Author: Matt Cameron

A short while ago the good folks at The Woody sent me an all-wood bamboo BlackBerry Z10 case. I’ve always though of wood products for high tech to be a bit of a novelty but the truth is nothing beats the feeling or the look of real wood.

The case is light, sturdy and easy to put on and take off the BlackBerry Z10. The case fits tight and has a bit of felt on the inside so that it doesn’t scuff the back of your device while being protected from impacts.

The only drawback is that some of the larger-plugged micro USB chargers won’t fit through the wooden port holes. The problem is easily remedied by cutting some of the excess plastic and rubber from the plug itself, or using the official BlackBerry BlackBerry Charger Bundle that comes with a slimmer micro USB cable.

The Woody is a Canadian company based in Ottawa Ontario that can also give your wooden BlackBerry Z10 case a custom laser engraving of your own design for an extra ten dollars. They also make wooden iPhone cases so send your jealous iFriends their way too.

Click here to buy the Woody for $34.95 for the BlackBerry Z10.

Click here to buy Woody with a custom laser engraving of your design for $44.95 for the BlackBerry Z10.

Scan to Text is a BlackBerry 10 app by Yuri Salnikov that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to turn words on paper into an editable document on your BlackBerry.

Ideal for scanning a whole page of text in one go, the app responds particularly well to high contrast text. The OCR processing happens on your device and the photos of the pages of text get deleted after scanning so they don’t get mixed up with your photos.

The app works with flash or without, you’ll get better results with higher contrast so use your judgment. Scan to Text can also correct for rotation and skew so you don’t have to make sure you’re 100% dead on with your camera.

Combine a number of pages and send them via email, copy the text to the clipboard to bounce around to other apps or share them with your BBM contacts.

The App supports mostly European languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tagalog andTurkish.

Click here to download the demo version of Scan to Text.

Click here to buy Scan to Text for $2.99 for BlackBerry 10.

The BlackBerry Achievement Awards (formerly the Wireless Achievement Awards) recognize excellence in entrepreneurship and development on the BlackBerry platform. This years winners were announced in Orlando Florida during the BlackBerry Live conference.

App of the Year: PriceCheck Mobile for BlackBerry
Scan barcodes to make comparison shopping a breeze. The app started out in South Africa and has grown their barcode inventory to over 30 million items.

Click here to download PriceCheck Mobile for BlackBerry 10 for free.

Putting Customers First: ING DIRECT Canada
I first saw ING DIRECT showcase their app during the BlackBerry 10 launch event. The app features “Orange Alerts” that deliver banking notifications directly to your device.

Click here to download ING DIRECT for BlackBerry 10 for free.

Mobile Innovation of the Year: DIRECTV Latin America
Managing technical support for 5 million clients in Latin America and the Caribbean is no small task. Thankfully they’ve built a BlackBerry 10 app that helps over 4000 technicians to manage service calls using their device and also connect to set top boxes via Bluetooth to validate access, diagnose problems and check signal strength.

Making the World a Better Place: e-Cycle
e-Cycle makes it easy for companies to securely recycle old devices. Instead of shredding the device e-Cycle wipes and resells the device via their buyback program to recoup a bit of the costs of the upgrade.

Entrepreneur of the Year: Nobex Technologies Inc
Nobex has developed one of the highest rated apps on BlackBerry World. Nobex Radio and Podcasts allows users to listen to tune in to online radio and subscribe to Podcasts using a polished BlackBerry 10 app.

Click here to download Nobex Radio and Podcasts for BlackBerry 10 for free.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Flurry is an analytics tool that delivers user and usage data to the developer to help them improve and polish their apps. With over 170000 apps already in the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem, Flurry is sure to raise the quality and user experience of these apps over the long term.

Slated to be ready for action by the end of Q2, the powerful development tool features audience demographics and a consolidated dashboard even across multiple platforms. Flurry is indispensable when developing monetization and retention plans. Flurry will support apps made with cascades and the Native BlackBerry 10 SDK.

Flurry can easily spot dead ends in menus and show you where users are hitting snags while navigating the app. It can also reveal larger problems, let’s say that you notice the average session time for a specific device is almost zero, you’ll be able to assume that there’s a stability or crashing issue that’s keeping people from using your app as intended.

Click here for more info on Flurry.

Endomondo is a free or premium cross-platform sports tracking app that uses GPS and other techniques to track workout session. The company ported their iOS/Android app over to BlackBerry 10 due to overwhelming customer feedback.

The best part about Endomondo is how thorough the app is. With over 15 million users the company has developed and polished their app to a high degree of functionality and features.

Here are a few of the features found in the free version:

• GPS tracking for lots of activities
• Workout history
• Route mapping
• Pep talk delivery to friends
• Access to the social community

Here are a few of the features found in the premium version:

• Interval training
• Workout graphs
• Beat yourself challenges
• Weather info
• and more…

Click here to download Endomondo for BlackBerry 10 free from BlackBerry World.

The premium version is available for a $2.99 monthly or $19.99 yearly subscription.

The successor to BlackBerry Enterprise Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 is a cross-platform mobility management and deployment solution that gives you all sorts of options for smartphone and tablets wether they be corporate issued or BYOD.

As BlackBerry 10 continues to roll out and ship new handsets, BES 10 has been adopted by more and more companies. A BlackBerry deployment is known for being able to be managed with minimal effort by IT support staff and BES 10 extends that ease of use to iOS and Android phones and tablets.

A couple of years ago, BYOD was one of the bigger talking points when discussing BlackBerry’s waning market share. The company seems to have reversed that trend by embracing the competing platforms when managing mobility for the enterprise.

Click here for more info on BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 including their latest 10.1 update.

harmon.ie is a cross-platform SharePoint, Office 365, SkyDrive Pro and Yammer client. It currently supports iOS and BlackBerry 10 with Android support to follow in Q3. harmon.ie makes it easy to connect with colleagues and collaborate on projects.

harmon.ie is currently the only native Office 365 app available for BlackBerry 10. Collaboration happens without overlap by sharing links to documents in the cloud instead of emailing attachments and worrying about having the latest version. Be notified in real-time when a colleague makes an update to a project or document. You can also check up on all the historical edits or changes.

The free version which gives you read-only access and should be used personally to test drive the software. For untethered access, click here to go to the harmon.ie mobile product page and subscribe to their BES edition which costs about $4 per user per month.

Click here to download and try out harmon.ie Lite for free on BlackBerry 10.

Tonight as part of BlackBerry Live, Alicia Keys as well as musical guests Alabama Shakes, Miguel, Maria Gadu and Cedric Gervais will be webcasting a concert beginning at 7:30 pm.

The show, called the Keep Moving Experience is produced by Alicia Keys and will be performed at the BlackBerry party at Universal Studios Florida. I’ve seen a lot of musical guests that BlackBerry has hired over the years and Keys seems to be the most invested: designing a custom show from the ground up.

Click here to tune in to the Keep Moving Experience tonight at 7:30pm Eastern.

BlackBerry Enterprise IM 3.0 is a secure, enterprise-grade instant messaging service that borrows a lot of functionality of the popular BBM service. The service can communicate with desktop enterprise chat systems like Microsoft Lync, Microsoft Office Communication Server and Lotus (IBM) Sametime.

BlackBerry Enterprise IM 3.0 launches with BES 10.1 but will also support Legacy BlackBerry devices that are deployed on BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3 and above. Some of the BBM-borrowed features include presence status like “I’m free” or “Out of office” and your presence can even be controlled by your work calendar. Search though your employee database to add contacts using LDAP, Active Directory and Global Address Lookup. Messages are securely delivered using either HTTPS or 256 bit AES encryption.

Click here to learn more about the new BlackBerry IM 3.0

Augmented Reality leader Wikitude launches Wikitude Places for BlackBerry 10. The new service provides Location Based Services to Wikitude users and helps to build their LBS database of sights, restaurants, hotels and shops.

Along with the launch of the Places beta, Wikitude on BlackBerry 10 is also the first mobile platform to sport their redesigned user interface. Ever since BlackBerry started putting accelerometers and magnetometers in their phones, Wikitude has been there on launch to utilize the new tools.

One of the more exciting features that they’ve added is the BBM AR Chat allowing you to see where your friends are as you message them. This feature becomes even more compelling when BBM goes multi platform later this year.

Click here for more info on the Wikitude SDK.

A lot of small and medium sized businesses don’t need all the extra security and device management that enterprise level deployments demand out of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. Enter ActiveSync: an easy way to manage mobility for your small or medium sized business.

Smartphones were born out of push email and a lot of the BYOD devices that people use for business are for smaller businesses. These deployments are no different than a consumer set up so below are some resources on setting up your BlackBerry 10 device to your mail servers using ActiveSync.

Click here for a guide on how to set up your BlackBerry 10 device to your mail servers using ActiveSync.

Click here for a Knowledge Base article on how to connect your BlackBerry 10 device to Microsoft Office 365.

The first BlackBerry Jam in Belgrade organized by BlackBerry Developer Group Balkan attracted hundreds of attendees to the Zira Hotel in Belgrade Serbia.

With over 400 in attendance, this was one of the largest Jam events of it’s kind. BlackBerry Developer Group Balkan has posted photos and made a video of the event and the afterparty.

Click here if you can’t see the above YouTube video.

Click here for Pictures of BlackBerry Jam Balkan on Facebook.

Congratulations to Developer Group Balkan and see all at BlackBerry Live in Orlando!

The DoD has tested and approved The BlackBerry Z10, Q10, PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 for secure use on DoD networks. The agency is the largest employer in the world with over 2.13 servicemen and civilians.

Regarded as having some of the strictest security requirements in the world, the DoD’s approval of these products and services should pave the way for other government agencies to consider a BlackBerry 10 deployment of their own.

Herocraft has released Ant Raid for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet. The game uses interesting touch mechanics and looks like an action-packed tower defense.

Ant Raid has you command a small army of ants while larger enemies attack from all sides. Divide your forces well and get powerups to survive. Play through the game’s story mode or play survival mode for endless waves of enemies.

Click here to buy Ant Raid for PlayBook for 99 cents from BlackBerry World.

Aerize Loader is an install manager that raises the limit of how many apps you can have installed on your legacy BlackBerry by storing the apps on an SD card.

One of the interesting limits of the classic mobile OS is that there’s a specific amount of application memory for each device. If you like apps or have a huge collection of games, fitting them all on the BlackBerry 9800′s 256mb of application memory is impossible.

Aerize Loader bypasses this limit and returns your BlackBerry back to normal after doing a device reset or a battery pull. Aerize Loader works even if you’re offline and not connected to WiFi or the network.

Click here to buy Aerize Loader for $4.99 for Legacy OSes 4.5 and above.

Law firm Clifford Chance has announced a fresh deployment of BlackBerry 10 devices for their workforce. The law firm has used BlackBerry for their mobility deployment for the past decade and they’ve committed to adopting the new platform for their 1600 employees.

Clifford Chance is a long standing BlackBerry client, having managed their mobile deployment using BlackBerry for a long time. They’ve announced that they’ll be adopting BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 along with BlackBerry 10 devices for their employees to communicate with each other securely.

In addition to their business deployment plans, they will also be using BlackBerry Balance to keep work and personal life separate and encrypted on the smartphone.

Fish Labs has announced that their premium hit 3D space shooter Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is now available for the BlackBerry Z10 on BlackBerry World.

Playing Galaxy on Fire 2 HD on your phone is like watching an action movie when you first get a projector: Awesome. Fish Labs has also mentioned incoming BlackBerry Q10 support coming soon.

The epic space shooter combines RPG elements with intense 3D space dogfighting. Playing with headphones will really make you appreciate the 3D sound design, picking out the direction of your off-screen enemies through sound (though impossible in the vacuum of space) makes me feel like a real badass.

Click here to buy Galaxy on Fire 2 HD for $9.99 for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook.

ISEC7 is a German mobile business services provider that has begun to offer a suite of services surrounding companies’ desire to migrate to the BlackBerry 10 platform. Their BlackBerry 10 Readiness Services will help companies transition from their legacy BES to BlackBerry Enterprise Services 10 and port their mission critical business apps.

The new services they’ve launched will help companies update their BlackBerry Enterprise Server from versions 4 or 5 to BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 as well as full porting services to bring their clients’ business apps to the new mobile platform. The ISEC7 team has been sending their staff to the BlackBerry Experience Forums and are ready to tackle migration issues that their enterprise clients might have.

Click here to visit ISEC7′s mobility migration page.

Skype has just landed on BlackBerry 10 for the first time. Making it’s debut on the Q10, Skype will support the Z10 as soon as OS 10.1 is launched in the coming weeks.

Skype is the ubiquitous IM, voice and video calling app that put VOIP on the map a few years ago. With traditionally terrible BlackBerry support, Skype has finally launched a fully functional app that rivals the desktop client.

Here are Skype’s main features:

• Skype to Skype IMs, video and voice calls are free* over 3G or WiFi.
• Make low-cost calls and send SMS messages to mobiles or landlines from your BlackBerry® smartphone.
• Send pictures, videos and files to any of your contacts.
• Enjoy high-quality sound when you call anyone else who is on Skype.
• Talk face to face or show what you’re seeing with front and rear-facing cameras.
• Talk to your Windows Live Messenger friends on Skype. Sign in to Skype with your Microsoft account and have your Messenger, Hotmail and Outlook contacts in one place.
• Unlike rival VOIP, teleconference and chat solutions, nearly everyone you know has a Skype account

Click here to download Skype for BlackBerry 10.1 for free from BlackBerry World.