OK CrackBerry Nation, here it is! The long-awaited CrackBerry Forums App for BlackBerry Smartphones. We have the folks from TapaTalk powering our FREE version of the CrackBerry Forums app, and CrackBerry forum visitors are going to love it.

Our CrackBerry Forums App is FREE OF CHARGE, and offers these great features:

• Auto-save your account information! There's no need to login every-time.
• Guests can browse without logging in (join here if you want to be a member)
• Super-fast loading of forums and topics. We're talking FAST.
• You can Create, Read, Reply and Quote discussions
• You Send and Receive Private Messages (it's true!).
• Attach files including pdfs, images and zip files
• Advertising free experience
• Plus MORE!

You'll need OS 5.0 or higher on your BlackBerry Smartphone to download this one. PlayBook owners don't worry - we have a forums app heading your way soon too! This is version 1.0, so if you come across any bugs or ideas for improvement, feel free to drop them here in the comments and we'll work fast and hard to get them implemented. 

Be sure to download the app and drop a nice five star rating and review. Let's get this baby to the top of App World!

Download the FREE CrackBerry Forums App from App World

I still can't believe it's been 5 years since CrackBerry was born. So much has happened in those 5 years, and we can't wait to see what the next 5 brings! Even though it's our birthday, we want to give one luck CrackBerry reader an extra special present. What is that present? Well, we don't know yet! One CrackBerry member's BlackBerry wish is about to come true!

We want to know what your BlackBerry Wish is. What's the one thing that you long to have, that would make your BlackBerry life complete? Want a BlackBerry 10 phone when it becomes available? Or maybe a Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry? How about a trip to BlackBerry World in Orlando this year? Close your eyes, pick that BB thing you want most, and make that wish!! All you have to do to enter is head back over to the original contest post and drop a comment. Good Luck!

Rules:

• Open Worldwide
• Contest Ends Sunday March 4th at Midnight PST
• Pick a "main" item to wish for. Don't wish for "everything". Pick that BlackBerry phone or item or trip you want most (I wouldn't recommend a $500 clock app)
• Winner will be chosen at random, and we'll follow up, get in touch and take care of getting you the prize!
• Just leave one comment. Multiple comments won't count and if you spam entries you could get booted from the contest. Keep it fair for everyone.

Enter the CrackBerry Turns 5 contest

CrackBerry Birthday Contest: Leave a comment to this post making your "BlackBerry Wish" and we'll make it come true for one lucky winner! 

Happy Birthday CrackBerry Nation! That's right... Sunday, February 26th, 2012 marks FIVE years to the day that we fired off our Hello World Press Release and officially opened our doors to CrackBerry.com. And what an *amazing* five years it has been.

To our longtime readers and members who have been here for the whole journey, you know what we've achieved together over the years and we thank you for the ongoing love and support. To those who have discovered CrackBerry more recently, we hope you continue to visit for years to come. It's funny, you'd think after five years we'd be a little tired, but we're more energized than ever. With BlackBerry 10 phones on the horizon and a lot of great plans for the site in the works, it's an exciting time to be part of CrackBerry Nation. Heck, we even set a record this week in our forums for the most people online at one time!

BIRTHDAY CONTEST - Make a BlackBerry Wish and you could Win It! 

In true CrackBerry birthday fashion, we're celebrating with a contest. We couldn't decide what to give away as a prize, so we're leaving it up to you. All you need to do is leave a comment to this post with your "CrackBerry BlackBerry Wish" and we're going to make it come true for one lucky winner. Want a BlackBerry 10 phone when it becomes available? Or maybe a Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry? How about a trip to BlackBerry World in Orlando this year? Close your eyes, pick that BB thing you want most, and make that wish!! Good Luck!

Everyone here at CrackBerry.com would like to wish you a healthy, happy and tech-filled 2012! 2011 was filled with ups and downs for BlackBerry fans. We started off the year with the BlackBerry PlayBook, then finished off with some BlackBerry 7 phones and the promise of BBX phones in 2012. So hopefully this year will be a good one for RIM and we'll have plenty to talk about.

We're looking forward to bringing bigger and better things to CrackBerry (and across all our Mobile Nations sites) in 2012. We have plenty planned heading into 2012, so stayed tuned as we get rolling into the new year. 

Happy New year from all of us at CrackBerry.com!!

-Kevin and Team CrackBerry

We'd like to take a minute to wish everyone in CrackBerry Nation a very Merry Christmas! We'll obviously be taking it easy today (we'll sneak in a few posts, don't worry) and you should do the same. We know it's tough, but try to put down your BlackBerry (or PlayBook, iPhone, Android ... ) for the day and spend some quality time with friends and family. Today is a day to give thanks and look back at the year and drink plenty of spiked egg nog. RIM has certainly brought us through some ups and downs in 2011, but overall it was a pretty good year.

So here's to a Merry Christmas to all and very happy holidays!

- Kevin and the The CrackBerry Team

Happy Hanukkah to all of our readers who this week celebrate the Festival of Lights, or for Adam Sandler fans, those eight crazy nights. As you stand around the menorah lighting each candle beginning at sundown tonight, we wish you and your family a holiday filled with celebration and fun.

If you haven't already, be sure to stop by our galleries and forums to check out some more Hanukkah inspired themes, wallpapers, and maybe even a ringtone for your device. The theme shown above can be found at the link below for only $.99. 

More information / screenshots and to purchase Happy Hanukkah

In launching this site in 2007, our aim was simple - to establish CrackBerry.com as the #1 resource for all things BlackBerry. And by all things, we meant all things. Beyond our passionate editorial team and amazing forum community that deliver the best news, reviews, how-to content and more daily, we strive to provide other services that help people get the most out of their mobile experience. Whether it's downloading ringtones and wallpapers, buying a spare battery or even a new BlackBerry, we aim to offer it all at CrackBerry. When we know we can deliver the best service in-house, that's what we do. With over two million orders shipped, our in-house ShopCrackBerry.com store is #1 for BlackBerry accessories. And when it makes sense to work with a partner to deliver a service, our aim is always to work with the best partner possible to bring that best in class service back to CrackBerry Nation.

And with the notion of best in mind, I'm happy to introduce our new and improved CrackBerry Phone Store, now powered by Best Buy Mobile Solutions. Both Best Buy and CrackBerry are super excited for the CrackBerry Phone store. You can currently browse and buy BlackBerry Smartphones from Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile within the store and we'll be bringing you special offers from AT&T right here on the blogs. Cyber Monday is just around the corner, so you'll definitely want to keep your eyes out for some great offers. In the meantime, you can jump on over to the CrackBerry Phone Store at the link below, and visit it anytime by clicking the Phones tab from within ShopCrackBerry.com. 

Buying your next BlackBerry from CrackBerry helps to support this site which helps us to keep things going and work to continually improve our site and service offering. We have a lot of great things planned for 2012 to better serve your mobile needs, so we thank you for the continued support!

Visit the CrackBerry Phone Store powered by Best Buy Mobile 

To all of the residents of CrackBerry Nation living in the good 'ole US of A, a very Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at CrackBerry.com!

Take the day to give thanks to your family, friends, health and of course, your BlackBerry. Without it we wouldn't be one big Cracky Family, so we certainly should keep that in mind. Make sure you eat all the turkey you can and get yourself into a giant food coma, then take it easy on the couch and maybe even sneak in a nap. Tomorrow is Black Friday (and don't forget about Cyber Monday... we have some awesome deals coming up in store) so you'll need your energy to pick up all of those bargain items you've been eyeing up. Check out our 2011 Holiday Gift Guides (with more on the way) for some great ideas for the BlackBerry lover on your list.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Veterans Day and Remembrance Day to all our readers! Thanks to all the soldiers, past and present, for all you have done for us.

Don't forget you can show your appreciation for our troops with free themes, wallpapers, and maybe even a ringtone or two in the forums or our galleries, so head on over and take a look if you haven't already. The theme in the picture above can be found at the link below.

More information/screenshots and download Remembrance Day theme 

Greetings CrackBerry Nation!

This past summer we soft-launched "Mobile Nations", initially using the name for our cross-site podcast that brings together the heads of state from AndroidCentral, CrackBerry, TiPb, PreCentral and WPCentral for discussion on all things mobile.

Today I have the pleasure of more formally introducing Mobile Nations as our new network brand, creating an umbrella under which all of our individual communities stand united. Take note of the new Mobile Nations top bar and footer on this site!

Though our history in operating the leading mobile-platform dedicated websites reaches back over a decade to the launch of VisorCentral in 1999, it feels like we are in start-up mode again, making aggressive plans and tackling our to-do lists with gusto. Forum regulars will have already noticed a number of recently introduced feature enhancements and podcast fans are now able to watch replays of their favorite shows in video. Over the weeks and months ahead you'll see us pull the trigger on a number of other Mobile Nations initiatives currently in the works, all aimed at making your experiences on all of our communities even more engaging and fun.

Thanks for being part of the journey,

Enjoy the calm while it lasts... Things are about to get CRAZY CRACKY around here.

If you're a long time reader of CrackBerry.com you know what happens when a new BlackBerry Smartphone hits the market... we go nuts! And to think we're on the verge of a wave of new BlackBerry 7 Smartphones getting announced and hitting the market after jonesing so long I have a feeling things are going to get really cracky around here, really soon. Don't forget, there's a BlackBerry 7 fan night coming up tomorrow and knowing RIM's habits we can fully expect they'll officially announce anything new that may get shown off at the events prior to them getting underway.

With August here I'm so relieved the wait is *almost* over. Seriously, the last BlackBerry Smartphone review I posted was of the Bold 9780 and that was back in December 2010. Talk about new BlackBerry withdrawal! And while the BlackBerry Bold 9900's unveiling at BlackBerry World helped to satisfy my cravings for a few days, my thumbs have been twitching for months now in anticipation of getting a hold of some new BBs to call my own. And I can only imagine so many of you reading this feel the same way. But instead of feeling impatient and mad at RIM for taking so long, it's time to start enjoying the last few weeks on whatever BlackBerry you own now as you get ready to say farewell to it and upgrade to a BlackBerry 7 device.

We've got a TON of stuff planned for the upcoming weeks to ring in what really is the new BlackBerry Smartphone Year, so be sure to enjoy this last bit of calm before the BlackBerry storm rolls into town (no, not that Storm!). Before you know it, it's going to be raining new phones around here!

Ok, so *arguably* it may be more fitting for us to try and play off a Rebel Alliance theme over The Empire as we fight for BlackBerry in the mobile wars, but I've always been wayyy more of a Darth Vader fan than Luke Skywalker and seriously, THE RIMPIRE STRIKES BACK is just frak'n awesome (plus in real life Darth would crush Luke).

I fly out to Waterloo tomorrow, hometown of Research In Motion and birthplace of BlackBerry, so figured the best way I can show my support for RIM at their Annual General Meeting of Shareholders Tuesday night would be to literally wear it on a t-shirt. Looks pretty hawt, right?? 

The new logo is up on megaupload for all to enjoy, so if you want to make your own RIMPIRE STRIKES BACK t-shirts, stickers, wallpapers, etc. you can download the .eps file at the link below. Huge props to CrackBerry member 4speed for tossing out the new slogan on our The Way I See It CrackBerry Nation, We've Only Just Begun post earlier this week.

Download THE RIMPIRE STRIKES BACK .eps file from Megaupload

From all of us here at CrackBerry we'd like to wish everyone a happy Independence Day. Take the day off if you can - relax and have some drinks and food with family and friends. Whatever your plans are make sure your BlackBerry is ready to go to the party as well. If you need some apps to help you out today we have you covered - not to worry! Hitting up the golf course for the day? Check out some great golf apps to go along for the ride. From range finders to scoring we've got the goods. Not feeling the heat of the course today? Maybe you'll want to be the best bartender you can and impress your friends. There are loads of great bartending apps for your BlackBerry that will make you an instant mixologist. Perhaps you just want to show off your 4th of July spirit? Trick out your Berry with some great ringtones, patriotic wallpapers or a 4th of July theme and show your colors.

What will you and your BlackBerry be doing today? Will you be grilling up a storm? Hanging out with the family? Checking out some fireworks (what a great way to try out some HD video recording on the PlayBook!) Leave a comment and let us know what your holiday plans are. Happy 4th!

Like CrackBerry? Hit the +1 Button Below!

Buttons on blogs. You either use them or you ignore them. At the bottom of each CrackBerry article we have been rocking Facebook's Like and Twitter's Tweet buttons for a while now, and last week we added the newest one to hit the scene, Google's +1 Button.

If you're not familiar with the +1 Button, the video above will quickly walk you through what it's about. Basically the +1 button is your way of publicly saying to Google and anybody you're connected with via Google that you like this content. Later, when you're searching Google for info, you'll see that search results are accompanied with the +1 count, and if anybody you know has +1'd a page you'll see that person in the search results too. Google puts value on the number of +1's a page and website has received (the more the better of course!), so if you like an article or page here on CrackBerry and see a +1 button, be sure to click it!! Right now the +1 is just on the blogs, but we'll be rolling it out in more places on CrackBerry where it makes sense, so keep your eyes on the lookout for it.

Want some practice? Be sure to hit the +1 button at the top of this post. That'll say you love CrackBerry!!

It would be ok to assume you are one of the 28,094 people that "Like" CrackBerry.com on Facebook, right? Oh, no? Not you? Well, why not! As you know we are the #1 Place for Users and Abusers, and that carries beyond our blog and forums as well.

If you are not one of the nearly 28,000 people who show their love for us on Facebook there is only one solution. Go now, and click that little like button. It will get you all the latest news, as well as give you the ability to interact with us even more, and post your questions or comments up!

It's quite simple, head over to our page, and click that like button! Who knows, you may be a lucky winner one day just for simply liking us, and being a loyal fan of CrackBerry. Spread the love with all your friends, family, and even random strangers if you feel the urge!