Author: Matt Cameron

10tons Ltd. has announced the release of their hilarious physics/destruction game: Tennis in the Face. Use your tennis racket to take down an evil energy drink company’s unhealthy beverage racket. This game is available on all the major smartphone platforms and 10tons will be bringing a lot more of their titles over to BlackBerry 10.

Using your killer tennis serve, clear all the enemies off the screen using a limited about of projectiles. The explosiveness of some of the targets combined with a good physics engine and rag doll mechanics make for great fun as you take down security guards, hipster sellouts, and corporate executives.

Click here to view the preview video on your BlackBerry.

Click here to buy Tennis in the Face for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook for $2.99 from BlackBerry World.

The BlackBerry Keep Moving Project has started today, revealing details of their massive Z10 giveaway. Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T customers have a chance to win one of 200 BlackBerry Z10 smartphones per carrier as well a shot at the grand prize: one of 12 pairs of VIP tickets to meet Alicia Keys and attend a concert in London England as well as a pair of BlackBerry Z10s.

Registration begins today with a limit of one entry per person. Registration ends on March 20th with the winners drawn around March 27th. Click on your carrier below to enter the sweepstakes:

Verizon Wireless

AT&T

T-Mobile

Time for another year of BlackBerry Live, the annual uber-networking event for everything BlackBerry in Orlando Florida. BlackBerry Live has grown year after year and this one will have no shortage of BlackBerry 10 excitement. Alongside the main event is BlackBerry Jam Americas which grants developers special access to lots of the BlackBerry Live events but at favourable pricing.

This year’s BlackBerry Live should have plenty to see and do with lots of developers and publishers showcasing their latest apps. The conference is built on a strong foundation of enterprise solutions and there should be plenty of demos that should peek the interest of CIOs and big business alike.

Everyone is going to be there for the main keynote packed with the leaders of mobility and you’ll be able to fill your schedule with highly specialized sessions, panels, awards, developer events or if networking is your game: the parties.

Click here for the BlackBerry Live landing page and be sure to register before March 22nd for a special early bird rate.

BlackBerry Jam Americas going on May 14th to 16th alongside the BlackBerry Live conference has begun registering attendees. BlackBerry 10 has launched and developers everywhere are in full swing publishing apps and getting sales on this budding new platform.

Click here to register, the early bird rate is just $449 not counting a potential alumni discount and students can get an amazing student rate at just $299 US.

Car Finder by DroidOmics is a handy GPS utility that bookmarks a location and helps you navigate to it later. Handy for finding your car, hotel, or any meeting spot that you decide, it even works without a data connection.

The app has more location and GPS services so you don’t have to swap between Car Finder and other navigation apps. The app shows your current heading and speed, as well as a special blue marker for the exact direction and elevation of your car. It also has a speedometer complete with your latitude and longitude details.

Download Car Finder free for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook tablet.

Click here to buy Car Finder Pro for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook tablet.

BlackBerry has a odd tradition of tapping star power to sell cutting-edge technology. It’s a big challenge to explain the features and benefits of something complex to a consumer market made up of a young and a less technically inclined audience. This time BlackBerry has enlisted the help of some extremly talented people: Robert Rodriguez, Neil Gaiman, and Alicia Keys. They’ll be leading the charge in ushering BlackBerry into an era where smartphones are the primary tools of the creative and the successful.

What I don’t get is that the famous sometimes make strange spokespeople because of their habit of dumbing down of the tech-sounding stuff into something more marketable to the masses. This often translates into a campaign that is quickly forgotten the moment it’s over. What was Will.I.Am’s message when he was doing a BlackBerry campaign a couple of years back? As a guest panelist under the title futurist he did more talking with his hands and buzzwords than saying anything meaningful. His endorsement of BlackBerry was meant to bring some sort of cool factor to the platform, while months later the “futurist” could be seen dropping his own line of pricey iPhone accessories.

I think Alicia Keys is a great modern-day spokesperson who hits BlackBerry’s target demographic right in the bull’s eye. Her collaboration with BlackBerry will put fans’ pics on stage during a performance of her song Hallelujah. Her BlackBerry-weilding fans (who also attend her concert) will have the opportunity to be seen on screen in soulful slideshow.

I’m sure that they’ve got other things planned for their new Global Creative Director. She certainly brings more credibility than Will.I.Am, who can be seen misusing tech in the worst of ways like printing his own head in a 3D printer in a music video featuring Britney.

I think Alicia will showcase BlackBerry 10 in a clear way bringing a lot of old customers back to the platform. As a jet setting artist with an awful lot of talent, she can promote BlackBerry 10′s ability to share rich media and collaborate without smoke and mirrors. Her BlackBerry sponsored Set The World On Fire Tour is sure to showcase her using the new device as if it were a laptop when it kicks off on March 7th. If she does it right, an awful lot of people will view BlackBerry 10 phones as a tool belonging to the successful, the same mojo that BlackBerry had in it’s prime.

Click here to check out the BlackBerry Keep Moving Hub, a place where you can follow the BlackBerry-driven projects of screenwriter film maker Robert Rodriguez, fantasy writer Neil Gaiman, and the multitalented Alicia Keys.

Rock and Roll Game Studio has announced the release of their first game since the BlackBerry Z10 launch. Land Of Mines is a turn based artillery strategy game that challenges players to clear the screen of enemies using limited resources.

Using a strange variety of weapons, players must carefully aim and destroy all the on-screen enemies. The game features a cute art style, fun fire-and-forget game mechanics, and a fresh and original arsenal.

Click here to download Land Of Mines free for BlackBerry 10.

Aerize WiFix version 2 has just been released for the legacy BlackBerry OSes versions 4.5 and above. WiFiX allows users to bypass your apps’ need to connect through specific protocols giving you much more options for apps that have strict connectivity requirements.

Route cellular network connections over WiFi, or WiFi connections over cellular, even WAP connections to and from TCP, BIS, and BES. Lots of BlackBerry apps have strict connectivity requirements, this app allows you to break those rules.

These apps are just some of the examples that the WiFiX is useful for: Berryweather, Beyond411, BlackBerry Maps, Bloomberg, Dictionary.com, Facebook, Flixster, Freerange, Garmin Mobile, GMail, Google Maps, Google Mobile App, IM+ Lite, MSN, MySpace, OpenBeak, Opera Mini, Pocket Express, Poynt, Sports Illustrated, TiggitMail, TuneWiki, Ubertwitter, Viigo, WeatherEye, WhatsApp, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo! Go, and Yelp.

Click here to buy WiFiX for legacy BlackBerry devices for $2.50 from the Aerize store.

BlackBerry is now seeking nominations for the 2013 BlackBerry Achievement Awards that will be presented t this year’s BlackBerry Live conference this May in Orlando Florida. The awards recognize excellence in entrepreneurship and development on the BlackBerry platform.

Formerly the Wireless Achievement Awards, it has been rebranded to BlackBerry Achievement Awards to be consistent with the new “All BlackBerry Everything” naming scheme. Several new categories have also been introduced to include even more areas of business savvy.

Award Categories:

• App of the Year
• Putting Customers First
• Mobile Innovation of the Year
• Making the World a Better Place
• Entrepreneur of the Year

Prizes for winners this year are huge and include travel and accommodations to BlackBerry Live 2013, Conference Passes, BlackBerry Training, BlackBerry 10 devices and more.

The deadline for submissions is March 22nd, click here to submit your vote.

The Jared Company has announced that they’ve just launched a new weather app for BlackBerry 10 called WeatherTrax. The app has everything you’d expect from a well-built BlackBerry 10 weather app including a current weather active frame when it’s minimized.

WeatherTrax uses the Weather Online service that provides accurate worldwide weather data. Set your city or use the GPS to do it automatically. This app works anywhere in the world, Ideal for seasoned travellers.

Download WeatherTrax free for your BlackBerry 10 device.

Nimbuzz is a free cross-platform mobile messaging and entertainment app that features unlimited messages, video sharing and data transfers. They also offer discounted international calls to any phone number. Nimbuzz is currently available in BlackBerry World.

Nimbuzz also supports Twitter, Facebook chat, Yahoo Messanger, Gtalk, and more. Use Nimbuzz avatars over any of these systems or hit the Nimbuzz chatrooms to make new friends. Nimbuzz boasts over 100 million users with their cross-platform strategy that 1st party services seem to shy away from.

Click here to download Nimbuzz Messenger free for BlackBerry 10.

If you’ll be in London on Thursday March 7th, attend the BlackBerry Mini Jam. Connect with experts and other developers interested in BlackBerry 10 development. This half-day event will cover a lot of the basics and you’re sure to walk away with lots of new contacts.

The event will take place at the Skills Matter eXchange, close to Barbican station. If you haven’t attended a BlackBerry Jam event, they’re a good mix of presentations and sessions. There’s plenty of time to answer your questions and the atmosphere is easygoing and friendly.

The app development portion will cover HTML5/BlackBerry WebWorks as well as native C/C++ development.

Click here to register.

Game developer 10tons is putting 2 BlackBerry 10 games on sale for Valentine’s Day. Sparkle and Joining Hands are now available for 99 cents and available on BlackBerry World.

Sparkle is a match-3 marble launching game. It takes finesse and accuracy to get the timing right. Score huge bonus points by stringing together explosive combos. Sparkle was $2.99 so this title is now 67% off!

Click here to buy Sparkle for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook for 99 cents.

Joining Hands launched to rave reviews for it’s innovative touchscreen gameplay and clever puzzle game mechanics. The object of the game is to join the hands of your Peablin characters so that they don’t get taken away by the Bogeyman. The game has really cute art and is suitable for all ages. Joining Hands used to retail for $1.99 so it’s an amazing deal at 50% off.

Click here to buy Joining Hands for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook for 99 cents.

BlackBerry and the developer relations team has done a great job bringing lots of Android apps to the new Z10. I see a lot of games on BlackBerry World are Android ports and they seem perform as if they were coded natively. BlackBerry has been working with Soc.io, one of the top Android app stores to bring even more apps over to the budding platform.

The Soc.io Mall has over 10000 apps and games in their catalogue and makes a great pitch to their developers in which an easy porting process can open the door to a whole new revenue stream. They’ve set up a site that helps developers with the process and also offers incentives and prizes.

Click here to get started developing for BlackBerry 10.

Click here to visit the Soc.io Android Mall.

The BlackBerry Z10 has launched at a handful of carriers over the past week in Canada, the UAE and the UK. Every one of them is reporting strong demand which isn’t surprising because of how many people have been waiting for the device to launch. The demand is further fuelled by a high aftermarket demand from regions not yet selling the BlackBerry Z10.

Though most of the buyers of the Z10 are early adopters, small-time opportunists are taking advantage of the device not being available in every region. Unlocked Z10s have been showing up on eBay and other online classified ads at a huge premium. Currently an unlocked model has an aftermarket value of over $850, with the seller buying the device out-of-contract for as low as $600.

Reception of the new device and mobile OS have been very warm, I don’t think anyone expected a version 1.0 of any smartphone to be so functional and polished.

A phrase I find myself coming back to again and again when thinking of the survivability of BlackBerry and the health of the platform is “If you build it they will come”. Even with the new OS being particularly easy to port to, many developers still choose to wait for a critical mass of users before putting in the effort.

Some developers might wait to see how many millions of units have shipped by quarter’s end before deciding to support the platform, but others realize that they have built it, the users are there, and they’ll be needing apps.

Accessory maker Incipio has announced the creation of a line of protective cases for the BlackBerry Z10. Though BlackBerry devices are regarded as being tough and durable, screens as large as the Z10 are generally prone to breaking when dropped from pocket or head height.

Eventually rolling out 5 different models of BlackBerry Z10 cases, Incipio has also made them available in some very bright colors.

As of the writing of this article only the “feather” model is available but they will be rolling out their feather SHINE, DualPro, DualPro SHINE and OVRMLD models later in the week.

Click here to check out the $24.99 feather series, now available in 5 colors.

UniWar HD by Easy Software Solutions is a turn-based multiplayer strategy game originally developed on Android. Having been launched on the Z10 and PlayBook makes UniWar compatible with iOS, Android and BlackBerry.

Featuring thousands of different maps, UniWar HD uses hexagons to mark territory and spaces. There are several different types of land that give a variety of stat bonuses (or penalties) to each of the 3 races’ 8 different units.

The multiplayer component has room for 20 different “chess by mail” sessions complete with email notifications and inter-player chat. The other custom game modes include playing against the computer, or Hot Seat mode allowing 2 players to face off on a single device.

The campaign features 21 missions, perfect for testing your mettle before graduating to real online competition. If you climb the ranks enough, you may find yourself on the global online leaderboards.

Click here to download UniWar HD for BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook for free.

While bigger game publishers generally lagged a few weeks or months before supporting the latest BlackBerry devices in the past, they now seem to be hitting the ground running with BlackBerry 10. EA Mobile has announced the availability of several big titles on the new BlackBerry platform showing that the big publishers have faith in the new platform’s ability to generate mobile game sales.

Here’s the list of games EA Mobile plans to drop during the BlackBerry 10 launch:

• PopCap’s Plants vs Zombies
• Dead Space
• Mass Effect Infiltrator
• Dead Space
• Monopoly Millionaire
• World Series of Poker
• The Sims Freeplay

Be sure to check these games out when you get a BlackBerry Z10 or Q10, a few of these titles were really fun to play on the PlayBook and I can’t wait to see how they perform on BlackBerry’s new crop of smartphones.

Runtastic GmbH has made a brand new fitness app for BlackBerry 10. Runtastic SitUps PRO is a sit-up trainer that counts your sit-ups by using your BlackBerry device’s accelerometer. Keep motivated by following a training routine that will eventually draw you a nice hockey-stick-shaped graph: the universal symbol for success.

Pushups and Situps are some of the easier exercises to do; Everyone can do at least a few and that’s all you need to begin a routine that will eventually lead to you doing many of them. The app develops a routine and gives you game-style achievements for encouragement along the way.

Click here to buy Runtastic SitUps Pro for BlackBerry 10 for just 99 cents.

IM+ by Shape is a complete Instant Messaging suite for BlackBerry 10. IM+ plugs in to nearly every IM system out there making it easy to manage all your IM clients with a single app.

Customize your IM experience by assigning different notification tones for each system. IM+ has an impressive compatibility list, a must have if you use even more than one messaging app.

Here’s a list of all the supported IM formats

• Facebook chat
• Skype
• Google Talk
• Yahoo!
• iChat/AIM
• ICQ
• Jabber
• Mig33
• MeinVZ
• Yandex IM
• Mamba.Ru
• VKontakte
• Webio
• Fetion
• SINA and more!

Click here to buy IM+ for $4.99 for BlackBerry 10.

Click here for the FREE download of IM+ for your legacy BlackBerry OS (4, 5, 6 and 7)