It’s that time of year, #TeamBlackBerry students — you’re cramming to make the grade, and hopefully you’ve got all the right credits to ace your finals and graduate (with honors!). But what about life after school? Have you thought about what you’re going to do in the “real world”?

Sorry if I gave you a bit of a scare there (or sounded too much like your dad). While you ponder your future, check out my top 5 apps for grads to help you along:

1. Evernote: Life is busy and your brain is stuffed to the brim with knowledge. Evernote is simple to use and helps you keep track of all your notes, files, pics, and audio notes as they happen. Click on over to Evernote for BlackBerry® smartphone and Evernote for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, so you can give your memory a rest. Also works great as a study aid for that final exam!

2. SideSwipe: The world is busy place, and as you embark on your next adventure, you’ll definitely want to keep tuned in to worldly events as they happen. SideSwipe is a nice news aggregator for BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Top Gear: Now that you’re all grown up, you might be looking for a new car. The ones featured here may be a bit out of budget, but that’s also another thing you need: motivation! A grad can dream, right? In the meantime, you can practice driving your dream car with Top Gear for BlackBerry smartphone and Top Gear for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

4. InstaPhoto: Unless you have a superhuman memory, those magical moments of graduation won’t last a lifetime if you don’t capture them. InstaPhoto is my favorite way to customize your images and share them with your friends, family, and the world via social media. I, for one, happen to think that my pictures look way better with trendy filters on. Snap this one up and snap away!

5. Poynt: After you graduate, you may find yourself in a brand new city for a new career or your next adventure. Poynt is designed to help you find what you need and keep you connected to where it’s at. You can even make in-app purchases on things like movie tickets, make reservations at local restaurants and take advantage of local deals. Wherever you go, you’ll want to make sure Poynt goes with you by using Poynt for BlackBerry smartphone or Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

You may not have locked down what you want to do with your life, but rest assured these apps will help you enjoy the journey a little more. Got a favorite app that you couldn’t have survived school without? Let us know in the comments.

#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.

If you’re like me, you must find yourself checking the BlackBerry App World™ storefront on your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet everyday to see what’s new, what’s popular, and what’s featured. I recently tweeted that I was going to write a post for the Inside BlackBerry blog on what your favorite BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps are…and the responses were both awesome and overwhelming! Based on the feedback, I now present the Top 5 BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Apps – as chosen by #TeamBlackBerry.

#1 Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

The Facebook® for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app was the most mentioned app and a personal favorite of mine. It also received a nice update recently, so read more about that here: Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Update Now Available. With BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.5, we’re also preloading Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook on all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets now. Current BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users who update to v1.0.5 will automatically receive the updated Facebook app. Alternatively, you can grab the update to the app from BlackBerry App World, of course!

#2 Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook

Need a recommendation for dinner? Want to buy movie tickets for a date night? Well, the awesome Super App – Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook – is there for you. #TeamBlackBerry ranked this the #2 BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app – and for good reason. Beyond the awesome BlackBerry PlayBook tablet version features, it also integrates with Poynt on your BlackBerry smartphone – allowing you send a restaurant’s address and phone number directly to your contact list. Watch this video to learn more:

[YouTube link for easy mobile viewing]

#3 Doodle Blast

#TeamBlackBerry gamers love a challenge, and nothing quite delivers like the addictive Doodle Blast from FlexibleAIR. You have to use your doodle drawing skills to get all the marbles into the cup – without running out of ink (not as easy as it sounds! – Ed.). I’ve spent many a conference call playing this game. Uh, I mean intently paying attention.

#4 Need for Speed™ Undercover

One app that really kicked off excitement for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps is the Need for Speed Undercover for BlackBerry PlayBook. Personally I love Electronic Art’s TETRIS® for BlackBerry PlayBook more – but I’m biased towards puzzle games.

#5 GeeReader

I wasn’t surprised by the fact that GeeReader is another #TeamBlackBerry favorite – I believe this is one of the best RSS readers out there, especially with its awesome Google Reader integrations. You just sign in with your Google account and boom – all your favorite feeds appear in one easy-to-read view. If you like GeeReader, you might want to also check out the recently released BlackBerry® News for BlackBerry PlayBook app.

Here’s your next assignment, #TeamBlackBerry: It’s June and that means vacation time for many. What are your top 5 apps for travelling? Post a comment here and tweet @BlackBerry with your favorites and you’ll see a new Top 5 post soon!