If you have just purchased a BlackBerry smartphone, you are going to need help to find the best application out there for your phone. There are some great apps which are available on the BB store for absolutely free. Below are ten such apps.
1. Opera Mini for BlackBerry
If you have a smartphone, than you will definitely require a browser. It is one of the most important applications on your phone. Although, BlackBerry (BB) comes with a browser preloaded, it is just not equipped to handle all the things one might like to do online. The Opera Mini browser is one of the best mobile browsers available out there. It has plenty of customizable features and it’s made in a manner to best mimic your browsing experience of your desktop.
USP
You can customize almost all the features available on this browser. The Opera Turbo feature which allows you to compress data by up to 80 percent and helps save on your data charges. You can leave the feature off to enjoy full website data experience, as you would on your PC.
Pros
You can save money on data charges with the Opera Turbo feature. The My Opera feature allows you to back up your data which is syncs across your devices and allows you access it on anytime, anywhere. It has many features which are customizable for a smooth web experience.
2. Slacker Radio
Music is something everyone enjoys and if your smartphone comes with a radio, nothing like it. However, many smartphone models do not include a radio in their features. Slacker is the answer to these shortcomings of your radio. Though it is not strictly a radio, Slacker allows you to listen to over 100 stations pre- programmed by music lovers or it gives you the option of creating your own radio station.
USP
It is customizable, hence you have the option to create your own station and listen to artists and songs of your choice. If you want more, you can subscribe to Radio Plus.
Pros
You have access to virtually unlimited free music on your BlackBerry. You have the option for subscription which allows you to listen to your favorite stations even when you are not connected.
3. Movies by Flixster
The movie buffs will love this application. Movies app by Flixster keeps you informed of the theater times, release dates for movies and DVDs, film reviews and trailers. It will tell you exact release date of any movie you want information on. The app in short displays the top box office movies, gives information on local theatres, allows you to watch trailers, provides reviews and helps you add and manage your Netflix queue (selected versions). Plan your weekend or your date. All in all a perfect app for movie lovers
USP
This application also allows you to watch trailers besides listing out movie information. There is an option to book tickets too.
Pros
It has a vast library of DVD catalogue of over 50,000 movies. It picks up reviews from Rotten Tomatoes to provide you with all the information you require before making your movie choice.
4. iSpeech Translator
This is a convenient little app for all your translation needs. However, this app goes one step further than just translating; it reads out your translated text in any language of your preference. It will also read phrases from your text messages and emails and translate these for you. All in all, this is a handy little app to have on your BB. If you are otherwise too busy to read out the messages or e-mails sent to you, this app will read them out aloud for you and you have your hands free to do whatever you want to. Also, it is a great way to learn new words in new languages. The app’s human-quality text to speech and speech recognition is created by iSpeech who also created DriveSafe.ly, an award-winning leader in texting while driving applications.
USP
It can translate and read aloud in different languages, which will give the user a fairly accurate pronunciation of the word in the specific language.
Pros
This app does not only translate, it also read out the translated text in 18 different languages. You can share some specific translations directly with your friends in your social networking circles.
5. Viigo for BlackBerry
Viigo comes highly recommended. This app is so useful that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion went ahead and bought it, perhaps as a plan to incorporate it in its OS in later models. So, if you just got your BlackBerry go right ahead and download this application. This one application will help you have all the information you need on your fingertips. You can customize this app to get whatever information you are interested in. It is essentially an RSS feed; however, it does its job so well, you would think it’s your personal assistance. This application has won several accolades from critiques. All you need to do is tell Viigo your interests and it will constantly update itself with all the relevant information and make it available for you when you want it. It allows you to keep up-to-date on news, weather, sports, shopping, flight schedule and it also helps you keep tab of all your social networks.
USP
This wonderful product is your one stop shop for all your information needs. What’s more, it also keeps tabs on your Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. so that you know exactly what is going on when you want to.
Pros
It helps you organize all your basic information needs in one place and keeps updating the information to make sure you have the latest content. This app will keep you at speed with everything going around you.
6. Photo Editor Ultimate
Your mobile camera does not always produce effective images. After all, a cellphone camera can be expected to be only so good at taking pictures. However, the Photo Editor Ultimate will help you enhance the pictures you click. It helps you edit images and also share the edited images with your friends. This application allows you to do more than just crop, resize and adjust brightness, etc. You can also merge two pictures, apply different effects, and add clipart and text, among many more things. This one application is a must if you love clicking pictures on your BB and wish to do more with the images. If you want to purchase the full version, you will get a lot more features.
USP
This basic editor is powerful enough to allow you to do a lot more than just merely crop or rotate pictures. It has more features than other photo editors available in BB market.
Pros
The free application has many more features than most photo editors out there. The numerous effects and features in this app allow you to do lot more than basic editing on your phone.
7. IM+ Messenger
The smartphone is a nifty device to do a lot of things including chat. The IM+ messenger is one such messenger app which will serve your need for chat service for across accounts. This messenger will sync all your friend lists and allow you access your friends from all platforms: AIM, iChat, MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, Skype, etc. Along with all this, you can also send pictures, videos, chats, etc., at no extra cost. This app also has twitter integrated so you can view a friend’s timeline, messages and so on.
USP
The translate feature of this product allows you to translate messages into 10 different languages, including Russian, French and Chinese. Another interesting feature of this application is that it will suggest friends from nearby by matching your interest. You can thus network and make more friends and grow your connections.
Pros
You can save money by sending videos, photos through IM+ rather than the traditional MMS mode. This app allows you group chat with friends across all platforms. IM+ allows you to access your BB IM history in IM web messenger from your desktop.
8. Copter
This is a classic helicopter game in which you control the helicopter and are responsible for guiding it through a screen rife with obstacles. The game is very simple with simple graphics including the helicopter, which looks like it is drawn on the screen. Even the obstacles are very simple with no elaborate graphics to show buildings, skyscrapers, etc. Instead, they are a bunch of lines. It is made for both touchscreen and non-touchscreen phones.
What makes this game interesting is that you have to constantly keep the helicopter airborne by holding on to the key or the screen, depending on whether you are using a touchscreen or a non-touchscreen, and if you let go, gravity will bring the copter crashing down. If you continue holding the screen or the key the helicopter will accelerate upwards and you can navigate it through the cave.
USP
The best thing about this game is of course the fact that it is free and simple.
Pros
The game being very simple will not occupy too much space in your phone memory. Also, its simplistic and engaging design gives it a high replay value.
9. Screen Grabber with BB Messenger
This neat app lts you take screenshots of your BlackBerry screen and send across to your friends. This app is simple and easy to use. Also, its recent integration with BlackBerry Messenger makes it easy for you to mail the screen grabs to your BBM contacts.
Grab your screen image of a map or directions by a simple tap on your screen or a single click and share it with your friend. You can set a convenient key to quickly access the app. It allows you to set the resolution for the screen grabs. App icons, tools, contacts, and addresses anything you need, just click and get a screen grab because most times the copy function is not available and you have to rely on another application to save the info.
USP
The screen grabs you take are free of watermarks and thus you can send across clean images to your family and friends.
Pros
The app reduces the size of the screen grab and stores it in a Screen Grabs folder for easy access. You can easily attach and e-mail the scaled down version of the screen grab. You also have the option of mailing the screen grabs to your BBM contacts.
10. Vlingo Voice App
Here is another app which will work as a personal assistant for you. You can dictate what you require and it will do your bidding. This application turns your words into action. Vlingo uses its voice to text technology with its ‘intent engine’ to quickly help you complete your required action. It’s a great app for when you are on the go. You have to simply voice your command or type it through the ActioBar and it will do it for you.
Here is a look at what all it can do for you: It can give you directions, quickly help you find information in any topic, help you locate phone numbers, update your status across your social networking sites, send a text message safely while you are driving- All this and more.
USP
Its interface is easy to use as you can just speak out what needs to be done instead of typing out your requirement. This means you can do most of your work practically hands free.
Pros
You can update status messages on Facebook, Twitter, etc. by just speaking into your phone. You can locate places; find information and text by speaking out the message.
