It seems it was only yesterday that we opened up a world of possibilities with BlackBerry App World™.  We’re proud to announce the launch of BlackBerry App World 1.1!

BlackBerry App World 1.1 New Features

• You can now view the Top 25 Free and Top 25 Paid applications!
• When searching for applications, you can now filter by newest, name, price, vendor, popularity and relevance.

With BlackBerry App World 1.1, you’ll now be able to archive your downloaded and purchased applications on a microSD™ Card.   Click the “Continue Reading” link to read a brief FAQ and step-by-step guide on how to archive applications on your BlackBerry® smartphone.

Many of you commented on my “Updating Your BlackBerry Device Software” post back in April saying "...this is great! But what about Mac?”  I could not respond to those comments at the time, but I'm happy to say there's some exciting news we can share with you. We have all been hard at work here for a while now, and you may have noticed some Mac support with the preview version of BlackBerry® Media Sync for Mac released back in December. Read on to get the first inside scoop on BlackBerry® Desktop Software that will be coming to Mac in September, and get a first glimpse at a few product screenshots.

There has been a lot of buzz in the media about a new site called MyBlackBerry: the official online community for fans of BlackBerry® smartphones. It is a place where BlackBerry smartphone users can connect with one another, to learn more about devices, rate and review the things they love, and discuss topics that interest them.

We launched the site earlier this week to a small group of Beta users. Stay tuned to Inside BlackBerry in the next few days and we will let you know when MyBlackBerry will be more broadly available.

In the spirit of a recent post by my colleague ("we all love BlackBerry and playing working with new devices"), and for those of you who recently obtained (or plan to obtain) a new BlackBerry® smartphone, here is a quick list of the first five things I do when I get a new device:

1. I check if the device runs the latest software and update it if it doesn't. Most of the time my new devices come straight from the factory, and there's always a newer version of software available. In your case, sometimes it may just be that while your brand-spanking new BlackBerry smartphone has been in transit, a newer version of the software became available before it could hit the shelves. Check out the post I recently wrote on how easy it is to update your device software, or simply visit www.blackberry.com/updates for an easy way to get your BlackBerry updated.

When we first launched the BlackBerry® Storm™ smartphone in 2008, there was no one-stop-shop for applications. People were coming together to make their own application lists like the one over at pinstack.com. Recently we launched BlackBerry App World to make it easier to find, download and share BlackBerry Storm apps for your smartphone (or any BlackBerry device for that matter!)

Unlike Riz, who has the good fortune to try new products often, I'm usually a smartphone or two behind our experts. But, as it turned out, managing this blog came with a set of perks all its own -- I get to play around with new products too!

A few weeks back I got to play with the BlackBerry® Tour™ smartphone, which today we announced is expected to be available from carriers in North America beginning later this summer. I also managed to wrangle an interview with Shaun, one of the many brains behind RIM's latest smartphone, because let's not kid ourselves, you'd much rather hear his views on the BlackBerry Tour than mine (I know my place *sigh*).

One of the most common questions I get asked when I am chatting with my friends and family is, “Where are you?”
 
If you are using BlackBerry® Messenger, we have a neat way to send your location to your friends. Choose “Send Location” while you are in the conversation screen.*

After the release of Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones version 1.5 you told us we were missing some important features in our application, like the ability to view Photos and Profiles.  Well, we’ve been working hard and are excited to have these features available for you now in the new Facebook for BlackBerry version 1.6 release.

Congratulations, you’ve just bought a new BlackBerry® smartphone to replace your slightly aging device…wait, you were using a BlackBerry 6210? Wow. Welcome to the future, where the world is in color.

Now that you have your shiny new smartphone, the first thing you want to do is make sure that you get your email delivered there instead of to the old one. (It may not really be the first thing you want to do, but I’m the email product manager, so hang in there.) Making the swap is pretty straightforward.