Longtime readers of CrackBerry will know i'm a pretty huge fan of ColorWare, going back to my BlackBery Curve 8320 they gave the all white treatment too. If you desire uniqueness and have cash to burn, ColorWare is a great option.

New BlackBerry Torch owners looking to add a splash of color will be happy to know ColorWare is now giving the custom paint treatment to the Torch. It's not cheap though... $250 if you send it in, and a whopping $1050 if you buy the device new from them already painted (I'm not sure why they're charging sooo much to buy new - something seems out of whack there actually... will check into it with them directly). I think this time around I'm going to hold off ColorWare and wait for RIM to offer the Torch in white (need the white keyboard to match). Hopefully AT&T or Rogers will get on the all white bandwagon soon.

You can jump on over to the ColorWare site at the link below and have some fun painting up the Torch in your favorite scheme. Let us know in the comments what color design you think looks best!

• Learn more about ColorWare for the BlackBerry Torch >>

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review - Power Traveler

The BlackBerry 9800 Torch has been touted as the "best BlackBerry that RIM has produced." While many have mixed feelings about RIM's newest sizzling hot device (aka. The Torch), I was given the task of reviewing this device from the prospective of a person who travels/vacations a lot.

While OS6 boast some significant changes, I believe that OS6 was released prematurely. OS6 is still a bit too buggy to have been released on the Torch...even if the 9800 is true to its tagline: "Less than an evolutionary leap, more like a triple axle."

DataViz, makers of the popular Documents To Go application, announced sad news today for Palm fans. Though the company started out developing for Palm, they are not going to proceed in developing the Documents To Go solution for Palm WebOS. You can read all about that here.

More interesting than this news from DataViz though is the news they didn't announce..... they were bought by RIM!! Though neither company has publicly announced it (yet), multiple sources have confirmed to us that RIM recently acquired DataViz for a reported $50 million cash (not material to RIM, so they didn't have to disclose it publicly as they have done with other acquisitions like the QNX one). Jump on to LinkedIn and you can also quickly find that lots of former DataViz employees have recently switched up their profiles to Research In Motion as their current employer.

Yet another interesting acquisition by RIM. My guess is this is a bit of an enterprise play - put a BES in your business and every device gets the full version of Documents To Go for free. It would be sweet if that was the case for consumers too!! Add this bit of news to the mix and it's no surprise then that DataViz isn't persuing development for Palm... I'm guessing with time they may start to reduce or phase out work for other non-BlackBerry OEMs too (that one is just a hunch though).

I'd say it's a smart buy for RIM. What do you think?!

With the 2010 CrackBerry App Awards party coming up fast on (the Wednesday night of the BlackBerry Developer Conference - click here for event details and to RSVP), it's time to get the process started for choosing the winners that are going to be announced!

2010 CrackBerry App Award Categories

Crackies will be award this year in the following categories:

Developer Awards

• 2010 BlackBerry App Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Game Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Theme Developer of the Year

App Awards

• Best Game
• Best Business/Finance App
• Best IM/Social Networking App
• Best Location-Based App
• Best Music App/Service
• Best Health/Wellness App
• Best News App
• Best Productivity App
• Best Utility App
• Best Sports App

CrackBerry Editors' Choice Awards

• While the developer and app award winners will be voted on by the community, we're also going to hand out five Editors' Choice Awards for the apps the Crack Team feels are absolute must-haves for every BlackBerry owner. 

How to Nominate your Favorite Apps and Developers

To nominate your favorite apps and developers to win a 2010 Crackie award, simply leave a comment to this blog post with the category name followed by the app or developer name. Just check the first comment - I'll leave an example there.

The Crack Team already has a pretty good idea of some of the many apps that deserve to be in each category, but we want to make sure we don't miss any so this is your chance to have your voice heard as to who should be nominated as category finalist. Nominations will close this coming Tuesday at Midnight PST. From there the CrackBerry Academy will work through the nominations and argue back and forth to determine the top five finalists in every category, who will then compete in the community vote which will happen here on the blogs later next week.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review - Power Socializer

Coming from a BlackBerry that I loved, I wasn't very excited to switch to a device I wasn't used too. The Torch is completely different from any BlackBerry that I have used and to be honest, it is the best. Being a full time student and working a part time job I need a phone that is reliable, has a million features, and can withstand the wear and tear of teenage girl.

As we all know, we wouldn't be on crackberry.com if we didn't, that BlackBerrys are perfect devices for any type of person. Whether you are a business man who needs to stay updated on the stock market or emails, or just a leisure user who loves being able to tether on the beach, BlackBerry is the way to go. I have loved having a reliable device no matter what I need done, whether to send an email, check the latest updates on the coolest social networking sites, and to call, text, and of course BBM all my peeps. Using the Torch makes every single one of these easier.

Unboxing videos. Love em or hate em, you know we gotta do them! The BlackBerry Curve 3G is available on Rogers now, and coming to other carriers soon, so it's time to tear open the box and see what's inside. The BlackBerry Curve 3G is RIM's entry level smartphone, so while it gets decent internals (the same 624MHZ processor that's in the Pearl 3G and Bold 9700), it skimps on other hardware - the low resolution 320 by 240 display is the same as the old Curve 8300 / 8800 series devices used to have and the camera is 2 megapixels without a flash (note, in the video I accidentally say that video recording resolution is the same as the Pearl 3G's thanks to the update to the chipset, but it's not... vid recording on the Curve 3G is still a lowly 320x240). 

For more information on the BlackBerry Curve 3G, read Bla1ze's BlackBery Curve 3G Review.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review - BlackBerry Newbie

If you're considering upgrading to a smartphone, you've undoubtedly come across the plethora of news articles and reviews for the iPhone and Android phones. What those news articles tend to gloss over is the fact that Research in Motion - BlackBerry's manufacturer - absolutely dominates the smartphone market. Nearly half of all smartphones sold are BlackBerrys. Combine that with a decade in the business; countless government, security, and business contracts; and a history of solid operating systems - you'd think RIM would get a little more love.

We'll keep this short and sweet. With over 12,000 entries, the lucky winner in CrackBerry's Second Chance Win a BlackBerry Torch Contest is.....

Hosehead13

Dang I love that username! Congrats Hosehead13! We'll be shooting you an email shortly to get your details and get an unlocked AT&T BlackBerry Torch 9800 out your way. For everybody else, stay tuned. It's CrackBerry.com. You know another chance to win free stuff is just around the corner. We've already given away two Torches... maybe the next big contest we do will be for some BlackBerry Torch accessories or maybe we should move onto a new device and give away a BlackBerry Curve 3G. Whaddya think?! Any contest prize suggestions out there?

You heard it here first... the upcoming BB flip is the BlackBerry Style!

Been wondering what product family Research in Motion was going to slot the upcoming BlackBerry 9670 clamshell into? Could it be a Pearl? Maybe a member of the Curve family? Nope. We've confirmed with multiple sources now that the new BlackBerry 6 toting flip is getting a new product family name of its own. Enter the BlackBerry Style. I guess consumers who go for a flip phone these days do have a particular sense of style, so maybe the BlackBerry Style name is a fitting one. With a name like Style we may see a ton of consumer and fashion focused BlackBerry Style Cases and BlackBerry Style Accessories emerge too.

So what do you think of the name? Like it? Love it? Hate it? I always find when I first hear the name of a new BlackBerry I don't like it overly much... but then it grows on you, and it just sticks. I think that's likely to be the case here too. Let us know what you think in the comments!

Follow CrackBerry in September for a Chance to Win These Awesome Prizes...

You gotta love the Ongoing Follow CrackBerry Contest... you get a chance to win great prizes each month just for following CrackBerry on youtube, twitter and facebook!

For the month of August, each of our three winners is taking home an awesome prize depending on which social site they were following us on. August's lucky winners are.... tehkseven (youtube), justjen808 (twitter), Jamie Lund (facebook). Congrats winners! We'll shoot you a message through each of these sites to notify you about your winning or you can also shoot us an email to sitesupport @ crackberry.com if you're reading this year and want to collect your loot asap. :)

September's Awesome Prizes: We're mixing up the prizes so you'll want to make sure you're following us on all of YouTube, Twitter and Facebook so you get a shot of winning all three. Visit the follow crackberry contest page for full details.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review - Power Mom

I am a BUSY person and by that statement I don't just mean the normal kind of busy. I'm talking about the I'm so insanely swamped with things to do or places to go that I actually repeat things I've said or doing things I've already done. As a military spouse, mother of three, consultant, assistant at an in-home daycare, association board member, neighborhood watch coordinator, welcome committee coordinator & CrackBerry Idol contestant you can imagine what my daily schedule looks like. Between work, meetings, playdates and my older children's activities, I barely have a moment to breathe. Now that I have the BlackBerry Torch 9800 and OS 6, my daily routine runs smoother.

The other week we posed a question to readers of CrackBerry asking what apps they would like to see come to BlackBerry from other smartphone platforms. The post got a pretty solid response with a wide mix of apps and games suggested, so we combed through the comments to assemble a quick Top 10 list. Hopefully some of these developers out there are paying attention!

Top 10 Apps CrackBerry Readers Would Like to See Come to BlackBerry

1. Angry Birds
2. ESPN / Sportscenter App
3. Mint.com
4. Tweetdeck
5. Weight Watchers
6. Plants v. Zombies
7. Dropbox (currently in beta for BlackBerry, so this one is coming soon!)
8. a better Facebook app! (technically shouldn't be on the list, but we can't help but agree)
9. Netflix (an official one)
10. Words with Friends.

And there were a LOT more suggestions than that. If you're curious to see them all, jump over to our original post and browse the comments. As for the #1 pick, while the popular Angry Birds iPhone/iPad game doesn't quite meet RIM's definition of a BlackBerry Super App, there's no denying it's one that the people want to see come to BlackBerry (myself included!). 

Reminder: Super Apps Challenge Sept 6th Deadline Approaching: While we're talking what apps we'd like to see come to BlackBerry, it's a good time to remind all the BlackBerry Developers out there that September 6th deadline for the BlackBerry Developer Fund's 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge is almost here. This year the BlackBerry Partners Fund is looking for anyone who is building super apps. Be it an application which you feel is already a super app or a new app you are currently working on. At stake is over $1.5 Million worth of prizes and includes developer services from leading industry partners, featured placements on BlackBerry App World, marketing programs from Research In Motion and much more. If you are a BlackBerry developer who is delivering super apps, you'll want to take on the BlackBerry Developer Fund's 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge. The full list of contest prizes, eligibility and requirements are available on the BlackBerry Partners Fund website, just click the link.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Review - Power Businessman Perspective

So you’re on the go and want to stay connected to your business information and communications. Well what better choice for both security and ease of use than the new BlackBerry Torch? It’s a touch screen world phone featuring the new BlackBerry 6 operating system, minus SurePress, plus a slide-out qwerty keyboard.

Whoa, that sure was a mouthful.

In this review, I am looking at the Torch as an experienced business user might. I will be tapping a more corporate perspective and covering not only my first impressions, but also how the Torch holds up with messaging, phone use, and other industry applications all in the name of greater productivity. Or so we shall see ...

Joseph	Brittany	Dave	Kerri	Aloha Joe

When we first launched CrackBerry Idol 2010 competition we knew the event would carry on for the better part of the summer - a competition like this takes time. What we didn't know though was just how talented and fierce the competition would be! After literally months, we're down to the nitty gritty... the final five in the final round of CrackBerry Idol. In the end, the community will vote for ONE winner, but first we'll get to see a lot of great reviews hit the blogs this week.

Final Round - the Device Review: The final round of CrackBerry Idol is the BlackBerry device review. To keep the content interesting for our readers and fair yet challenging for our competitors, each finalist received a BlackBerry Torch 9800 (that they'll get to keep) and has been assigned a particular usage profile from which to review the device (business user, new to BB, social user, etc.). I've already done the full-out CrackBerry BlackBerry Torch Review, so these will be follow-up reviews that assess the Torch's performance based on how a person would use the device given a particular set of needs. It's going to be good! The first review will go live later tonight. Stay tuned. And good luck to our competitors!

61 days ago we kicked off our BlackBerry Fitness Challenge. An ambitious undertaking to say the least, but an event where those participating would be winners just for taking part. Of course, CrackBerry and our friends at Gym Technik upped the stakes and provided some extra incentive with some extra awesome prizes to compete for. If you check back to our original contest post, you'll remember there were three contests tied to the event - a random winner (based on a random tweet from all #blackberryfitchallenge tweets), the most workouts winner (based on most tweets) and the best before/after photos. Read on for an update and to see who pushed out the most workouts in 60 days!