* Update: The Live Webinar is over, but you can catch the replay...just click the image above and you're there! *

Normally us smartphone bloggers are hidden behind our desks and computers and cameras and copious amounts of mobile devices, but at WES 2009 last week a few of us got on stage as part of the BoxTone User Conference to talk BlackBerry Predictions live and in person.

If you have 36 minutes to kill, you can watch the video replay above to see some of your favorite BlackBerry bloggers in action (I had no idea BoxTone was going to put this on the web afterwards... buggers!). Al Sacco from CIO, Kyle McInnes of BlackBerryCool, Simon Sage from IntoMobile, Howie Rapapport of Port3101 and yours truly all take part in the panel discussion fun. We were supposed to make three predictions for BlackBerry that we'll see in the next three years, but in true CrackBerry fashion I made four... the fourth one being the one I really put a lot of effort into and would like to see come true. I hope you enjoy the show. If you make it to the end be sure to drop a comment!  

WES 2009 officially kicked off yesterday with a general session. Despite a tough economy and swine flu fears, the room was PACKED (close to 5,000 attendees at WES, barely down from last year if I recall correct - seems busy as heck here). 

As we predicted previously, with the roll out of BES 5.0 and recent launch of App World, this year's WES is very focused on enterprise with some good developer stuff all added into the mix. So while it may not be quite as exciting to some of you from an end-user consumer perspective (no all-new device announcement like the past two years), it's still awesome to see all of the work being done with the BlackBerry solution and to see examples and hear testimonials of just how powerful a solution it really is. We still have a ton of WES 2009 coverage to come, but in the meantime you can listen in to RIM's President and Co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis, give his welcome to WES 2009 speech by downloading the .mp3 below (21 minutes, 7MB).

• Listen to Mike Lazaridis' WES 2009 Keynote >>

WES 2009 is just about in full swing. The Crack Team is on location in Orlando and we're ready to grab the latest news as it breaks (and if the news is slow, we promise to make some!). In addition to our dedicated WES 2009 page, you can follow the entire team on Twitter for a daily "play-by-play" of the ongoing events.  You can get the Crackberry.com Blog feed (@crackberry) as well as personal updates from Kevin (@crackberrykevin), Adam (@azeis), Bla1ze (@videos4bb) and David (@kasperapd).  If you have anything you'd like to see or just want to show us some love, be sure to shoot us some @ replies so we can help you out. 

The weekend is here which means were just a couple days away from the start of WES 2009, the biggest BlackBerry event of the year. It also means the BoxTone Lounge (co-partnered by CrackBerry this year!) will be opening soon.

Earlier in the week we announced the BoxTone Lounge Twitter contest - whether you're going to be in Orlando for the event or not you can follow @BoxTone_Lounge for your chance to win some sweet prizes, including custom Coveroos, Retro T's and more. Winners from the first three days of the contest are as follows:

Coveroo Winners: @Emc1683, @matthoffman, @cipriani15
Retro T-Winners: @bigslam123, @R_Rizzo, @e453753

As I type this @BoxTone_Lounge is sitting at 987 followers... once there are 1,000 followers another big prize will be awarded, so hurry to get in on that! More prizes will be given away each day as we lead up to The Lounge's opening this Monday evening. Follow the links below to get in on the contest, stay up to date with the lounge, and for more info on BoxTone and the Birds of a Feather presentations at WES.

• Follow @BoxTone_Lounge on Twitter >>
• Learn More about the Mobile User Management Lounge >>
• Learn More about BoxTone >>

A Twitter Contest to Win Prizes and Get Ready for The Lounge @ WES2009

So, with just 1 week to go, here we go with a contest to get us all ready for WES2009. This year The Lounge, sponsored once again by BoxTone, is both on-site and on-line here at CrackBerry and at BoxTone. So, whether you are going to WES in person or not, you can still get connected and share in the info. To stay up with the latest you can follow The Lounge on Twitter @BoxTone_Lounge or Facebook group BoxTone_Lounge.

To kick things off, starting today, BoxTone is going to have a daily drawing of BlackBerry laser etched cases courtesy of Coveroo. To win all you have to do is signup and follow @BoxTone_Lounge on Twitter. Each day they will randomly pick and announce a winner.

And to really make things interesting, there will be a BIG Prize offered up once 1,000 Tweeters are following @BoxTone_Lounge. Yes that's right, when @BoxTone_Lounge hits 1,000 followers, a winner will be randomly selected from the first 1,000. The prize is under wraps for now, but you watch for hints on the Twitter feed along the way. One thing is for sure, it's something high performance that everyone wants!
You can check into our WES 2009 page (crackberry.com/wes2009) to hear who wins each day.

• Follow @BoxTone_Lounge on Twitter for your chance to win! >>

We were pretty excited last year to announce on the blogs the coming of the BoxTone Mobile User Management Lounge for WES 2008. For attendees, it quickly became the unofficial official meet-up location and place to chill between sessions. And for us, it became our place to record CrackBerry Podcasts and meet up with members of CrackBerry Nation.

I'm happy to say the BoxTone lounge is back for WES 2009! And having spent so much time at the lounge last year, we've become an official lounge partner this year. On the educational front, this year the lounge will feature five Birds of a Feather sessions covering enterprise topics such as Tweaking Performance, Managing BIG deployments, The Indispensible BES Admin, Oversight Done Right and GET on BES 5.0. The BoF sessions will be conducted by our friends at port3101.org. If you're at WES this May, you won't want to miss taking in a BoF because in true CrackBerry fashion we'll be handing out prizes courtesy of ShopCrackBerry.com.

Speaking of prizes, if you want to get in on some (whether attending WES or not) you'll want to start following @boxtone_lounge on Twitter. Leading up to the event there's going to be some fun happening there. Facebook users can also check out the BoxTone Lounge group.

• Visit Boxtone.com/TheLounge for Full Details and BoF Session info >>

I first saw Zeemote for BlackBerry back at the BlackBerry Developer Conference late last year when it was in its early stages. Zeemote will be launched this summer (first in Europe by the sounds of it) and will enable you to play BlackBerry games using the Zeemote JS1 Bluetooth controller so long as you have the Zee Key app on your device (which remaps your Berry's buttons and trackball to the remote's inputs). Pretty cool! You can learn more at Zeemote.com.

Question of the Day: I'm really curious to know how many CrackBerry readers out there are interested and would buy/use the Zeemote on a regular basis? Are you ramping up your BlackBerry gaming??

Much to the delight of BlackBerry owners, with the launch of BlackBerry App World last week came the unveiling of Shazam for BlackBerry. Seeing as how Shazam is already one of App World's top downloads, this post won't be news to many of you, but if you haven't tried Shazam out yet for yourself the video walk through above provides a decent overview (for more info check out our original Shazam post).

I've been liking Shazam for BlackBerry so far but have a couple of gripes with it... one, I'd rather be able to buy and download the mp3 immediately vs. getting sent off to Amazon to purchase the CD (do people still buy cds?!) and two, I wish the enhanced version was free.

Any new thoughts from all the BlackBerry Shazamers out there now that you've had a solid few days to get to really use it?!

Walking through the CTIA Mobile Focus exhibition hall I came across the guys from LogMeIn and had them demo their Remote Support solution for BlackBerry. This is more of an enterprise tool than consumer app of course, but the video is worth checking out just to see LogMeIn Rescue in action so you know what it's about. Having the ability to turn control of your device over to IT so they can fix your issues up could likely come in handy for a many users out there.

• Visit LogMeIn.com to Learn More About Rescue Mobile >>

A crew from SugarSync was on-hand at CTIA last week, and they gave me a good walk through of their SugarSync for BlackBerry solution (apologies on the video quality - tried out a flip cam at pepcom which apparently doesn't work so well for this kind of thing). If you're not familiar with SugarSync, it's a very powerful and comprehensive solution that combines secure online backups, automatic file synchronization, remote access, remote editing and file sharing:

• Remote File Access and Editing: Retrieve, edit and upload files stored on other computers and the Internet (including Microsoft Office docs, music, videos, and more).
• Shared Folders: Send files and folders (large and small) to anyone via an email sent directly from the Blackberry, and collaborate on projects through a Web-based Shared Folder (which can sync back to the Blackberry).
• Powerful Photo Features: Easy browsing with a thumbnail wall display of photo albums, enjoy detail with high resolution photo viewing, and directly upload and sync photos taken with the integrated Blackberry camera.

SugarSync for BlackBerry officially graduated from "beta" just last week and is definitely worth checking out. You can download a 45 day free trial and from there a variety of packages are available, starting with a monthly fee of $4.99.

For more information on SugarSync for BlackBerry click here, and to give it a whirl visit sugarsync.com/downloads.

If you're not familiar with Qik, it's a pretty awesome social video sharing site that allows you to stream video live to the web as you record it. Their BlackBerry app is an 'alpha' at the moment, but you can give it a download (Bold, Curve, Storm, Pearl users) when you visit d.qik.com from your Berry's web browser. Be sure to visit Qik.com to get a good overview of what it's all about and leave your feedback in the comments so the Qik crew can make the app even better!

Pyxis Mobile is on hand at RIM's CTIA BlackBerry booth showing off their capabilities along with their popular end-consumer app, Movela Netflix Queue Manager. If you're a Netflix subscriber you'll want to check this app out ($2.99 @ App World).

I caught up with Michael yesterday who walked us through Netflix Queue Manager. In the video above he also let us know that a CraigsList BlackBerry app is on the way. And STORM OWNERS will want to watch the video right to the end for a nice testimonial.... Michael loves his Storm (& CrackBerry.com!)!!

One of the coolest things to be announced at CTIA yesterday for BlackBerry Bold and Curve 8900 users in the US is the coming of PrimeTime2Go, expected in early May, which brings full-length television episodes to BlackBerry. You can check out our initial coverage here and watch the video above for a more personalized explanation.

CTIA Wireless 2009 kicked off yesterday morning with a big general session event. And among the distinguished keynote speakers to take the stage was none other than our fearless leader, Research in Motion's Founder, President and Co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis.

Knowing our CrackBerry readers are the hardcorest of hardcore, I busted out the video camera and taped the whole speech for your viewing pleasure. For those who couldn't attend CTIA but wanted to be there, hopefully this will fill the void (apologies in advanced for my lackluster recording skills). So grab your cup of coffee or a glass of water, kick back and enjoy the show!  

CTIA Wireless 2009 is now in full swing, and I spent the better part of the day at the Las Vegas convention center taking it all in. The event is definitely quieter than I remember it being last year, but the BlackBerry booth is as BUSY as ever. Seriously, from the moment the exhibitor hall opened the BlackBerry booth was packed. Just as we did with our CES coverage in January, I'll be bringing you some video recaps from the BlackBerry developers and partners displaying their apps and services over the days ahead. Some of these vids may be news to you while other videos will be of apps you may already be familiar with... but it's still nice to see it presented live.

FIRST UP: iHeartRadio! One of the newer entrants to the BlackBerry streaming audio game, this is an app you definitely should check out. We've covered it on the blogs here (initial post) and here (Storm post) and you can learn more and download by visiting iHeartRadio.com. Enjoy the video!