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Slacker Radio

If you'll be too far away from a TV or radio that's broadcasting the NCAA Championship games - not to worry. Slacker Radio is bringing all of the games to your ears thanks to their partnership with Dial Global. Slacker users will be able to stream all 67 mens NCAA Championship games as well as Women's Basketball Championship, Men's Frozen Four, the Men's and Women's College World Series and much more on their BlackBerry smartphone or PlayBook. Keep reading for the full press release and to download Slacker.

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Free BlackBerry PlayBook Wallpapers

 

Download Free Wallpapers for your BlackBerry PlayBook!

BlackBerry PlayBook Wallpaper

The BlackBerry PlayBook comes with a good selection of wallpaper out of the box, but when you're ready for something more, look no further than our free wallpaper gallery. Over the last few days I've had numerous people ask me where I got the wallpaper on my BlackBerry PlayBook. This, along with many other amazing wallpapers, is available in our free wallpaper gallery. We have tons of user submitted wallpapers for the BlackBerry PlayBook (and every other BlackBerry device as well) so you can certainly find something that suits you and your tablet. You can browse all of our categories, download to your heart's content and even upload some of your own to share with the world. Want to make your own wallpapers but not sure how? Keep reading for a quick explaination of BlackBerry PlayBook wallpaper sizing.

Browse the free BlackBerry Playbook wallpaper gallery
Download the CB Ribbon Wallpaper

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[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

A cool addition to the new BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 software is that of the BlackBerry Video Store. Much like the Music Store, it allows you to browse movies and TV shows for both purchase and rental. There is a pretty good collection of titles (although it could always be better) so most likely something for everyone. It does have it's quirks however as I found out, like the abscence of Back to the Future despite both BTTF II and III being available. Once I recovered from that blow, I did find quite a few movies that I would say are worth downloading. Older titles will run you around $9.95, while shiny new ones are $19.95. When you choose a title to purchaes or rent (after signing up for an account) you can even watch while it continues to download which is a pretty sweet deal. Overall I really dig the Video Store but I just hope the catalog continues to get bigger. Currently available only in the US, the Video Store comes pre-installed on the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 software. And yes, I love Robin Hood even though I hate Kevin Costner :-)

Themes and Ringtones in BlackBerry App World

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

Sound Blaster

Prepping my gear for CES today, I dropped a few movies from my Mac onto my BlackBerry PlayBook. Since I've made the mistake in the past, I decided to test them out before hitting the road. Sure enough, two of the videos I had imported had no sound -- thus I embarked on my quest to the CrackBerry forums for an easy solution. If you're having problems with no sound on your PlayBook videos, keep reading and we'll get you squared away in no time!

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BlackBerry Christmas

The holidays are officially upon us. The gifts are wrapped (or they should be), the plans have been made and the snow is falling (at least where I live it is). You've decorated your house, busted out the holiday music and tackled the mall, so the only thing left is to deck out your BlackBerry with some holiday media. We have wallpapers, ringtones and themes galore to get you flying into the holiday spirit. We have a fresh CrackBerry Holiday theme for 2010 and RIM has some BlackBerry Holiday themes of their own. We even have some spiked egg nog in the CrackBerry offices too, but we couldn't figure out how to make that available as a download on your BB. So check out the links below and grab up some holiday cheer so your Berry fits in with those pink bunny PJs grandma gave you.

Holiday Media:

Ringtones | Themes

Holiday Wallpapers:

Storm/Torch | 8900, 97xx & 96xx | Bold 9000 | 83xx & 85xx | Style/Pearl 3G | other BBs

BBC Content Going Mobile And Headed To BlackBerry

Yesterday, as Mobile World Congress was winding down Erik Huggers, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology held a keynote speech declaring the BBC was taking it's content to the smartphone market. Indicating that BBC users were also smartphone users and the BBC was dedicated to providing those users with the content they wanted on their mobile devices. Starting with the iPhone, the BBC will be releasing multiple applications including BBC News and BBC Sport among others.

The demo shown off was for the iPhone and will arrive in early April with the BlackBerry and Android versions to come later in the year. Huggers also sated that the BBC was also working on dedicated iPlayer applications as well which could deliver great video content but also made metnion that the iPlayer services are currently available now in a mobile optimized fashion of which, the BlackBerry 9700 and Storm 2 are supported for those in the UK. Great to see the BBC recognize the simple fact that mobile subscribers is massive I just hope they also realize that market lives beyond the UK and considers widespread releases.

Versa Tool (Beta)- A Suite Of BlackBerry Tools In One App

Marcus from Versatile Monkey, the creator of Podtrapper for BlackBerry, has just released a new beta application for you all to check out. VersaTool is a collection of tools all wrapped into one small application which is nice and lightweight. It features all the little functions your BlackBerry has or you wish it had in one spot. Be it the ability to start apps as your BlackBerry boots, down to creating an auto reply for emails right from your BlackBerry, to doing unit conversions on the fly - VersaTool has you covered. Read on after the jump for the full functions list and how you can help out with this new beta app.

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Thumbplay Music - Beta Launched And New Content Providers On Board

Thumbplay Music is going full out these days. Having just launched their beta application for BlackBerry, Mac and PC. Those of you out there who signed up are already enjoying their offerings. More content providers are being added practically on a daily basis, which is great. Thumbplay is hoping to expand as much content as possible to make their product the best it can be.

The number of tracks offered by Thumbplay music now exceeds 8 million. With big names such as Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal on board Thumbplay is bringing the content. In addition to the big labels 25,000 independent labels have been added to the lineup and todays announcement brings content from AWAL; BFM Digital; DashGo; Dig Dis; E1 Music; Finetunes; IRIS; Nettwerk; Nu Urban; Oseao; Rebeat Digital; Record Union; RouteNote; Sundesire Records, Symphonic Distribution and The state51Conspiracy.

As of now, Thumbplay is still in private beta but you can register for your invite via their site. Full availability of the service is expected to be rolled out this quarter. The Thumbplay Music service will include a free, three-day trial of its unlimited, on-demand service.  Following the trial period, subscriptions are $9.99 per month.

BlackBerry Media Sync Updated To Version 3.0.0.39 For PC Users

It wasn't too long ago now that version 3.0 of BlackBerry Media Sync was released. Now we got an update which brings a newer, semi-revamped UI and improved picture synchronization for PC users. Bumped up to version 3.0.0.39, you can now auto update through media sync or just grab the latest version from the BlackBerry Media Sync download site.

Having checked out the latest version, I can see RIM actually worked out some of the kinks in this version. It not only looks better now but actually works much faster than previous versions. Not too sure as to why the Mac version isn't seeing any updates... I'm not a Mac user so those of you who are is the Mac version working fine as is? Or could it use an update as well?

Holiday Media

The days of December seem to go by faster and faster, and those key holidays are right around the bend. You've decorated your house, busted out the Christmas music and tackled the mall, so the only thing left is to deck out your device with some holiday media. We have wallpapers, ringtones and themes galore to get you flying in the holiday spirit. Our own michaelwpg has even offered to customize your own "cheesy holiday avatar" with a Santa hat or custom trimmings. And you'll want to stay tuned because we're fixing up our free CrackBerry Holiday Theme from last year and will be dropping a fresh new one in the next few days (this one is so wicked you might just find yourself wanting to use it year round!). Check out the links below, and grab up some holiday cheer so your Berry fits in with that Christmas Tree sweater Grandma made you.

Holiday Media: Ringtones | Themes | Custom Cheesy Holiday Avatar

Holiday Wallpapers: Storm | Tour, Curve 8900 & Bold 9700 | Bold 9000 | 83xx, 85xx, 87xx & 88xx

Dilbert And New Yorker Help Bring Some Humor To Your Daily Events

RingTales has teamed up with Metranome and just launched two new products via BlackBerry App World that and Dilbert or The New Yorker fan will be sure to love. Cartoon Calendar is a fully integrated calendar for your BlackBerry smartphone that aside from being functional in all respects, brings a smile to your face every time you open it.

On any given day when accessing the application you can view the "Cartoon of the day" right in the application it's self. The videos are high quality and look great on your BlackBerry. Any Dilbert or New Yorker fan would surely enjoy this app. Pricing in BlackBerry App World is $9.99 (6 mnths subscription) for each version but free trials of each are available and I suggest trying the application before you buy it. The list of supported BlackBerry smartphones starts with the 81xx series and goes up from there, so check compatability in BlackBerry App World.

[ BlackBerrySync ]