BlackBerry Cool

How to Get Your Android App BlackBerry Ready: Fungitron for Playbook

2012-05-16T21:19:54Z

Fungitron is a very detailed resource on mushrooms, originally available for Android devices it has been ported to the Playbook platform. You’ve probably heard a lot about how easy it is to get your existing Android app working on the BlackBerry Playbook, Here’s Peter Kovacs’ first hand account of the whole process.

The reason the developer found the BlackBerry platform is through a “port your app to BlackBerry and get a free Playbook” program that RIM started to stimulate developer interest. Below is his process for getting his Android app working on the BlackBerry Playbook and soon enough: BlackBerry 10.

The Blackberry tablet promotion, earlier this year brought in cca. 7000 “new” (originally android) apps into AppWorld, and one of them is Fungitron, the definitive mushroom guide. It is present in the Google Play shop since March. This story is about the process how an android app became a Playbook app, also resulting in a free Playbook.

Fungitron is a mushroom guide originally for Android smartphones and tablets, which contains:

fine-grained search filtering,
own, high quality, zoomable mushroom photos,
descriptions written by fungi expert,
precisely designed icons,
and 70 freely available, detailed mushroom species.

And this is now available on Playbook!

The promotion was focusing on the capability of Playbook OS 2.0, that it is able to run native Android apps. Although the apps can not be loaded directly from Google Play (former Market), but their developers can transform them into an executable package, which can be published on AppWorld itself.

First step is registering onto AppWorld as a vendor, approval took a week in our case, maybe due to the overwhelming interest of fellow Android developers. When we looked into forum messages, there were frightening stories about providing scans of IDs, driving licenses but now none of them were required.

The least complicated way to the conversion from Android to Playbook is the web based BlackBerry Packager for Android Apps, which is a 3-step process, from compatibility check of the app, till conversion and signing. We met only one problem (not really problem with the site), that signing keys are very painful to move from a PC to another: only one computer is meant to be used for signing.

A bit sophisticated solution is enhancing Eclipse ADT development environment with another plugin. This makes our well-known tool capable of producing BAR files for Playbook. (Later we changed for a command line script, which automatically creates the BAR file whenever an Android APK is built.)

The only problem emerged during conversion of Fungitron were the high resolution icons, so they had to be swapped for some smaller.

Testing was a more tedious job: lacking a real device, we had to rely on RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook emulator (VMware image). Actually its display was flickering in big tiles continuously and Fungitron download was always stalling at 100 MB. We found some clue in the forums and it seemed that graphic problems were common amongst the testers, it tended to be a general issue. Downloading was not solved, so we had to make a workaround: we created a “streamlined” database (smaller than 100MB) and it was successfully downloaded into the flickering emulator.

At this point we have already spent roughly two afternoons (but compared to Android, it was sometimes more difficult) and as the promo was almost over, we had to hurry. We sent Fungitron for approval and in couple of days it was approved without problems, which made our very own Playbook seemed to be closer.

And actually some 2 weeks passed by, and we were then testing Fungitron on a real Playbook, which was not flickering, but produced a very stable look of our app. Download issue also solved itself and never occurred again in real. There was only one minor issue, that AppLauncher (Android framework in Playbook) had a lower tray which sometimes overlapped some of our icons in the gallery. It was fixed in no time, otherwise the app works perfectly, the extras, such as gesture in gallery, tablet layout, etc. were all in place, performance is flawless.

Getting back to the full database meant that we are able to provide the same, uncrippled version of Fungitron on the AppWorld. We hope that Blackberry reached its goal with the give-away and gained several new developers with their straightforward and productive app conversion process, we are happy to release every new versions and builds for Playbook, too.

And we are now eagerly looking forward to the Android capability of BlackBerry 10 OS.

Download Fungitron for Playbook free from BlackBerry App World.

Trendstop Fashion TrendTracker Premium Fashion App for BlackBerry

2012-05-16T18:53:12Z

Trendstop.com is the world’s leading online fashion trend forecasting and analytics service. They’ve done work with lots of fashion retailers and designers such as ASOS, H&M, Next, Marks & Spencer, Forever21, Bebe and Target. Essentially they’ll be able to tell you which styles are emerging, and which ones are loosing steam as well as lots of content from fashion show around the globe.

What’s the skinny on skinny jeans? The Trendstop BlackBerry app boasts lots of features:

Daily Fashion Trends highlighting emerging fashion trends and styling ideas from our global team of trend hunters spotted on the runways and in street style.
Daily Fashion News Features tracking what’s cool, up-and-coming designers, must-go-to art events, exhibitions, launches, and one’s-to-watch.
Runway commentary, photo galleries, and videos from the Fall/Winter 2012-13 runway shows.
Share trends with friends via Facebook, Twitter or email directly from the app, or save to favorites for easy access later on.
Complete access to Trendstop.com’s most exclusive features.
20+ premium trends throughout the month.
10+ exclusive premium news stories throughout the month.
All looks from Fall/Winter 2012-2013 designer shows.
Trend-worthy influential Editor’s picks.
Full screen image showing more views of each featured news items and trends.

Try the free version of Trendstop Fashion TrendTracker for BlackBerry.

Buy the Premium edition of Trendstop Fashion TrendTracker for BlackBerry.

Herocraft Announces They Will Be Releasing Games on the BlackBerry Playbook

2012-05-16T18:14:25Z

Game developer Herocraft has announced that they will be developing a number of games for BlackBerry Playbook and BlackBerry 10 platform. Herocraft is a game developer headquartered in Kalinigrad Russia, they develop games for several platforms like Google Play and Nokia Ovi and BlackBerry.

Here are a few titles that Herocraft plans to bring to BlackBerry 10 and the Playbook:

Majesty-The Fantasy Kingdom Sim: A highly acclaimed adventure game series
Majesty-The Northern Expansion: Another adventure-filled chapter
Romance of Rome: An adventure game with lots of hidden objects
Scrubs: A game based on the hit ABC TV show
Farm Frenzy: A popular mobile farming sim
Montezuma: A hit puzzle game
Yumsters: An action-packed puzzle game
Red Ball: A physics based arcade game
Catch the Candy: An action Puzzle game
Gibbets 2: A skill shot game
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: An adventure game based on the book
Tiny Bang Story: A hand drawn game with an amazing soundtrack

Herocraft has about 100 employees and they distribute games in 15 languages. This game developer is a perfect match for the BlackBerry platform as they support a lot of regions and languages that BlackBerry already has a strong presence in.

For more info on Herocraft, visit their web site. If you want to check out their current BlackBerry App World offerings, click here.

ReadOnTouch PRO Upgraded to Version 2.0

2012-05-16T05:00:14Z

ReadOnTouch PRO (formerly ReadItLater) is an offline reader by Sven Ziegler for the BlackBerry Playbook. Ideal for reading whenever you find yourself in a spot that doesn’t have connectivity, it supports images and formats the articles for clear reading on the Playbook.

With ReadOnTouch PRO you have all saved content neatly arranged for later reading on your BlackBerry PlayBook. Simple in use the app fits all saved web-content for a pleasant connection-free reading experience.

New in this update is a tweak on some of the touch UI and improvements to the process of adding links by checking to see if there’s a link that you’ve copied.

Buy ReadOnTouch PRO 2.0 for Playbook for $1.99 from BlackBerry App World.

BlackBerry 10 Jam Videos From BlackBerry World 2012

2012-05-15T20:34:55Z

RIM has posted their BlackBerry 10 Jam videos from BBW2012. I think giving developers nearly a full 2 years head start before launching on smartphones is a sound strategy for the platform to launch with a critical mass of apps.

Lots of BlackBerry 10 Jam videos after the jump.

Here’s what the industry darlings have cooked up on the new platform:

Magmic: Texas Hold ‘em King Live

SAP Labs

Macadamian

Poynt

Cascades Demo

Wikitude

Marmalade: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Xtreme Labs

The developer focus was more than apparent at BlackBerry World 2012, I’ll be keeping a close eye on what’s being developed for Playbook over the next few months as we anticipate the launch of BlackBerry 10.

Files and Folders Connects Your BlackBerry Playbook to Cloud Storage Services

2012-05-15T19:57:32Z

Cloud storage is all the rage nowadays. With so many places offering lots of free online storage, many users have signed up for multiple services. Files and Folders allows you to access the most popular of these services with ease from your BlackBerry Playbook.

Files & Folders is a file explorer and manager with integrated SugarSync, Box, Dropbox, Google Docs, Google Drive, ZIP and E-mail send feature. This will definitely be one of the apps that helps you leave your laptop behind as it extends the Playbook’s file management functionality.

Here are some of Files and Folders’ features:

open files with associated app
cut, copy, paste, rename and delete
star your favorite folders for quick access
show folder in list, icon or thumbnail view
preview images and text files
view images in the built-in slideshow
filter and search files and folders
designed specifically for PlayBook
open files directly from Dropbox, Box, Google Docs, Google Drive and SugarSync cloud services
manage your files in the cloud and your ZIP files like local files & folders
cut, copy and paste files & folders BETWEEN your BlackBerry® PlayBook™, cloud services, zip files!
convert files between many formats on-the-fly using Google Docs
send files via E-mail (experimental feature)

Get the free trial of Files and Folders.

Buy Files and Folders for BlackBerry Playbook for $2.99 from App World

Run In Crowd is a Free Platform Jumping Game for BlackBerry Playbook

2012-05-15T19:51:59Z

Run In Crowd is an innovative yet simple platform jumping game for the BlackBerry Playbook. This free game has been featured in BlackBerry App World and for good reason too: It’s super-fun.

Run In Crowd is a one-button game that has you jumping from one platform to the next. You can’t control your speed and with each successful jump you run even faster making the game more intense as you advance. Alongside your character, there are several other ghost characters representing other players’ attempts. With each successful jump the game will display info on your prior attempts or show you stats on how many people have made it to this point.

The experience of your current run being compared to the rest of the world with each and every jump, is lots of fun. In fact I’m a big fan of their passive multiplayer-like style that has you playing a single player game while being asynchronously compared to all the other attempts.

I give this game a prefect score, 5 stars out of 5. This is the first perfect score I’ve ever given to a game so if you don’t get this for your Playbook you obviously hate having fun.

Get Run In Crowd free for Playbook from BlackBerry App World.

Huge Win for BlackBerry: Rogers and CIBC Announce NFC Mobile Wallet App Set to Launch This Year

2012-05-15T17:50:11Z

This is what we’ve been waiting for: a bank and a carrier to finally announce a mobile wallet application with at least of hint of when it will launch. Rogers and CIBC have announced a mobile payment solution that will allow customers to use their NFC-enabled BlackBerry exactly as they would a credit card. The app will be available “later this year” and will initially be limited to CIBC Mastercard and Visa credit card customers.

The app works just as you’d think it would. The user taps their smartphone to the NFC terminal and is prompted to enter the PIN number (bank PIN not your BBM Pin). Transactions will be capped to less than $100 and clients will have the option to increase that cap.

Canada is the perfect country for this type of initiative. When the debit system came to Canada, Canadians loved the cashless payment system. Since its national launch in 1994, Interac Direct Payment has become so widespread that, since 2001, more transactions in Canada were completed using debit cards than cash. It’s this type of statistic that’s going to really pave the road for a great new technology in payments.

This is a huge win for BlackBerry because it’s one of the few times BlackBerry users get to see these words in a press release:

“The BlackBerry is the only supported device for the time being”

Stay tuned for the launch of the app!

More details can be found on the CIBC press release.

VCMS for BlackBerry Provides The Ultimate Vehicle Gauge Display

2012-05-14T20:32:49Z

Vehicle Counters and Monitoring System by HedoneDesign is a suite of vehicle gauges for BlackBerry 7 and Playbook devices. HedoneDesign has come up with a very sleek vehicle gauge app that will make your in-vehicle Playbook installation dreams a reality. VCMS has been recently update to version 2.0 with a host of improvements and new features.

I’m a fan of HedoneDesign’s themes as they have the look of a modern control panel complete with vehicle inspired gauges. It seems only fitting that he would make a vehicle gauge app. VCMS uses your GPS to determine all sorts of useful status for your vehicle.

Here are some of the features:

Compass
Odometer (dual (A, B) counter with reset function)
Latitude and Longitude (Where am I)
Altitude (How high am I)
Speed (speed meter, speedometer)
Angle (left / right – forward / backward) when not driving
Accelerometer
Day / Night mode
Calibration for angle meter
Speed units (km/h, mph, knots)
Trip units (km, mi, nmi)
Altitude units (meter, feet)
Override device backlight timeout

Buy VCMS for Playbook or BlackBerry 7 devices for $2.99 from App World.

Register Today for the Ottawa Game Conference and Get 20% Off

2012-05-14T20:27:29Z

The Ottawa Game Conference is a great event for those in the Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa regions who are in the gaming industry. There’s a lot of content around mobile gaming, and RIM’s Patrick Mollins will be doing a talk called “Back Seat Gaming” on the conference’s biz track. The conference organizers are giving BlackBerryCool readers 20% off the ticket price so if you’re in the area, stop by and learn a thing or two.

Some of the speakers at the OGC include Peter Nofelt, Gabe Zichermann, Jason Della Rocca, Carren Yapp and John Criswick.

Get more information at this link OttawaGameConference.com.

Minesweeper Reloaded For Playbook Now Available on BlackBerry App World

2012-05-14T19:32:06Z

If you’ve procrastinated on a computer in the 90s, you’ll feel awfully nostalgic when you get your hands on Minesweeper Reloaded for Playbook.

In Minesweeper Reloaded, you try to figure out through deductive numeric clues, where the explosive game-ending mines are. Your first more is always a guess and feels a lot like the first move of a game of Russian roulette.

Minesweeper Reloaded is a work in progress and will soon feature audio effects and an all-new multiplayer mode. This Playbook game was designed using WebWorks and can also be played on the Chrome browser.

Download Minesweeper Reloaded for Playbook from BlackBerry App World.

Horror Run for BlackBerry Playbook is a Fun Free Survival Game

2012-05-14T19:10:44Z

Horror Run by RedHead Gaming is a horror movie-themed side scroller that has you jumping over or sliding under the undead. Touching them even a little bit kills you instantly so this game is all about avoiding the obstacles.

I love the gameplay, there are just two buttons but you can double-jump, or press slide while in mid-air to do a forward summersault that is quite awesome at getting some good air.

I like how the girl character you play as runs with arms flailing: very cute. I give this game 4 out a potential 5 gravestones. If you have a Playbook you should save some room in your games folder for Horror Run.

Download Horror Run! for Playbook free from BlackBerry App World.

Expense Tracker Timr for BlackBerry Updated to 3.0

2012-05-11T19:43:50Z

Timr is a multiplatform system for keeping track of billable hours, project time and mileage tracking. The beauty of entering this sort of data on a BlackBerry is that you can enter info at any time allowing for more accurate and reliable times and amounts.

Timr consists of a web app and is supported by a smartphone app which is where users end up tracking most of their data. When entering billable hours data after the fact, most users forget about smaller bits of work that can really add up. Having a 10-minute phone call with a client is easily forgotten when you add up your hours at the end of the day but with Timr it is easily tracked and accounted for.

Though the BlackBerry app is free, Timr’s pricing model is very modest and will most likely pay for itself very quickly.

Try out Timr free for a month and start keeping track of your time the right way.

Download the Timr BlackBerry app free from App World.

Buy Your Mom a Mother’s Day BlackBerry Theme [Theme Sale]

2012-05-10T18:51:35Z

There’s a Mother’s Day theme sale going on right now in App World and with App World gifting, you can buy your mom a lovely Mother’s Day theme for her BlackBerry. All the themes are currently $0.99 and would complement any other gift ideas you have nicely. If your mom doesn’t know how to install and download a theme, be sure to gift it and set it all up for her.

Check out the Mother’s Day theme sale at this link.

Register Today! Untether.TV Launches Toronto Mobile Conference Untether.Talks [Ticket Discounts Too]

2012-05-14T20:09:40Z

The guys at Untether.TV are taking their mobile experience and entrepreneur interviews to “a whole ‘nuther level” with a conference in Toronto called Untether.Talks. The conference is centered around themes that are directly impacted by mobile such as art & creation, civic engagement & government, currency & cash, education & learning, health, media, retail & pricing, and social. If you’re in the mobile industry, or one that is in need of mobile disruption, you should definitely register for the conference.

The idea of Untether.Talks is that it’s “the TED Talks for mobile”. The speakers, themes and sessions are the conference. Don’t expect there to be a list of sessions and any planning involved. Simply show up to the conference and get inspired.

The guys at Untether.Talks were also kind enough to offer BlackBerryCool readers a discount on tickets. Simply head to the registration page and use the coupon code “OCtVqiNZT8DzUZi” for 25% off. The coupon code is only available to the first 10 people to use it so register asap.

There’s more information about the conference at untethertalks.com.

You can register for the conference at this link.

Manage Fan Pages With Free App SlateIt for Facebook Fan Pages

2012-05-09T17:32:58Z

Jacx Technologies has released SlateIt for Facebook Fan Pages for BlackBerry. The app helps social media experts and novices to manage their Facebook fan pages while on the go.

SlateIt Dashboard allows you to browse and manage Facebook fan pages from your BlackBerry.

Here are some of the features:

Browse and view all the fan pages that you have liked
View fan page activities
Make and like comments
Access page info such as phone numbers and web site URLs
Upload pictures to your fan page
Post on your fan page’s wall
Moderate and post comments on your page
Check the fan count on your page

Download SlateIt for Facebook Fan Pages free from BlackBerry App World.

Magmic Launches Nautical Theme for BlackBerry

2012-05-09T17:15:04Z

Magmic has launched a new premium Nautical theme for BlackBerry. Whether you like pirates or sailor tattoos the nautical theme is the best way to make your BlackBerry look like it’s in ship-shape.

Theme Ho! Take to the animated high seas with the Nautical theme. Adventure awaits with as live-stage inspired cutouts of birds, dolphins, fish, and more move across the homescreen, while simple hideable icons make sure you don’t miss a minute of the show. Batten down the hatches, and set sail with the Nautical theme!

Buy the Nautical theme for $3.99 from Bplay.

Compose Email is a Free App for BlackBerry Playbook that Features Composing Emails in Portrait Mode

2012-05-09T17:04:30Z

Compose Email is a simple app that allows for the quick composition of emails on the BlackBerry Playbook. The app launches very quickly, allows you to write your email in either portrait or landscape mode then sends them to the Messages app.

This app solves a few of the problems that the Playbook’s current messaging app has, namely it is slow to load making the composition of an email much quicker to execute. With Compose Email, messages can be composed in portrait mode, which is something the native messaging app is unable to do. The app is also styled to match the contacts app and the messaging app so it won’t look out of place on your tablet.

Download Compose Email free for your Playbook from BlackBerry App World.

Nimbuzz Launches API and introduces the Chat Buddy Developer Program

2012-05-09T16:49:14Z

Nimbuzz has announced the launch of their chat buddy developer program. Nimbuzz is a free multiplatform IM and VOIP client that allows users to chat and talk worldwide for free, as well as buy credits to make outgoing calls to standard phone lines.

Nimbuzz is a truly multiplatform communications suite with clients on mobile, tablets, Mac, PC and web. Chat buddies are essentially bots that are sorted by topic that users can chat to receive up to date information. Chat buddies are very well suited to the mobile, as they have a similar feel to chatting with friends.

This developer initiative is expected to help brands, publishers, and independent developers get access to the 90 million Nimbuzz users from over 200 countries. The CBDP allows developers to build chat buddies across various verticals such as Cricket, astrology, shopping, games, news, besides utilities such as ticketing, movie reviews, classifieds and more.

To develop your own chat buddies, visit the Chat Buddy Developer Page.

Here’s a list of Chat Buddies that have already been developed:

IBNLive for news update
Cricbuzz for live cricket update
Twitter for tweeting from within Nimbuzz
Vantagetrade for stock updates
Wikipedia for ready-information
Youtube for searching & viewing videos
IMDB for movies reviews
Car Dekho for car prices & reviews
Price Dekho for price comparison
Future Dekho for astrology update

For more information on Nimbuzz’ new developer program, head to the Nimbuzz developer portal and sign up.

Clipboard History Free for BlackBerry Improves Copy and Paste Functionality

2012-05-09T16:00:08Z

If you like bouncing info around between one app and another you’ve probably felt that the current system of cutting and pasting on a BlackBerry to be a bit lacking. Enter Clipboard History Free by S4BB, this app allows you to hold on to the things that you’ve copied for future use.

Clipboard History Free adds a menu item accessible from any app. Instead of just holding on to one thing at a time, users can easily access a brief history of the items they’ve copied. The app also knows the difference between a copied phone number, plain text or images opening up new menu items such as dialing a copied phone number.

Download ClipBoard History Free from BlackBerry App World