If you happened to open up BlackBerry App World recently and noticed some changes you're not alone. In fact, RIM has sent out notification to BlackBerry developers letting them know that new category changes for applications are now in effect for BlackBerry App World and to adjust their apps accordingly if needed. The changes are as follows:

• News: The News category has been expanded to include magazines. This category is now called News and Magazines and includes Blogs as a subcategory.
• Beta: The Beta category is discontinued. The apps located the Beta category have been moved to relevant categories.
• Reference and eBooks & Education: The Books and Reference category has been divided in to separate categories so that these are now individual categories respectively. The Reference category includes Education. This new category is Education & Reference.
• Shopping: The Shopping category has been renamed Lifestyle.
• Maps & Navigation: The Maps & Navigation category now includes Travel and has been renamed Navigation and Travel.
• Music Creation (*NEW*): There is a new subcategory Music Creation available under the Music and Audio category.
• Children’s Categories (*NEW*): There are two new children’s focused categories: New Children’s Games category within the Games Channel, New Children’s Books subcategory within the Books category

While most of the changes are minimal, the removal of the beta section is a rather interesting one. RIM has spent a lot of time revamping the BlackBerry Beta Zone for their applications so it begs the question how BlackBerry 10 will handle betas, if at all. Then again, the beta section in BlackBerry App World was never really used by RIM themselves.

Via: BlackBerry Cool

Although they're not the first to have it in the UK, Virgin Mobile have joined the likes of Telefonica and Vodafone having now integrated BlackBerry App World carrier billing.

We've launched carrier billing with Virgin Mobile UK today! BlackBerry App World now offers carrier billing with 42 partners!^AK

Source: BlackBerryDev

If you’re headed to the mall or the grocery store, what’s one of the first things most people do? They look to see what sales are on and when they’re expiring. So why not do the same thing with apps on your mobile devices? RIM has let us know that they currently have a two week sale going on. In partnership with EA and RIM you can now get all the Electronic Arts BlackBerry PlayBook titles for 50% off.

EA Games on sale

• The Game of Life $3.00
• SimCity Delux $3.99
• Plants Vs Zombies $2.99
• Monopoly $3.99
• Madden NFL 12 $2.99
• Dead Space $3.99
• Bejeweled 2 $1.99

With the sale you can expect to save about $3 per title, but be warned the sale ends on May 3rd. I’ve just picked up Monopoly and The Game of Life; the question is which ones are you looking forward to downloading and playing? Let us know in the comments, and make sure if you download Dead Space use headphones and crank up the volume, it gets a little creepy :-).

Last week we saw RIM update a number of their in-house applications like Twitter, Facebook, and the BlackBerry Travel app. Today, RIM is pushing out an updated version of BlackBerry App World, which brings the version number to 3.1.2.32, a fair jump from the current version of 3.1.1.21.

In what seems to be normal fashion there has been no change log provided, but this version should bring bug fixes at least. You can update you App World by going to BlackBerry.com/AppWorld from you BlackBerry smartphone, or you can wait for it be pushed down to your phone.

Discuss App World version 3.1.2.32 in the CrackBerry forums

RIM has announced today that upgrades to some popular apps are on the way and will feature BBM connectivity. Twitter for BlackBerry, Facebook, BlackBerry Travel, BBM Music, BlackBerry App World and BlackBerry Messenger will all receive updates in the coming days that will add them to the list of BBM connected apps. You can rest assured they will carry some bug fixes and hopefully other various updates as well, and all are due out in the next ten days.

Press Release

More BBM-Connected Apps Set to Launch

Series of BlackBerry App Updates Will Make It Easier to Keep Your BBM Community In The Know

WATERLOO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 11, 2012) - A series of updates of popular BlackBerry® apps will be released over the coming days to make it even easier for users to stay connected with their BBM^TM (BlackBerry® Messenger) community. Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced that Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones, Twitter® for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry® Travel^TM, BlackBerry App World^TM and BBM Music will now include BBM connectivity, making it even easier for users to stay in touch with their contacts, share experiences and content, and discover new things from their BBM community.

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The begining of the week saw the third birthday of BlackBerry App World. Although there wasn't any big celebrations (as everyone at RIM is hard at work on BB10) you can find a Happy Birthday BlackBerry App World folder in the carosel in App World. Along with that it seems that another country as been added to the App World roster. BlackBerry App World is currently available in over 160 countries and now Brunei has been added to the growing list of countries that can now enjoy App World and get access to over 70,000 apps. If you reside in Brunei and have been waiting to get access to App World, get it now.

Download BlackBerry App World

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If you've fired up BlackBerry App World today, you will have noticed a banner inside stating "Happy Birthday BlackBerry App World". That's because three years ago today, Research in Motion launched BlackBerry App World to the masses starting off with just over 1,000 applications available for download. In those three years, BlackBerry App World has since grown to what is now over 70,000 applications, extended it's reach to multiple countries and created partnerships with thousands of developers and carriers and continues to be a main focal point of the RIM ecosystem.

One would think there would be a bit more celebration over it's third birthday right? Not this time around. This time around BlackBerry App World birthday celebrations will be quiet and when questioned why there was no further celebrations beyond the highlight inside BlackBerry App World, Alex Kinsella, Senior Public Relations and Social Media Manager at Research In Motion said what I wanted to hear:

Everyone's heads down on BB10 - we'll celebrate then. :)

So alas, while BlackBerry App World is celebrating its third birthday, I take satisfaction in knowing that the reason there was very little mention of it from RIM directly, is due to the fact they're working on many other major improvements instead.

BlackBerry Beta Zone members got a huge update for App World Today. This is one that many people have been waiting for, as it includes the ability to filter out apps you have downloaded on other devices that are not available for your BlackBerry. There is also a new function that allows you to share your app list with others via NFC.

Change log includes:

• Find an app in “My World” by typing a keyword term
• “Other Devices” filter view in “My World” allows you to filter out apps not available for your device e.g. PlayBook Apps
• Announce downloads to BBM Status
• NFC is now an additional method to share a single app
• A new "Share" channel in the App World Home page allows you to share your app list via NFC
• Various Bug Fixes

If you're a member of the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you should be able to login and find v3.1.2.20 listed under your eligible programs. Sign up, agree to everything, and get to downloading. Let us know in the comments how you like the new features!

Check out your available programs in BlackBerry Beta Zone

Google Play has been unveiled and is the new home for apps, games, books and movies for all Android devices. Google Play is taking the place of the Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore, and it now leaves Android users with one central location where everything will be available and eliminating the need for separately branded stores. This follows Apple's iTunes approach in which everything can be purchased under one Apple ID.

RIM has BlackBerry App World for apps/games and partner stores (7Digital, Kobo, Rovi) for media and content, but no central store to house it all. So while the pieces are there, it's the user experience is a bit messy at the moment with multiple apps under different brands with multiple accounts to manage. Ideally it should be one store called "BlackBerry World" that holds apps, games and media under one roof. As it is now, you have to use your BlackBerry ID for apps/games in App World and separate accounts for movies, books and videos - not fun at all.

This is something we think RIM is definitely working toward for BlackBerry 10 and the introduction of BlackBerry ID was a starting point for this process. The next step is getting media/content partners to integrate into BlackBerry ID so purchases for music, movies, books, magazines and more could also be made via the payment method tied to a user's BlackBerry ID - whether credit card, paypal or carrier billing. Even if it's a third party app like the 7 Digital Music store, if it comes preloaded on the device it *should* integrate with BlackBerry ID. The utopia arguably would be get rid of the partner branding and provide a single BlackBerry World store - one in which you'll be able to purchase games, apps, books, videos and music -- all in one place.

What we want to know is just how much having a unified store for games, apps and media matters to you. Are you okay having separate stores and managing separate accounts for everything? Or would you prefer a one-stop "BlackBerry World" store with games, apps, books, videos and music that all falls under your BlackBerry ID? Let us know in the poll above the answer that best fits you, then sound off in the comments below.

Source: Android Central

Those who have a BlackBerry in hand may want to check and see if you have a new update available as RIM is pushing out version 3.1.1.21 of BlackBerry App World. While the version upgrade is rather small it does bring a few much-needed fixes.

Updated in v3.1.1.21

• Alternate billing options shown in purchase confirmation screen
• Review submission screen UI refresh
• Bug fixes

If you aren't seeing the update just yet, hold off as it can take a few hours to push through the servers. Or if you like you can do the old "ALT RST" trick and see if that motivates your phone to serve up the new App World.

Download the new version of BlackBerry App World

Mobile World Congress kicks off today and while we have Simon Sage is there in Barcelona getting us goodies, though we're not expecting there to be huge news on the BlackBerry front. However, today RIM has announced that there are now over 40 carriers around the world that have integrated carrier billing for customers to purchase apps through BlackBerry App World.

Some of the carriers include: 

• A1 Telekom (Austria)
• AT&T (United States)
• Bell (Canada)
• Digicel (25 markets in the Caribbean and Latin America)
• Indosat (Indonesia)
• Rogers Wireless (Canada) 
• SFR (France)
• Telefonica (UK)
• T-Mobile (United States)
• Telus (Canada)
• Telstra (Australia)
• Vodafone (Spain, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom & Netherlands) 

Carriers have seen an increase of 120% in app downloads by introducing carrier billing, so it is expected that more carriers will start to integrated carrier billing in the future, making it easier then ever for folks to purchases apps.

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Now that everyone is getting cozy with BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0, it's time to root out all of the teeniest, tiniest changes in the update. We already know about the big stuff, like remote control, and Android app support, but we didn't know about App World getting a significant user interface overhaul. Ok, we did but we didn't know how it would function.

Functionally, everything is pretty much the same, but instead of a carousel, there's now a panning grid, with a themed section taking up two squares-worth of real estate.  The tabs on the top are unchanged, but the bottom pane has been pared down to the top paid games and apps. The top free, top rated, and new arrivals are tucked into the top tier games and apps sections. 

I'm still flipping through it all myself, trying to spot Android apps among the usual suspects... Have you guys noticed anything new in the new version of App World for the BlackBerry PlayBook?

We were starting to wonder when the BlackBerry Beta Zone would start rolling out new betas. But wonder no more as a new BlackBerry App World beta has just been released. Getting bumped up to v3.1.1.15, it's noted to have the following changes:

• Alternate billing options shown in purchase confirmation screen
• Submitting Apps has new, easier-to-use confirmation screen 
• OS 7.1 Support
• Various Bug Fixes

If you're a member of the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you can log in right now and grab the latest release from there.

BlackBerry Beta Zone Login

During the general session keynote at BlackBerry DevCon Europe, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage for the first time and, along with VP of Developer Relations Alec Saunders, spoke a bit on the success of BlackBerry App World. We've seen some numbers before, but they just keep getting bigger every time. In addition to noting that 13% of BlackBerry developers make over $100,000 from their apps BlackBerry App World, RIM hit a milestone in January this year as they reached over 2 billion total downloads with 6 million coming daily. BlackBerry App World supports 26 currencies in 164 countries and currently has over 60,000 apps available for consumers. RIM stands by the fact that BlackBerry apps are still the most profitable for developers as well. Some interesting numbers here that will certainly keep growing as we move toward BlackBerry 10 devices later in the year. More to come from BlackBerry DevCon Europe so stay tuned!

A couple of interesting additions popped up in BlackBerry App World this week: categories for Ringtones and BlackBerry 7 themes. While there has always been a theme section, and there have been several themes for BB7 devices found in App World, until now they were not recognized in their own category. Now when you open App World on your BB7 device, you can see the Theme section and presumably find all sorts of free and paid themes for your BlackBerry. Does this mean that we are one step closer to Theme Builder being updated for Blackberry 7 devices? As soon as we know, you'll know.

In the new Ringtone section of BlackBerry App World, you can find hundreds of ringtones in all sorts of genres, brought to App World by a company named Spintones. The majority of the ringtones are $2.99, with a few packs priced a bit higher. At this time, the ringtones are only available in Canada and the United States, but word has it that more countries will have access in the near future. The compatible device list seems to be pretty short, though the minimum OS is listed at 5.0, and there doesn't seem to be a way to preview the ringtone before purchasing. There are also specific rules stating that each ringtone can only be installed on one BlackBerry device, so if you switch devices you have to repurchase the ringtones. Also, you can only re-install the ringtones you purchase up to 2 times within 72 hours of the initial installation on the original device.

While the new ringtone gallery isn't going to interest everyone, I'm sure there is a market for it, and it does seem they have a pretty varied selection of ringtones available. No word on whether you will be able to upload your own ringtones at any time in the future, though I'm guessing it's not going to be an option as there would likely be a lot of legal/copyright issues to deal with at that point. Don't forget, if you're looking for free ringtones, CrackBerry has a huge free ringtone gallery that's just a click away. (If you've never downloaded ringtones from our gallery before, make sure you scroll down the page at the link below and read the instructions.)

Download free ringtones in the CrackBerry Ringtone Gallery