Let’s get started with Photo Studio™ by KVAD Group® for BlackBerry, available for both BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. The basic version of Photo Studio is free, while the PRO version costs $5.99 $3.99 to download and includes an expanded catalog of effects, picture frames, and a color splash editor.

Three features I love about Photo Studio, followed by a “Before and After” demonstration used on a picture of Puerto Rico taken by my friend:

• It makes a splash. Photo Studio boasts over 100 “effect” filters for your photos including “Vintage,” “Blur,” “Sketch,” and “Art.” Once your masterpiece is finished, Photo Studio allows you to share your pictures on Twitter®, Facebook®, BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), or other message applications installed on your device.
• It cures the blues (and reds, and greens…). Clean up any imperfections in old photos with RGB color adjust, hue, brightness, contrast, and saturation adjustments.
• It’s compatible. Photo Studio works on BlackBerry® OS 5 and up, along with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS. Developer KVAD Group also provides an open API for future developers to integrate their apps with Photo Studio, which means future messaging apps also have the ability to integrate with Photo Studio.

BEFORE

AFTER

Utilizing Photo Studio, I created the “after” picture by applying the “Old Style” effect and the “Mystique” effect before turning up the saturation and brightness by 25. Just like that, my picture of modern-day Puerto Rico is transformed into 1940s Casablanca.

As mentioned earlier, the “Before and After: Photo App” series will be a regular feature here on the Inside BlackBerry Blog, so if there is an app you would like to see featured or a question on a featured app you’d like answered, please let us know in the comments.

If you’re a BlackBerry® addict like me, the first thing you do in the morning is pick up your smartphone and check your email to see what happened overnight. Well, this morning I got a great surprise email from our game guru (and Director, Strategic Business Development for Gaming) Anders Jeppsson. Overnight, our friends at Rovio Entertainment Ltd. submitted Angry Birds Space HD for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet to BlackBerry App World™, and it’s now available for purchase!

Angry Birds Space HD for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet takes your favorite feathered friends on an out of this world adventure – “After a giant claw kidnaps their eggs, the Angry Birds chase it into a wormhole and find themselves floating in a strange new galaxy – surrounded by space pigs! Luckily the Angry Birds have super powers of their own…”

Click here to purchase Angry Birds Space HD today!

It’s that time of year again, #TeamBlackBerry (the most wonderful time of the year, some would argue) – the big football game is happening on Sunday, February 5th, 2012, and if you happen to have a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet handy, we want to help you keep up with the action! There’s a ton of great apps available for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that can assist you in tracking stats, checking scores, playing some virtual football yourself and even throwing an awesome party. (Because really, who can resist a good football tailgate party?)

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet can help you get the most out of Sunday football fun, and we think you’ll agree – it’s a great way to stay connected during the big game! This tablet multitasks better than any other, so you can plan, cook, watch, play, chat and trash-talk while you watch at home, at a friend’s, or at the bar.

You’ve got two days left until kickoff, so don’t delay – equip your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with these applications today and get ready to score a touchdown.

Pro Football Insider for BlackBerry PlayBook – NFL News

“Pro Football Insider” – sounds catchy, doesn’t it? And it could be you, once you’ve armed yourself with all the knowledge gained with this handy BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app from Pro Football Weekly, LLC. If you’re looking to get the most up-to-date game info and stats immediately, this is a must-have app during Sunday’s matchup.

Patriots Football Insider for BlackBerry PlayBook

For all the diehard New England fans who’ve got their fingers crossed for Tom to bring home the big prize, this app is for you. Thanks once again to Pro Football Weekly, LLC, New England fans can use this BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app to obtain in-depth coverage and expert analysis on their favorite team.

MADDEN NFL 12 by EA SPORTS for BlackBerry PlayBook

If you’re looking to completely round out your entire day of football madness, why not play some football during the commercial breaks? Madden NFL 12 by EA Sports for BlackBerry PlayBook puts the game in your hands. Think you can control a better game than the New England or New York? Step up and give it a shot!

For a limited time as well, MADDEN NFL 12 is just $3.99 USD in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront! Download the app for your Blackberry PlayBook tablet now and get the hard hitting action just in time for the game!

Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook

Now that you’re equipped with sports apps for both research and play, it’s time to find a place to watch the big game. If your living room just won’t do – or if you’re still cleaning confetti out of your carpet from New Year’s Eve – then consider downloading the Poynt® for BlackBerry PlayBook app and start searching for the best venue for your get-together. The app is designed to display any number of restaurants and pubs close to your location, so you’re sure to find a spot that works for everyone.

Groceries Made Easy

If you do choose to go the house-party route, then one thing a good tailgate party needs is tasty snacks. Think about it: what goes better with football than chicken wings, or chili, or guacamole, or…well, you get the picture. The Groceries Made Easy app will help you keep track of what you need to pick up at the supermarket in order to feed your party guests – and ensure that you don’t run out of salsa by halftime.

Photo Editor Extreme

Did you notice that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is equipped with front and back-facing cameras? All the better to snap photos of your friends cheering on their chosen teams! Once you’ve got some good ones, use Photo Editor Extreme to edit, crop, flip, and create genuine works of art out of your photos – then share them across your social networks. Which brings us to our next app choice…

Blaq for BlackBerry PlayBook

Providing live-running commentary on sports events has become commonplace now that Twitter® has exploded in popularity, and discussing the game across the Twittersphere is absolutely fun. Not only are you watching and talking about the game with your friends in the room, but with people all over the world as well! Blaq for BlackBerry PlayBook – which runs in real time – is just the app to help you do so.

And of course, aside from these app choices, we’d be remiss to not include the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s host of handy built-in features. Use Video Chat to discuss the latest plays with friends, boot up the Browser to search for bits of trivia about your favorite football players, watch play-by-play videos with YouTube®, launch the Video Camera application to capture all of your party’s memorable moments…the list goes on.

What do you have planned for Sunday’s matchup, #TeamBlackBerry – and will you have your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in hand to help out with the action? Do you have any other apps to add to this list? Let us know in the comments!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Hi everyone! We’ve got a special treat for you today – Mathias and Fredrik, our friends at The Astonishing Tribe, have put together a great blog post about the Arduino™ platform. If you’re searching for E.T., this might be your best weapon – how? Find out below… – Ed.

Today’s consumer devices pack an unparalleled bang-for-your-buck, giving end users blazing-fast and high-performing products. This is more than “fine and dandy” for users in the intended demographic of the device, but what about users like ‘The Prototyper,’ ‘The Hobbyist,’ and ‘The Startup Techie,’ to name a few? You recognize them from their desire to change the way that we use devices; to disrupt the established models; to get their hands dirty and create something new.

Yep, people like us are especially excited by new devices, and in our experience the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet’s power and performance has no equal for tinkerers.

With the relative complexity of today’s electronics, it’s not feasible to start from scratch; you need good building blocks to implement your vision. You’ll want to use commercial off- the-shelf (COTS) components as much as possible and you most likely don’t want to be bound to a bulky PC.

Fortunately, we have the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. It’s a powerful and portable consumer tablet, with a great user interface and an open SDK. We find it is an ideal platform to host your UI, crunch data, and more.

So how do we get started prototyping our ideas with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? For electronics concepts: enter Arduino.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Since the launch of the Native SDK for BlackBerry® Tablet OS closed beta, game developers have been able to leverage rich tools to take advantage of the power within the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. With the general availability launch of the NDK, along with the Scoreloop NDK beta availability, leveraging the full capabilities of the BlackBerry PlayBook is now easier than ever.

The video above highlights some great examples of gaming experiences on the BlackBerry PlayBook, including apps like Dead Space for BlackBerry PlayBook, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD, and N.O.V.A. 2 HD (full list below).

Spacelings by HotGen Limited
BattleBallz Chaos by Pocketeers Limited
Raging Thunder by Polarbit
Bejeweled 2 for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
THE GAME OF LIFE for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
Dead Space for BlackBerry PlayBook by Electronic Arts Inc.
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD by Gameloft Inc.
N.O.V.A. 2 HD by Gameloft Inc.
Let’s Golf 2 HD by Gameloft Inc.
ToFu by HotGen Limited

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Here’s a guest post from our friend Anders at RIM TAT! – Ed.

Cascades is the user interface (“UI”) framework that TAT has been using for many years to create numerous advanced UIs and applications, such as Scrapbook for BlackBerry PlayBook. I’m happy to announce that it will soon be part of the BlackBerry Native SDK for Tablet OS.

Here’s a short list of Cascades features:

• Great performance, including amazing transitions and animations
• Flexible UI layouts including free form lists.
• 3D support
• Support for mixing pre-packaged UI components with custom components
• Core UI feature support

Cascades was originally developed to enable development of really innovative and unique applications. This put hard requirements on the flexibility and extendibility of the UI framework. The need for designer/developer collaboration was also one of stronger driving factors when developing the framework. Let’s dig deeper into how Cascades will aid the development of rich and compelling UI.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog »

If you own a BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, you most likely have installed several apps and games from the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Today I’d like to show you how you can identify what version of an app or game is installed on your tablet in addition to how to view the security permissions for a specific app or game. This is useful information to know as security permissions can affect how an app or game performs on a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and what personal data it shares and stores on your behalf.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

#1 – Poynt

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

Poynt received the most mentions among #TeamBlackBerry, and is definitely one of my must-have apps. With Poynt, you can quickly find restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses around your current location – and easily call or email them right from the app. Their BlackBerry PlayBook tablet version is amazing, too – and works with the BlackBerry smartphone version to do some cool things. For example, check out the video above to see how you can find the phone number of a local restaurant using Poynt, and then push the phone number to your BlackBerry smartphone to start the call!

Download Poynt for BlackBerry smartphones
Download Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

#2 – BlackBerry Travel

It doesn’t matter if you’re a serious “no checked baggage” business traveler or a “seeing the world” backpacker, BlackBerry® Travel is a must-have, second only to your toothbrush. When you receive an email from your travel agent, BlackBerry Travel can automatically import the details and create a trip record for you. If there are any flight changes, BlackBerry Travel is designed to alert you right away and can even suggest alternate flights. The recently released BlackBerry Travel v1.1 even allows you to book a rental car right from the app.

Download BlackBerry Travel for BlackBerry smartphone

#3 – Tube Map

This is great app suggestion from our #TeamBlackBerry UK members. Whether you live in London or plan to visit (for holiday, for the Olympics, or for a decent cup of tea), you can easilynavigate London’s subway with Tube Map. Tube Map is designed to provide you with more than just static maps, you get live updates of train delays and schedule changes, too.

Download Tube Map for BlackBerry smartphones

#4 – foursquare

Foursquare isn’t just for becoming mayor of your local watering hole, it’s also my go to tool for finding cool things around me when I’m traveling. I can launch the app and see what my friends are up to, or use the ‘Explore’ section to see what’s trending around me. The locals always know where the best places are, and there’s no better way to find out where they are then with foursquare!

Download foursquare for BlackBerry smartphones

#5 – Navita Translator

Nothing is worse when traveling in a foreign country than not being able to ask for directions or for a recommendation from a local. Navita Translator makes sure you never have to go through that (again) by designing the app to let you quickly translate any phrase and even read the phrase back to you in languages like English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Russian. ¿dónde está el baño? Nice!

Download Navita Translator for BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Post a comment and let us know of any great travel apps that may have been missed. Make sure to send us more top 5 ideas for future posts too, either in the comments or with a tweet to @BlackBerry / @BlackBerryBlog.

Full disclosure: while Fall is particularly pretty in the Waterloo area, right now I wish I was in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup 2011, which kicked off this month and ends October 23rd. While I won’t be able to cheer from the stands, that won’t stop me from following all the action! Allow me to introduce you to a few ways your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet can help you stay on top of the games at the Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011).

BlackBerry.com/Rugby

In honor of the tournament, we have created a Rugby World Cup 2011 resource center for #TeamBlackBerry. From here, you can see the latest RWC 2011 news and upcoming games, learn how you can win a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and more.

And if you think you’ve got what it takes, make sure to enter The Ultimate Fan contest and demonstrate your Rugby World Cup 2011 devotion.

Check it all out at BlackBerry.com/Rugby!

Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Available now for download in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, the Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet gets you inside the Match Centre for live coverage, near real-time commentary and stats.

Get them both here: RWC 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry Smartphone

BlackBerry Australia & New Zealand Face Paint Facebook App

Why hide your enthusiasm for Rugby World Cup 2011 when you can paint it all over your face? With the BlackBerry® Face Paint app, available on our Australia and New Zealand Facebook® page, you can show all of your friends your team spirit. Check it out here:

Facebook Paint Your Face Application

What team will you be following on the Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry? Better yet, what color will you paint your face? Tell us in the comments section below – and for our #TeamBlackBerry teammates who are able to attend, tweet us a picture on @BlackBerry using the hashtag #BBRugby!

I’m E-Ming, a Product Manager at Research In Motion® (RIM®), and I wanted to tell you about the recent update to BlackBerry® News application for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! Before I get into the details of what’s new in BlackBerry News 1.1, I wanted to take a minute to thank #TeamBlackBerry for all the feedback that’s been provided so far! Be sure to keep it coming* – we love hearing about what you think of our app.

For those of you new to the app, BlackBerry News is a news aggregator that works with the RSS feeds provided by many different content providers. It enables you to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and then have them delivered to a single location to get the latest news, right on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Pretty convenient, huh? If you want to get further caught up, be sure to read our original post about BlackBerry News for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Now, let’s walk through the new functionality in BlackBerry News 1.1.

Portrait Orientation Support

We’ve optimized support for portrait mode by providing an article list view to help you view more headlines at a single time. We’ve also optimized the article list view, so instead of getting your magazine layout in landscape mode, you’ll get a portrait-mode list view of all the articles for quicker headline browsing. Whether you’re looking to enjoy a casual browse of your news or you’re a journalism junkie looking to stay on top of all the headlines, we’ve got you covered.

New Visual Indicators – “new” and articles marked read

We’ve added two new visual indicators – one that provides more context regarding which channels have new articles added since the app’s last content update, and another that displays which articles have already been read, so you’ll never have to read the same article twice (unless you want to!).

Go to Next/Previous Article

New navigational buttons mean you can easily move to the next or previous article. (I find these buttons make it much easier to read through my RSS feeds when I’m on the go.)

Channel Switcher From Magazine View

Using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s top-down swipe gesture, you can access the new channel switcher functionality to quickly switch to another category. Perfect for all you news addicts with quick attention spans!

Go to Feed After Subscribing

After subscribing to a feed in our content library, you now have the ability to go directly to that feed, so you can start reading your news right away.

Update News Through Data Tethering

With this update, you can take advantage of a paired BlackBerry® smartphone, so you can connect and update your feeds wherever you are and stay on top of what’s happening. Just make sure you have your BlackBerry smartphone paired up and a valid data tethering plan with your carrier.

Download Today!

Just as a reminder, your BlackBerry News subscriptions will be synced with your BlackBerry® ID, which means your news is available via BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or BlackBerry smartphone. So if you happen to be on the go without your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can still catch up on your favorite news by using your BlackBerry smartphone and the BlackBerry News Feeds application that’s available on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

I hope this update is helpful. And I hope you decide to download the updated BlackBerry News for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet today, and come back and share your feedback!

* 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.