Grooveshark, the premium streaming music application we looked at previously has rolled out an update recently. Sadly, no changelog was issued with the release but users opening up the application were indeed, prompted to download what is now v1.0.7. Seems a lot of T-Mobile users were having issues with getting the application to work previously, so maybe you'll want to give this version a shot to see if it works better. Grooveshark is available for $3/mnth through their VIP program which allows for unlimited streaming and caching of music played for offline usage.

• For More Details And Downloads Check Out The Grooveshark Website>> 

We had heard before that SIRIUS XM was launching their dedicated app for BlackBerry sometime near the end of January. While that time came and past we still had no app from them available. Seems like we just had to wait a little bit longer, the observant folks in the forums have let us know the application is now available.

Devices supported, as indicated on the site are Curve 8500, Bold, Storm and Tour. With the application you do get a free 7 day trial and after that it's required that you sign up for one of the subscription options that are available. 120 channel, no ads - but sadly it appears no Howard Stern either. Check it out, let us know in the comments what you think of it.

• More Information And Downloads Available Via The SIRIUS Website>>

Thumbplay Music is going full out these days. Having just launched their beta application for BlackBerry, Mac and PC. Those of you out there who signed up are already enjoying their offerings. More content providers are being added practically on a daily basis, which is great. Thumbplay is hoping to expand as much content as possible to make their product the best it can be.

The number of tracks offered by Thumbplay music now exceeds 8 million. With big names such as Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal on board Thumbplay is bringing the content. In addition to the big labels 25,000 independent labels have been added to the lineup and todays announcement brings content from AWAL; BFM Digital; DashGo; Dig Dis; E1 Music; Finetunes; IRIS; Nettwerk; Nu Urban; Oseao; Rebeat Digital; Record Union; RouteNote; Sundesire Records, Symphonic Distribution and The state51Conspiracy.

As of now, Thumbplay is still in private beta but you can register for your invite via their site. Full availability of the service is expected to be rolled out this quarter. The Thumbplay Music service will include a free, three-day trial of its unlimited, on-demand service.  Following the trial period, subscriptions are $9.99 per month.

• Read The Full Press Release Announcement Via The Thumbplay Music Site>>
• Check Out Our Previous Thumbplay Music Coverage For More Info>>

It wasn't too long ago now that version 3.0 of BlackBerry Media Sync was released. Now we got an update which brings a newer, semi-revamped UI and improved picture synchronization for PC users. Bumped up to version 3.0.0.39, you can now auto update through media sync or just grab the latest version from the BlackBerry Media Sync download site.

Having checked out the latest version, I can see RIM actually worked out some of the kinks in this version. It not only looks better now but actually works much faster than previous versions. Not too sure as to why the Mac version isn't seeing any updates... I'm not a Mac user so those of you who are is the Mac version working fine as is? Or could it use an update as well?

• Download BlackBerry Media Sync For PC And Mac Today >>

At CES, Thumbplay was showing off their music app for BlackBerry and announced a private beta for the new service. The Unlimited Music App is a subscription based service that allows you to stream music (you don't actually purchase the songs) from Thumbplay's huge database on both your device and PC. You can create playlists, wirelessly sync, use autoplaylists and buy songs right from the app. The full app should be available in the coming weeks and will be priced at $9.99/month.

Contest: The Thumbplay Unlimited Music App is currently in private beta, but we have 50 free 30-day subscriptions to give away. This will get you a sneak peak before everyone else. To use the app, you'll have to have a US phone number and be using either a Tour 9630, Bold 9000 or Curve 8900. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. Contest ends this Monday at Midnight PST. Good luck!

• More information and beta request at music.thumbplay.com >>

Fabian Heuwieser has updated one of his best selling BlackBerry applications to support all OS 5.0 devices. Wallpaper Shuffle as you may remember, was an application first for the BlackBerry Storm and later the BlackBerry Tour that allowed you to swap out your wallpapers at a timed interval. Effectively, ensuring you never get bored of seeing just one wallpaper all the time while having minimal impact on battery life. With the latest update you can now get Wallpaper shuffle on any device that is running os 4.7 and higher. From now until January 25th you can pick it up for only $1.95 in the CrackBerry App Store.

• Click Here To Learn More About And Purchase Wallpaper Shuffle>>

We've known it was coming for a while now but finally, Slacker radio has launched in Canada. You can head on over to Slacker website from your BlackBerry and download the app to get started. Create an account and you are all set. Slacker Radio is free for the first 30 days. Afterward, Canadian listeners can continue to enjoy the service by upgrading to Slacker Radio Plus, available for as low as $3.99 USD per month. Read the full press release after the jump folks to get a full run down of options Canadian users will have.

While attending CES 2010 we took the time to get an up close and personal look at the new Slacker 3.0. Many new changes have come to Slacker Radio with the latest version, as you can see from the video above, 3.0 includes a revamped interface, better caching implementation as it can now be done wirelessly and has also laid claim to better overall battery life while using the updated release.

We are also glad to say now that the new Slacker will be arriving in Canada as early as this week (so we were told). Yes, you read that right - Slacker will be available in Canada (finally!) with the 3.0 release.
The only word of a release date announcement at CES was that Slacker 3.0 is coming as soon as Wednesday or Thursday for Canada, and it should be another week or two before it hits the US.

Canadian users will get a 30 free trial with premium accounts starting at $4.99 a month or $3.99/month USD for a full year paid up subscription. Also, there will be a 14 day trial on caching for the US version on 3.0, but you will need to upgrade to a premium account to keep that feature active. Check out some screenshots after the jump.

• Head On Over To The Slacker Website For More Information>>

[ Video Court. Of @nanpalmero / BBCool ]

We've all seen the various BlackBerry commercials with the song playing in the background. Today, Research In Motion has posted the "All You Need Is Love" download for your BlackBerry and PC as a free download for all. Go grab it folks and add it to your holiday music collection. If you're interested in the history behind the Beatles song, check out the info on Wikipedia.

• Grab The Free Download Of All You Need Is Love From The BlackBerry Website>>

Slacker Personal Radio is getting geared up for the holiday season with some great offers for those who are looking to pick it up for friends and family. Right now you order a Slacker radio plus gift certificates to give away to friends and family members. The breakdown looks like this:

• 12-Month Subscription for $47.88 (Includes 10 free 1-month subscriptions to share)
• 3-Month Subscription for $14.97
• 1-Month Subscription for $4.99

Whoever you send them to will get a customized gift email from you with a gift code they'll redeem for all of the features of Slacker Radio Plus. They'll get unlimited song skips, ad-free listening, complete song lyrics and more. Personally, I'd love to get a gift like this for the holidays but alas, Slacker Radio is still working on their Canadian offerings which we are hearing will be worked sometime next year.

• For More Information Check Out The Slacker Personal Radio Website>>

While at the BlackBerry Developer Conference last month we all got a look at a new BlackBerry music app that is forthcoming called Kik from the folks who released Unsynced. Kik was part of the BlackBerry Developer Challenge at DevCon where they announced they will be launching their application offering up DRM-Free MP3 downloads right to your BlackBerry smartphone. In addition to being DRM free, Kik will also include three free plays of any song which you download, so if you just want to quickly listen to a song you can get it out of your system and move on if you do so wish with no purchase obligation or if you wanted to keep the song, you can listen to ad's and it's yours for free. 

Yesterday, those who signed up to be notified of Kiks release were emailed a newsletter outlining the details of the Kik launch. The newsletter, confirmed a launch timeframe of January for Canada and the US to follow not long after the Canadian release. And it looks as though we'll be getting some sort of desktop application to go a long with our BlackBerry version as well. Excited to see what Kik has in store for us all.

• Sign Up For More Notifications Of Kik's Release Via Their Site>>

The news itself really isn't that new. As good friend of CrackBerry, Al Sacco mentions in his article the news of Kindle on BlackBerry is rather old now having first shown up on CrunchGear back in October. What is new however, is the fact Amazon has now updated their webpage to show that it is indeed "coming soon". Not exactly sure when that means it will be released but we know it's closer now then it was back in October. As Al points out, there is other apps out there such as eReader and MobiPocket but the Kindle services are more widely used then those offerings and they do not support the Kindle format. Will be exciting to see how Kindle on BlackBerry will be, as we know it has really taken off on the iPhone platform.

[ CIO ] 

The days of December seem to go by faster and faster, and those key holidays are right around the bend. You've decorated your house, busted out the Christmas music and tackled the mall, so the only thing left is to deck out your device with some holiday media. We have wallpapers, ringtones and themes galore to get you flying in the holiday spirit. Our own michaelwpg has even offered to customize your own "cheesy holiday avatar" with a Santa hat or custom trimmings. And you'll want to stay tuned because we're fixing up our free CrackBerry Holiday Theme from last year and will be dropping a fresh new one in the next few days (this one is so wicked you might just find yourself wanting to use it year round!). Check out the links below, and grab up some holiday cheer so your Berry fits in with that Christmas Tree sweater Grandma made you.

Holiday Media: Ringtones | Themes | Custom Cheesy Holiday Avatar

Holiday Wallpapers: Storm | Tour, Curve 8900 & Bold 9700 | Bold 9000 | 83xx, 85xx, 87xx & 88xx

A few weeks back I was going to write an article about how Research In Motion never updates their BlackBerry Mobile site with new themes and wallpapers like they once did. As I was thinking of this I also was poking around the BlackBerry website and decided to log into MyBlackBerry and see what was new in there. After logging in I then realized where RIM was hiding all their new wallpapers.

MyBlackBerry has a great selection of wallpapers available for direct download to your device all of which are BlackBerry branded. Most recently they have updated the choice to include a bunch of holiday wallpers to choose from. As well, they have started up a FaceBook wallpaper generator where in you can creat your own wallpapers from your own images. Shame it's tied to FaceBook though, wasn't really wanting to sign up for that so I just used the CrackBerry wallpaper maker. Since you know, I already have a CrackBerry account. :)

• Sign Up For A MyBlackBerry Account Today To Access All The Available Offerings>>

Recently DreamTheme launched 20 new personalization products across 3 new app categories. This week they have just released a new StillScreen pack for the holidays and are giving out free copies to the CrackBerry community in appreciation for their continued support. The Christmas StillScreens app is a tiny loader app that gives access to holiday themed images of impeccable quality -- use them as extra backgrounds for your PrimeThemes for a totally personalized holiday experience . You can check out Christmas StillScreens or DreamTheme's other StillScreens packs by viewing them at www.dreamtheme.com.

For those of you that have already bought the 'Unlimited Dreaming' package from DreamTheme, the Christmas StillScreens are now available to you through your Unlimited Dreaming icon on your device. You can get Unlimited Dreaming, or anything else from DreamTheme's catalogue here at the CrackBerry App Store -- remember to use the code 'ENJOY' to get your free copy of Christmas Stillscreens and the code "Crack" to get an additional 15% off when purchasing through the CrackBerry App Store Client or Mobile App Store site!

* NOTE - MAKE SURE WHEN USING THE COUPON CODE YOU HIT UPDATE BUTTON BEFORE CONTINUING. The price needs to show $0.00. If you don't hit the update button, the free pricing won't take effect. *

• Christmas StillScreens for BlackBerry Smartphones >>
• Browse all DreamTheme Products >>