I’m E-Ming, a Product Manager at Research In Motion® (RIM®), and I wanted to tell you about the recent update to BlackBerry® News application for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! Before I get into the details of what’s new in BlackBerry News 1.1, I wanted to take a minute to thank #TeamBlackBerry for all the feedback that’s been provided so far! Be sure to keep it coming* – we love hearing about what you think of our app.

For those of you new to the app, BlackBerry News is a news aggregator that works with the RSS feeds provided by many different content providers. It enables you to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and then have them delivered to a single location to get the latest news, right on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Pretty convenient, huh? If you want to get further caught up, be sure to read our original post about BlackBerry News for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Now, let’s walk through the new functionality in BlackBerry News 1.1.

Portrait Orientation Support

We’ve optimized support for portrait mode by providing an article list view to help you view more headlines at a single time. We’ve also optimized the article list view, so instead of getting your magazine layout in landscape mode, you’ll get a portrait-mode list view of all the articles for quicker headline browsing. Whether you’re looking to enjoy a casual browse of your news or you’re a journalism junkie looking to stay on top of all the headlines, we’ve got you covered.

New Visual Indicators – “new” and articles marked read

We’ve added two new visual indicators – one that provides more context regarding which channels have new articles added since the app’s last content update, and another that displays which articles have already been read, so you’ll never have to read the same article twice (unless you want to!).

Go to Next/Previous Article

New navigational buttons mean you can easily move to the next or previous article. (I find these buttons make it much easier to read through my RSS feeds when I’m on the go.)

Channel Switcher From Magazine View

Using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s top-down swipe gesture, you can access the new channel switcher functionality to quickly switch to another category. Perfect for all you news addicts with quick attention spans!

Go to Feed After Subscribing

After subscribing to a feed in our content library, you now have the ability to go directly to that feed, so you can start reading your news right away.

Update News Through Data Tethering

With this update, you can take advantage of a paired BlackBerry® smartphone, so you can connect and update your feeds wherever you are and stay on top of what’s happening. Just make sure you have your BlackBerry smartphone paired up and a valid data tethering plan with your carrier.

Download Today!

Just as a reminder, your BlackBerry News subscriptions will be synced with your BlackBerry® ID, which means your news is available via BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or BlackBerry smartphone. So if you happen to be on the go without your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can still catch up on your favorite news by using your BlackBerry smartphone and the BlackBerry News Feeds application that’s available on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

I hope this update is helpful. And I hope you decide to download the updated BlackBerry News for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet today, and come back and share your feedback!

* By posting a comment below you acknowledge that you have read and accept these terms and conditions and that any ideas you post will be the property of RIM in accordance with the terms and conditions.

For all you concert and live event fans, you’ll be happy to know that Ticketmaster® for BlackBerry® smartphones version 2.0 is now available for download from BlackBerry Beta Zone. We’ve made significant improvements to this update, including redesigning the application from ground up to provide great event search functionality and a user-friendly purchase experience optimized for your BlackBerry smartphone.

With the help of the GPS technology in your device, the Ticketmaster experience is designed to help you find events wherever you are or wherever you will be. Additionally, there are other areas of integration – like with your Calendar – to make this a Super App. So without further adieu, let’s walk through the key features of the newly designed application.

Logging In

When you run the app for the first time, you’ll be presented with a login screen before accessing “My Ticketmaster”. You can log in using your existing Ticketmaster account, or you can create a new account. You always have the option of skipping this step and logging in later for a more personalized experience.

My Ticketmaster

From the home screen, after logging in, you can access My Ticketmaster – where you can check out your favorite artists/teams/venues list, your profile and your order history. You can also add additional artists/teams/venues that may not have upcoming events planned, but that you may want to keep an eye on in case an event gets added.

Search – Finding an Event

For those of you who are keeping an eye out for concert dates of your favorite artists, search is the best place to start. It is very easy to find an event.

Type the name of the band or artist in the search field and click search. You’ll get a list of all events that match your search terms. You have the option to further refine the list of events based on when the events are happening. For instance, you can narrow your search results to events coming this weekend, happening in the next 90 days, or within your own custom date range.

Remember that searches are location specific, so if you’re looking for events in another city, you’ll need to change your location in the upper-right hand corner first.

Local Events

Got an open schedule and not sure what events are happening around you? If you want to find events that are happening near you and you’re open to any type of event, go to Local Events, and you’ll get a list of events that are happening in your area. You have the extra option to filter by date, so you can see what’s happening this weekend, or within the next 31 days. You can also narrow events by the event category type, so if you’re in the mood for the latest Broadway musical or nearest monster truck rally, finding your event is a breeze.

Purchasing Tickets

Once you’ve found an event that interests you, choosing that event will allow you to see reviews of the artists, add the artist to your favorites, see important notes about the event and review the price/seat map. You can also click on the venue to get more details about that particular site.

Once you’ve decided you’re going to buy tickets, purchasing tickets is a simple 4 step process:

Step 1: Choose the number of tickets (and, if you wish, the ticket price and seat section). Click on “Find Tickets” and the tickets that meet your search criteria will bereserved for your review. Much like the Ticketmaster website, there is a time limit for completing the transaction once the tickets have been reserved. Don’t dawdle or you may lose the tickets that were reserved! You can review the seating chart again to make sure they’re tickets that you want.

Step 2: Continuing on the next screen, you’ll need to log in or create a login if you haven’t already done so. Once logged in, you’ll have an option to choose how you want the tickets to be delivered, whether through standard post mail, expedited service or will call.

Step 3: Confirm your order details.

Step 4: If you’ve made it here, it means you’re ready to pay. You can add a credit card in this step if you don’t already have a card associated with your Ticketmaster account.

Now that you’ve completed your purchase, you can easily add the event to your Calendar, set yourself a reminder and be on your way!

Ticketmaster for BlackBerry smartphones is available on BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry® Device Software 4.5 and above in North America. Download it today from BlackBerry Beta Zone and let us know what you think – and don’t forget to check back to see when it’ll be available in BlackBerry App World!

We’re excited to announce the availability of BlackBerry® News for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront! We’ve optimized the news reading experience to accommodate the larger screen size the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet provides, as well as leveraged all gesture support to help immerse you in your news.

With BlackBerry News, you can add any RSS feed from your favorite news sites, favorite blogs, or other popular sites with syndicated content, so all the news you’ve subscribed to comes to you in one place. This application is an extension of the BlackBerry News Feeds application currently available for BlackBerry smartphones.

This application is currently available in the US and Canada, and will be available in other countries later this year.

Accessing and reading feeds

BlackBerry News takes advantage of your BlackBerry® ID, so if you are a BlackBerry News Feeds user on the BlackBerry smartphone side, your subscription will be automatically brought over and synced up between both BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry tablet applications.

First-time users of BlackBerry News – specifically those using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet – will notice curated news feeds in specific categories, where we’ve chosen multiple content providers to populate content. The curated feeds come in the following categories: Arts & Entertainment, Business, Health & Lifestyle, News Headlines, Science & the Environment, Technology, and Travel. These news feeds are exclusively available for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet version of the BlackBerry News app, and can be found in the “News Categories” section of the app if you’re looking for a way to subscribe to those feeds.

Clicking on a subscription then gets you to an abbreviated summary view of articles within that news feed, so you can quickly scan headlines, view images and a short description of the article to determine if you want to read more of the article. You can swipe to the left to get the next page of articles, and repeat the gesture to get to the last available article.

Once you find an article you want to read, just touch on the article and you’ll be presented with a full article view.

If you’re going to be in a place where network access is unavailable, the BlackBerry News application also provides offline access to your previously downloaded feed content, so you can still read downloaded articles while you’re out of range from a Wi-Fi® signal. Acquiring new content requires connection to a Wi-Fi signal.

Adding new news feeds

You can add your own subscriptions to RSS feeds by hitting the “News Library” button. Once in the News Library, you can either search for a specific feed that you’re looking to add, or you can browse through the content library to find some of the more popular and well-known feeds. As search is currently limited to feeds indexed in the content library of the application, it’s possible you may not be able to find the RSS feed you’re looking for. In those cases, you can input the URL of the site that has the news feed that you want to add, and the app will detect if the news feeds are available for you to subscribe to.

Your subscriptions will be synced up with your BlackBerry ID, so if you’re on the go without your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can always catch up on the news through your BlackBerry smartphone by using our BlackBerry News Feeds application available in BlackBerry App World.

Unsubscribing to news feeds and updating content

From the “My News” home screen in the BlackBerry News application, you can use the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet bezel drop-down gesture to pull up an options menu, where you’ll be able to update your content or edit and delete any subscriptions you don’t want anymore.

You can get the recently launched BlackBerry News application for your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in BlackBerry App World at the link below. We encourage you to post any feedback you have for us in the comments section below or the BlackBerry Support Forums, as your feedback is important to us.

Happy reading!

BlackBerry News for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet in BlackBerry App World

On Monday, we launched the BlackBerry® News Feeds application in beta, and I’m here to tell you all about it. The application is a news reader that delivers updated articles as they’re posted for sites that use a popular technology called RSS – or Really Simple Syndication. So if you’re tired of going to multiple web sites to check on what’s new, have a favorite blog you follow to get the latest scoop, or a flood of email subscriptions to newsletters that deliver news in your inbox on a daily basis, then the BlackBerry News Feeds app will provide a single point for collecting all your news information.

This app gives you the control over when you check out the latest headlines or find out about the latest gossip. Being a news delivery service, the application focuses on three pillars of functionality: efficient delivery of the news to your device in an easy-to-read format, assistance in discovering new content, and easy allowance for you to share interesting articles with your co-workers, friends, and family.

We’ll do a quick walk-through of the key features to help you get familiar:

Logging in:

Though the screen may look new, what’s required is not. Just supply the same BlackBerry® ID login that you use for BlackBerry App World™ and you’re all set. If you don’t have one already, create one to get you started. (Check out Alex’s previous post about BlackBerry ID for more)

Subscribing to new feeds:

We’ve automatically subscribed you to some feeds to help you get started, but we’re sure you have your own tastes regarding where you like to get your news from, so we’ve provided a content library that you can explore to find new content. The search bar allows you to search through the library by keyword, or you can type in the URL of your favorite site to see if there is RSS content that you can subscribe to. We also recommend feeds that you may be interested in, which are located in the category “Feeds You May Like”.

Importing Viigo feeds:

For those of you who were Viigo users, we haven’t forgotten about you! We have provided a way for you to transfer your Viigo subscriptions over to the BlackBerry News Feeds app so you can stay connected to all your favorite news feeds.

Reading your articles:

Got a couple minutes to spare? Catch up on the latest news since you last checked. You can easily scan headlines or read article summaries and quickly navigate using keyboard shortcuts; “P” and “N” are great for getting you from one article to the next.

Sharing articles:

Read an article that you think your friend might be interested in? Share it easily through a number of options: email, SMS, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM™), BBM groups, Social Feeds on BlackBerry® 6.0 OS-enabled devices, or share directly to Facebook® and Twitter® if they’re installed on your device.

Message List integration:

For those of you who love to receive everything in your message list inbox, you have the option to receive new articles from specific feeds directly in your message list inbox. Just go to the Options menu, turn on Message List integration, and then set alerts on the feeds that you want to populate your message inbox.

BlackBerry® smartphone users tend to be heavy consumers of digital information, and BlackBerry News Feeds is a fantastic tool to allow users to stay up-to-date on the things that they care about in their lives. This free application is available for download as a beta on BlackBerry App World™ today. We would love to hear your thoughts on what additional features you’d like to see in the application.

* BlackBerry News Feeds application is available on BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry Device Software 4.6 and above in North America.