Take advantage of the new BlackBerry Upgrade Promotion and get cash back when you purchase a new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 or Curve 9350/9360/9370!

Yes you read that right .. you can indeed get paid if you upgrade to a new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 or Curve 9350/9360/9370. RIM has had their BlackBerry Trade Up program in place for a while now, but according to some emails sent out to eligible T-Mobile customers (and a bit of our own recon), there is also a BlackBerry Upgrade Promotion that could net you some quick cash just for purchasing a new BlackBerry. RIM's Upgrade Promotion gets you cash back in the form of a shiny Visa gift card when you purchase a new Bold 9900/9930 or Curve 9350/60/70. The promo applies to US customers only, and you'll get $100 for a Bold or $50 for a Curve. Pretty sweet deal right? Well it doesn't stop there. If you want to go all Extreme Couponing you can get pretty creative and end up with quite a bit of cash in your pocket by combining some promos.

Take this situation - This weekend T-Mobile is offering all of their 4G smartphones up for free - so if you are eligible for an upgrade or just want a new line - you can grab a BlackBerry Bold 9900 on Friday or Saturday and you'll get a $250 rebate (of the mail-in variety) off the bat from T-Mobile, knocking the purchase price of your device down to $0. Add that to the $100 you'll receive from the Upgrade Promotion and you're at $100 cash in pocket. Not enough? Well say you have a BlackBerry Bold 9780 from which you're upgrading -- you can take advantage of the Trade Up Program as well and you'll get an additional $80 back (according to the quote I received). So overall you're looking at $180 in your pocket just for grabbing a brand new BlackBerry Bold 9900 from T-Mobile and sending off your old device. So yes, you're getting paid to get a new phone and unload your old one. Even if you keep your old device you still end up on top with $100. Pretty sweet deal right??

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We were starting to wonder when the BlackBerry Beta Zone would start rolling out new betas. But wonder no more as a new BlackBerry App World beta has just been released. Getting bumped up to v3.1.1.15, it's noted to have the following changes:

• Alternate billing options shown in purchase confirmation screen
• Submitting Apps has new, easier-to-use confirmation screen 
• OS 7.1 Support
• Various Bug Fixes

If you're a member of the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you can log in right now and grab the latest release from there.

BlackBerry Beta Zone Login

Cruising through the BlackBerry experience during BlackBerry DevCon Europe, we came across these sweet colored Curves. The Ballet Pink and Royal Purple Curve 9360 haven't had much press, although they have been seen around a few times before. Nothing fancy going on with either of these, but we always like to see how cool devices look with a splash of color. If you're looking to pick either of these up you may have to wait just a bit until they hit more carriers (you should see them rollout soon in Europe).

Take a closer look at both in the video above and keep reading for more images. Sexy Curves and they Know it!

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Orange UK has officially released OS 7.0.0.611 for the BlackBerry Bold 9790. While this is an official release, remember to use caution when updating your device. If you need help along the way, you can head into our help forums or check out some of our BlackBerry 101 articles including How to Install or Upgrade to a new OS. If you do install this OS, hit up the forums thread below for findings, fixes and more discussion.

Download OS 7.0.0.611
Discuss more in the forums

 

First Angry Birds and Bejeweled, and now Plants vs. Zombies is coming to the BlackBerry PlayBook? The trifecta of casual gaming is nearly complete! While we did get a quick look at it during CES, EA has announced that the home-defense/gardening strategy game is now available on RIM's tablet. Unfortunately, there still isn't a live link in BlackBerry App World. 

The game includes 50 levels, throughout which you need to pick and chose from an array of defensive plants that attack hordes of ill-equipped zombies. Some have snorkeling gear to get through the pool, others have pole vaults to get over your Wall-nuts, while others still have bungee cords to bypass all of your carefully placed plants. Collect sunshine points as they randomly pop up so you can keep planting, and collect cash to upgrade your armory of vicious flora.

No word on pricing yet, but I would expect it in the $7 range. It's worth it, trust me. EA's blog post is pasted after the jump. 

Source: EA 

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BlackBerry DevCon Europe has wrapped up and everyone is headed home, but there was some good coverage of PlayBook 2.0. We're all waiting anxiously to download it, but in the meantime you can read all about the latest BlackBerry reviews, news and rumors in the blogs, and then head on over to the CrackBerry forums and see what's up with your fellow CrackBerry addicts.

• BlackBerry PlayBook: The Bad Things About A Playbook That No One Will Tell You
• BlackBerry Apps: Will 2.0 require update of phone bridge app?
• BlackBerry PlayBook: Awesome PlayBook Moment
• BlackBerry Torch 9860/9850: back button possible solution/cause. Need feedback.
• PlayBook Apps & Games: point and click adventure

Found an interesting article you want to share with CrackBerry Nation? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or
lend your expertise to other members of our community. If you aren't already, take a moment to get registered in the CrackBerry forums today!

Earlier this week, as I was doing my usual reading of mobile industry news, I came across this article from PaidContent.org, talking about how much traffic on the Internet comes from mobile devices.

It turns out that, according to StatCounter, mobile devices are responsible for 8.5% of all website visits as of January 2012. The PaidContent article opens by basically saying that mobile Internet usage is "lagging behind".

The article bugged me enough to prompt this post. Sure, mobile traffic "only" accounts for 8.5% of total traffic. But it's up from 4.3% one year ago. Yes folks, mobile Internet use is growing at nearly double the rate of non-mobile use.

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Every once in a while a great free app comes along that is so choc-full of features it's just awesome. Browsing through App World I came across Advance OS and LED, and I have to say, it totally fits the bill. This free app offers customization of your BlackBerry LED, offers popup notifications, extra phone call features and much more. It's not often that you'll find this many different features packed into one app, but this time it's for real. I've been using the app for the last week or so and I really don't have any complaints. The UI isn't really the greatest (it's pretty far from it actually), but free is free. You can customize your LED color for SMS, email, phone calls, BBM, contacts and more. Add vibration alerts to your calls, turn on popup notifications for emails and SMS, backup/restore your settings within the app ... the list goes on and on. This is really an awesome app to have as it adds plenty of fun tweaks to your BlackBerry. Advance OS and LED is 100% free and as the developer notes, all future updates will be free as well. Drop by BlackBerry App World for more.

More information/download of Advance OS and LED