The introduction of the free BlackBerry® Mobile Conferencing app in June was a huge hit with BlackBerry® smartphone users, and we received a great amount of positive feedback as well as suggestions for improvement through the BlackBerry® Beta Zone community. Today I’m excited to announce that BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing version 2.0 is available on the BlackBerry® App World™ storefront. IT managers also have the option of downloading the app from our Software Download Site and pushing the app to end-users.

For those who are unfamiliar with the app, BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing is designed to make your mobile conferencing experience far simpler and more convenient. The app is designed to automatically pull conference call information out of invitations and appointments on your BlackBerry smartphone. It then takes that information and creates a simple one-click “Join Now” button that pops up at the meeting time or the meeting can be accessed from within the appointment in your calendar. On top of this ease of access, you can reconnect with one click if you drop from a call. The app also allows you to manage your own conference profiles which can be included in appointments and invitations. See the BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing website for further details.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

(Check out the sweet ugly sweater my avatar’s rocking!)

The holidays are coming up fast, #TeamBlackBerry – what are you doing to get into the spirit of the season? We’ve got one suggestion: Dress up your BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) avatar with an ugly holiday sweater! Starting today, you’ll be able to use the Avatar Builder app – Girls or Boys edition and the Ugly Sweater Expansion Pack to get your BBM avatar in on the fun (note: it may take up to 24 hours for the application to appear in BlackBerry App World).

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Watch my video introduction to this cool new feature above and get step-by-step downloading instructions from our buddy Ty at Inside BlackBerry Help Blog. Once you’ve downloaded, share your ugly sweater with us and let us know what you think!

*The Avatar Builder (Girls and Boys Editions) apps and add-ons (“Apps”) are available as free downloads from BlackBerry App World™. Depending on how you connect to your network, data charges may apply to download these Apps. Consult your carrier/network provider for details.

The BlackBerry® Mobile Conferencing app has been a huge hit with the BlackBerry business community, which comes as no surprise to me considering how often the app is used in my everyday work life. We introduced the BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing app in June, and today we’re excited to announce an updated version of the app that brings even more functionality.

As a reminder, BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing is a free app (available in BlackBerry App World™) that integrates with your BlackBerry® smartphone’s calendar to make joining and scheduling calls easy while on the go. When it’s time to jump on a call, you can simply press the “Join Now” button that appears with the calendar alert. Check out the additional features offered in the new version of Mobile Conferencing below:

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

Hey friends, we have a great guest post today all the way from Malmö, Sweden! Check out the sweet blogging styles of Dan and Minna, from The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) – now part of the Research In Motion® TAT team in Sweden.

Hi all! We’re excited to tell you we’ve released a new version of the popular Scrapbook app for the BlackBerry ® PlayBook™ tablet in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. We’ve listed the new features in Scrapbook v1.1 below, but make sure to watch the video we shot, too!*

Scrapbook v1.1 New Features:

• Share Scrapbooks on your Facebook® wall
• New postcard and summer themes
• Delete Scrapbooks

The history and teams behind Scrapbook

The User Experience (“UX”) Advanced Prototyping team first created Scrapbook as a demo for Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. Our intention was to create a fun, comprehensive and visually impressive demo that communicates the power and potential of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. As for all demos at large events, we looked for something that could be explained and demonstrated with an impact in less than a minute.

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

The demo was a hit at MWC and many people who saw the demo wanted to see it become a real application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Scrapbook was then handed over to a skilled app team within the Research In Motion TAT team, which faced the task of turning it into the real application that many of you enjoy today. People often underestimate how tricky it can be to maintain the great UX, simplicity and performance of a demo when developing a full application. A demo is a safe playground where behaviors and external factors are controlled, while a real application must solve all imaginable, unexpected use cases. It is a testament to the hard work of the Research In Motion TAT team and the ease of BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app development that we were able to maintain a great UX in the final Scrapbook version.

The app team that developed the Scrapbook application consists of highly experienced developers and designers. All of us worked closely together to be able to maintain a very agile work process. This means weekly, and often daily, iterations. The key is to have a cross-competent team and a clear vision!

Early Scrapbook sketches and prototypes

In creating the initial Scrapbook demo, we focused more on creating an impressive and rich user interface (“UI”) rather than adding lots of functionality, which is why the initial release included only a select number of polished features. We iterated the visual style, animations and effects many times before we were satisfied. Finally, we managed to make all objects move seamlessly between menus and screens and the reflections of moving photos were just right. The Scrapbook app might actually have the subtlest visual effects our 3D programming experts have ever created!

This paper sketch image is from the very first idea video made by one of our colleagues while he was at home.

This image shows an early visual style experiment for Scrapbook.

This is the summary of a brainstorming session, including photos taken from a whiteboard.

Socializing by remixing

When brainstorming around Scrapbook, we thought a lot about what tablets are good for. Yes, they are great for consuming media and for playing games, and they have also become a platform for content creation (e.g. text, images or music). However, we think they might be even better for remixing content. People want to communicate around content they have generated or experienced, whether it is images, video, music, games or web pages. So why not create an app that allows users to remix images into social objects that they can share with their friends?

As a social application that allows people to communicate through fun visual creations, we wanted to make Scrapbook open-ended enough to support emergent behavior, so people can come up with new ways to use the app. With the new postcard themes and ability to share with friends via Facebook, we hope people will use Scrapbook v1.1 in new and creative ways we have not yet thought of. If you have any great Scrapbook stories, please share them with us!

Download Scrapbook v1.1

* Video music graciously provided by Daniel Johansson from the Research in Motion TAT team! Check out more of his music here.

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.

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

It’s always great to see how adding Super Apps characteristics will extend the functionality and stickiness of a BlackBerry® smartphone app. Sometimes, an application will end up surprising you, as was the case with the AccuWeather for BlackBerry application I got to see at BlackBerry World™ 2011 last week. In the above video, Mike from Xtreme Labs shows how something as seemingly simple as a weather application can leverage Super Apps characteristics to become a valuable tool in your daily life.

How are you building Super App features into your applications today? Leave us a comment and let us know!

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

With the BBM social platform development tools now in open beta, we are beginning to see developers create Super App experiences on BlackBerry® smartphones in new and exciting ways. One of the best use cases I’ve seen so far is in an upcoming version of the ScoreMobile for BlackBerry application, showcased by Five Mobile last week at BlackBerry World™ 2011. In the video above, Jeff from Five Mobile shows me how they’re leveraging the BBM social platform to make sports fandom a more social experience via status updates and BBM chat. Not only does this provide an enhanced user experience (half of the fun of sports is talking about them with friends, right?) but it means that developers can make their apps that much stickier using the BBM social platform.

If you’re interested in seeing other applications leveraging the BBM social platform, make sure to also check out our foursquare and BBM video demo.

I’m excited to introduce you to the first version of Twitter® for BlackBerry® smartphones today. We’re launching Twitter for Blackberry smartphones in a limited preview through invite codes. If you didn’t receive a download code, DON’T WORRY! Head to www.blackberry.com/twitter and sign up to receive notification when Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones is available to all via open public beta later this year. To hold you over until that happens, I’ve put together this application preview of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones. Let’s get started!

Integrating with the BlackBerry Platform:

The Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones application has been designed to take advantage of the BlackBerry platform to create a user experience that will be familiar to both Twitter and BlackBerry smartphone users. Some of the areas that we have focused on are:

• Push technology and Message List integration to notify you of your direct messages as soon as they arrive.
• Send/Share BlackBerry menu integration along with bit.ly URL shortening so that you can share your favorite BlackBerry App World™ applications, interesting websites or a random picture from your camera with your Twitter followers.

Here’s what it looks like to recommend an application to your Twitter followers from within BlackBerry App World.

Here’s what it looks like to share a website via Twitter using automatic bit.ly URL shortening from within the BlackBerry® Browser.

You can also capture what’s happening around you with your BlackBerry camera and send the shot straight to TwitPic!

Key Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphone features:

The Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones home page contains navigation icons for @mentions, user profile, direct messages, people search, topic search and trending topics.

Want to see who is following you, or manage who you are following? Access your profile to see and manage both lists.

If you need to talk to your followers directly, you can send a direct message from your Twitter inbox or through your BlackBerry message List.

Use the people search feature to find and follow new people.

Find out what is being said around you using a GPS-enabled BlackBerry smartphone to filter Twitter topic searches based on how close they are to your position.

Check out the current or recent popular Twitter topics to make sure you’re among the first to know what’s being talked about on Twitter.

Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones supports the official Twitter Re-Tweet feature, making it easy to share interesting tweets with your followers.

As I mentioned above, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones is available right now only through beta invite, but it will soon be available to everyone through Test Center in BlackBerry App World. We would love to hear your thoughts on what additional Twitter features you’d like to see in the application. Some examples we have in mind are: Geo-Tagging; Lists; Profile Editing and Multi-Account login. Make sure to sign up for notification, and stay tuned to Inside BlackBerry, MyBlackBerry and our official Twitter accounts for more details.

Twitter is a trademark of Twitter, Inc.