Stay connected with your friends and family while on-the-go with the latest Facebook update for BlackBerry 10. The Facebook app for BlackBerry 10 has seen a number of updates since we’ve launched and it keeps getting better with every new iteration. The Facebook app v10.2.0 for BlackBerry 10 is no exception. It brings a refreshed new design and many features that are designed to make your mobile Facebook experience on BlackBerry 10 amazing.

What’s new in Facebook v10.2.0 for BlackBerry 10

• Create an album: You can now create a new albums from your photos page, so organizing all those great shots you capture on your BlackBerry 10 device is easy.
• Upload to a specific album: now you can add a new photo to an existing album on your Facebook page, or to that new album you just created.
• Enable tagging in existing photos: Want to tag a photo that already exists on Facebook from you BlackBerry 10 device? Now you can with this feature that’s new to the app.
• New ways to toggle and easily view photos: Easily toggle between all your photos and Albums. All photos comprises of all the photos with you in them. Album photos are photos you have uploaded yourself.
• Newsfeed design refresh: The newsfeed has been refined with a few visual tweaks that make navigating the Facebook app for BlackBerry 10 that much more enjoyable.

Are you a Facebook for BlackBerry 10 enthusiast? I’d love to hear from you about what you think of the app and what features you’d like to see added in the comments below. Be sure to download the Facebook app from BlackBerry World and give it a spin.

Facebook for BlackBerry 10 smartphones version 10.2.0 is available globally for devices running BlackBerry 10 version 10.1.

With her love for BlackBerry tweeted proudly across the internet, Heather has been on our radar for some time – so imagine how excited we were to run into her and her family at BlackBerry Live this month! We could not resist the opportunity to talk with her and bring her into the Fan of the Month (FOTM) club!

Meet Heather: A self-proclaimed BlackBerry fanatic, she plays on Team BlackBerry from multiple angles. For work, Heather praises BlackBerry as a key tool in getting organized. In her personal life, Heather keeps in touch with close friends and family through BBM. For play, Heather gives a big thumbs up to BlackBerry’s Travel app which kept her from staying overnight in an airport on her way to BlackBerry Live (read the impressive story below)!

Heather’s family has racked up a whopping 16 BlackBerry devices over the past few years—but it’s not just her own household that she’s spreading BlackBerry love to. Heather is the brains behind “Make Baby Smart,” a BlackBerry Z10 app that allows parents to show their newborn a series of images that can aid perceptual development. Yup, she’s training the future of Team BlackBerry young!

We are PSYCHED to dub Heather our June FOTM. Read on as Heather (@heatherwight) tells all:

1. How many years have each of you been on Team BlackBerry?
My family has been on Team BlackBerry since 2007, starting with one of BlackBerry’s first color models, the BlackBerry 7230.

2. How many BlackBerry devices have you both had in total? Could you list them all out for us?
Our family has had 16 BlackBerry devices, so far. But of course, we have plans for more. We started with the BlackBerry 7230, then we moved on to two BlackBerry Curve devices, a BlackBerry Storm, two BlackBerry Bold 9000 devices, two BlackBerry Torch 9800 devices, and a BlackBerry Torch 9810.

We currently have in our possession: two 16 GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, a 32 GB BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, two black BlackBerry Z10 devices, and two red developer’s limited edition BlackBerry Z10 devices. We will also be getting at least one BlackBerry Q10 when it becomes available in the United States in early June.

3. How many BBM contacts does each of you currently have?
We have a total of 32 BBM contacts. We primarily use BBM to stay in contact with close friends and family.

4. What are your favorite BBM emoticons?
My personal favorite is the “nerd” emoticon, because I am such a nerd at heart. But I frequently use the emoticons with smilies, hearts, and kisses.

5. What is the best BBM either of you ever received?
The best BBMs I have ever received are the day to day messages from my close friends and family. So, I guess I’m pretty fortunate that I get the best BBMs every day.

6. Heather, if you could BBM your BlackBerry, what would you say? How do you think your BlackBerry would respond?
I’d ask if the notification symbol is a “splat” or a “spark.” It would say: “Splat!”
*Donny’s note – it’s a “spark”.

7. Heather, we know you developed an app for the BlackBerry Z10. Tell us more about what your app does, and where you got the brilliant idea for it.
“Make Baby Smart” is the name of our application. It allows parents to show their newborn a series of images — over 200 in total — which include high-contrast colors and patterns as well as facial imagery. Studies have shown that newborns are more capable of perceiving high contrast imagery and doing so can aid in their perceptual development. Just as importantly, we’ve seen that babies are not only fascinated by the imagery in our app, but also seem to really enjoy looking at it.

As to the origins of “Make Baby Smart,” we developed the application on BlackBerry 10 for the Z10 after I attended BlackBerry Jam Americas (San Jose) while I was 8 months pregnant. There are physical flashcards that serve a similar purpose available for sale online, but when you are 8 months pregnant, the idea of lugging around hundreds of such flashcards in your already crowded purse seems very, very far from ideal.

“Make Baby Smart” is available by searching for “Make Baby Smart” in BlackBerry World or via the following link http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/24383879/.

8. How does BlackBerry keep each of you organized with your work?
BlackBerry’s devices are fantastic when it comes to staying organized. Brandon, my husband, uses the BlackBerry Remember app on his BlackBerry Z10 to implement a modified form of David Allen’s “GTD”. BlackBerry 10′s invocation/sharing features make quickly sending future action items from email to BlackBerry Remember very easy.

I was extremely impressed with the BlackBerry Travel app too. I love how it scans your email and messages for you and incorporates all of the travel information into one itinerary. The app even notified us of flight changes before the airlines did!

In fact, one early status update we received from BlackBerry Travel saved us from an awful experience on the way to BlackBerry Live this year. We were notified by BlackBerry Travel that our flight was delayed (but the change hadn’t been posted to the screens in the airport yet). We went to speak with someone at the airline to see what was going on. They were going to move us to another airline, change gates, and hopefully switch our luggage over so we might have it in time for BlackBerry Live. We were going to end up spending hours and possibly the night at the airport for our layover. This was going to be a nightmare with a five month old baby in tow. We asked about any other possibilities and the woman found a way for us to get on a flight with the original airline and it was leaving in just few minutes. We ended up getting to Orlando an hour earlier than our original plans! Had we not had BlackBerry Travel, we wouldn’t have known about all of the changes until it would have been too late to catch the earlier flight.

At any rate, it’s really important to us to have devices that can multi-task seamlessly. BlackBerry smartphones are so solid and they always work.

9. What did you both think about BlackBerry Live? Did any announcement in particular stand out?
We loved BlackBerry Live. The entertainment, food, and opportunity to celebrate with fellow BlackBerry fans was amazing. I was pleased to hear that BBM will be going cross-platform. Right now I use it primarily for close family and friends, but the introduction of channels and the potentially broader audience makes me think it may become my favorite overall social network, as well.

Brandon liked the new list of 10.2 APIs and the “headless” app announcements. He also pointed out that the developer relations team tends to announce not only new features, but new ways of looking at what a BlackBerry app ought to be as opposed to apps on other platforms. This time around, the mantra was for apps to “sense, understand, and adapt,” which made perfect sense given the introduction of new APIs like geo-fencing. Finally, Brandon thought, as an end user and a BlackBerry fan, that the WiFi Direct / MiraCast announcement for 10.2 had the potential to make the devices very, very useful for presentations, gaming, and streaming media and thought the “coolness” of that announcement was somewhat overlooked by many given the event’s large and trans-formative announcements regarding BBM.

10. And finally Heather, we just have to ask: Are you prepared to handle the fame that comes with being our Fan of the Month?
I’ll try to use my 15 minutes of BlackBerry Fan of the Month fame wisely. I’ll do something like donate time helping the less fortunate and setting up a charity. *wink* But in all seriousness, we are very grateful to BlackBerry for the wonderful experiences at their events and for making great devices. Keep up the great work!

Be sure to check out the other awesome members of the BlackBerry Fan of the Month (FOTM) club:

January – Brian (@newshutr)
February – Ivan (@IvanSHarris)
March – Jane (@photosfromabb)
April – Josh (@BBbrodyBB)
May - Mark (@AllAboutMyBB)
June – JT (@jt_teran)
July – Kimberly (@kmcooley)
August – Mike (@flash0p)
September – Jon (@nerdologist_jon)
October – Guido (@FuriousGuido)
November – Ange (@Afl2277)
December – Zalman (@Zalman5K)
January 2013 – Arisham (@arisham2003)
February 2013 – Julie and Andrew
March 2013 – Gino (@eugenbaban)
April 2013 – Sergio (@icemanswimmer)

Keep sharing your FOTM suggestions with us, either by leaving a comment below, tweeting to us @BlackBerry on Twitter, or posting on our Facebook page. Stay tuned – our July FOTM could be YOU!

My first BlackBerry Live conference, and I’m definitely inspired. I’m in the enviable position of having recently joined in the company of a brand with a groundbreaking product platform, a disruptive marketing organization, a stellar social media team, and a global top 10 social fan base — ~32MM followers and fans that are not only rooting for our success in a volatile category, but have armed themselves as ambassadors for our cause.

Say no more than a recent tweet by world champion cyclist Mark Cavendish “Got an hour to relax, so playing around with my BlackBerry Z10. This phone is a monster! I love it! And no, this ISN’T a commercial tweet.”

Got an hour to relax, so playing around with my BlackBerry Z10. This phone is a monster! I love it! And no, this ISN’T a commercial tweet.

— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) May 9, 2013

But there’s an even more specific reason it’s so thrilling to be here at this point in time. Humility and Ambition. BlackBerry has a mega-challenge ahead of it driving adoption of BlackBerry 10, but the organization is humble enough to recognize what we’re doing wrong, curious enough to learn what we don’t know, and ambitious enough to make it right.

Ambition is at the core of the BlackBerry brand. And it’s who BlackBerry customers are — multi-taskers, fast-moving and ambitious. We’re balancing family, friends and professional lives, we’re ‘up to stuff’ in our day-to-day lives, work or play, we’re always on-the-go. More than just a tag line, ‘Keep Moving’ is a promise to support our customers in achieving their ambitions. Be it a personal ambition of climbing Kilimanjaro, spending more time with your kids, or a career goal to build the most social brand ever (yep, that’s mine), our role as the social team is to provide you with what you need to achieve your ambitions. Social Media is integral to what we do at BlackBerry, because while we’re mobile from the ground up, our device is social at its core too — connecting you to the people and information you need to keep moving. Our social marketing needs to reflect that ethos, to behave in the same way our product does, and it’s our commitment to bring you the social connections, experiences, content and even insights you need, to get where you’re going.

More than lip service, we made some announcements that support just this focus at BlackBerry Live this week. Alicia Keys announced the BlackBerry Scholars Program, a four-year scholarship fund to support young women in achieving their ambitions to make a mark on the world, while encouraging women to embrace careers in technology. Our newly announced Keep Moving Projects turns the celebrity endorsement model on its head. Rather than paying artists or celebrities to say what we want them to say about our brand, we’re asking artists to approach us with projects they want to do, and we’re asking them how we can support them in achieving their goals and ambitions. We know we’re going to get more authentic content and experiences this way, people who want to work with us and engage with our product for the right reasons.

Stay tuned for mobile social developments in this space. So glad to be here, and working for you and together with you, be sure to let us know what you’re up to in your lives, and what we can do to keep you moving. We’d love to learn more.

I’m sure you can’t wait to check out some of the new features and enhancements you can look forward to when you pick them up. Check out all the details below.

New Features for Twitter version 10.0.3/10.1.3

• Enjoy more content with Universal Search –See more content when you’re searching. You’ll be able to view related profiles, tweets and top tweets, photos and relevant searches all on one page.
• Always Fresh Content – Content that is always fresh and up to date. Automatic caching gives you the current information at your fingertips without having to manually refresh your tabs.

New Features for LinkedIn version 10.0.3/10.1.3

• Find your current contacts on LinkedIn: With the latest update, you can import the personal address book from your BlackBerry 10 device to LinkedIn, making it easier to view and connect to your contacts on LinkedIn.
• UI improvements: We’ve updated the overall design of the LinkedIn application for BlackBerry 10 to improve the user experience. These updates include improved visual styling, better pull down functionalities for refreshes, touch down feedback on clicking list items, and more.
• Follow and learn about companies :An important element of LinkedIn is the ability to connect to companies and subscribe for company related updates and content. The latest version of LinkedIn for BlackBerry 10 allows you to view information about the companies you follow in greater detail, such as:
• How you’re connected
• About
• Jobs
• Similar Companies
• News & Updates
• Other Updates: We’ve made quite a few additional updates to LinkedIn for BlackBerry 10. These include inbox enhancements, deleting and archiving messages, people search improvements, and the ability to update your profile photo from within the app. To get all the details, visit the official app page on the BlackBerry World application storefront.

Do these updates have your mouth watering? Download them now on BlackBerry World: Twitter v10.0.3/10.1.3 and LinkedIn v10.0.3/10.1.3 and let us know what you’re most excited for in the comments below.

Please note the apps may take up to 24 hours to appear in BlackBerry World storefront.

I’ve got some awesome news for those of you who just picked up your new BlackBerry Z10 in the US and for you old pros around the globe. Facebook and Twitter have been updated for BlackBerry 10. What I love, is that with each update, we’ve added some new features that make it easier for you to stay connected and do more with social media on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Check out each section below for a summary of new features and improvements and be sure to swing by the BlackBerry World storefront where each of these updates are available as a free download.

Facebook version 10.0.1 New Features

• Friends Nearby – Now, Facebook for BlackBerry 10 allows you to discover if your Facebook friends are nearby. You’ll be able to see when they’ve checked in on Facebook to a location that’s close to where you are.
• Photo Updates – There are new ways of interacting with your Facebook photos. Now you can now easily add photo tags to a photo you’re uploading within the Facebook application. Plus if you like that photo or funny picture your friend just shared on Facebook, you now have the ability save Facebook photos locally on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
• Events – This improvement is designed to make it even easier to plan and keep track of your events. You can now view and respond to events, invite your friends to attend, create and view posts on the event wall, post photos, and even tag guests.
• Sharing – Sharing information is at the core of BlackBerry 10 and now it easier than ever to share what matters to you with all of your contacts. Using the BlackBerry 10 share framework, you can now easily share links from your Facebook newsfeed to BBM, email, SMS, Facebook Twitter, and others.

Twitter version 10.0.2 New Features

• Your Connect Tab – View all interactions in one place, including new follows, favorites and mentions.
• Enjoy More Content – Take a look at photos, article summaries and other updates within your Tweets.
• Added Perspective – See the number of times a Tweet has been favorited.

Check out these updates now and get tweeting, liking and sharing on your BlackBerry Z10.

Download Facebook for BlackBerry 10

Download Twitter for BlackBerry 10

Please note the app may take up to 24 hours to appear in the BlackBerry World Storefront.

BlackBerry 10 is launching in less than 24 hours and we couldn’t be more excited. The official launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple cities around the world including New York City, Toronto, London, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. Tomorrow we will unveil the BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. To keep you connected to all of tomorrow’s action, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of all of the BlackBerry social channels where you can get the most up to date information in real time.

How to Stay Connected to the Action

Twitter is a great first stop for real-time information and updates. @BlackBerry will be live-tweeting from the global launch event providing news and updates as they happen. @BlackBerry4Biz will be a great resource for business related announcements and updates, and @BlackBerryDev will provide up-to-date information for developers.

We will also be posting updates throughout the day on our LinkedIn Company Page, and the BlackBerry for Business LinkedIn Group will be a great forum to join in on conversation.

You can also check out our blogs regularly for more in depth updates and information about the newest BlackBerry 10 features:

• Inside BlackBerry
• Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog
• Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog

The Inside BlackBerry Help Blog will also be providing tips, how-tos and walkthroughs.

How to join the conversation

We also want to hear from you. Leave us your initial thoughts on BlackBerry 10 in the comments below. If you’re tweeting, be sure to include the #BlackBerry10 hashtag. We’ll be back tomorrow with updates. Until then, let the countdown continue!

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 »

Many of us, particularly readers of this blog, use our BlackBerry® smartphones and tablets to get things done at work or on the road. We’re business users, and while we do love all of the personal apps and social experiences that the devices offer, we’re also passionate about productivity and staying on top of our tasks. One place that we all come together is the BlackBerry for Business discussion group on LinkedIn.

Beyond editing the BlackBerry for Business Blog, I also have the pleasure of being the community manager for this LinkedIn group. The discussions are always spirited and engaging, and range from app recommendation requests to discussions on maximizing ROI from BlackBerry solutions.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

I’m fairly open with social media in my day to day life – especially when it comes to earning badges and checking in on Foursquare, a free app that helps you and your friends make the most of where you are. On a recent trip to New York City, one feature I found particularly useful on the Foursquare for BlackBerry ® smartphones app was Explore. It helped me find the perfect nearby place for a mid-town lunch and pointed me in the right direction to some of the city’s most recommended hotspots.

Until recently, this has only been available to Foursquare users who have signed up for an account, but now it has been updated so that anyone can find the best places nearby by using Foursquare Explore — no signup required. This amazing mobile feature is available first on BlackBerry devices!

Curious how it all works? I got a chance to chat with Pete Nofelt at Foursquare and he wanted to pass this along to our readers:

Recently, we made Foursquare Explore available to everyone at Foursquare.com, even for people who haven’t signed up or checked in. Inspired by the possibility of making Foursquare available to as many people as possible, our BlackBerry team went to work during a company hackday to create a logged-out experience for mobile, too. Starting now, all BlackBerry users can download Foursquare and start searching for amazing places, before they’ve even signed up. Now, anyone can search for “lunch special,” “Thai,” or “spring rolls” using Foursquare Explore on their BlackBerry. Foursquare finds the best places nearby, and shows photos, tips, hours, menus and more to help people decide. Explore gets even more powerful once you sign up for Foursquare and start checking in. We can customize Explore based on what you like, where your friends have been, and show you money-saving specials from businesses you love.

By analyzing nearly 3 billion check-ins and 30 million tips, Foursquare can provide amazing local recommendations for places, even for someone who hasn’t signed up or checked in yet. To help people find the best places, we look at a bunch of signals, like what’s popular in the neighborhood, where the local experts go, the time of day and more. Plus, our search is flexible – you can search for a type of place (‘sushi’), a particular item (‘veggie burger’), or a specific place. Because Explore searches through those tens of millions of tips, Foursquare is designed to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Have you been holding off from using Foursquare because you didn’t want to sign up for a new account, or because you’re new to social media? Now you can use Foursquare Explore on your BlackBerry smartphone and use their extensive database to your advantage. Download the update today and let us know what you think in the comments below.

It’s been challenging, yet exciting at Research In Motion® (RIM ®) as we prepare for the transition to the new (and amazing) BlackBerry® 10 operating system. No doubt, we’ve got a fighting spirit and developed some thick skin being the brunt of jokes, rumors and speculation. Hey, we’re all for competition, and a jab here and there keeps us on our toes. Not only do we believe in BlackBerry 10, but we are proud to be a part of RIM.

Time and time again you’ve heard it from us, and our position is not changing. So, listen instead to the millions in our extended #ProudToBeTeamBlackBerry family who have boldly and consistently shared their opinions here, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and across our social communities. We’ve highlighted just a few below…

Some people think @blackberry users are the Black Sheep of the industry. I'd rather be a Black Sheep than an iSheep any day #BB10Believe—
Mike Magliocchi (@mike_mags) October 16, 2012

I'm NOT ashamed of MY BlackBerry: nytimes.com/2012/10/16/tec… @BlackBerry #TeamBlackBerry—
Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 16, 2012

Proud member of #TeamBlackBerry and team #blacksheep—
Joe Scheller (@NightRunner82) October 16, 2012

80 million+ people hold their @blackberry with pride #nytimes plays iGame.—
Fido Web Hosting (@fidowebhosting) October 16, 2012

Even if I broke it, I still love my @BlackBerry 9800. Haters gonna hate, but for #BB10 I'll wait. #BB10Believe #NotEmbarrassed—
Seb H Miller (@shebmiller) October 16, 2012

@nytimes I love my @BlackBerry #teamBlackBerry FTW let the revolution begin!!!!!—
Jackson *jackpot* (@JTVU01) October 16, 2012

We remain steadfastly devoted to each of you, appreciative of your support and honored to share what’s to come. Share why you’re proud to have your BlackBerry with us in the comments below.