Here in the UK we saw RIM kick off their new marketing campaign just two weeks ago with a TV advert suggesting that "There are people who don't, and people who do" -- and that same concept is staying in place with two new, shorter commercials that have cropped up on BlackBerry UK's YouTube channel.

This time the adverts are targeting specific features and devices.

The first is promoting BBM Music on the BlackBerry Curve 9320, which is perfect timing as the device is now available on all UK networks. The second commercial features the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and its NFC payment capabilities. The last video focuses on the BlackBerry 7 web browser and the Bold 9900.

Although NFC has been around for a while now on BlackBerry Samrtphones it is one of those features that we don't really see in everyday use. Does this new advert mean NFC payments are going to be more readily available soon? Let's hope so as although the public may well need educating on the technology I strongly believe it is something we will see a lot more of in the near future.

It is also great that RIM are not sitting back, happy with their one TV commercial and are targeting the consumer from various angles.

Do you think they are on the right path? See the other videos below and then sound off in the comments!

Continue reading article

If you're looking to stay up-to-date with BBM Music you'll want to go and hit up BlackBerry App World right now. If you rfresh your upgrades list, you should now find v1.2.0.17 available for download. This release, is a jump from what was previously in the BlackBerry Beta Zone so it includes most of the same features from that beta with the exception of the default buddy:

• Invitation Requests - Discovering similar musical tastes just got easier! When an invitation request is sent from a ‘friend of a friend’ through Recent Updates you will now be able to view songs and the common friend before accepting/declining an invitation.
• ‘Favorite’ Songs and Contacts - You can now highlight songs or contacts as favorites in BBM Music 1.2! To favorite a song, you need to click on the star displayed in the top left hand corner while listening to a specific song. When the star is highlighted yellow, this will indicate the song as a “favorite” and you will now be able to access this song through “favorite songs” on your profile tab. Favorite songs will be displayed to your friends in Recent Updates For a favorite contact, when you visit a contact’s page you can select “favorite” from the top menu bar. This will add a highlighted yellow star beside the contact’s name in the contacts tab which will only be visible to you. You will now have the ability to search by “favorite”contacts within the contacts tab.
• Intelligent Shuffle - Intelligent shuffle offers you the ability to shuffle songs by favorite songs, genre, artist, song popularity, album, contact, release year or recently added. To access the intelligent shuffle, on the home tab click “shuffle” which will display the shuffle menu shown below.
• Application Enhancements - If you are an existing BBM Music user you will also notice improved notification for friends already using BBM Music, improved performance at startup and easier access to account information from the profile screen.

If you're not seeing it yet, just wait it out or refresh App World. It's there, and will show up soon.

Download BBM Music from App World

RIM has made a new build of BBM Music available in BlackBerry Beta Zone. The latest release brings the beta build to version 1.2.0.16. RIM didn't offer a change log, but we should be okay to assume it's just bug fixes from the last version they offered. We're also hearing that this may be the final beta before being pushed out to the masses in BlackBerry App World.

As stated in Beta Zone this beta test is only avilable to those in Canada, USA and the UK, so others will just have to wait as they continue the BBM Music rollout. If you arent already a Beta Zone member you can get in on the action at the link below.

Download BBM Music v1.2.0.16

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.

Continue reading article

A new build of BBM Music is now appearing in the BlackBerry Beta Zone. This release, pushes BBM Music into version 1.2.0.13 and actually brings along quite a few changes with it. Looking at the list, here's a short summery of what has been changed:

• Invitation Requests - Discovering similar musical tastes just got easier! When an invitation request is sent from a ‘friend of a friend’ through Recent Updates you will now be able to view songs and the common friend before accepting/declining an invitation. 
• ‘Favorite’ Songs and Contacts - You can now highlight songs or contacts as favorites in BBM Music 1.2! To favorite a song, you need to click on the star displayed in the top left hand corner while listening to a specific song. When the star is highlighted yellow, this will indicate the song as a “favorite” and you will now be able to access this song through “favorite songs” on your profile tab. Favorite songs will be displayed to your friends in Recent Updates For a favorite contact, when you visit a contact’s page you can select “favorite” from the top menu bar. This will add a highlighted yellow star beside the contact’s name in the contacts tab which will only be visible to you. You will now have the ability to search by “favorite”contacts within the contacts tab.
• Intelligent Shuffle - Intelligent shuffle offers you the ability to shuffle songs by favorite songs, genre, artist, song popularity, album, contact, release year or recently added. To access the intelligent shuffle, on the home tab click “shuffle” which will display the shuffle menu shown below.
• A Default Friend for all New Users - New users to BBM Music will now have a default friend listed as a contact.
• Application Enhancements - If you are an existing BBM Music user you will also notice improved notification for friends already using BBM Music, improved performance at startup and easier access to account information from the profile screen.

The update is available to folks in the US, Canada and the UK. When you login to the BlackBerry Beta Zone it will show as a new beta, that you need to sign up for. If you're already a BBM Music premium subscriber, please ensure you read the upgrade process. 

Download BBM Music v1.2.0.13

For those of who are using the BBM Music app, there is update available today which brings the app version to 1.1.0.17. If you haven't already, you should get prompted to update soon. There is no changelog given this time around, however one thing I noticed was that the first time I loaded it up after updating it gave me a 'Tip' pop-up window on how to best use BBM Music - use WiFi as you may incur charges when using the mobile network, save songs to device for faster loading times.

If you do find anything new be sure to hit up the forums and let us know. Don't forget that you can get up to 6 months free service if you download BBM Music during the month of February.

Discuss more in the forums
Download BBM Music from App World 

Earlier in the month we saw that Rogers customers could download BBM Music and get 6 months free service. This offer has now been opened up to more customers around the world. If you live in Canada or the US you can get up to 4 months free BBM Music service and if you live in the UK, Spain or Italy, you can get up to 6 months free.

One thing to note is that this is only available to new users and those still currently in their trial period. If you have already starting your subscription payments, unfortunately you are no longer eligible for the free service promotion. 

The latest update to BBM Music is to version 1.1.0.12. With this update comes a whole lot of new features including subscription gift request and the ability to invite Facebook and Twitter friends. 

Don't forget this offer is valid if you download during the month of February, so if you're looking to give BBM Music a try, now is the time.

More information / Download BBM Music 

For anyone who has a BlackBerry 7 device this news may not be that big of a deal seeing how the Music Store app came pre-loaded on your device, whether you saw the icon or not it was there and installed. For those without a BlackBerry 7 device though, the Music Store app has been in the BlackBerry Beta Zone for a while and now has moved on to being publicly available for download through BlackBerry App World.

Despite it being preloaded on BlackBerry 7 devices, those of you who tried out the app may have found that it was either not supported in your country (This app, only has support for Canada and Australia) or even got an error message stating it was disabled by your administrator. If you fit into that area, then the newly released version is the one you'll want to get your hands on. You see, Amazon MP3 powered the old version where the new version is essentially a front-end for the 7Digital music store but it's much more then that when you consider a few things.

For a while now, I griped about the inconsistency of a music market place on the PlayBook and BlackBerry 7 smartphones due to the fact the PlayBooks music store was powered by 7Digital but BlackBerry 7 devices were powered by Amazon MP3. As such, any music you purchased on your PlayBook wasn't easily retrieved on your BlackBerry smartphone. You could get it, but it was through the 7Digital app, which has a totally different icon and is a totally different download. Some folks, may not have ever even known there was a 7Digital app or site and went on thinking their purchased music was stuck on their PlayBook.

With the BlackBerry Music store now available as a separate download, being powered by 7Digital (like the PlayBooks music store) RIM finally has some convergence happening and almost a complete music ecosystem. Files bought on your PlayBook can be retrieved on your smarphone and vice-versa as they are both on the same system now. BBM Music is of course the last remaining piece of the puzzle since; music you purchase there cannot be accessed outside of BBM Music easily without some digging around (It uses Amazon MP3 still). But that leaves the door open for RIM to port BBM Music over to the PlayBook at some point ideally or come up with a different solution for moving the music about easily.

Download the BlackBerry Music Store app from App World

Since the release of BBM Music we've not really heard a whole lot from RIM on how the uptake of the service has gone but they're still moving forward with promotions to get it out to a wider audience it seems. A new promotion for the service is happening right now for current Rogers customers where if you download BBM Music from February 1st up until March 30th, you'll get 6 months of the service for free.

A few caveats to keep in mind, the promo is for new and existing users but only if you're still under your trial term -- if you're beyond that, it won't work. Basically, you're just extending the trial. With that cleared up, if you've yet to try out BBM Music and are on Rogers, now is a great time to give it a go. Thanks, John!

More information/download of BBM Music

Earlier this week we saw a BBM Music beta hit that was only available to Canadians but luckily for the rest of us this update has rolled out officially and version 1.1.0.12 is ready for your downloading pleasure. This update brought a slew of new features to the table, such as the ability to request a subscription from a BBM contact, send invites via Twitter and Facebook, and much more. If you are a current subscriber be sure to hit the link below and grab the update, and if you are not currently a BBM Music user be sure to sign up before January 4, 2012 to get 4 months free. Full list of improvements available after the break!

More information / download of BBM Music

Continue reading article

If you live in Canada and use BBM Music, you'll want to hit up the BlackBerry Beta Zone and grab the latest update available. v1.1.0.11 has been made available for Canadians only there and brings quite a few new UI enhancements and some new features that make the overall user experience better. You can jump on past the break to see the full list of enhancements or just hit the beta zone link below.

Download BBM Music from the BlackBerry Beta Zone

Continue reading article

With the BBM Music launch now in full swing, RIM has taken the time to come up with a limited holiday offer for new and existing users of the service. If you live in the US and download the app between December 16, 2011 - January 4, 2012 you'll get four free months of use.

RIM is also extending the subscription of users who are already making use of BBM Music by another 4 months. Users in the UK have also had their free trial extended by four months as well, which gives them a total of six months to try out the service. So, now is a great time to check out BBM Music -- hit the download link below to get started.

Download BBM Music from BlackBerry App World

Earlier this morning, AT&T tweeted that they are offering up a great holiday gift for BlackBerry 7 users.

"Hey @BlackBerry OS7 fans, here's an early holiday gift! Check ur media folder for 2 months of free BBM Music! http://t.co/stCZLsVE"

AT&T has been pushing out a vpl shortcut for BBM Music by service book for several weeks now. It seems that AT&T is fully on board with RIM in this venture, and now RIM is apparently offering 2 months of BBMM for free to new BBMM customers only. According to the tweet you can check your media folder for BBM Music (if you haven't found it already) to get started with your free trial. BBMM is certainly worth a free 2-month trial if you've never tried it before, so give it a shot and find out exactly how weird your friends' taste in music really is!

More information/download of BBM Music

Good news for those of you in Italy and Spain that want to try out BBM Music as the app has now been updated to work in your countries!

BBM Music makes your music collection social! With BBM Music, you can create a music profile of your favorite songs that all your BBM Music friends can listen to – and in return you can enjoy all of your friends’ profile selections. That means the more friends you have, the more music you can enjoy! You can listen to full tracks, create playlists, have conversations about music, and even listen to music offline.

• Create your music profile from a catalogue of millions of songs and keep it fresh by swapping songs every month
• Make friends and listen to their music selections
• Play single songs or entire playlists created by friends. Listen to a giant playlist that includes all tracks from all your friends
• Create playlists that are all your own – using songs from all your friends’ profiles
• Post comments about your friends’ music and chat with them about music in real-time
• Discover what your friends are doing by watching the timeline - friends adding friends, new songs, playlists, comments
• Listen offline, while not connected to the wireless network (listen on subway, airplane, cottage, etc.)
• Try Before You Buy. Enjoy a free trial offer that allows all the perks that come with the paid subscription.

You can find more information and download BBM Music in BlackBerry App World at the link below. The app is free to download and comes with a 1 month free trial after which it will cost you $5 a month to subscribe for all the features.

More information/download BBM Music

I'm guessing that BBM Music hasn't taken off as well as Research In Motion had hoped it would. In my opinion, one reason that it hasn't is the fact that (like many of RIM's apps) it's not been made available in enough countries. Launching in just Canada, Australia, and the US initially, the social music app has met with lukewarm response and mediocre reviews. RIM has recently expanded the availability to include the UK and Mexico, which is a start toward getting more people using the app, though there was no real announcement so I'm not sure how many people even realize they can download it yet.

BBM Music depends on users to keep it alive, but competition in the US and Canada is fierce with the availability of other (and some would argue, better) music streaming apps. As reader Antonio told us, "I'm in Mexico and was really looking forward to try the app for the first time, since we didn't have access to the beta (heck, here we don't even have access to the Beta Zone!). I think it's an awesome app, especially in a country like mine, where music streaming services like Spotify and such are not available."

Making BBM Music available in countries that don't have so many options available for streaming music is a wise choice, and in my opinion one that should have been made much earlier in the game.

Download BBM Music free in BlackBerry App World