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 »

Great news, #TeamBlackBerry: Twitter® for BlackBerry® smartphones v2.1 now has multi-account support—the top user requested feature. As of today, the app is leaving beta and will be made available for download in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront (please note it may take up to 24 hours for the app to appear in BlackBerry App World for some users).

In case you missed it, you can check out the highlights of the new multi-account support feature in the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v2.1 (Beta) blog post. I’d like to give a huge shout-out to our BlackBerry® Beta Zone users for their helpful feedback. The Twitter app development team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) has since implemented a keyboard shortcut (Alt+Space) to make switching accounts a cinch. (Note: the shortcut key does not work on devices with SureType® keyboards.)

There are also a couple of cool multi-account support features available for BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® 7 OS users in Social Feeds for effectively managing multiple Twitter accounts. Let’s take a closer look at Share with BBM and multi-account support in this updated version.

Share with BBM

While you could always share Tweets with your BBM contacts (as well as through email, text message, PIN, and Facebook®!), the Share with BBM feature has been added as a top-level menu item to make it easier to share Tweets with your BBM contacts. Having conversations about relevant Tweets through BBM has never been so easy.

Share Tweets with BBM Contacts and Groups

View multiple Twitter accounts in a single timeline

Using Social Feeds, you can view a stream of Tweets from up to five Twitter accounts in a single Social Feeds timeline, or you can opt to filter individual Twitter accounts.

View a stream of Tweets from all Twitter accounts in Social Feeds

Option to filter individual Twitter accounts

Post a Tweet to multiple Twitter accounts

Do you have one Tweet that begs to be published from multiple accounts – all at the same time? Now it’s possible to publish a Tweet to one or more Twitter accounts simultaneously. Just click New Post from the menu and select all of the Twitter accounts you wish to post a Tweet from and you’re good to roll. It’s that simple.

Post a tweet to multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously

As mentioned, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v2.1 with multi-account support and enhanced Share with BBM functionality will become available in BlackBerry App World over the next 24 hours. (Please note: The Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v2.1 app is available for users running BlackBerry® Device Software v5.0 and up. To check your device’s version of software and update it if applicable, see this Inside BlackBerry Help Blog post: How to identify BlackBerry Device Software versions.)

I look forward to reading your feedback on everything we do, but especially on Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones! Please log in and leave a comment below if you want to share.

If you’re a movie buff or a TV addict, you’ve probably experienced the moment where you see a writer or producer’s name you recognize, and instantly you know that you’re about to see something awesome. For apps, the equivalent of that for me is seeing the “BBM™Connected Application” pop-up when I launch a new app from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. I instantly click “Connect” and seconds later – BOOM – my app experience is now BBM enabled! There are over 200 BBM-connected apps available in BlackBerry App World today, with more and more being added each day. But I wanted to share my top 6 picks.

First, some background: Many of these apps are ones you know and love, but what’s really exciting is that developers are building brand-new apps from the ground up using the BBM Social Platform APIs. We’re also hosting BBM App Hackathons around the globe, where developers and Research In Motion® (RIM®) Developer Relations experts are getting together to learn about creating some awesome apps.

Let the countdown begin…

foursquare – [Free]
If I don’t count email, then my #2 most-used app after BBM is definitely foursquare. Their integration with BBM is my favorite example to use when explaining the awesomeness behind the BBM Social Platform APIs. With BBM, you and your close connections already have instant communication established. With the addition of foursquare, you now have location too! I knew this pairing was perfection when I checked into Toronto Pearson International Airport and was BBM’d a few seconds later by a friend of mine who was there too! We were able to meet up and grab a drink before our flights – which definitely made the two-hour wait fly by.

Screen Muncher™ – Now with BBM™! – [$2.99]
The BlackBerry App World team is spread around the world – from Ottawa to Mountain View, CA to Bali, Indonesia. When someone in my building here in Waterloo has a question about something on their BlackBerry® smartphone, they can just show me their screen in person. What do we do for the people who aren’t in the same office? Easy: Screen Muncher – and even easier now that it’s integrated with the BBM Social Platform APIs. My convenience key is set to Screen Muncher, and presto – a screen capture is taken of what’s on my BlackBerry. I can instantly share my screen capture with a co-worker over BBM!

Groupon – [Free]
I’m always on the lookout for new things to do around town, and Groupon delivers. Groupon’s recently updated app for the BlackBerry platform lets you share the “deal of the day” with your BBM contacts via the chat function within the app. (And who doesn’t like a good deal?) I recently saved 60% on a round of mini-golf for my daughter’s 3rd birthday party!

Jingu Avatars – [Free]
I typically use pics of my daughter doing something silly as my BBM avatar. But every now and then (especially on “Talk like a Pirate Day”) I like to create a custom BBM avatar, and the app I use for this is Jingu Avatars. Their BBM Connected app lets you create your own personalized avatar and upload it to your BBM profile with just a couple clicks!

EZLinks for BBM – [$0.99]
One of the coolest examples of a BBM-connected app I’ve seen is EZLinks. I update my BBM status 10-15 times a day – and let’s be honest, there’s a couple clicks to get there. EZLinks gives you a menu option to “Change BBM Status” and then has a really cool pop-up dialog where you can update your BBM status instantly. Definitely worth checking out.

Nic Nac Noe for BlackBerry – [$0.99]
Last but certainly not least is Nic Nac Noe. There are a lot of awesome games available that let you challenge your BBM contacts, but my favorite is definitely Nic Nac Noe. Nothing beats Tic-Tac- Toe –but with ninjas!

I’d love to know what your favorites are. Leave them in the comments below so I can try a few!

Let’s take a closer look at what’s new in this release.

Additional Profile Functions

You’ll notice that just to the right of My Profile photo and name, there are two new icons: Edit Profile and Switch Accounts. While you could always edit your profile via the Menu, now you can use the Edit Profile icon right from the Profile screen to change your picture or update your personal information. The Edit Profile screen has also received a new facelift.

New Edit Profile and Switch Account icons

Multi-Account Support

The new Multi-Account Support feature is designed to let you use up to five accounts on Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones. When logged into multiple accounts, the current user name will appear in the upper-left corner of the header bar and the user picture will appear in the My Profile icon. You can quickly switch between accounts by using the Switch Account function, accessible from My Profile or via the Menu. Have an interesting Tweet in one account that you’d like to share from another account? No problem, you can cross-post Tweets and Retweets from one account to another without switching the current account view. You can also stay notified of Mentions and Messages with near real-time notifications for each of your Twitter accounts.

Account Switch via My Profile

Account Switch on Retweet

This update is currently available in BlackBerry Beta Zone. To download the latest beta version, you need to register to become a BlackBerry Beta Zone member. Not sure how to get started? Check out Ty’s blog post on how to join a BlackBerry Beta Zone program. Please note that you must reside in one of the BlackBerry Beta Zone supported countries in order to participate in the latest beta release.

Download it today and be sure to leave a comment to tell us what you think.

With BlackBerry App World™ 3.0 beta coming soon, I was thinking about the evolution of BlackBerry App World and how far we’ve come. The BlackBerry App World™ storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps. BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!

I’ve been hearing about a number of great app success stories and I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of them here (and be sure to stay tuned to the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog to learn more about some of these and others in the coming months!).

Bellshare GmbH
Bellshare GmbH is based in Germany and offers a variety of interesting apps for BlackBerry® smartphones, including BeBuzz (free and paid versions), which is designed to let you assign LED light colors to particular contacts, and BeWeather, which is one of the leading weather apps on BlackBerry App World. In fact, Bellshare GmbH have almost 10 million downloads for the free versions of their apps combined, and have also achieved over $1 million dollars in sales through BlackBerry App World!

Doodle Blast
Doodle Blast, by BlackMoon Design, uses Flash® technology and is exclusive to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Doodle Blast is a puzzle game where physics plays a major role – you need to draw lines in order to guide falling marbles so they will fill the jar. It is quite addictive to play. In fact, in just 3 months on BlackBerry App World, Doodle Blast has surpassed 40,000 downloads.

EA Games
EA Games is a popular gaming platform and has many games available through BlackBerry App World that I’m sure you’re familiar with including Bejeweled®, TETRIS®, SCRABBLE®, MONOPOLY®: HERE & NOW™, YAHTZEE® Adventures, The Sims™ 3, THE GAME OF LIFE, MONOPOLY®, The Simpsons Arcade, SimCity™ Deluxe and of course Need for Speed™, which comes pre-loaded with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Jingu Apps
Jingu is a popular app that leverages the BlackBerry® Messenger platform to allow users to create an avatar, upload emoticons and chat with friends. In less than one month on BlackBerry App World, Jingu surpassed over 700,000 downloads and is now well on the way to a million downloads.

PolarMobile
Polar Mobile has created over 180 Super Apps for the BlackBerry® platform including Globe Life and Rogers SPORTSNET Mobile in Canada, as well as CNN Money and CBS Sports in the United States. Their apps concentrate on delivering an integrated and optimal user experience for BlackBerry smartphone users.

ScoreMobile
ScoreMobile is one of the most popular sports apps in BlackBerry App World today and is a true mobile application built from the ground up for all BlackBerry smartphones. This app provides up-to-the-minute sports scores, boxscores, player stats, betting odds, game previews, recaps, top stories, and league standings. In addition they even publish exclusive live blogs for key games and allow you to track live games with push alerts.

We’ve already started the move to BlackBerry App World 3.0 with the launch of Vendor Portal 3.0. The beta of BlackBerry App World 3.0 will start later this month, and we continue to evolve and improve the experience for both our developers and consumers. And as always, be sure to stay tuned to the Inside BlackBerry Blog for more updates!

Today marks the fourth beta release of Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones v2.0. Over the course of the last several months, we’ve introduced a slew of new features and functionality. Starting with the initial Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta release, we introduced Facebook Chat and a brand-new interface. In the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta refresh, we added support for BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 in addition to some new features and performance enhancements. And the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta 3 release included some of the top requested features, like Wi-Fi® support, the ability to delete comments and posts, and a new prompt that appears before you delete a Facebook message.

To add to the lineup of features in Facebook v2.0, this beta release includes some highly anticipated additions.

Enhanced Notifications – Get Notified of ‘Likes’

We’ve made several improvements to notifications; the first is that you’ll be now be notified of polled items (that is, notifications that aren’t delivered through BlackBerry® push technology), such as ‘Likes’ and Event Wall posts. The notification will even tell you who and what was ‘Liked’, so you’ll never miss a beat in your social life. By default, polled notifications will be set to a one-hour frequency but you can check as often as you like by selecting Refresh from the Menu.

And not to worry, polled notifications won’t drain your battery or consume unnecessary network usage since polling activity will automatically adjust according to your usage. For example, polling activity will be reduced during the night when the device is inactive.

After upgrading to the latest beta release, you’ll also notice upon initial sign-in that any notifications received over the last seven days will be populated in the notifications bar.

Cross-Channel Messaging – Share Facebook Content across BlackBerry Messaging Applications

Want to share something on Facebook with a contact from your BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) application? No problem! Deep integration of Facebook with core BlackBerry applications means you can efficiently send News Feed items to other messaging applications, like email, SMS, BBM, Twitter® and more. (Did you know you can also share content from Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones and Social Feeds with the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app? Try it out!)

Enhanced Integration with BlackBerry Native Apps

Building on enhanced integration with native BlackBerry smartphone apps, which was introduced with the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta refresh, Facebook v2.0 now includes additional messaging options from the ‘More’ button within a Profile and from the Friends list.

In-App Error Reporting

If you haven’t already downloaded the BlackBerry Feedback Tool from BlackBerry App World, you can install it through the Menu in the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app. The BlackBerry Feedback Tool can be used to send feedback on BlackBerry smartphone features, functions and applications at any time and is currently available in English only.

Touch Toolbar

BlackBerry smartphone users with a touch screen device will now have Compose, Reply and Delete icons located along the bottom of the device screen in the Facebook Inbox for quick and easy access to these popular features. (UPDATE June 30/2011: Touch Toolbar is only available for BlackBerry 6 users.)

To download the latest beta version, you need to register to become a BlackBerry® Beta Zone member. Please note that you must reside in one of the BlackBerry Beta Zone supported countries in order to participate in the latest beta release.

As we near the end of the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta program, I invite you to please post a comment below to share your feedback and tell us what you think about this latest release.

(Here’s another awesome guest post from Andreas to talk about the updated BlackBerry® Travel™ app – frequent travelers should definitely check it out! – Ed.)

I’m happy to announce that we’ve released BlackBerry Travel v1.1 today in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. I am very pleased by the reception of the application so far and appreciate all the great comments and suggestions we’ve received since we launched BlackBerry Travel v1.0 in mid-February in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Spain.

Since February, we’ve introduced a localized version and released it in five languages and in 70 countries. To date, there have been more than 1 million downloads. We’ve also made great progress in working with our industry partners and have signed up 8 partners to our BlackBerry Travel ecosystem, including well-known and respected brands such as Air Canada, United/Continental, Lufthansa, Hilton, Starwood, Accor, KLM and Travelport.

Today’s release introduces a variety of new features and enhancements:

1. Mobile Rental Car Booking: To get you where you need to go, you can now book a rental car from almost any rental car agency anywhere in the world, whenever you need transportation.
2. World Clock: One of the most often-requested features, we now have a world clock that has been designed to allow you to track the time across multiple locations worldwide. This is very handy when trying to figure the best time to call family back home!
3. Support for Car and Hotel Bookings in local currencies: We’ve added 20 international currencies to accommodate booking in local currencies.

Download the app from the BlackBerry App World (note: it may take up to 24 hours for the application to appear in BlackBerry App World) to give the new version a try and let us know how you like it. Thank you for your support and safe travels!

UPDATE 07/07/2011: Quick update, friends! Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 is now live in BlackBerry App World. Click the link and check it out! (Note: It may take up to 24 hours for the new version of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones to appear in BlackBerry App World for some users).

The Twitter® app team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) always strives to deliver a great user experience that meets the diverse needs of our customers. The updates included in this latest version were primarily driven by customer feedback we received on v2.0. We hope that you will be happy with the changes we’ve made to continue to improve the experience of Twitter for BlackBerry® smartphones.

The Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 Beta update is available today within BlackBerry® Beta Zone. Let’s take a look at the latest changes we’ve made:

Color Refresh

This update features a lighter color scheme consisting of light blue with a shade of white. This new, smooth color scheme makes it easy to follow where you are in the timeline and has been incorporated throughout the app.

Compose a Tweet

It’s all about options! By default, the Tweet composer is “hidden” from the Home timeline but accessible from the new “Compose Tweet” bar located below the nav bar as displayed in Option 1 below. Clicking the “Compose Tweet” bar will bring up the Tweet composer at the bottom of the screen, similar to if you’re composing a Tweet via the Menu or by using the same hotkey that you would use to compose an email message from the BlackBerry message list (for example, in English, the hotkey is ‘c’ if using a QWERTY keyboard). Alternatively, you can choose to display the Tweet composer as a static fixture at the top of the Home timeline (see Option 2).

Option 1

Option 2

Trending Topics now with local trends support

A Trending Topics icon has been added to the nav bar and now includes local trends support. Local trends helps you keep in touch with the trends in your area while on-the-go with the Twitter app.

My Profile

Now you can access your profile quickly and easily from the nav bar (or the Menu). And, you’ll notice that the icon is personalized with your profile picture to better help you identify the account that you’re logged into (teaser: this feature will be especially helpful should we include multi-account support in a future release. #justsayin =D).

Performance Enhancements

Last but certainly not least, we’ve included some performance enhancements to improve the overall usability of the app.

This update is currently available in BlackBerry Beta Zone. To download the latest beta version, you need to register to become a BlackBerry Beta Zone member. Please note that you must reside in one of the BlackBerry Beta Zone supported countries in order to participate in the latest beta release.

Check it out today and post a comment below to let us know what you think of the changes we’ve made.

We’ve been really pleased with your feedback on the initial beta release of the Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones v2.0 app that launched just six weeks ago. In terms of beta user satisfaction, Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 has achieved some of the highest ratings ever received on a BlackBerry smartphone beta app. We’re pleased to announce that the beta refresh of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 is available in BlackBerry® Beta Zone today, and that it includes the much-anticipated support for BlackBerry® Device Software v.5.0.

What’s New?

In addition to BlackBerry Device Software v.5.0 support, we’ve also added several new features and performance enhancements to improve the initial beta version. Let’s take a look at some of the new additions:

Facebook Chat Enhancements

While chatting with your friends, you will now know when they’re typing a message by the visual cue of “is typing a message”. As well, you can filter your Online Contacts to quickly find a specific friend and start a Chat message.

View Mutual Friends and Friends List

The ability to view Mutual Friends and Friends List is available from the Info tab on Profiles. With the new Mutual Friends feature, you can discover which friends you have in common with another user. You can also now view a user’s Friends List from their Profile if their privacy settings permit this.

Enhanced Integration with BlackBerry Native Apps

Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 is more integrated with native BlackBerry smartphone apps than ever. You can now click on PINs, phone numbers and email addresses that are displayed on Wall posts, messages on the Info tab, and either perform the respective action (e.g. place a call) or save the information to your BlackBerry Contacts application.

Performance Enhancements

As mentioned above, we also added these performance enhancements to Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0:

• Improved Facebook Chat connection.
• Cursor no longer disappears while scrolling through the News Feed.
• Consistent Chat message delivery notifications.
• Improved Online Contacts list loading time.

To download the latest beta version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0, you need to register to become a BlackBerry Beta Zone member. Please note that you must reside in one of the countries listed here in order to participate in the beta.

We truly appreciate the feedback and participation from our beta testers, and value their commitment to helping Research In Motion® (RIM®) deliver a high-quality app!

UPDATE: In less than 24 hours, we have reached over 10,000 downloads of Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones v2.0. To make sure more of you can download the app, 10,000 more beta trials have been added to BlackBerry Beta Zone!

I’m excited to announce the beta release of the Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones app v2.0 through BlackBerry® Beta Zone starting today. The Facebook app team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) has been working hard to incorporate the feedback we have received from our users to make v2.0 the biggest update to the Facebook application since we released v1.0 more than three years ago. This initial release of v2.0 has a redesigned user interface and also offers Facebook Chat!

Below are some of the new features of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0:

Facebook Chat

You can now check to see which of your Facebook friends are online and start a Chat conversation from within the Facebook application or within the unified mailbox on your BlackBerry smartphone.

On Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, as long as your status is set to online, you still receive notifications even if you are not using the Facebook app.

Improved News Feed

Improved News Feed interactions enable you to scroll through your News Feed without accidentally clicking ‘Like’; you can simply click the ‘More’ button (+) to interact with your friends’ posts. Enhanced publisher functionality allows you post photos to your Wall, add an update, or check in to a Facebook Place from the News Feed.

New Navigation Control

By introducing a whole new way to navigate the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones application, we’ve moved from a static navigation bar to a drop-down navigation control that is scalable to support new features in the future.

Notifications Bar

Borrowing from the BlackBerry® 6 OS’ “Today View”, the notifications bar offers an easy way to access your Facebook Notifications, Messages, Friend Requests and Chats from anywhere in the Facebook application.

External Notifications

You don’t have to leave the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app to see what’s new on your device. The BlackBerry smartphone external notifications header lets you see when you’ve received a new email message or BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) message without having to leave the Facebook application.

New Profile UI and Profile Information Viewing

The New Profile UI now provides Wall, Info, and Photo tabs for an even better browsing experience. New to v2.0 is the ability to view key information on Profiles and Pages, such as contact info, basic info like birthdays, hometown and relationship status, and likes and interests.

Head over to BlackBerry Beta Zone today to be one of the first users to join the beta for Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0! As this is an early preview, we have a limited number of beta spots open. Also, please note the initial beta release will be available for BlackBerry 6 users only, but support for BlackBerry® Device Software 4.6 and higher will be added in subsequent beta releases and will be available in the official version.

Try it out and let us know what you think!