After getting my hands on a BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 smartphone, I’ve started to create a lot more videos because playing them back on a 3.7” high-resolution display is a great way to relive moments I’ve caught on camera. Since I can capture videos in 720p HD as well, I’m recording a lot more footage for home movies I want to create, so if you’re in the same boat I am, I’ve put together a few things you should know about recording and sharing HD videos.

For this post, I’ll be featuring the BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone, which includes a 5MP camera with 720p HD video recording capabilities. When it comes to capturing live video, a few more features offered by the BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone are as follows:

• Flash
• Continuous auto focus
• Face detection
• Image Stabilization
• Geo-tagging
• 4X digital zoom (still images only)
• Zero shutter lag

Note: To view the features of other BlackBerry® smartphones, click here.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

Hi #TeamBlackBerry! This week’s Five Tip Friday, focuses on using multimedia on your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet – for example, playing music or using the BlackBerry® Podcasts app to watch your favorite channels (one of my favorite things!).

Let’s get started:

1. BlackBerry smartphone – Synchronizing music over the air using Wi-Fi® Music Sync

If you use BlackBerry® Desktop Software to synchronize your music, you’ll want to start using Wi-Fi® Music Sync! Simply put, this feature creates a listing of all the music you’ve synchronized onto your BlackBerry smartphone in addition to other music in your library that you haven’t synchronized yet.

The next time you find music in your library that isn’t on your BlackBerry smartphone, you can use Wi-Fi Music Sync to mark it. That way, the next time you are on the same Wi-Fi network as the computer that you installed BlackBerry Desktop Software on, the music you chose will automatically synchronize to your BlackBerry smartphone.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

UPDATE 7/20/11: BlackBerry Tablet OS 1.0.7 is back up and available for download to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Apologies once again for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 07/19/11: Some users who downloaded BlackBerry Tablet OS 1.0.7 today were experiencing an issue with their BlackBerry Bridge app. RIM expects to release an update to BlackBerry Tablet OS 1.0.7 later this week that will resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Michael here to tell you about the latest updates available for your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. BlackBerry® Tablet OS v1.0.7 is available today and introduces a variety of new features and enhancements – keep reading to find out what’s new in this latest update!

Improved connectivity & productivity with the BlackBerry Bridge application

• Enhanced Support for Saving Attachments – The BlackBerry® Bridge™ app offers you more flexibility around where and how you save attachments for viewing and editing. You can now save an attachment to a removable SD card, or to your BlackBerry smartphone’s internal flash memory.
• ZIP Attachment Support – The BlackBerry Bridge app now gives you access to ZIP files received as an email attachment. While bridged, you can now download a zip file from an email to your smartphone SD card and then extract compressed contents for viewing or editing on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Additional Multimedia Features

• Portrait Support in Pictures App – With BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7, pictures that you’ve taken with your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or transferred from your PC can now be viewed in either portrait or landscape formats for the layout that best fits your needs.
• Pinch to Zoom in Video App – Use the pinch gesture to zoom in on the finer details of your favorite video content, just like you would with a website or picture today – all while the video continues to play.

Additional Language Support

With BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7, we have also added support for the following 15 languages:

1. Basque
2. Catalan
3. Czech
4. Danish
5. Galician
6. Hungarian
7. Bahasa Indonesia
8. Norwegian
9. Polish
10. Portuguese Brazilian
11. Portuguese European
12. Swedish
13. Turkish
14. Romanian
15. Russian

How to update to BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7

Best of all, these updates are free and can be downloaded over-the-air from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 will be automatically updated to v1.0.7 as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process. Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will be presented with a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the Settings Menu under Software Updates.

Remember to also update the BlackBerry Bridge application on your BlackBerry smartphone.

Post a comment and let us know what you think of the new features added to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet!

Have you ever captured something awesome on the video camera of your BlackBerry® smartphone and wanted to share it with others? Maybe you caught some footage of your dog chasing its own tail, or your friend’s funny celebration after scoring a goal during a football game. Today I’d like to provide an overview of the various options available to you when you decide to share these videos with your friends and family.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

Later today, select BlackBerry Beta Zone users in the United States will get the opportunity to test out an upcoming radio discovery app, BlackBerry® Radio, and provide feedback to help us perfect it. This app will put multiple mobile radio services at your fingertips with no set-up and no cost for the beta user beyond their standard data plan costs.

BlackBerry Radio is not a traditional radio app, but instead works with multiple radio apps to make the process of finding and listening to radio on a BlackBerry® smartphone quicker, easier and more integrated by presenting a sampling of services from some of our most popular partners.

Here are four things you should know about BlackBerry Radio:

1. Simple discovery

With BlackBerry Radio, you can access popular digital radio services from one place. For example, users can choose from preset genre-based radio channels provided by popular radio services. BlackBerry Radio features a combination of Internet radio (including Slacker) and terrestrial radio (including Clear Channel, Corus, and others). Music discovery from within BlackBerry Radio is also simple, as you can choose from a variety of genres like Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Jazz and more, with just one click.

2. Easy access to radio apps for more stations and features

If you really enjoy the channels provided by Slacker, for example, you can easily download their premium radio app at any time from within BlackBerry Radio.

3. Seamless integration into the BlackBerry Media Experience

While listening to music streams from participating radio partners, users in the US will have quick access to the recently launched Amazon MP3 storefront to purchase songs currently playing. Users can also access BlackBerry Radio at any time from within the music menu on their BlackBerry smartphone.

4. Trying services out – for no additional cost!

With BlackBerry Radio, you will be able to sample all of the various preset stations even if you aren’t subscribed to the partner service(s).

For now, this app is only available to beta testers in the US, but we’ll keep you posted once this app is available for all to enjoy. If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up to become a BlackBerry Beta Zone user to try out BlackBerry Radio and other great beta apps.

What’s your favorite BlackBerry Radio service? Let us know in the comments.

The new multimedia experience in BlackBerry® 6 has been designed to be intuitive, easy to use and fun! From a music player, to podcasts, videos and a stunning camera, it is fully equipped to not only take your media with you, but also enjoy it with your friends.

Let’s take a closer look at the Music player!

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

It’s been an exciting week for the BlackBerry PlayBook and our sister site the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog. Not only did RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis demo BlackBerry PlayBook apps during the Adobe MAX 2010 keynote, but he also announced a BlackBerry PlayBook giveaway for developers! The BlackBerry PlayBook SDK for Adobe AIR was also released in beta, allowing eager developers to get started building great BlackBerry PlayBook apps. Make sure to watch the video above to see BlackBerry PlayBook apps in action and click on the links below for the rest of the news from Adobe MAX 2010.

BlackBerry PlayBook Developer Promotion Information
BlackBerry PlayBook Demo Highlights from Adobe MAX
BlackBerry PlayBook SDK: Adobe AIR Development
BlackBerry at Adobe Max 2010

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.

iTunes is a trademark of Apple Inc.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the BlackBerry® Desktop Software v6.0 sneak peek and officially kicked off our first-ever BlackBerry Desktop Software for Windows® limited public beta program. Your amazing feedback and comments on the post have been truly inspiring to both me and the teams working on the product!

Today, I have some more exciting news for you as well as a more detailed walkthrough of key user interface and feature changes in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0. Read on to take a closer look at BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 and learn when it will be available on a PC near you!

Connecting a new BlackBerry® smartphone

Something that is one hundred per cent new in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 is a very simple set-up wizard which you will see when you connect any of your current BlackBerry® smartphones for the first time with BlackBerry Desktop Software. This set-up wizard will help you to automatically transfer all your data and settings from your BlackBerry smartphone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a novice or expert – with just a few very simple steps, you will be fully set up and be able to run the new BlackBerry Desktop Software. Among other things, you can even give your BlackBerry smartphone a nickname and specify which tasks you’d like to be done automatically when connecting with BlackBerry® Desktop Software.

Summary and Device Options

As some of you have noted in your comments, the BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 layout and Device Summary are now much more similar to what many of you have seen and loved in our Mac version of Desktop Software. In addition to device information and an indication of when the BlackBerry smartphone was last synced or backed up, the summary screen also provides an easy way to kick off a new backup if you opted out of the automatic option, as well as the option to update your BlackBerry smartphone when updates become available.

Any settings configured during set up can be updated at your leisure from Device Options menu, also accessible now from the Summary:

New Interface to Add/Remove Applications and Configure Organizer Sync

As with previous versions of BlackBerry Desktop Software, you can manage applications to install BlackBerry Device Software-optional applications to your BlackBerry smartphone (like support for new languages), or remove any third-party apps you may not want to use anymore. Removing or adding an app is just a matter of clicking on the ‘+’ or ‘X’ buttons in the action column, and the Application Summary screen will be updated to reflect what will happen after you select ‘Apply’ for the changes.

Once your Organizer settings have been configured, the new user interface provides an easy way to control what specific data you would like to sync next time. In addition to previously supported organizer applications like Microsoft® Outlook® Express, Windows® Vista Address Book and Calendar, Microsoft® Outlook® 2003 and 2007, with BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 you can also sync with Microsoft® Outlook® 2010 (32bit mode).

Integrated BlackBerry® Media Sync!

All BlackBerry® Media Sync features are now integrated natively in BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0, with plenty of improvements and new features including Wi-Fi® Music Sync for BlackBerry® smartphones (with BlackBerry® 6). Vikram has covered the features of BlackBerry Media Sync 6.0 in detail in his great blog post, but here is a quick summary of the key enhancements:

• In addition to playlists, you can now also sync by artists or genres
• You can now sync videos from your computer to your BlackBerry smartphone and import new videos from your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer
• New pictures and videos can be automatically imported as part of autosync when your BlackBerry smartphone is connected

BlackBerry Desktop Software v6.0 is available starting today, so existing BlackBerry Desktop Software users should start getting auto-update notifications later today. The rest of you can visit www.blackberry.com/desktopsoftware. Post a comment and let us know what you think!

Mac is a trademark of Apple Inc.

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.