The LinkedIn app update makes it even easier to stay connected on the go by allowing you to sync and merge your LinkedIn connections with existing BlackBerry contacts in your address book. And, with the new “Groups and More” tab, you can view saved and recommended jobs and access, add, view and participate in the groups that matter to you most.

Jobs

The new LinkedIn “Groups and More” tab allows you to access even more key areas of LinkedIn right from the navigation screen, including jobs. With this feature, you can easily access the jobs you’ve saved and browse ones that are recommended for you. And remember, when you’re done looking at jobs you can get back to the main navigation screen by tapping the LinkedIn logo at the top left-hand corner of the app.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

Last night we attended the grand opening of the Porsche Design store in Toronto to celebrate the availability of the Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry® in Canada. We made sure we were on the scene to capture all the action. Thorsten Heins, President and CEO, Research In Motion was also on hand to address the crowd and introduce the device.

“The BlackBerry P’9981 created in partnership with our friends at Porsche Design is made for beauty, for aesthetic, but also for function. It’s just a pleasure to type on the keypad,” said Heins.

The device itself was definitely a crowd pleaser and the custom Porsche Design BlackBerry P’9981 photo booth setup was also a huge hit!

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Porsche Design BlackBerry P’9981 here’s the scoop.

The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry has received great buzz since we unveiled the exclusive model in Dubai last October. This all-new Porsche designed BlackBerry smartphone is a thing of beauty, and I felt we should give you a first-hand tour of the P’9981 from BlackBerry and let you see what this elite smartphone is all about.

The luxurious form factor of the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry features a wide QWERTY keyboard and fluid 2.8” touch screen display surrounded by stainless steel finishes and a rich leather backing. It also comes with Porsche Design authentic accessories including a specially designed matching charging pod.

The P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry is as technically inspired as it is a distinctly Porsche design. Under the hood, the BlackBerry® 7.1 OS powers social collaboration and productivity with apps like BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), Documents To Go® Premium, voice-activated universal search, and BlackBerry® Balance™ technology. Plus, the fast new BlackBerry® Browser and 1.2 Ghz processor help you power through tasks quickly and easily.

Lastly, the P’9981 from BlackBerry experience is unmistakably Porsche Design. With this exclusive smartphone comes a specially designed user interface (UI) and a customized Wikitude World Browser that unleashes an awesome Augmented Reality experience. It also includes NFC (Near Field Communication), a technology that is designed to enable many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to make mobile payments, exchange information, and pair with NFC-enabled accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone. Another cool feature is that you’ll have a premium BlackBerry PIN, unique to your P’9981 from BlackBerry, which helps you identify other P’9981 from BlackBerry users around you if they have enabled this feature on their device.

What do you think about the Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry? Let us know in the comments!

1. Browser: Surfing the web on your BlackBerry smartphone has never been faster with this snappy OS. With BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones, pages load faster — and when you’re on the go, speed matters. Check out this video comparing previous BlackBerry® Curve™ smartphones with the slick BlackBerry Curve 9350 smartphone running BlackBerry 7 OS:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

2. Fast Fluid Graphics: The graphics behind the BlackBerry smartphone OS have been improved with BlackBerry 7 OS. You’ll get new visually appealing icons along with fluid transitions. Combine that with more powerful hardware and higher-resolution screens and you’re in for a rich smartphone experience. So, your photos are brighter onscreen, your game experience is faster, smoother and crisper, and your ability to swipe, scroll and launch is more intuitive, quicker, and satisfying. Take a look at this video comparing the all-touch BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone with the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9550 smartphone running a previous generation BlackBerry OS:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

3. Touch Screens: Of course, not all BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones have touch screens, but a number of them do, and I love how much quicker you can navigate around your device. For me, when I’m looking at messages, I can simply tap the one I want to read rather than scroll through them all. Or when I want to open an app from the home screen, again, I can simply tap the one I want. You can also pinch-to-zoom on things like photos and websites. See for yourself — watch this video to see a side-by-side comparison of the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700 smartphone and BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

There you have our top 3 reasons to upgrade to a BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone! Hopefully this was helpful for those of you using older BlackBerry smartphones and thinking of upgrading. Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments, and if you’re currently rocking a BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone, tell us what you like the most about it!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

I’ve been a huge fan of NFC technology for some time now, and it’s been exciting to see the use cases growing for BlackBerry® smartphone users to include everything from payments using your smartphone to sharing photos and contact information. Yesterday I got a hold of some blank NFC tag stickers and got to tinkering. Building on some advice from Twitter® friends and a few colleagues, I managed to create a set of extremely useful NFC tags that have helped me automate common tasks that I perform on a daily basis. Now I can access the flashlight feature, remotely control my BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, check into social media, and set my daily alarm with almost zero effort. Check out the video above to see the tags that I managed to whip up!

In the words of my friend Annu, who happens to be the Senior Product Manager for BlackBerry® 7, NFC technology on BlackBerry smartphones “works like magic”. The tags are inexpensive, the apps are readily available, the technology is here today, and the end result is fantastic. Let me walk through the steps that I took to create tags such as these.

The Recipe

You’ll need:

• Blank NFC tags/stickers
• An NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone:
  BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900/9930 or 9790 smartphone, BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350/9360/9370 smartphone
• The ShortcutMe app for BlackBerry smartphones
• The NFCShortcuts app for BlackBerry smartphones
• Plenty of ideas; the sky’s the limit with this stuff!

Tip: The size of the tags (some hold more data than others), shouldn’t matter. You won’t be loading them with too much information in this exercise.

How it Works

The process involves a few steps: You’ll be creating a shortcut (think of it as an “action sequence” that can launch an app or function and then, optionally, interact with the app once it’s launched) using the ShortcutMe app, and then writing a command to launch that shortcut to an NFC tag/sticker using the NFCShortcuts app. Conveniently, both apps were designed by the same group (Fonware Ltd.), and they work together seamlessly. Check out some of Fonware’s other apps on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront here!

Tip: Do a web search for “buy NFC tags”. You should be able to find some that are quite affordable.

Creating Shortcuts Using the ShortcutMe and NFCShortcuts Apps

Both the ShortcutMe app and the NFCShortcuts app can be a little daunting to use at first. They deal with creating functions that can be quite complex, and you may need to do a bit of tinkering to figure it all out your first time through. Be patient, and leave any questions that you may have in the comments.

Let’s create an NFC tag that causes your device to turn Wi-Fi® on. Follow the steps below:

1. Launch the ShortcutMe app on your BlackBerry smartphone, hit the Menu key, and choose “Add Shortcut” from the menu. This will bring you to the new shortcut configuration page.

2. To the right of “App Name”, you can choose what app or function that this shortcut will launch. For our tag, we want to choose “WiFi_ON”. However, take a look in this list to see all of the possibilities for creating NFC tags. There’s a lot to explore in terms of apps and settings.

3. Next, you’ll need to choose a 1-3 character shortcut key sequence that launches this shortcut. I chose “WFI” to closely resemble the function of this tag. At this point, your screen should look something like this:

4. If you scroll down the page, you’ll come to an area that says “Macros”. Above this is an “Alternative Launchings” setting, which you can ignore for the time being. Macros allow you to simulate actual inputs after the app that you selected launches. In our case, turning Wi-Fi on is a one-time task, so we wouldn’t need to include a macro. But if you were to launch the clock with the intention of setting the alarm for example, you’d need to add that input sequence that would be performed after the app is launched. See below for an example macro and a screenshot of the built-in Macro Editor:

Note: Use Macros at your own risk, and be careful not to tap unknown NFC tags. As a built-in security measure, your phone will not work with NFC tags if it is locked.

5. Now you can hit the menu button and choose “Save & Exit” (remember to clear any macros out if you had been playing around; none are needed for the “Wi-Fi ON” command that we’ve chosen).

6. You should see your new shortcut on the home screen of the ShortcutMe app, listed as “WFI WiFi ON”. Feel free to click it to try it out.

7. Next, close the ShortcutMe app, and open up the NFCShortcuts app. This is where we’ll actually write data to a tag. Conceptually, we’ll tell the tag to launch the ShortcutMe app on your smartphone and activate the “WFI” shortcut that we just created.

8. Choose “Add a New Tag” – you’ll see that all you need to do is tap a blank NFC tag to begin (make sure that NFC is turned on in your settings). You should see a message that looks similar to the following:

9. Choose “Yes,” and in the next screen, you can configure the information that will be written to the tag. For “Launch”, choose the “ShortcutMe_Touch” application. Beneath that, you’ll see options for additional settings such as PreMacros. Ignore this and move down to the “Parameter” field. Here you need to enter the shortcut keys for the shortcut that we just created within ShortcutMe – so enter “wfi” (in this case, the field is not case-sensitive). Your screen should look like this:

10. Save and close the tag configuration screen, and then back on the home screen of the NFCShortcuts app, choose the correct “Stored Tag Number” for the tag that you just created. You’ll know you’ve got it right when you see the proper “Stored Tag Name” and the parameter shortcut keys listed after a comma:

11. Next, all you need to do is choose “Write To Tag”. Then you’ll have a simple option to “Write NFCL data to a tag”, which leaves it re-writable for future tinkering, or “Write and Lock the tag”, which is irreversible. After you’ve selected one of these two options, simply hold your NFC tag up to the phone, wait for the vibrate indication that the data has been written, and you’re finished! Go ahead and try it out.

More Ideas for NFC Tags

After a bit of brainstorming, I came up with a few more ideas for NFC tags that you may find useful:

• Create an NFC business card that adds your contact information to an associate’s device when they tap it with their NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphone.
• For the frequent traveler, create NFC tags for turning off your wireless radio, or for launching BlackBerry® Travel.
• Do you often make soft-boiled eggs? Slap an NFC tag onto your fridge and tap it to automatically start a pre-set timer on your phone.

That’s it for me; I’d love to hear your ideas and your experiences! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Today Research In Motion® (RIM®) has launched the next-generation in enterprise mobile device management (MDM) – BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion. This tool acts as a central platform giving IT managers the ability to effectively and efficiently manage the following:

• BlackBerry® 7 (and previous) smartphones
• BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets (and BlackBerry® 10 smartphones in the future)
• As of today, tablets and smartphones running Android® and iOS®

I recently spoke with some enterprise customers during the BlackBerry® Innovation Forum in both Toronto and Atlanta about their thoughts on BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – clearly customers are excited. Beyond Mobile Fusion Studio and BlackBerry® Device Service – both of which we’ve discussed previously – many seem eager to deploy the Universal Device Service. Check out a video overview of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion below:

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

The consumer market is vast, so rather than trying to be all things to all people, RIM will focus its talent base and homegrown software and services on specific areas of the consumer market where BlackBerry® excels — which includes delivering a great mobile social and productivity experience – and we will look to existing and new partnerships to provide additional compelling apps and services that customers want and love.

We understand that buying patterns are rapidly changing for both consumers and enterprise customers. Smartphones are now just as likely to be purchased by consumers and taken into work to be used as their go-to work phone, as they are to be supplied by employers and used by employees on the weekend. We feel we are uniquely positioned to deliver a smartphone that consumers will be excited to use both personally and professionally that will also satisfy their employer’s needs for security and data management.

BlackBerry® 7 was a big step forward in this journey. BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 is another strong example of our commitment to delivering a powerful mobile computing experience. As part of the lead up to BlackBerry® 10, we will continue to seek partnerships with application and service providers to deliver consumer features and content that are central to the BlackBerry value proposition. We believe these partnerships, combined with our core product offerings, will provide an extremely attractive experience to both consumers and our enterprise customers.

We are excited about our renewed company focus and hope our partners and customers are excited as well.

If you have questions or comments, please share them with us. We promise to read them all and come back and answer as many as we can.

Happy Friday #TeamBlackBerry! It’s Five Tip Friday, and today I’d like to share five reasons why you should consider using Social Feeds – a great app built right in to BlackBerry® 6 OS and BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones. Using the Social Feeds app, you can stay up to date with your social networks and receive the latest RSS news and information from your favorite blogs and websites – all in one location.

Before we begin, if you aren’t familiar with Social Feeds, check out my post on How to use Social Feeds 2.0 to learn more.

1. Add your own Bit.ly® account

The next time you want to share a link with friends, you can send them a short link that will be created using your Bit.ly account. This will allow you to measure things such as how many clicks your link got and from which countries your link was viewed (one of my favorite stats!). To add your Bit.ly account details to Social Feeds, complete the following steps:

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

With the release of BBM™ Music you can now listen to your favorite songs, share music with your BBM friends and even receive recommendations on new music you might be interested in right on your BlackBerry® smartphone¹. The best part of all is you can try BBM Music for free².! The length of the free trial will vary by carrier – so, check with your carrier for details!

As of today, if you use a BlackBerry® 7 smartphone with data service provided by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon, an icon for the BBM Music application will now appear on your smartphone. If you are interested in installing the app from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront in order to start listening to and sharing music with your BBM friends who also have the app , open the Media folder on your smartphone and select the BBM Music icon. If you cannot see the icon for BBM Music, your BlackBerry smartphone may be associated with a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. If this is the case, please contact your BlackBerry administrator for assistance with installing the BBM Music app. If you do not have a BlackBerry administrator, follow the instructions below to scan the QR code for the BBM Music app.

Note: AT&T customers using BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 will also have this icon appear on BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 and 9700 smartphones as well as the BlackBerry® Curve™ 9300 smartphone. The icon will appear on your home screen or in the Downloads folder on your BlackBerry smartphone. Selecting this icon will open BlackBerry App World which will allow you to download and install the BBM Music app.
For those using a different wireless service provider or if the icon for BBM Music cannot be found on your BlackBerry smartphone, open BlackBerry App World and search for BBM Music, or scan the QR code below while browsing BlackBerry App World (Menu key > Scan A Barcode).

After installing BBM Music, check out the post, Getting Started with BBM Music over at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog to learn more about BBM Music such as the minimum requirements your smartphone needs to meet in order to install the app, subscription fees as well how to share music with BBM friends and other features such as being able to listen to music when you don’t have a wireless network connection.

1. BlackBerry ID and data service required. Monthly subscription required for full track access. Songs must be available in BBM Music catalog in user’s home country. Users can have up to 50 songs in their profile and change up to 25 songs per month. Friends must be using BBM Music and have a monthly subscription for you to access their full tracks. Limit of 50 songs per friend. Accessing the service while roaming may incur additional data charges. When traveling outside of home country, only songs available in user’s home country BBM Music catalog are accessible. Songs may be cached to play off-network. Storage card and sufficient available memory required for caching. Songs will only play within the BBM Music app. When users change songs in their profile, deleted songs, included cached copies on their device, are no longer accessible. See http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal for complete details and restrictions. Terms subject to change.
2. New BBM Music users only. May not be combined with other offers. Payment information required to receive full trial period. Following trial user placed into automatically renewing monthly paid subscription plan unless cancelled before end of trial period. Limited time introductory offer may vary by BlackBerry device or carrier. Additional charges may apply. Subject to change. See http://www.blackberry.com/bbmmusic/legal for complete details and restrictions.

When BlackBerry® 7 OS was released in August 2011, one of the pre-installed apps is the Wikitude app, which allows you to discover your surroundings in a completely new way. For example, you’ll be able to see places, points of interests and even your BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) contacts (if they have allowed you to be able to view them) through your camera’s field of vision – a truly engaging and immersive experience.

Recently Wikitude has been updated to support select BlackBerry® 6 smartphones, so today I’ll be providing a brief overview of how to install Wikitude as well as some of the features it offers.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

Hey everyone! Sonia’s back with a great new beta app update to a particular #TeamBlackBerry favorite…read on for all the details! – Ed.

Great news #TeamBlackBerry! The beta version of BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) v6.1 is available for download from BlackBerry® Beta Zone — now you’ll have even more ways to personalize your messages – and add a little fun – including animated avatars, fun new emoticons, customized colored chat bubbles, increased character count for personal messages and display picture integration.

We’re glad to share that many of these new personalization features were added due to popular request from our BBM community and beta testers.

Let’s take a look at these new BBM features in more detail.

Animated avatars – We’ve added a new dimension to the options on your BBM display picture – animated avatars! These avatars use controlled animation, which means that motion is activated when you scroll over the avatar. Three animated avatars are available as part of this beta as a sneak peek (including a “smile,” “laughter” and “in love”). We’re planning to add a larger selection of animated avatars after the beta trial is completed. You can access these avatars when changing your display picture within the Avatars folder. (Note: Animated avatars are only supported on BlackBerry® smartphone OS 5.0 and higher.)

12 new emoticons – A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes. With the addition of 12 fun emoticons in your BBM catalog, there are now more ways for you to express yourself and personalize messages to your friends. These new emoticons were created based on suggestions from customers participating in beta trials – look for more to come in future releases. And please make sure to leave us a comment and let us know what other emoticons you’d like to see. We’re listening!

Increased character count for personal messages – Whether it’s keeping your contacts posted on your whereabouts or sharing your mood for the day, you can now say more in your regular updates to your BBM friends. We’ve more than doubled the size of your personal message space to 160 characters, so that you can now share your trials and tribulations in much greater detail.

Colored chat bubbles – BBM users can now customize the color of chat bubbles for contacts. With 10 colors to choose from, you can pre-assign colors to your contacts by simply going into your BBM contacts’ profile and selecting a desired contact chat color. This feature is great for organizing the many BBM contacts you have and makes it easier to recognize types of conversations (I’m assigning colors to work, friends, and family. My boss is blue, my family is yellow, and colleagues and friends will get their own color-coding, too.)

Camera/Display Picture Integration – Now you’ll be able to snap a picture and display it right away! There are now fewer steps between taking that great picture with your BlackBerry smartphone and making it your BBM Display Picture. Now you can update your BBM avatar right from the BlackBerry smartphone camera app by selecting “Set as BBM Display Picture” from the menu options.

Check out all of these fun new features for the beta version of BBM v6.1 by downloading it from BlackBerry Beta Zone today. Don’t forget to leave us a comment and let us know what you think!