Hey, #TeamBlackBerry, dreaming of getting away this summer to some place warm and sunny? Well, listen up because we want to send you to Australia! Check out the “Travel Better with BlackBerry®” Contest and enter for your chance to win† a trip for two to Australia, plus a USD $2,500 gift card. You could soon be hanging out Down Under.

In addition to the grand prize, we’re giving away two great prizes each week (winners will be contacted directly) – one consists of a BlackBerry® smartphone and a travel gift pack and the other includes luggage, a travel gift pack and a $1,000 gift card. You can enter on Twitter® using the #TravelBetter hashtag or on the Contest Website, or both. See the Official Contest Rules for complete Travel Better with BlackBerry contest details.

And stay tuned, travel lovers – we’re introducing cool new features into BlackBerry® Travel v1.1 arriving in BlackBerry® Beta Zone soon. (You can check back here, or follow us on the @BlackBerry Twitter account and we’ll announce when it’s available. For now, check out this hands on demo of the BlackBerry Travel application currently in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.)

†No purchase necessary. A purchase will not increase your chance of winning. Entry deadline: 11:59 PM ET, June 26, 2011. Open to residents of the continental United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in the province, state or territory where they reside. Skill-testing question applies for Canadian entrants. One (1) Grand Prize (ARV: $22,500) and 12 weekly prizes – 2 per week – (ARV: $1,850) available to be won. Limit two (2) entries per person per week – one (1) via contest website; one (1) via Twitter. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries.

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

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

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

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

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

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

(YouTube link for easy mobile viewing)

One incredibly cool demo that I saw this year at BlackBerry® World™ 2011 was Poynt’s integration of BlackBerry push services to call a number on a BlackBerry® smartphone from their BlackBerry PlayBook™ tablet app. Peter Werry from Poynt, winner of last year’s BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge, walks me through this new feature and other innovative uses of BlackBerry services in the above video.

Post a comment and let us know what super app features you’re building into your application.

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

Hot on the heels of Monday’s Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook app announcement, I decided to catch up with our friend, fellow blogger and BlackBerry App World™ Project Manager, Alex Kinsella to show us the ins and outs of the new app. If you’ve got your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet in hand, the app is available for download from BlackBerry App World right now!

Let us know what you think and feel free to post a comment if you have questions you’d like us to ask Alex! Don’t forget to check Monday’s post for more information:

New Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet App

Update: Check out our video demo of Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with BlackBerry App World Product Manager Alex Kinsella, live from BlackBerry World 2011, after the jump!

Attention BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet owners and Facebook® users! It’s my pleasure to show you the Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app, which offers the most popular features and functionality of Facebook in a tablet-optimized experience.

The Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app will be showcased at the BlackBerry World™ 2011 conference and will become available for download from BlackBerry App World™ this week.

Let’s take a brief look at some of the key features of Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

Facebook Chat

• Facebook Chat takes advantage of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s high-resolution screen by splitting the application into two separate panels for side-by-side viewing of your online contacts and active conversations.
• From within the Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application, you’ll always be up to date on active chats. Notifications of new Chat messages will appear in the Incoming Chat popover located on the Nav Bar, so you can quickly and easily access new Chat messages as you receive them from anywhere in the app.

News Feed

• The News Feed feature helps you to stay notified on all your friends status updates and photos. Clicking on a status update with a web link seamlessly opens the BlackBerry PlayBook browser for you to view the content.
• You can also discuss and show appreciation for your friend’s content through the comment and “Like” features within the News Feed or on their profile pages.
• Of course, you can also publish your own status update or upload a photo from within the status publisher that’s accessible from the News Feed or your profile page.

Photo Uploading

• Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet allows for easy photo uploading and viewing. In addition to uploading photos from the Picture Library, you can tag friends, and view and post your comments and Likes.

Facebook Messages

• Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet allows you to compose, send and receive new Facebook messages. You can view your sent messages in the Outbox tab and messages from Pages you’re a fan of from within the Updates tab.

Friends List

• In Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can view your Friends List in two ways: a grid view (default) or a list view. From the list view there is an alphabetical scrollbar so you can find your friends quickly. You can also Search and add new Friends and Pages and view pending Friend Requests from within the Friends List. Who doesn’t want more friends?

Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet also offers an array of other familiar Facebook features we didn’t cover above, like Search and Notifications, to help you stay connected with friends and share your news while you’re on the go. Stay tuned for future releases of Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, as the Facebook team here at RIM is already charging ahead to bring you an even richer Facebook experience, utilizing the deeply integrated Super Apps characteristics that BlackBerry smartphone users know and love. Post a comment and let us know what you think about Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and what you’d like to see added in future versions!

We recently announced plans to enable developers to leverage existing assets for the BlackBerry® Java® Development Environment and Android® platforms to be easily ported to the BlackBerry® Tablet OS via ‘application players’. The application player for supported Android apps will be available this summer, followed soon after by the application player for supported BlackBerry JDE apps. Both will be available through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

As a follow up to this announcement, I thought I’d devote a blog post to explain the benefits for our customers and developers. The bottom line is we continue to advance software technologies and other capabilities in order to offer the best platform for both users and developers.

What does this announcement mean for Customers?

For both consumer and business customers, this announcement reinforces our commitment to providing choice while bolstering our platform. Our customers will benefit from having access to highly optimized and integrated apps developed specifically for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet using BlackBerry tools, as well as a much bigger catalog of apps drawing from multiple other sources, such as the Adobe® Flash® and Adobe® AIR®, HTML5 and JavaScript® developer communities (as previously announced) – and now the Android developer community. And this is all being done through our BlackBerry App World storefront to manage the app discovery and download processes for consumers.

We are already hearing overwhelmingly positive customer feedback about the greater choice and flexibility that our broad approach will allow: the best apps built for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet coupled with the “long tail” of apps built for the above-mentioned BlackBerry JDE and Android platforms.

What does this mean for Developers?

• For the majority of developers, the way to go is still the BlackBerry platform and the widened set of tools we’ve made available. Only these can ensure that the developer harnesses the full power of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in terms of extremely rich graphics, full multitasking, and ultrafast processing. BlackBerry smartphone development options include the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ platform. BlackBerry WebWorks offers leading HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript support on a mobile platform. The BlackBerry WebWorks platform also supports modern web frameworks such as Sencha, PhoneGap, jQuery and Dojo.
• BlackBerry PlayBook tablet development options currently include BlackBerry WebWorks as well as Adobe® (Flash® and AIR®).
• RIM will add full tooling support for native C/C++ development for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over the coming months. We’re highly confident about this. The QNX team RIM acquired to develop our BlackBerry Tablet OS has won awards for its Eclipse-based native Integrated Development Environment (“IDE”).

Because of the app players we’re providing, if there are developers currently developing for the Android platform, they can now rapidly move onto our platform while they evaluate our other development paths. We can now offer such developers an on-ramp to package and distribute their apps to our growing customer base of consumers, enterprises and governments.

Going forward, we will continue to evolve our various development technologies to deliver the most powerful, flexible and open experiences for developers whether they choose to build with HTML5, Java®, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, or native C/C++. And for those developers using our BlackBerry platform tools, we will continue to offer access to a growing set of on-device API’s to enable best-in-class integration with core BlackBerry applications and features (which we call “Super App” experiences). We are also planning to provide a range of advanced cloud-based services including the BlackBerry Payment and Advertising Services, advanced location-based services, application analytics, and powerful Push services. Stay tuned for more details on these future release plans.

Final Thoughts

We believe we are the most committed of any mobile platform to providing both our customers and developers with uncompromised solutions, characterized by offering choice, open standards and tools, and the opportunities to build and enjoy deeply integrated Super App experiences to take advantage of all that the BlackBerry platform has to offer.

We will continue to share more information in the coming weeks so that BlackBerry developers and customers can make informed choices. And stay tuned for more partner announcements along with some exciting details that we will share at the BlackBerry World™ conference in early May.

- Jim Tobin, SVP of the Software, Services & Enterprise Markets business unit at RIM

Please welcome the BlackBerry® Protect team for a guest blog post to tell us all about the opening of the BlackBerry Protect beta, and some of the features included in the app! Take it away, team… – Ed.

Last year we introduced the world to BlackBerry Protect via limited beta. Throughout the beta, we received great feedback from the thousands of BlackBerry® Beta Zone users who tested out this personal data security solution, ultimately shaping it into what it is today.

Based on the tremendously positive feedback we’ve received on the improvements made to the product, I’m extremely happy to announce that we are opening the BlackBerry Protect beta. This beta is currently available in North America and some of Latin America only, although there will be further country rollout to come in the next couple of months! If you live in North America or Latin America and you weren’t able to be part of the original limited beta, you can now install BlackBerry Protect for free from the BlackBerry App World™ Test Center. You can also find it at the BlackBerry Protect web page, which is where you’ll need to go if you ever need help finding a misplaced BlackBerry® smartphone once the BlackBerry Protect device software has been installed (note: it may take up to 24 hours for BlackBerry Protect to appear in BlackBerry App World for some users. It will be available immediately on the BlackBerry Protect web page).

As a quick reminder, here’s a summary of what BlackBerry Protect offers:

BlackBerry Protect helps you find your smartphone and protect your important information by:

• Assisting in locating your BlackBerry smartphone on a map via GPS and cell-tower triangulation
• Locking and setting a device password
• Activating a special loud ring to help find your smartphone, even if it’s in silent mode
• Displaying a custom message on the home screen so that anyone who finds it knows how to return it
• Forcing an instant wireless backup of data even when you don’t have the smartphone with you
• And as a last resort, securely wiping all information from your BlackBerry smartphone, including the data from your SD card.

Additionally, the new wireless backup and restore features include:

• Automatically, periodically and wirelessly backing up your contacts, calendar appointments, memos, tasks, browser bookmarks, and text messages
• Optionally restricting backup to when within Wi-Fi® coverage or disable backup when roaming
• Wirelessly restoring backed up data to a new BlackBerry smartphone

And finally, some of the key feature improvements we’ve incorporated based on your beta feedback:

• Easier discovery and highlighting of BlackBerry Protect-related system messages
• Better clarity in status messages
• Unique and improved Loud Ring ringtone
• Clearer, simpler and more descriptive UI icons and graphics

BlackBerry Protect is a really great example of how BlackBerry Beta Zone members help to make BlackBerry smartphone applications and experiences better. If you’re not already a BlackBerry Beta Zone member, be sure to join so that you too can start testing out new products before they’re released.

Install BlackBerry Protect for free today, and be assured your smartphone data is protected even when you are busy and on the go! Let us know right here in the comments or in BlackBerry App World what you think of the open beta (speaking of BlackBerry App World, BlackBerry Protect leverages BlackBerry ID, so if you’re already using BlackBerry App World 2.0, you’re already set up with an ID!).

Thanks for your support!

If you follow the Inside BlackBerry® blog, you may have seen this BlackBerry® Travel™ app post from my colleague Andreas. BlackBerry Travel is a new application – currently available in Beta in the US, Canada, UK and Spain – that makes staying on top of your travel arrangements really easy! Today I’d like to show you just how easy it is to get the BlackBerry Travel app installed and set up on your BlackBerry smartphone, and answer some of the questions you might have when you first start using the app.

With that being said, let’s get started with an installation and setup overview, and finish up with some troubleshooting tips based on some questions I asked myself when I first set up the BlackBerry Travel app.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »

We’ve got another guest blogger for you – Andreas, who’s here to tell you all about the BlackBerry® Travel™ app. It’s our newest BlackBerry Super App, and a great app for all the road warriors out there! Take it away, Andreas… – Ed.

Today, I am excited to announce the latest Beta addition to the lineup of BlackBerry® smartphone “Super Apps”: the BlackBerry Travel app.

Why would you need a native travel application for your BlackBerry smartphone? Because it’s the perfect solution for the large number of BlackBerry smartphone users who are travelling frequently and need a better way to plan, book and manage their travel plans right from their device. And because BlackBerry Travel is fully integrated with BlackBerry® 6, it gives you a seamless app experience that leverages some of the best of BlackBerry platform technology.

We have been working on the BlackBerry Travel app with our partner WorldMate® for the last few months, and today, we’ve launched the first release of the BlackBerry Travel app in the US, Canada, UK and Spain (we have a very aggressive localization roadmap, so expect us to launch a localized version in your country soon!). You can download it in the BlackBerry App World™ Test Center, and we have an additional community set up in BlackBerry Beta Zone to discuss the app!

The BlackBerry Travel app is focused on three core feature sets:

Itinerary Management

The BlackBerry Travel app is designed to automatically discover itineraries and booking confirmations that are sent to your inbox. These individual itinerary components are then quickly loaded into your BlackBerry Travel app and the accompanying BlackBerry Travel Portal. This occurs so the app can begin monitoring your itinerary components such as your flight plans, and alert you to any changes (flight delays, gate changes, cancellations and so on) as well as alert you to potential gaps (such as nights where you are missing accommodations).

The real power of this feature becomes clear if you’re dealing with complex itineraries that involve multiple booking partners and repeated changes to booking details. No more searching for the last mail from your travel agent! The BlackBerry Travel app is designed to auto-discover any booking confirmation or itinerary change mailed to your account and automatically insert, remove, adjust the components of your trip itinerary so everything is up to date and monitored for status changes.

Flight Search and Hotel Booking

Missed your flight, or had your flight cancelled? Search for alternate flights or book a hotel right from your phone. We are excited to bring you an inventory of more than 110,000 hotels worldwide through our partnership with the Expedia® Affiliate Network. The hotel search is contextualized, allowing you to very quickly find the right accommodation based on your location and preferences.

Travel Tools

Whether you travel for business or for fun, we know you need information about your surroundings, so we have built a comprehensive local search application right into the BlackBerry Travel app to help you find what you’re looking for. Because of our integration with LinkedIn, the app is designed to notify you if any of your LinkedIn contacts are in the same location, so you can reconnect with friends and colleagues on the road!

Download the BlackBerry Travel app from the BlackBerry App World Test Center if you’re a BlackBerry smartphone user in the US, Canada, UK or Spain – also, check out the community on BlackBerry Beta Zone to discuss the app. As we mentioned earlier, if you aren’t located in one of those four countries, keep an eye out for your country to be added soon – and keep checking back to the Inside BlackBerry blog for more info on the BlackBerry Travel app coming soon!