The CrackBerry Awards for this year are now over but, the fun of the awards hasn't yet stopped. Hedone Design took home the CrackBerry Award for Theme Developer of the Year and as thanks for all the love and support Hedone has placed all his themes on sale. From now, until October 7th when you use the coupon code "CBDOY2010" on the CrackBerry App Store you'll get 50% off the original price. Be sure to update your cart before checking out to ensure the pricing is indeed correct and remember it only works on the mobile store.

• Click Here To Get Started On Picking Out Your Theme>>

Over the weekend we posted some of the video from our CrackBerry App Awards party in San Francisco and today we have the rest of them for your viewing pleasure. Included here are some interviews with sponsors Xobni and the BlackBerry Partners Fund as well as CrackBerry Idol winner Dave Peckens. As I watch these I get super excited to think about next years awards party (planning is already in the works for an even bigger and awesomer event). Stay tuned for that!

Keep reading to check out all the videos. HUGE thanks again goes out to our co-sponsors Xobni and the BlackBerry Partners Fund. Thanks too for everyone that came out to support us!

Continue reading article

The CrackBerry App Awards party went down as a huge success this week. With over 200 people packed into Xobni's awesome headquarters, it was a perfect venue and atmosphere to hand out the 2010 Crackies. Big thanks also go to the BlackBerry Partners Fund for sponsoring the event and make it all possible. I have a feelng we'll be doing it up again in 2011 even bigger and better.

Following up the CrackBerry App Awards Winners' Announcement, we finally pulled the video from the event off the CrackBerry camera and got it up onto youtube for your viewing pleasure. Above you can watch the party walkabout, hosted by Adam, and below you can find interviews with some of our winners in attendance, recorded after winning their award. Enjoy the show!

Continue reading article

Devcon 2010 has officially come to a close and it was a great success all around. Closing out the week with a BANG (literally, you should have heard the sound effects!) we held our first live CrackBerry App Awards on Wednesday night and had an amazing turnout. There was plenty of food, booze and good times to be had. HUGE thanks go to Xobni, the BlackBerry Partners Fund and everyone that came out to enjoy the party.

Lots of the winners were in attendance so we got to hand out our special spinning Cracky trophies in person. We're also doing up some special graphics for the winners to use on their websites, promo materials, etc. (we'll follow up directly with those shortly). We also have plenty of video from the night on the way, but for now keep reading for the full list of this years winners as well as some photos from the event.

Continue reading article

It's almost party time folks! We're nearing the end of DevCon10 so it's time to let loose and celebrate! The stage is set for the CrackBerry App Awards Party which takes place TONIGHT. If you're attending DevCon or in San Francisco and want to come by and check it out, just RSVP and jump on the shuttle buses.

CrackBerry Party Details:

• Location: Xobni Headquarters (click for map). It's a short walk from the Marriott Marquis or better yet, grab one of the shuttles leaving from the Marriott.
• Free Shuttles: Shuttle buses will start taking people to the party at 6:30pm.  Just head to the front doors of the Marriott. Just look for the person wearing a Xobni shirt and holding a CrackBerry Awards party sign. It'll be one shuttle (that holds 50 people) going back and forth, so if you don't see the shuttle don't panic - it'll be back shortly.
• Time: The party will be going strong from 7pm to 10pm. Around 8pm we'll do up the awards ceremony portion so there'll be plenty of time to drink before and after.
• Free Booze:  HELLZ YEAH!
• CrackBerry.TV: We'll have our big azz CrackBerry.TV camera on hand. If you're a developer and want to show case your app or do a quick interview that'll end up here on the site, you'll have your opportunity. And if not, don't worry... we won't force you.
• PRIZES!!!! We'll have some sweet prizes we're giving away to some lucky winners in attendance. My favorite of the bunch? An IOU from CrackBerry for a free BlackBerry PlayBook! 

I think that covers the details.  You can RSVP HERE and we'll see you tonight!!

Fresh off the app assembly line is the new Devcon Mobile Guide for BlackBerry. The app will help attendees of the BlackBerry Developers Conference schedule sessions and keep up with whats happening in San Francisco. You can view full lists of sessions, check out speakers, search sponsors and much more. The app is also useful in that you can fill out on-site breakout session surveys, review conference maps and check out blogs. The Devcon Mobile Guide is totally free and is available from BlackBerry App World.

If you're going to be in San Francisco for Devcon, you won't want to miss the CrackBerry Awards which will be presented LIVE Wednesday night. We're throwing a party with the help of Xobni and the BlackBerry Partners Fun with free booze, grub and plenty of schmoozing. So if you're going to be at Devcon, you definitely don't want to miss it. You can still RSVP but do it now before it fills up!!

• More information/download of Devcon Mobile Guide >>
  
• RSVP for the CrackBerry Awards 2010 >>

Click Here to See the Nominees and Vote Now!

We're only 10 days away from the start of the 2010 BlackBerry Developer Conference, which means we're only 12 days away from the CrackBerry App Awards party being hosted by Xobni and sponsored by the BlackBerry Partners Fund. The CrackBerry Awards party is being held from 7 to 10pm on Wednesday, September 29th at Xobni's headquarters (Twitter's original offices!) which are just a short five minute shuttle ride away from the Marriott where DevCon is being hosted. If you haven't RSVPed yet, you can do so here. It'll be a good 'ole time! 

CrackBerry App Award Nominees Announced - Voting Now Open: Before we can have a CrackBerry App Awards party, we need to have some winners to announce! Jump over to our CrackBerry App Awards 2010 page to see the nominees and place your vote. * Message to Nominees - if you're going to be in attendance at the App Awards party, shoot Adam or myself an email and let us know! *

• Go to the CrackBerry App Awards Page to See the Nominees and Vote! >>

With the 2010 CrackBerry App Awards party coming up fast on (the Wednesday night of the BlackBerry Developer Conference - click here for event details and to RSVP), it's time to get the process started for choosing the winners that are going to be announced!

2010 CrackBerry App Award Categories

Crackies will be award this year in the following categories:

Developer Awards

• 2010 BlackBerry App Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Game Developer of the Year
• 2010 BlackBerry Theme Developer of the Year

App Awards

• Best Game
• Best Business/Finance App
• Best IM/Social Networking App
• Best Location-Based App
• Best Music App/Service
• Best Health/Wellness App
• Best News App
• Best Productivity App
• Best Utility App
• Best Sports App

CrackBerry Editors' Choice Awards

• While the developer and app award winners will be voted on by the community, we're also going to hand out five Editors' Choice Awards for the apps the Crack Team feels are absolute must-haves for every BlackBerry owner. 

How to Nominate your Favorite Apps and Developers

To nominate your favorite apps and developers to win a 2010 Crackie award, simply leave a comment to this blog post with the category name followed by the app or developer name. Just check the first comment - I'll leave an example there.

The Crack Team already has a pretty good idea of some of the many apps that deserve to be in each category, but we want to make sure we don't miss any so this is your chance to have your voice heard as to who should be nominated as category finalist. Nominations will close this coming Tuesday at Midnight PST. From there the CrackBerry Academy will work through the nominations and argue back and forth to determine the top five finalists in every category, who will then compete in the community vote which will happen here on the blogs later next week.

The third annual BlackBerry Developer Conference is coming up September 27th to 30th in San Francisco, and I'm happy to announce CrackBerry is going to be making a bigger splash than ever this year. In partnership with the BlackBerry Partners Fund and hosted by xobni, we're going to be handing out the 2010 Crackies in person at a fun-filled CrackBerry App Awards party. 

The event will take place on Wednesday, September 29th at xobni's headquarters, which are actually Twitter's old offices (wicked sweet setup - get a preview here). Shuttle buses will run from the Marriott Marquis hotel starting at 6:30pm for the 5 minute ride to the party. There'll be free booze, good times and once we're all merry we'll take to the stage for a few minutes to hand out the CrackBerry Awards to the winning developers in attendance. So if you're attending DevCon or will be in San Fran at that time and want to attend, be sure to RSVP.

As for picking the CrackBerry App Awards 2010 winners, the format will be similar to our 2009 CrackBerry App Awards. We'll announce the award categories at the beginning of September and allow the community to nominate deserving apps/developers. From there the community will place their votes and we'll announce the winners at the party. Stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, check out the link below for more info and to RSVP if you plan on attending. Hope to see you there!

• More Info / RSVP to the CrackBerry App Awards Party >>

Cast Your Votes on the Polls Below! Polls Close @ Midnight!

* Update: December 30th - LAST DAY TO VOTE! The polls close tonight at midnight. *

Following up on our announcement of the nominees for the Best of 2009 CrackBerry Awards, or CBAs as we like to call them, the time has come for the CrackBerry Community to place their votes! Below you'll find outstanding nominees to vote on in a bunch of different categories. We had to draw the line somewhere, so went for major categories falling under BlackBerry Accessories, Apps and Devices. This is already a big jump up from our 2008 awards and we've left some room to grow for 2010.

Place your votes below! If there's a category that doesn't feel relevant to you personally or you don't have a clue who to vote for, feel free to skip on to the next category that floats your boat (err.. makes your BlackBerry vibrate?!). Note - I'm going to disable the comments on this post. Want to keep things on track to voting - there was plenty of discusion on the nominees post and they're will be plenty more once the winners are announced!

The voting will close end of day on December 30th, and we'll be announcing the deserving winners here on the blogs on New Year's Eve. From there, as we kick off 2010 we'll follow up in more detail on each of the winners to make sure we start the new year off right, by looking back at the best of 2009. Congratulations and good luck to all of the nominees! Happy voting everyone!

Continue reading article

Its that time again! The year is almost over, and in true CrackBerry fashion we're heading out with a bang. Last year we picked the Best of 2008 with our Cracky Awards in various categories, and this year we have tons of great apps, accessories, devices and more to choose for our Best of 2009. 

Before the official voting begins Wednesday, we need you, the CrackBerry Nation, to help make sure we have all the of the categories you want to vote on and to make sure we have all of the deserving nominees in there. Below you'll find a list compiled by the Crack Team of what we think is fitting for this year's CBAs. But we're not perfect and we may have missed some worthy nominees or not come up with some categories that could be fun vote on. That said, you can drop a comment on this post and let us know if you think we missed anything. Do we need to add a nominee or two to a category? Maybe there's room for a whole new category? LET US KNOW TODAY. We'll be launching the community voting tomorrow so you need to get your thoughts to us asap (don't cast your votes in the comments here... this is all about categories and nominees). Note: we decided to bypass including BlackBerry themes or theme developers in the polls since there are just way to many to choose from, but in the coming weeks we'll be starting a new weekly theme roundup to highlight the greatest free and premium themes throughout the year. Check out the Best of 2009 preliminary award categories and nominees below!

Continue reading article