Geeez... between the CB Birthday planning last week during the day and Olympics watching taking up my free time at night, I nearly forgot I still have a few Mobile World Congress videos to get up on the blogs. This one is a little bit different....

The folks from Schad Automation were on-hand at the BlackBerry booth showing off their Extend 7000 system. This is no consumer application but demonstrates how BlackBerry Smartphones are super-compelling within the workplace much beyond staying on top of emails and reports. The Extend 7000 greatly improves the efficiency of operating machines and plants in big business. Check out the video above for full details. Pretty interesting stuff and interesting to note that this technology is already in use at companies like Volkswagon and Lufthansa. For more information, visit schad-automation.com.

Shortly after RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis gave his general assembly keynote at Mobile World Congress yesterday (view that video), he jumped over to App Planet to talk to the developers in attendance at BlackBerry Developer day.

In addition to rallying the BlackBerry developer troops with some BlackBerry facts and figures, Mike gave some advice to developers about remembering to look for opportunities in enterprise in addition to embracing the growing demand for consumer apps. Makes sense. Whereas consumers are looking for apps to be cheap (and preferably free) businesses are willing to pay for apps that add value to their organizations. In fact, just a little while ago at MWC here I ran into an individual from the IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards) team who gave me the stat that apparently only 9% of iPhone App developers are actually making money right now. The vast majority are still looking at iPhone apps as an investment vs. as a money maker, which adds some validation to this notion.

One other stat that Lazaridis made note of that REALLY caught my attention is that RIM makes 2 BlackBerry Smartphones every second. Multiply that out. That's 2 x 60 x 60 x 24 = 172,800 phones manufactured each day. That would equal 15.5 million phones in a quarter. RIM's official stat was that they shipped over 10 million phones in their last quarter. My guess is that Mike Lazaridis rounded up slightly to the two figure (or maybe RIM doesn't manufacturer quite 24/7), but either way, RIM is pumping out phones like crazy. In comparison, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt yesterday during an MWC address made note that 60,000 android-based phones are being sold each day and that number is growing. All in all, it really goes to show that the adoption of smartphones in the marketplace is ramping up as is the competition. It's going to be an interesting couple of years ahead!

When I ran into Rob Kao of SmrtGuard yesterday at Mobile World Congress I convinced him to go on camera for a couple minutes and give us an update on where things are at. SmrtGuard recently released a free version of their premium mobile security application, and with pre-MWC rumors talking about RIM releasing their own "BlackBerry shield" service, some of our comment posters made reference to the timing of these events maybe being a little too coincidental. Check out the video above to see what Rob had to say.

• Learn More about SmrtGuard-Free for BlackBerry Smartphones >>
• Learn More/Purchase SmrtGuard-Pro for BlackBerry Smartphones (currently 50% off) >>

The announced but not yet released WebKit-based BlackBerry web browser was shown off via video demo twice today at Mobile World Congress. Mike Lazaridis, RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO, gave it a minute of glory during the morning's general session, while an hour later it was Mike Kirkup, RIM's Director of Developer Relations, who gave a quick walk through of what's in store for the browser at the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet to those in attendance (video above).

On the first day of Mobile World Congress 2010, 7digital dropped an update to their popular 7digital Music Store for BlackBerry app. I caught up with James Shannon from DevelopIQ, makers of the app, to give us the run down of what's new and improved. You can catch the video above. If video isn't your cup of tea, then here's the Coles Notes on version 1.2:

• New: Last.fm scrobbling support
• New: Last.fm 'now playing' support
• New: BlackBerry Curve 8350i support
• New: Netherlands store & Dutch localisation
• New: Rest of Europe store
• New: 7digital store artist search
• New: 7digital store playback from locker
• New: My Music - Browse Purchased
• New: My Music - Track search
• New: My Music - Add Folder to manual playlist
• New: My Music - Delete Artist/Album/Track
• New: Media card encryption support
• Improved: My Music browsing performance
• Improved: My Locker refresh performance over WiFi
• Improved: Carrier network download performance
• Other minor fixes & improvements 

All in all it's a great upgrade and James says even more is coming in version 1.3. Good stuff, considering this is already one well-built BlackBerry application. If you don't haven't tried the 7digital app yet, be sure to give it a go by downloading it from App World.

• Learn More / Download 7digital Music Store for BlackBerry from App World >>

It turns out RIM's presence at Mobile World Congress is even bigger than I first thought. Over at the App Planet pavillion in Hall 7, RIM has another exhibit setup where their focus is on BlackBerry app development. I caught up with Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations for RIM, who filled us in on the details of what's going. Check out the video above and this link for more details.

New BlackBerry Developer Blog Launched: Mike also let us know that they just re-launched their BlackBerry Developer Blog over at http://devblog.blackberry.com. Anybody developing or thinking about developing apps for BlackBerry needs to add this site to their RSS reader and check it out on a regular basis.

I know a lot of BlackBerry users out there have been waiting for Skype to drop their official BlackBerry client. Thinking back, it was March 2009 when word surfaced that a client would be coming and at the time it was supposed to be available only a few months later. Here we are, now into 2010, and we're still waiting for it. As I walked passed the Skype booth I fired up the camera and grabbed a quick update. The word? Not what I was hoping for. I got the good 'ole It's in the works, it's an important platform for us, keep waiting answer.

But hey, at least we know it will show up one day. In the meantime, you can still check out IM+ for Skype by Shape Services. Bla1ze did an updated review of it recently - you can check it out to see his take on where they're at with it.

Leading up to the event I heard RIM would have a pretty big presence this year at Mobile World Congress and all I can say is yep, that is definitely the case. You can check out the quick video above to get a feel for the BlackBerry setup on the show floor. It's a solid setup. On the one side RIM has put the focus on their partners - with some 60 present showing off their apps and services. BlackBerry devices line the walls for people to play with. The other side of booth features meeting rooms for business to get done as well as a lounge and section dedicated to acccessories. If you're at the event, you can find it in Hall 8.

CrackBerry coverage goes to Barcelona this week for Mobile World Congress 2010! MWC is the biggest mobile-dedicated conference in the world and this year BlackBerry is going to have a big presence there. On CrackBerry Podcast 047 last week I promised we'd try and bring you some special edition podcasts so we decided to kick things off early on the eve of the event with a quick Smartpone Experts MWC preview show. While I'll be tackling all of the BlackBerry stuff at MWC, Dieter Bohn and Phil Nickinson will be covering all the non-BB stuff for our sibling sites. In this show (only 17 minutes in length) we quickly cover the things we have seen so far and talk about what we expect to see this week. Keep it locked right here for lots more MWC10 action!

Follow Our MWC Coverage: CB MWC Blog Posts | Twitter - crackberry, Kevin, Dieter, Phil

So we're finally done with our CES 2010 coverage. The show is long-since over and it took us a week and a half to get up on the blogs all of the content we flew away from Vegas with. In case you missed any of the news or hands-on videos, be sure to check out our CES 2010 posts and get caught up... I suggest you start with this Ed Hardy video I recorded - it was the first vid I captured at the event and despite trying my darndest, I don't think I topped it for the rest of the show.

Over the weekend I found a couple last vids on the ole HD camera from CES 2010 worth getting up here on the CrackBerry blogs, one of which is about Hallmark Mobile Greetings. You can watch the quick walkthrough above and can download the Hallmark Mobile Greetings app for BlackBerry from App World for free. Once installed, you can browse through a bunch of mobile greetings and customize and send them (only from the US right now) to your friends / colleagues / family via SMS. The receiver is prompted to install the Mobile Greetings app onto their device, and Hallmark has been good enough to provide the app for pretty much every smartphone and feature phone out there. Once the receiver installs the app and views their card, the sender is then charged 99 cents with the expense being added to their monthly phone bill by the carrier. 

All in all, pretty cool. Yet another way to communicate via smartphones and I'm sure many people out there will put this to use. What do you think? Going to be sending some Hallmark Mobile Greetings in 2010??

• Download Hallmark Mobile Greetings for BlackBerry from App World >>

While at CES I once again ran into the awesome guys at Xobni. We've seen their application in action quite a few times now, and each time they show it off it looks better and better. There aren't many apps that I've been dying to get my hands on, but Xobni is definitely one of them. The ability to manage all of your BlackBerry contacts so easily with this app is something that I think everyone needs. All of your contacts get a "profile" and you can find any person or subject with only a few clicks. Hopefully we'll see something solid in the next few months, and actually be able to play around with Xobni itself - but for now, check out the video above to see some of the cool features.

• For more information, check out xobni.com/blackberry >>

Apologies in advance for the background noise in this video -- it was loud as heck at ShowStoppers at CES 2010 -- but it's worth working through the sound pain so you can hear what Root Wireless is all about. With coverage maps all the rage in carrier commercials these days, Root Wireless is on a mission to make these maps more than lip service, by creating them off from real world user data. How do they do that? By letting users install a small Root Wireless app onto their location-aware device which runs in the background, collecting data on carrier signal strength and network data speed, and reports it back every so often to Root Wireless who compiles the info into useful data for consumers and other stakeholders (I think carriers themselves are pretty interested in what Root Wireless is up to as it can help them identify and fill in network gaps). 

Be sure to watch the video above and check out rootwireless.com for more info. The service is still in beta phase, but you can register up to become a beta tester. They're looking for smartphone enthusiasts to get this app loaded and put it to good use, so let's help them out. The more users running this on their phones, the better the service will be! Cool stuff, huh?

One of the companies at CES 2010 this year that caused a bit of a buzz was ZAGG. Most people are familiar with ZAGG as they are the makers of Invisible Shields - voted by the CrackBerry community as the Best BlackBerry Clear Skin in 2009. At CES last they week the company showed off a couple new, entirely different products, which shows for 2010 ZAGG is really stepping up their game in the smartphone accessories space.

ZAGGbox (video above): How do you describe the ZAGGbox? Think of it as slingbox meets personal center meets Zentral Home Command. The ZAGGbox has a terrabyte harddrive that stores your personal and recorded media content and can play it all back on your tv very quickly via remote. Right now there's only an iPhone app (BlackBerry app coming soon), which allows your device to also become the remote control. From there, you can stream back any of your content right to the mobile device. It's pretty slick. No word on exact pricepoint yet, but we should know soon. This is a pretty big play for ZAGG and I can see there being demand for the product. It'll be interesting to watch them ramp up to meet the demand.

ZAGGsparq (video below): Yet another charging solution at CES 2010. This one isn't wireless, but it is portable and offers 6000mAh of backup power to recharge devices that can connect to the ZAGGsparq via a usb cable. It's a nice tight, well-designed unit. 

Good stuff from ZAGG. If all goes well, 2010 should prove to be a big year for them!

Sick of reading blog posts and seeing videos yet about smartphone charging solutions? Apologies for that, but seriously, there was a TON of it going on at CES 2010. One of the COOLEST things going on, which I didn't get to check out in person but you can see in the video above courtesy of ohgizmo, is RCA's hotspot harvesting charger and battery pack. The devices literally leach the energy that's floating around in WiFi signals and transfer it into the charger and/or battery pack, now making it useable to recharge or power your device. Tesla would be proud. Honestly, I've never been one to freak out over all the invisible stuff that's floating around in the air, but seeing gadgets like this has me thinking the hot items we'll see at CES 2011 are tin foil hats and tin-lined underwear which protect us from the effects of this stuff. :)

[ hat tip ]