Like many people, I really enjoy listening to podcasts during my downtime, and I’ve often used my BlackBerry® smartphone to listen or view them. So I’m pleased to be able to tell everyone that BlackBerry® Podcasts is now available!

BlackBerry Podcasts gives users access to video and audio content, plus it makes the downloading process incredibly simple. One of my favorite things about this app is that it is completely mobile. I can search the catalog and grab the podcasts I want with just one click – no PC required.

Access a growing catalog of free audio and video feeds

The catalog has some great feeds and is growing every day. Get podcast favorites like The Onion or feeds from your favorite networks and shows.

It’s easy to find what you’re looking for

Go to ‘Explore Podcasts’ and scroll through the feature carousel to view top downloads, search via categories like news, arts, business, TV & film and more. You can even conduct a key word search if there’s something specific you want to find. What’s great about this feature is that as you browse the BlackBerry Podcasts catalog, your device will highlight which ones you already subscribe to. Once subscribed, podcasts are delivered automatically along with a notification to your BlackBerry smartphone so you can access them effortlessly.

Other reasons to love this new app

Apart from access to entertainment and the mobilized experience that allows me to enjoy nearly “anywhere, anytime” access (like the time I was stuck waiting over an hour and a half for an oil change – thank you, podcasts, for keeping me entertained!), there are a lot of reasons to love this service:

• Download episodes to be enjoyed offline or during downtime: Your favorite episodes are downloaded to your media card, you do not need to be within coverage to view your feeds
• Leverages push technology: You can benefit from push notification, and of course, it’s more battery-friendly
• Access BlackBerry “how to” videos: You can learn how to use your device directly from your device, covering a variety of common questions like how to use BlackBerry® Media Sync, how to manage Bluetooth® or how to mobile browse
• Opt to get the BlackBerry Connection®newsletter as a video podcast: Catch up on what’s new and popular with BlackBerry smartphones!

Control your download preferences

BlackBerry Podcasts was conceived with users in mind. In designing this service, it was important to consider that not all users have unlimited data packages and that the size of media cards vary. Therefore, the following download preferences are included in the ‘Options’ pull down menu:

• Choose delivery over WiFi or OTA or both – Manage your data charges by selecting download preference. Opt to download via WiFi only (the default), or WiFi and mobile network.
• Choose the number of episodes to retain – Manage your storage by choosing whether you only want to keep non-played episodes, the last 1-5 or 10 episodes, or choose to keep them all.
• Choose what and when to download – Choose to download either the most recent or all available episodes, or choose only to download episodes when you are charging your device.

BlackBerry Podcasts is available in US and Canada on BlackBerry App World™ and comes preloaded on all devices running BlackBerry 6. It is supported on the BlackBerry® Bold™ and BlackBerry® Storm™ series of smartphone devices; a microSD card is required for use with the BlackBerry® Pearl™, BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® Tour™ series of smartphone devices. There’s more information available at www.blackberry.com/podcasts.

Give it a try and let us know what your favorite podcasts are!

Hi friends! I have exciting news today – BlackBerry® Media Sync for PC will now be included in BlackBerry® Desktop Software v6.0 (make sure to check out Andrey’s BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 post). This integration provides a consistent and unified experience between BlackBerry Media Sync and all the other great BlackBerry Desktop Software functionality. BlackBerry Desktop Software is now more lightweight, but packs a bigger punch!

Those of you familiar with BlackBerry Media Sync know that you can benefit from syncing your iTunes® or Windows® Media Player music stored on your computer with your BlackBerry® smartphone. On top of the new music sync options in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0, users can also sync by selecting individual artists or genres in addition to playlists. There are a bunch of great new options for syncing different types of media. Let’s check them out!

Wi-Fi® music sync – anytime access to your entire desktop music library

This option is available on BlackBerry smartphones running the new BlackBerry® 6, and it’s totally cool. Have you ever sat in an airport lounge and wondered “now why didn’t I sync that song? I’ve got to remember to do this the next time I’m in front of my computer”…But the next time you are in front of your computer, you forget to do this again. If this has happened to you, you’ll appreciate the addition of Wi-Fi® music sync.

With Wi-Fi music sync, you get anytime access to your entire desktop music library even when offline (no Internet connection required). Not only can you view what music is on your BlackBerry smartphone, but you can now also see all your music not yet synced to your device that’s available on your computer (“Home Music”)! This means that you can select items for sync as well as create and edit playlists that will sync back with your computer next time you connect. Simply add music to the “Wi-Fi Music Sync” queue, and items in the queue will automatically get downloaded to your BlackBerry smartphone on the next Home Wi-Fi (or USB) connection to Media Sync.

I’ve been really having fun with this feature. For example, while sitting on the train last week, I decided to create a party playlist. I added a mix of music – some from my device as well as some from my home computer. The minute I got back home and walked through the door within my home Wi-Fi connection, my Party Mix automatically synced from my computer to my BlackBerry smartphone. I promptly hit play and enjoyed my new mix.

How is this possible? It’s simple – periodically, the metadata (album name, artist name & genre info) for your entire Home music library gets synced with the BlackBerry smartphone. These songs and playlists from your computer are then integrated in the Music application on your device. The songs not present on your BlackBerry smartphone can easily be identified as they appear dimmed (or ghosted) compared to the rest of your music. Within the Music application on your smartphone, your Wi-Fi Music Sync list displays the status of your songs and playlists, such as pending or downloaded, as well as the status of your connection with the BlackBerry Desktop Software.

It is easy to enable the Wi-Fi music sync feature. Simply click on Wi-Fi music sync from the Tools menu or Enable Wi-Fi music sync from Device Options -> Media. It is important to note though that this feature works only on the same Wi-Fi network as your computer running BlackBerry Desktop Software.

2-Way Video Sync

Similar to the addition of 2-way photo sync with the previous release, you can now sync your videos back and forth between your computer and your BlackBerry smartphone. Here’s how it works:

• Computer to BlackBerry smartphone – Transfer videos saved on your computer to your BlackBerry smartphone. Videos are optimized for playback on your device, allowing for storage of more videos on your BlackBerry smartphone without sacrificing quality and better viewing experience based on screen and file size.
• BlackBerry smartphone to computer – Transfer videos taken with and saved on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer. This is a great way to back up your device videos for safe keeping and/or editing.

Users can also continue to enjoy 2-Way Photos Sync. Here’s how that works:

• Computer to BlackBerry smartphone – You can transfer photo albums that you have edited, organized, and saved on your computer to your BlackBerry smartphone. You can store a lot of pictures on your BlackBerry smartphone, as Smart Memory Management is designed to optimize your photos by reducing them to up to ~2% of the original size.
• BlackBerry smartphone to computer – Import photos taken with and saved onto your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer. This is also a great way to backup your photos for safekeeping or editing with your favorite photo management software.

I still love this feature, as I take a lot of photos with my BlackBerry smartphone and it’s great to know that I can sync these back with my computer quickly and easily. I also love taking photos that I have edited on my computer and syncing them to my BlackBerry smartphone to use as my device wallpaper.

BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 is available starting today, so existing BlackBerry Desktop Software users should start auto-update notifications later today. The rest of you can visit www.blackberry.com/desktopsoftware. Don’t forget to also check out www.blackberry.com/mediasync as well for specific BlackBerry Media Sync information.

Have any questions about BlackBerry Media Sync functionality? Please let us know by posting a comment.

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Our team has been working hard to enhance the overall multimedia experience in BlackBerry® 6, and we’ve packed a lot of changes into the upcoming release. I’m very excited to be able to provide some more details about this aspect of BlackBerry 6 today.

In pulling together this update, the multimedia team focused on delivering an intuitive multimedia experience right out of the box – so whether you are a power user or new to mobile multimedia on BlackBerry smartphones, you can easily find and use the enhanced multimedia features.

There’s too much to talk about in just one post, so with that in mind, I picked some of my favorite new BlackBerry 6 multimedia features. Look for the Inside BlackBerry team to dive deeper into some of these features in future blog posts.

Music Album Art and Discovery

The minute you’ve loaded your music library to your BlackBerry smartphone via BlackBerry Media Sync, you’ll notice that we’ve added album art virtually everywhere for instant and easy recognition of your favorite albums. You will be able to navigate your music by using the interactive carousel to swipe through the album art. You will also quickly find other selections from the same album/artist by selecting the album or artist name for the song currently playing!

Organize Your Photos

With BlackBerry 6, we will also provide multiple dynamic ways to view and organize your photos, so thousands of photos can be organized intuitively. For example, photos will be able to be grouped by event or by date. You will be able to view the full picture or a slide show of pictures with transitions. BlackBerry smartphones with touch support are designed to easily zoom in on an area of interest with the “Pinch to Zoom” feature. BlackBerry 6 will also allow you to select groups of pictures to share, copy, paste or delete.

Streaming, Sharing and Searching for Videos

Searching through videos on your BlackBerry smartphone has been made easier in BlackBerry 6 with the new thumbnail view. There will also be more ways to view videos in BlackBerry 6. You will be able to opt to play video in various sizes (Original, Fit to Screen, Full Screen), plus instantly share your videos with the world using the new integrated YouTube® video uploader. Or perhaps you want to watch some online videos – no problem! The new universal search feature in BlackBerry 6 has been designed to enable you to search Internet video sites such as YouTube, and to enjoy higher quality YouTube videos when using Wi-Fi.

New Camera Controls and Supported Scene Modes

With BlackBerry 6, we focused on perfecting the point and shoot experience. Users can capture photos quicker and better than ever before with a variety of new features in BlackBerry 6. New onscreen controls means there is no need to hunt through menus for your favorite options. You will be able to access and review camera pictures, set popular options and pick from a variety of scene modes, all directly from the camera screen. You will also be able to capture video using the video camera application on the device.

New Podcasts App!

With the BlackBerry podcasts service, users will be able to experience the convenience of searching, subscribing and playing entertaining audio and video podcasts directly from their BlackBerry smartphone. This service will be preloaded with BlackBerry 6 in North America and is completely mobile (so no PC required) – and all of the content is available for free! Stay tuned to Inside BlackBerry for an upcoming post on the BlackBerry podcasts app.

Finding New Multimedia Content and Apps

If you have not yet loaded any multimedia content onto your BlackBerry smartphone or are looking for something new, no problem. Select “Explore Music Apps”, “Explore Video Apps” or “Explore Picture Apps” from the main menu screen within the media player, and you will be provided with a direct link to quickly discover popular media apps from each of those categories from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront (app availability dependent upon your region and carrier). This is one of many ways to start enjoying media right out of the box.

BlackBerry Desktop Software and Media Sync

On top of continued support of iTunes & Windows Media® Player music sync and 2-way photo sync, BlackBerry 6 has been designed to enable you to sync videos to and from your BlackBerry smartphone (BlackBerry to PC, or PC to BlackBerry). Plus there are now greater music sync options: in addition to playlists, users will have more flexibility and will also be able to sync by individual artists or genres. Stay tuned to a future post on Inside BlackBerry about BlackBerry Desktop Software with Media Sync.

I’m very excited about the new multimedia experience that will be offered in BlackBerry 6! Post a comment and let us know of the multimedia features that you use today, or those that you’re most looking forward to in BlackBerry 6.

Over the last few months our team has been working feverishly on adding photo sync functionality to BlackBerry® Media Sync.  With the release of BlackBerry Media Sync v3.0 at 12pm EST today, not only can you easily sync your music playlists, but you can now easily get photos to and from your BlackBerry® smartphone. Click the link below to learn more about BlackBerry Media Sync v3.0.

You can still sync your iTunes® & Windows Media® Player music library in BlackBerry Media Sync v3.0.  I have a huge digital collection of music and use BlackBerry Media Sync to sync them seamlessly to my smartphone.  I use my BlackBerry smartphone as my primary portable music device because it’s always with me and it’s easy to enjoy my playlists during downtime.

What’s new: Photo Sync

We’ve changed the layout of BlackBerry Media Sync from the previous version. There are now tabs for accessing Music and Photo functionality. There is a preview pane that allows for viewing the contents of a playlist, as well as the pictures to be synced.

Although music sync is available for both PC & Mac computers, photo sync is currently only available for the PC.

BlackBerry Smartphone to PC Import

I like having a collection of all my pictures stored on my home PC. The BlackBerry smartphone to PC Import functionality allows me to copy all the photos I’ve taken with my BlackBerry smartphone to my PC. Every time I connect via USB, BlackBerry Media Sync lets me know if there are new pictures to import so that I always keep my collection up to date. It’s a nice way to backup my device pictures and a handy option for those who like to carry out photo editing on their PC.

This is my favorite feature in BlackBerry Media Sync! It allows me to sync my photo collection from my PC to my BlackBerry smartphone. Most of us have been in a situation where we are giving an account of a recent trip or some huge milestone like our baby’s first steps… but have to end it with the line ‘You should see the pictures that I have at home.’

I recently visited the African Lion Safari in Southwestern Ontario (I love animals). In my humble opinion, this place is a hidden gem and a must visit if you’re in the area. While there, I was merely feet away from lions, cheetahs and a rhino and I got some really excellent close-up pics on my digital camera. With BlackBerry Media Sync, I was able to put my entire photo collection on my BlackBerry smartphone.

The best part about this feature is that picture file sizes are compressed so that they can be viewed optimally on the BlackBerry smartphone. Some pictures are reduced to about 2% of their original size! I have an 8GB card; with this optimization feature I can store a huge amount of pictures. The compression feature is the default option. However if you prefer to have the raw images transferred, you can always change the setting in the Options menu.

Now that I have some of my favorite edited snapshots on my smartphone – I use these to frequently update and personalize my BlackBerry smartphone background screen.

Post a comment below and let us know how you’re using the new photo sync functionality – or if you are just discovering the music functionality for the first time. To download BlackBerry Media Sync v3.0, go to: http://blackberry.com/mediasync

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Ever find yourself in a situation when you’re chatting with a few friends at a bar and someone recommends a new show to check out on TV? You make a mental note to either catch the next telecast or schedule it on your DVR. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and that mental note evaporates into thin air, along with what you wanted to see. Situations like this can now have a happy ending thanks to TiVo® for BlackBerry® smartphones.

The TiVo for BlackBerry smartphones app allows users to browse, search and schedule recordings of their favorite TV programs to their TiVo DVR directly from their BlackBerry smartphone. Click the ‘continue reading’ link to learn more about my hands-on experience with TiVo for BlackBerry smartphones.

First things first: downloading the app and getting started. First, I downloaded the TiVo application from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Then, I created an account on the TiVo.com website and registered my DVR. These credentials are used to login to the application.

Once I was all set up, I liked the fact that the TiVo app has a similar look and feel to the TiVo DVR interface on my TV, so I didn’t have to learn to use another interface. This makes finding and scheduling recordings a breeze, and the search feature is also pretty handy when looking for programs by title, keyword or actor.

Generally, I pretty much know what program I want to record. But there are times when I like to try something different – so I use the “Daily Picks” or the “Most Popular Shows” features to get recommendations for shows.

Users can choose to either record a single episode or the entire season using the “Season Pass®” feature. I typically record using “Season Pass” and since I have my “1-Click Record” options enabled, I have it all done in a flash.

The TiVo application turned out to be a lifesaver for me a couple of weeks ago. Some of you might remember that there was a rain delay at the US Open tennis tournament, which caused TV programming on those networks to be completely off schedule. I was in Columbus, OH at a football game and thus pretty far away from my TiVo and nowhere near a computer. I pulled out my BlackBerry smartphone at the game, made the necessary updates to my recording lineup and had it all set to record the tennis matches.

I highly recommend trying out this application if you have a TiVo DVR and BlackBerry smartphone.  You can download this free application from your BlackBerry smarphone via BlackBerry App World or from blackberry.com/tivo via your desktop browser.

Post a comment below and let us know what you think about the app!

Being a product manager means a fair amount of travel, and everything that comes with it – lots of time spent in planes and taxis.  I’ve always relied on music to get me through a trip.

I used to have to carry a couple of devices while traveling – my cell phone and then an mp3 player to play my tunes. Now I just carry one device – my BlackBerry® smartphone – which allows me to listen to my music and carry out my work-related tasks. Using BlackBerry® Media Sync made my life a lot easier too, because it makes it extremely simple to transfer your music onto the smartphone.

The neat thing about BlackBerry Media Sync is that I can use either iTunes® or Windows Media Player to create my playlists and then transfer them using Media Sync. No need to install another media management application on my PC. And Mac users don’t need to feel left out as there is a version for them too! 

I am a pretty big user of playlists. Occasionally, I’ll listen to an entire album (if it’s a new one) but generally it’s an aggregation of tracks from a few albums into one playlist. Media Sync also imports album art, so it’s nice to see the graphic on that snazzy screen while listening to music or while browsing through my collection.

I like the fact that I can reserve space in memory to keep free and fill the rest of it with random music. It also means that I might have a surprise in store for me occasionally by getting Indian classical music along with some ‘classic rock’ on my device.

How do you organize and listen to your music? Post a comment and let us know!