to the percent.  Moral of the story: 4G and battery life don’t mesh well.  This is without LTE.  My guess is that it would be abysmal with LTE on.   But we like to live dangerously.

Updated:

Interestingly, with LTE and Wi-Fi enabled, the battery doesn’t seem to drain much faster than a Wi-Fi PlayBook over–you guessed it–Wi-Fi (even with the poor LTE signal).  I wasn’t using any data though, so the LTE radio might have been on standby to save power.  Switching to just LTE and doing some web browsing and speed tests, I started to see that battery run down as fast as the HSPA+ radio.

Summary, you’re looking at about 7 hours of battery life on medium usage with Wi-Fi, and around 4 hours on HSPA+ or LTE.

Browser

The browser is one of the PlayBook’s best features, and this shouldn’t change for the 4G PlayBook.  With a faster processor, the rendering and JavaScript processing should be quicker.

Note that the 4G PlayBook is shipped with OS 2.0, not the latest (and not so greatest) OS 2.1 Beta.   There has been changes made to the browser in these two versions so keep this in mind.

Note:  Since I do not own an iPad or Transformer Prime, I’ve simply borrowed the respective figures from reputable sites (such as Engadget).

Below is the SunSpider 0.9.1 result.

The HTML5 test score is dependent only the browser, measuring how well it plays nicely with HTML5.  This score generally increases with the latest operating systems as updates are made.  As expected, the original PlayBook running OS 2.1 wins, beating out the competition pretty decisively.  It is also important to note that the Dev Alpha, while not technically a tablet, scores a ridiculously high 447 + 10 bonus points. This bodes well for both PlayBook tablets which should receive the BlackBerry 10 update (or other intermediate ones) in 2013, significantly boosting their HTML5test.com score.

The SunSpider test is where the 4G PlayBook really shines–or more like amazes.  This measures how quickly various javascript functions are carried out in the browser.  TRANSLATION:  The lower this number, the faster your browser is generally.  With the beefed up chipset, the PlayBook absolutely demolishes the old PlayBook, the new iPad, the Transformer Prime (with its fancy pants Tegra 3), and almost all tablets (and smartphones I believe) in existence at the moment.

With the BrowserMark test, the 4G PlayBook bests the original PlayBook by almost 20,000 points, but still loses out quite clearly to the new iPad and the Transformer Prime.  Since the Browsermark measures mostly JavaScript performance, I find it strange that the PlayBook would do so poorly(or other tablets do so well) after doing so well on the SunSpider test.

Software

As with most heroes, a single weakness can be their greatest downfall.  In this case, the Achilles’ heel of the 4G PlayBook (like the original) is software.  Unfortunately, almost nothing has changed on the software front.  The only differences are the SIM card and Mobile Network options in the Settings Menu.

Compared to the competition, the PlayBook simply does not have the services, software maturity or applications to best the likes of the iPad or Android tablets.  Unlike the launch of the original PlayBook, the 4G PlayBook does ship with OS 2.0, bringing with it respectable email, calendar and contacts apps.  Beyond that, the 4G PlayBook begins to show chinks in its armor.  Among the 15,000+ apps in App World, a few big-name apps such as Skype, Netflix and Hulu are missing.  The Bing maps application is functional, yet poorly designed and lacks features and effort (quite frankly).  There is no native photo-editing solution.  The music player and Docs to Go just aren’t good enough.  Adobe Reader is just a PDF Reader; no more, no less.

Yet, just like the original, there are some moments where the PlayBook just shines.  There is quite a selection of quality games.  Print to Go is an awesome and unique app.  The video chat app works very well.  The weather app is simple and very good-looking, much like the voice notes app.  Despite lacking the features and polish of the native apps, BlackBerry Bridge is a feature unlike no other, sharing personal data between smartphone and tablet, synchronously and securely.

There is a silver lining though.  Two words: Android apps.  With a simple sideload of some of Android’s most popular apps, you can achieve most of the same functionality as an Android tablet.  Google Maps, RepliGo Reader, Gallery, Flipboard, Winamp, Whatsapp, Kik, Google Navigation, eBay, Dropbox, LinkedIn…the list goes on.  The Android Player isn’t up to snuff yet, but it does work.  It is quite a process, so it may be limited to the more technologically keen. See our how to side-load Android apps tutorial here.

Value

We finally come to the most understated category of reviews: value.  At $550 (off-contract), the PlayBook 4G LTE isn’t anywhere close to the starting price of $199 (I’ve seen it on sale for $179 at the moment) for the Wi-Fi PlayBook.   At first glance, I can’t see as much value to the everyday consumer when compared to the bargain-of-the-year Wi-Fi PlayBook.  For the extra $350, you get 16GB more storage space, a 4G LTE and HSPA+ radio, NFC capability (in the future) and a (significantly) faster processor.  That’s almost two extra Wi-Fi PlayBooks, right?  Yet, as “Bill Nye the Science Guy” would say, consider the following:

List of LTE Tablets

I’ve compiled a list of what kinds of LTE tablets I can get and the price of them on and off contract (correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I’ve found).  When compared most tablets, the PlayBook lines up pretty much with most of the mid-range LTE Android tablets with 32 GB of internal storage.  But comparing tablets is a difficult task.  The only competition is budget Android Honeycomb tablets which compromise hardware features for app selection and Google services.   You’ll likely get a slower tablet, worse display, cheaper build, worse speakers, no 1080p video recording and no stereo speakers/microphones.  Comparing the 4G PlayBook to the iPad is laughable in terms of value.  The PlayBook is easily 200$ cheaper without a contract, and about half the price of the iPad on contract.  The iPad offers lots of apps, a very nice screen and Apple’s services.  The PlayBook has many advantages over the iPad as well so it really depends on what you want and becomes a subjective decision.

But at $550, the 4G PlayBook isn’t the superb deal like the Wi-Fi PlayBook, but may serve a certain niche in the enterprise/business market.  Say you want a very portable, data-enabled, durable, fast, reasonably-priced, very secure tablet, the 4G PlayBook would be your best bet, but not by far.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab series is FIPS certified (perhaps not to the same level though) but generally costs more, and lacks certain hardware advantages.

Looking into how the 4G PlayBook will hold its value is difficult. The Wi-Fi PlayBooks have lost about the same amount of value over time as most tablets have, despite their superior build and hardware.  This is because of the immaturity of the operating system and inferior app selection.  The stability of the operating system, and the future upgrade to BlackBerry 10 is what keeps the long-term value of the PlayBook from diminishing further.  The 4G PlayBook will suffer from the lack of apps and marketing appeal just like the PlayBook has.  It is such a great piece of hardware that will last years and should remain a powerful tablet when it does receive the BlackBerry 10 upgrade.

Summary

With 4G connectivity, a faster processor and NFC, the 4G PlayBook is a rock-solid upgrade from the original PlayBook.  I’m actually surprised they didn’t call it the PlayBook 2, or the new PlayBook for that matter.  The processor is a straight-up beast, the build is still solid, the LTE speeds are very fast.  It’s a very future-proof tablet solution, provided BlackBerry 10 does deliver the complete software package.

With a large price gap between the two PlayBook models, it’s not the most worthwhile upgrade for the money.  What the PlayBook needs more than anything else is software; software that empowers the user to accomplish complex tasks with the least amount of work.  Hence the reason for BlackBerry 10.  Sometime in mid-2013, the PlayBook series of tablets should receive the upgrade to BlackBerry 10, which should offer a comprehensive tablet solution for consumers.  The 4G PlayBook, as it stands, should appeal to enterprise customers who are looking for a professional, secure, always-connected tablet without the company swimming in red ink.  For the average consumer, the original PlayBook is much more of a steal and still is quite fast and capable, especially with a paired BlackBerry smartphone.

Overall, this tablet improves on the Wi-Fi PlayBook in many ways, including some that you’d never expect.  With these hardware improvements, the software weaknesses are also more glaring than they were before.  Looking at the negatives, you’re not going to be as impressed with the display and the HSPA+ will drain that battery quick.  But the latter part was expected.  Its lighter and faster, but I’d rather more of that weight go to a larger battery.

We all know that the iPad sells because it has the selection of apps, elegance, and the simplified user experience that many consumers want.  Unfortunately, the 4G PlayBook won’t be a best-seller, or even on the podium for that matter.  It will likely appeal mostly to enterprise customers looking for that portable, powerful, secure tablet solution.   Ignoring software, it truly is a no-compromises tablet.  However, the software on the 4G PlayBook is still unchanged from the original PlayBook.  Realizing a 4G PlayBook running a complete version of BlackBerry 10 would have been a great success f0r RIM.  Remember the potential of the original PlayBook?  Double that and you have completely described the 4G PlayBook.

The post Review: 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook is from N4BB.COM

Ever had any problem waking up in the morning for work? Well, of course you have, we all have. I always wonder why is it so hard to wake up and so easy to hit the snooze button. I came accross this pretty cool app for the PlayBook that might help you wake up on time for work. Get Set, Get Up is a nice alarm clock app with a bunch of cool features that will make your PlayBook  your perfect nightstand companion.

First thing you do with the app is, obviously, setup your alarm for whenever you need to wake up. The application lets you choose a total snooze time, which is the divided into several intervals of time with increasingly shorter snooze periods, before the total time is up. You can also setup a custom ringtone or voice note for your alarm, as well as a message that’ll show up when the snoozing starts.

There’s one little detail that you might either love or hate. The snooze time you set is for BEFORE the time you want to wake up, so if you set it to 20 minutes, you’d be getting snoozes 20 minutes before the time you set the alarm to. This featured I found awesome because there’s only so many times you can snooze your alarm, and snoozing after the time you have to wake up isn’t helping much. You will eventually get tired, or annoyed by all the snoozing, and end up waking up on time.

You can set the backlight so that the glare won’t bother while you’re sleeping by sliding up and down in the main app screen. In the options menu the time can be set to 12h or 24h, and other useful settings such as volume and language are available too.

As shown in the screenshot above, the app lets you choose between analog and digital clock and shows a small red line at the time the alarm is set to.

There’s a light option when you slide from the top down that changes the screen to a full yellowish color that you can use as a lamp when you wake up and the lights are out, which I thought was very useful.

This is how the "Light" feature looks like when on.

In conclusion, this application takes alarm clock to another level and is definitely worth it. It will garantee you will get to work on time. It’s available now in App World for only $1.99, get it here.

The post Review: Get Set, Get Up Alarm Clock App for BlackBerry PlayBook is from N4BB.COM

Middlemind Games released a couple of weeks ago a cool new coloring app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. If you’ve got kids or, like me, just really like to color then you probably looked for an app like this to find that there weren’t many options. This might just be what you were looking for.  Here’s my review of the app:

Kids’ Cute and Cuddly Coloring Book is just that, a coloring book for the BlackBerry PlayBook but it’s got some cool features that will keep your kids, or you (we don’t judge) entertained. There’s a music feature where you can have kids music play in the background while you color. You can also turn this off if it starts to annoy you since it is only one song in an eternal loop. I hope to see a feature to add new music on a future release.

The app comes loaded up with 5 different coloring books, each include up to 6 different drawings. This coloring book app is much like a real coloring book because if you can draw over the lines. This is something I also which could be fixed since it would look a lot better with the lines, but you can still have a pretty awesome picture.  You can save your picture to work in later or share it.

When you’re in a drawing, you can select from three different pencils, each one thicker than the other, to help you draw little or big things. You’ll also get different sets of 24 colors. This feature I really loved because you have basically any possible color you would want and have a pretty unique picture. There’s the traditional colors, pastel, neon craze and darkness.

For the more creative ones, you get a sketch pad so you can draw and color your own, original work. There are three background colors for the sketch pad: white, black and blue. And the last feature, which I really liked as well, was a frame pack where you can draw and color adding a frame to your drawing.

The application is very complete, there’s isn’t much more you can ask of a coloring book and this one has more than one would normally expect. You can get a lite version for free if you want to try it out before you buy it, and full version for only $1.99.

The post Review: Kids’ Cute And Cuddly Coloring Book for the PlayBook is from N4BB.COM

The Torch 9850/9860 is RIM’s only flagship BlackBerry 7 smartphone without a physical keyboard and is my BlackBerry of choice.  One of my favorite accessories for it is the the charge/sync cradle.  We at N4BB bring you an unboxing and review of this accessory after having spent a few weeks with it.

Design

Looking at this charging cradle, you’ll immediately notice that it falls in line with the typical BlackBerry style.  Understated.  Simple.  Black.  High Quality.   The smooth, sculpted sides match the curves of the 9860 perfectly, wrapping around the 9860 when docked.  The combination of black glossy plastic with the matte backing is also shared.  The bottom of the cradle has a soft rubber layer to prevent sliding on a flat surface and to reduce noise when placing it anywhere.  It comes with a USB cable but no wall adaptor to convert from DC to AC current.  But you can use the one that came with your BlackBerry, which is exactly what I did.

The choice of materials is nearly spot on.  I’m a big fan of the matte soft-touch finish on the back and lower part of the front though.  While it may be too understated at times, you’ll have a hard time calling any product cheap with that kind of finish.  But that’s just me, and I’ll let these pictures help you get an idea of what I’m talking about.

The back USB port comes out in a not-s0-subtle way, but that’s so big deal.  It doesn’t look half bad and it actually works really well to stabilized the cradle on a surface.  It makes the USB port on the back easier to find too.  Let’s just say you won’t need an atomic force microscope to find the usb port without looking.

The USB port that connects directly to the side of the Torch 9850/9860 doesn’t get much style points.  And it doesn’t have to.  But it is worrying that it isn’t very secure.  I can wiggle it back and forth like a 7-year old’s tooth.  It could just be my use and abuse, but the last time I checked, I didn’t go all Chuck Norris on it.  This could be related, but it is possible to slide the Torch in “wrong” so it won’t charge.  I’ve done it a few times, but it can be avoided completely if you make sure both ends of the torch fit inside the inside before pushing it down.

The Torch fits in very nicely when you guide it in.  The cradle lines up nicely with the phone when docked, continuing the sleek, streamlined curves of the Torch.  I’m not a fan of the glossy plastic on the inside of the dock.   Some velvet, or something softer and less-tacky would definitely step this cradle up into “baller” territory.

The matte texture wraps around the device so that when the device is docked, that’s most of what you see.  The BlackBerry logo is almost too subtle.  No wait, IT IS too subtle.  What happened to the nice metallic finish of the 9860′s BlackBerry logo?  That was boss.  All it is now is just a glossy black logo surrounded by the matte backing.  But I’m nitpicking big-time.

Functionality

It charges your BlackBerry.  Check.  It connects your computer to your BlackBerry.  Double check.  After all, it’s just a glorified USB cord that props up your Torch 9850/9860 while being connected, right?  Not exactly.  This is a “smart” accessory.  It won’t quite do your taxes, but can control the state of your Torch much like a holster can.  In fact, pretty much exactly like a holster.

When you first submit the cradle to some wall electrons, a green LED should let assure you that you, in fact, have not bought a BlackBerry-branded paperweight.  After a few days of using it, I noticed that the green LED doesn’t make the room slightly brighter than it should be at night when trying to sleep.  If you’re the type with a phobia of photons at night, this will frustrate you.  I put a piece of electrical tape over the light; problem solved.  MacGyver would be proud.

Sliding your Torch into the cradle, your phone will let you know that it has detected a “smart” accessory.  You can then set the behaviour of your Torch when it connects to this exact cradle in the future.  You can make it open the Clock app, Compass app, BBM or anything really.  I thought that it would be cool if my Torch opened the Clock app when I place it in the cradle.  It turns out that you can change any of the connections and sound profiles as well, but for some reason, not within the Clock app.  But that’s alright because you can configure your Torch to go into Bedside mode when charging at a specific time without the help of a charging cradle.

The setup is typically BlackBerry and typically straightforward.  I managed to set it up in the review video in seconds.

Conclusion

To sum it up.  I’m very satisfied with it.  I really wanted a dock for my Torch when I go to bed every night, and I’ve found one.  It’s stylish, fancy and programmable.  It does have a flimsy USB port inside the cradle and it is possible to slide it in wrong if you’re not paying attention (as I’ve done a few times).   It’s a shame it doesn’t come with the wall adaptor so its more of a bedside charger, which is what most people will probably use it for.  It will, however, work with the standard BlackBerry charger and PlayBook chargers though.   In the end, it is a solid buy.  It wins on our design and function.  It’s the perfect complement to the Torch 9850/9860.

In stock at the N4BB BlackBerry Accessories Store here.

The post Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860, 9850 Charge and Sync Cradle is from N4BB.COM

Newest in the 9300 series, RIM’s new entry-level Curve 9310 smartphone comes with OS 7.1 pre-loaded. Featuring a slightly thinner body, the design will still seem familiar to repeat BlackBerry Curve users. The feel is super comfy per usual. BlackBerry design engineers seem to have real panache in their form factors.

The small, sleek design allows for a good grip and discreet transport. Other than that it really has at least the minimum amount of features you would expect from a true smartphone. Things like WiFi, a 3.2MP camera, expandable storage, and exceptional battery life are present. There’s not much to complain about, but i’ll get to that soon. Click here to view the official BlackBerry Curve 9310 specs.

Performance
OS 7.1 is easy to work with and the software bugs were few in the stock OS. Despite it being an entry-level device, it processed as quickly as a smartphone should. Data transmission never seemed held back by the hardware. Boost Mobile coverage in my area is another story…

Pricing
Being, admittedly, the “cheap” phone of the RIM product line it’s a bargain at $99.99 outright with a pre-paid Boost Mobile plan or $49.99 with 2-yr agreement on Verizon Wireless.

Demographic
A common definition of entry-level is “characterized by being at the most appropriate level for use by a beginner”.  Currently 37% of teens in the UK carry a BB device  suggesting the petite, affordable Curve is appealing to such “begginers”. Let us know in the comments what your first device was. If you have kids, what are theirs?

Meanwhile, in developing areas where subsidized carrier plans are less prevalent, it would appear BlackBerry devices like the Curve are all the rage. BlackBerry users comprise 45% of smartphone users in parts of the Caribbean, Latin America, and South East Asia  so RIM product developers certainly had multiple demographics in mind when designing this Curve. While there may be bigger, better BlackBerrys, such high user numbers would suggest this device and others like it are serving RIM well.

To me, “entry level”, denotes an allowance for a certain level of compromise and basicness. Whether it be the hardware, software, or RIM peeps underware, a concession has been made. In this case if there weren’t a comparison to be made against the glitzy flagship Bold 9900 the concessions would be harder to spot.  But, the lack of the most important leap in functionality and efficiency in smartphone technology ever (a touchscreen) is painfully absent.

Anyone able to afford a fulfilling, efficient, smartphone experience is likely holding out for BlackBerry 10 or already have a Bold or Torch. However, RIM does a good job in providing something comparable to those who are simply looking for a smartphone that works for an incredibly wallet conscience budget.

P.S. I was wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt, the Curve 9310′s battery door doesn’t come that way

The post Review: BlackBerry Curve 9310 (Boost Mobile) is from N4BB.COM

Thinking about getting your mixing and mashing on? At this past BlackBerry World we saw Pacemaker debut their DJ app and the Martinez Brothers even used it for the Universal Studios party. Is it really that good of a DJ app? Pacemaker comes in two version: full priced at $19.99 and Lite priced at $4.99.

Some features of the full version include:

• Auto beatmatch – Instantly sync tempo and phase of two tracks by clicking the Sync button.
• Scratch – Put the needle on the record and scratch like the Grandmaster.
• Time stretch – Alter and set the tempo of a track ± 100% without affecting pitch/key.
• Pitch speed – Alter track tempo ± 100% and pitch/key ± one octave in parallel.
• Pitch bend – Nudge a track into phase.
• Loop – Create synchronized loops on the fly; set and adjust in-point and/or end-point, split from in-point or end-point, double from in-point or end-point, exit loop and re-loop.
• Loop travel – Turn on Loop travel and hear the funky sound of a small loop traveling along the sound wave.
• Reverse – Flip playback direction
• Cue play – Play track from cue point and revert to cue point when releasing cue button.
• Set cue point – Search and define starting point of a track with precise control.
• DJ pause – A stuttering micro loop lets you listen, search and set cue point.
• FX – Add and adjust single parameter audio effect Hi-cut/Lo-cut ± 1.0.
• Beat FX – Add and adjust two-parameter audio effects Echo and Roll to dry/wet + 0–100% and Beat at 1/8-8, and Reverb to dry/wet and size to + 0–100%.
• Kill-all – Instantly mute or re-engage activated audio effects.
• Track EQ – Temporarily adjust equalization of loaded tracks.
• Crossfader – Dynamically adjust the output blend between the two channels.
• Split output – Split output and listen to one track in the headphones while another track is playing in the speakers. All you need is the Griffin DJ Cable.
• Headphones crossfader – Dynamically adjust what channel blend to listen to in the phones.
• Halt – Pause everything and continue when ready.
• Master headphones volume – Adjust volume for headphones output.
• Gain – Temporarily adjust gain level of loaded track.

Check out our little video review of the full version of the app and let us know what you think. You can get Pacemaker Full in BlackBerry App World here and Lite here.

P.S. the video has our new intro, let us know what you think!

The post Review: Pacemaker DJ App for BlackBerry PlayBook (Video) is from N4BB.COM

For quite some time now I’ve been looking for a cool app to change my lock screen and the way I unlock my BlackBerry. I tried a few free apps, none of which really worked or are even worth mentioning. Then I got this app as a gift from my fellow editor, Niko, and I must say it’s pretty much everything I was looking for.

Easy Lock Pro is a simple, yet awesome application to change your touch BlackBerry’s lock screen. The app is super easy to use and works great. You can pick one of the backgrounds that come with the app or add a custom using one of the images in your BlackBerry smartphone.  To unlock the screen, you just have to swipe up the image. You’ll see it move up smoothly, so much I was actually very impressed with how smooth it was.

On the lock screen, you’ll see battery and signal info, time, date and notifications. But, nothing is perfect. If you set up a password lock on your BlackBerry, you’ll be asked for the password before showing the lock screen and, sometimes, the it might not even show up. Other than this, the app works smoothly, has no effect on battery and is incredibly easy to use.

Easy Lock Pro is available on the BlackBerry App World for only $0.99, but if you want to try it out first there’s a lite version available too.

The post Review: Easy Lock Pro – Screen Lock App for BlackBerry is from N4BB.COM

It is always a pleasure of mine to review a brand spanking new BlackBerry product.  With no further delay, lets take a look at the brand new BlackBerry Music Gateway from Research In Motion.

Unboxing
The video below shows what is included in the box. Included in the packaging is your BlackBerry Music Gateway, a charger, a 3.5mm AUX wire, and an RCA cable.

How Does It Work
The newly released BlackBerry Music Gateway uses Bluetooth technology, just like its predecessor, to stream music from your phone to your audio system. A brand new and very welcomed addition is the ability to use NFC to tap your smartphone for an instant connection.  The BlackBerry Music Gateway works with both BlackBerry Smartphones and Tablets. Also, it supports streaming from various apps like BBM Music, Pandora, 7digital, and Slacker Radio.  The device is actually a lot smaller and sleeker looking than the original.  It is quite simple to use, you just Tap (if you have an NFC enabled phone) or manually connect though Bluetooth and start enjoying your device’s music over those loud speakers.

The Good 
The BlackBerry Music Gateway is amazingly small which makes it very portable.  I used one in my car and in my house.  It is extremely easy to stream your music and volume by using your smartphone or tablet as a remote. The NFC tap is amazing and hasn’t failed once.  The BlackBerry Music Gateway works like it’s supposed to and the quality of the sound is great. I loved the ability to be around the house and being able to control my music from any room.

The Bad 
The Price seems fair, but not great. I believe RIM could have promoted this a lot more aggressively with a slightly more fitting price.  Another issue I encountered,which is expected, was rapid battery drain on my smartphone. I wish RIM could make it a little less battery consuming, but I understand it is constantly streaming so I can’t complain that much.

The Ugly
I am sad to say this, but the device was poorly engineered.  First issue I found is that the device needs to constantly be plugged in to a power outlet, which makes it less portable. Perhaps, RIM can engineer a BlackBerry Music Gateway with a rechargeable battery in the future. A second problem is that the AUX out is located right next to the charging port, which can create an interference.  I was hoping RIM would have avoided making these types of engineering mistakes.  It is a bit of an inconvenience when you have your BlackBerry Music Gateway in your car and need an extra car charger.

Bottom-line
I am a little torn about the BlackBerry Music Gateway.  It is my first love/hate relationship with a BlackBerry product.  If you have $49.99 to spare, then by all means I would suggest you get one.  Aside from some minor issues, the BlackBerry Music Gateway is still awesome and serves as a handy device for a music fanatic. The BlackBerry Music Gateway is available to purchase for $49.99 and you can pick it up at ShopBlackBerry.com.

The post Review: BlackBerry Music Gateway is from N4BB.COM

Since I was a young boy Formula 1 racing was a big part of my weekends. Who could ever forget the epic battles of Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill? With the release of the new F1 time app (also available for the PlayBook) I decided to do a review but unfortunately with BBW and BBjam10 on full swing I couldn’t find the time. Lucky for us all our good friend and N4BB community member Urbanglowcam stepped up to the plate and did a review for us. Enjoy and feel free to comment!

Since 2010, Soft Pauer Limited, a small company based out of the UK was given the rights to develop the Official Formula 1 Timing App. It was initially released for the iOS platform. Later it was released for Android. As you might have guessed, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 have been left out of the fun. BlackBerry has had timing apps that functioned fairly well. However, for the 2012 F1 season, Soft Pauer has generously released their Official F1 2012 Timing App in BlackBerry App World for a hefty $19.99.

Being built on an old Java platform, one would imagine that the BlackBerry version of the app could not match the rich features of the more modern Android or iOS counterparts. While this holds true, it holds its own in several ways. Fortunately, Soft Pauer saw the value in releasing a BlackBerry app despite the recent growth in the Windows Marketplace. It’s most likely due to the demand internationally with Formula 1 being so prevalent. BlackBerry still has a strong presence throughout the world, even as they transition to BlackBerry 10. Now to the app..

Once it’s downloaded and started, it will begin to automatically download updates to the app. After the updates, you will be presented with the main live leaderboard. The track location will be automatically selected using your data service and detect which practice, qualifying, or race session is currently going on. You will typically be given an alert to say when the next session will occur or which is currently taking place. Information like driver position, tyre, lap time, gaps, and sector times are presented in real time and pulled from the official F1 data center. There is a ticker at the bottom with up to date highlights as well as a race timer and lap indicator.

If there is not a current session, the app will go into demo mode where the app runs as a simulated occurrence of a race in every regard. Race packs can be downloaded to view the desired race session after they are completed.

Navigating to different areas of the app for more information just takes a press of the BlackBerry key and selecting the desired section. This includes full timing, map, info, news, and setup. The full timing goes more into depth for each driver currently with specific gap times, sector timing, pit stop count, and laps completed.

The map menu shows a birds-eye visual of the current track location while each driver zooms around the track in real time with their locations accurately represented. You can highlight whichever driver you choose and the view will follow them on the track. There is also a pinch-zoom capability which allows you to see more of the track or get in closer to the driver. Unfortunately, this is where the BlackBerry version is lacking. The Android/iOS versions are shown in full 3D and can be rotated beautifully in real time. There is also a live pause and replay feature. Still, the BlackBerry app gives the general information, only without the bells and whistles.

The next menu is the info section. Initially, it will prompt you to download the info pack. You will be taken to a sub-menu with latest results, standings, drivers, teams, and races. Upon clicking each, you will be given more detailed information for that section.

The news section will briefly list the latest information popping up from the world of F1. There are two tabs here. One is for the news articles and the other includes live feed messages for when they are available from the race sessions.

Lastly, there is the options menu. Here you can choose which 2012 track to view at any given time. The session can then be selected. Here you can toggle between practice 1-3, qualifying, or the race of the race track that was chosen. The start time is given to you after. The other options relate to the map section where you can choose to hide stopped cars and/or fade cars. Finally, you can clear your local store to clean up the apps downloaded components if necessary.

All in all, if you are a big F1 junky, this app is a great companion for the season. It gives fans information quickly without having to browse the internet for it. It can also be useful during races when your favorite broadcast might be on a commercial break. Extensive, live information can be difficult to get while viewing the race during the live broadcast. It will be difficult to get specific lap records and sector times any other way. There have been times when the app has failed to receive information from the server, but with the app being fairly new, I’m sure updates will come to fix these annoyances. Soft Pauer Limited is a group of developers that listens fairly well.  I have personally received feedback and insight into their project. I suggest anyone to contact them through Facebook, Twitter, or their e-mail with any feedback. Their information can be found at http://www.softpauer.com/f1site/.

At the price of $20, it is hard to recommend it for just anybody. But if you’re the type that needs a constant feed of Formula 1 data, and are still on the BlackBerry train this is the app for you. Hopefully, they Soft Pauer Limited will develop a BlackBerry PlayBook app with even better features.

Additional reporting from Cameron Hirbodi

The post Review: Formula 1 Timing App 2012 is from N4BB.COM

Of the thousands of games on the BlackBerry PlayBook, it’s so hard to choose just one. But we did. This game is called “MatchUP I” by TrustBe, and it’s perfect to keep the audio levels from your kids to a minimum while in the car, plane, or waiting room. It’s a simple Matching game where you try to match two identical tiles from an array of face-down tiles. Easy enough? I know we’ve seen this type of game before, but no two are ever alike. Let’s take a deeper look!

Graphics:
The interface is clean, friendly and simple, perfect for kids. You’ll be greeted with a green menu screen where you can choose between 8 equivalent themes. You can choose between “Beach stuff, animals, weird tooth-shaped monsters, a brown rabbit, Halloween monsters, sheep, pumpkins, and ridiculously happy horseshoe-shaped guys”. The graphics are crisp and detailed. The backs of the cards have a simple cartoon landscape pattern on them.

The beach theme is the easiest as all the items are very different and familiar. Some themes might be borderline scary, which might be something the big kids might like. The pumpkin theme is tough as all the pumpkins look very similar.

There are no fancy transitions but at least everything is very quick. The wood background is nice and comforting and the scoreboard comes across as a familiar chalkboard. Overall, the graphics are good and detailed.

Gameplay:
By touching a tile, it flips and stays face-up until your next selection. If you guess wrong, those two tiles return face-down. If you guess right and have a match, they remain face-up and greyed out slightly. As an added bonus, you hear a kid saying “YEA!”. I’m sure kids love this sound and should get them to play more. You’ll also see a small message at the top left that reads “Ohh, wrong…”, “Great shot!!!” or “Playing…” depending on if you just guessed wrong, guessed right or selected only one tile, respectively. There’s also a satisfying “click” sound when flipping a tile.

You get timed and the number of times you flipped a tile is counted. Once finished, you get a score from 1 to 5 stars. I usually get three stars. Pretty sad for a kids game eh? At least it’s difficult to get less than that though. It doesn’t work in portrait mode, but for young kids, this is a good thing. You can also change the theme during a game, but this also resets the game. You can also reset the game from the top right “Play New Game” button.

For a very reasonable $0.99 (on sale for a limited time), this game can be yours…or your kids if you never managed to get your PlayBook back. Young kids need a game that is easy to play and accessible, which is exactly what this game is. I consider it a solid buy at this price. Plus, the peace and quiet you get in the car is priceless.

Buy MatchUP I for the BlackBerry PlayBook for $0.99 in BlackBerry App World here.

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This week, N4BB reviews a new featured PlayBook game called “Drop or Fall” created by the software wizards at Modern Alchemists, an Austrian mobile app development firm. The idea behind the game is simple: You tilt the PlayBook from side to side, trying to get the ball to fall through the holes in the rising platforms fast enough to keep the ball on the screen. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, there’s more to it than that. You’d think that the monkey face says it all…but read on to find out more!

Gameplay

It isn’t the first time we’ve seen a falling-ball-through-the-holes-in-a-platform-style game, I know. I remember a really, REALLY simple on BlackBerry smartphones that I played for a bit called Falldown. But this one really is in a different league. And it’s not because the monkey in the game is probably the cutest image of one you’ll ever see (even though that helps), it’s because the ball actually bounces, the platforms can be sloped, you can play one of four different themes as well. You also have items which you can buy.

Yes, that’s right! You make money with this game! Or….well, at least in “Drop or Fall” coins. This lets you buy items, such as a “Ghost”, a “Heavy Burden” and a “Sand of Time”. The Ghost item can be used to slip through platforms regardless if there is a hole or not. This is very useful when you’re about to lose the level. A quick tap on the Ghost icon, and you’re at the bottom again in great shape. This effect doesn’t last long, but it does the job and is well worth the 20 coins it costs to buy it. The Heavy Burden icon changes the physics of the ball, reducing the bounciness of the ball. This makes it easier to get through to the next platform since you’re not bouncing as much as before. You can buy the Heavy Burden item for 15 coins. The last item is called the “Sand of Time” that you can buy for 10 coins. It’s an hourglass that (you guessed it) slows down the speed at which the platforms rise. The sweet part is that the ball keeps its original speed, making it easier for that extra bit of time to improve your position if things are getting tough.

Using the Shiva 3D and Open Dynamics Engines, the physics behind the game is solid. The ball bounces like it should, rolls under gravity, and accelerates under gravity exactly as you would expect. The game has a slight 3D feel to it even though it’s a 2D game. The game never stutters or lags at all, which is super important in a game like this as timing is everything.

The game is fairly easy, and you get used to it pretty quick. But it’s not a walk in the park. Things can get tricks pretty quick. The game appears more dynamic as you get further as platforms seem to move side-to-side and may tilt occasionally.

At the main screen, you can buy items, choose the theme, and view your coin count and high score. While playing the game, you can pick up an item that adds two extra balls on the screen, allowing you to rack up some serious scores quick if you can manage them all. You can pick up all the items you can buy just buy playing to games if you’re cheap with your coins. You can also pause the game by simply swiping the bezel from any direction, like many other PlayBook games, or double tapping the screen.

There is a dedicated FaceBook page for the app, where you can “like” the game. Liking the app instantly gives you an extra 400 coins as well! You even get a few coins every day just buy opening up the app. I find that this keep you playing that game more since you want to use all your coins to buy items.

The game doesn’t really end if you have god-like talent and focus. You collect a number of “special points” every time you go through a platform in one bounce or less. But when you do eventually lose, these banana/egg/moon/ninja star (depending on the theme) points get translated into coins. You get about 1 coin per 5 of these things. You also get a score, which usually goes up by 1 point every time you pass through a hole in a platform.

There is also specific music in each theme, each suiting the theme exactly right. The music is simple, but not annoying or overly detracting, so it helps the experience.

Graphics

The graphics are friendly and inviting. The animations are extremely smooth and as responsive as you could ever want. You’ll notice that switching between “themes” changes the experience extensively, making it feel like a completely different game with each world. You can play as a cute monkey ball bouncing through the jungle, or a planet through outer space, a ninja though the sunset in an exotic land, or an egg through a stone level reminiscent of the humpty-dumpty story. All the items, backgrounds and platforms in the game change as well, giving the themes some depth.
There are a few things that can be improved however. Almost all the graphics in the game appear fuzzy like they’ve been anti-aliased from a lower-resolution version of the game. Instead of being crisp as they could be, they simply don’t do the PlayBook’s amazing screen justice.

There’s also a black bar at the bottom of the screen, an indication that this game was originally developed for aspect ratio, but it doesn’t really detract from the experience.

I’ve noticed that the PlayBook does get a little warm while playing the game, but it’s nothing to be concerned about. It happens with almost every decent game. When I can fry an egg on the screen, I’ll let you know there’s a problem.

The game does do a good job in helping you out with occasional instructions and tips. They do go by really quick though so be ready. I actually prefer it that way, since it gets to the gameplay faster.

Overall, it’s a fun game. It’s simple, cute and responsive. My main concern is the fuzzy graphics, which is a little weird on the eyes if you play it for a while. It’s not too hard, and not too easy. The music, themes, items, coins make this game more mature than most of the other games with similar gameplay. For a reasonable $1.99, it’s a deal. It’s got enough polish to make it worthwhile, and it’s quite accessible for kids of all ages to play for hours.

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After the release of this popular title at BlackBerry World Conference 2012, Lara Croft has made her way to the BlackBerry PlayBook OS platform with  a new installment, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. This is a third person gaming experience that contains PlayBook worthy graphics, a great  storyline and it delivers a great game play experience. Square Enix has delivered a great game for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The Guardian of Light opens up with great visual HD graphics that start to engulf you in the story as to the reason why Lara Croft has taken on this  adventure. Even the actual game play graphics are great. At the start of the first level you are given a introduction as to how to move and manipulate  Lara and her weapons, easy. As you go deeper into these ruins you are met with more difficult challenges and you make contact with these creatures.  The game doesn’t leave you on your own to figure things out, you are give reminders as to what to do in certain situations and how to get through each  level. This game also challenges your skills with puzzles before allowing you to progress further into the game.

As I mentioned before, the graphics for this game are amazing. The visuals used to tell the story, and the actual game play graphics are stunning. The  developers, Square Enix have done a great job at maintaining a the graphical aspect of the game. It’s not only at the start of the game, but throughout  your game play you are introduced to cut-scenes to continue unveiling the story to you.

The game controls are good, but they can be better. The only issues that I saw with the joystick style touch controller is the changing and use of  different weapons in Lara’s artillery, and always having to keep looking down to see where the jump button was. As far as navigating through the game, it couldn’t be any easier. The controller is just the righ fit for this style game. You don’t lose any visual space and yet your able to get through  each level with the easy navigation controls. Another feature is the bird’s eye view gaming style. This style let’s you take advantage of your  surrounding and is easy to see where you are going.

In the end, the game play, storyline, and great HD graphics fit for a PlayBook makes this new take on the Lara Croft installment a great choice to  download on your BlackBerry PlayBook. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light can be downloaded for $3.99 from BlackBerry App World.

App World purchase and Download Link: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/105361/?lang=en
Square Enix Website URL: http://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/

The post Review: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light for BlackBerry PlayBook is from N4BB.COM

Most of you probably use Google Reader a lot to keep track of all those sites you read constantly (especially N4BB, right?). I work on a desk, therefore I’m always on my work computer, but some people are usually always out and rely a lot more on their BlackBerry. What do they need to keep their RSS feeds at hand? BerryReader. Bellshare’s always been known for making awesome apps, and BerryReader is no exception.

With BerryReader you can access your feeds just like you would on Google Reader. You can access all items, your starred items, shared items, read by folder or single feed. You can manage your feeds right from your BlackBerry since BerryReader lets you add and remove subscriptions from your Google Reader account.

On single articles, you can star, like, mark as unread or a read, and edit tags. On touch devices, you can slide to mark as unread and star, which is pretty cool and works smoothly. It’ll also let you share the feeds via email, Twitter or Facebook. If you were to lose your internet connection on your BlackBerry smartphone, that wouldn’t be a problem. You can read the downloaded feeds even if offline, and any changes you make to it will be saved on the phone to be uploaded later when you get back online. BerryReader can let you setup all updates to be done automatically in the background or just refresh when the app is opened for better battery life. It will let you set the amount of articles you want to be downloaded on every refresh. If you do decide to let it refresh in the background because you just HAVE to read the news as soon as they come out, then BerrReader notifies you when new articles are downloaded.

To make it a little more customizable, BerryReader has options to make the article list view full or compact, which is almost the same except you can’t read the full article title on compact mode. There are two themes you can set, a white background/black font and a black background/white font. You can also set the font size and hide the shortcut bar. It will also let you hide the articles you already read and just show the unread ones.

Best part of it all is it doesn’t show much effect on battery life. Of course, if you set it to constantly check for updates you will see a difference, but it still won’t be too much. You can try out BerryReader for free for 7 days, and purchase for only $9.99 from the N4BB store or App World

Download BerryReader free 7 day trial >>

Buy BerryReader for $9.99 from the N4BB Store >>

Buy BerryReader for $9.99 from App World >>

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When I got my Torch 9850 the first thing that came to mind was “I need a case for it”. I’m actually not a fan of cases or covers, I think phones look way better without them but the thought of getting scratches or dents on it kills me. I always keep my phone protected so I thought, since I already dislike the idea of using a case, why not get one that would look almost as cool as it looks without it?

The Fishbone Case for BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860 is a two part case. The first is a black, silicone skin and the second is a rubberized plastic fishbone back, which comes in different colors. What I really love about this case is how the silicone doesn’t feel loose thanks to the plastic fishbone back, which helps it stabilize the case and keep it in place. While the case feels a little big, I can’t deny it looks pretty cool and the two layer case means double the protection, there is no way my phone is getting is getting any dents now, ha!

The case is very easy to apply and, once you do, it feels like it’s part of the phone. You can get the Fishbone case in black, black and white or black and purple for only $14.99. Head over to the N4BB store (SHOP4BB) and get it! Check out more photos below.

Buy this same case in the N4BB store for only $14.99 >>

The post Review: BlackBerry Torch 9850/60 Fishbone Case is from N4BB.COM