Geeez... between the CB Birthday planning last week during the day and Olympics watching taking up my free time at night, I nearly forgot I still have a few Mobile World Congress videos to get up on the blogs. This one is a little bit different....

The folks from Schad Automation were on-hand at the BlackBerry booth showing off their Extend 7000 system. This is no consumer application but demonstrates how BlackBerry Smartphones are super-compelling within the workplace much beyond staying on top of emails and reports. The Extend 7000 greatly improves the efficiency of operating machines and plants in big business. Check out the video above for full details. Pretty interesting stuff and interesting to note that this technology is already in use at companies like Volkswagon and Lufthansa. For more information, visit schad-automation.com.

We're bacccCKKKK! I guess we're getting pretty good with this bi-weekly podcast thiing. In this CrackBerry Radio episode we go through all of the BlackBerry news that was Mobile World Congress 2010 and we catch up on other app announcements and BlackBerry news and rumor. We kick it CrackBerry old school on this one which means we go a bit long and off topic, but hardcore enthusiasts will appreciate it regardless. We even talk Olympic curling and hockey and Bla1ze gets passionate. Enough typing. Hit play above to listen and enjoy the show!!

PS. If you haven't yet, click the link above and Subscribe to use in iTunes!! Even if you don't listen to us there, you can still subscribe. Mucho thanks!

The folks from Celio Corp were on hand last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where they had a pod at the BlackBerry booth and I caught up with them to see how things were going. They released the RedFly for BlackBerry a few months back (read our review) so I first got an update on that. From there they also showed me a couple new things... Moab and a prototype touchscreen RedFly.

Moab is a small docking station that connects a full-size keyboard, mouse and display of choice to your BlackBerry. This allows you to use your BlackBerry with basically any monitor/keyboard you like (great for kiosks like those on hand at the BlackBerry booth). The prototype touchscreen RedFly will allow you to use touch input to control your non-touchscreen BlackBerry. I sort of joked in the video that this is the first touchscreen BlackBerry Bold we have seen to date! Check out the video for full details.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week RIM brought forth the notion of "Super Apps" to the smartphone world. It wasn't that RIM introduced any new apps here, but defined what makes a smartphone application great and cited some examples of existing BlackBerry apps that fit that description: Poynt, eBay for BlackBerry, 7Digital Music Store, Facebook, the in-beta Twitter client, etc.. Some of the charateristics that take an app to the level of super app are as follows:

• The Always on Experience
• Tight Integration with the Native BlackBerry Apps
• Proactive and Notification-driven
• Highly Contextualized
• Social and Connected
• Designed for Efficiency

During the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet, this idea of building super apps was extended upon and I caught on video Chris Smith walking through the thought process RIM went through in building their new Twitter for BlackBerry Smartphones client. Chris is the Senior Director of the BlackBerry Development Platform for RIM. The key to Chris' presentation here is not here's what we did to build a great twitter app but the message is for developers to approach their own ideas, whatever they may be, with this thought process that will really uncover way to build an app experience that is tightly and fully integrated with the BlackBerry experience, making a super app experience for the end user that is greater than they will find anywhere else.

It's an interesting video and one that all mobile developers should definitely watch. To learn more about BlackBerry Super Apps, you can check out RIM's page on Super Apps. What I'm waiting see next are Super Duper Apps. I'm thinking a Super Duper App takes the definition of Super App and adds to it the ability to save/run the apps from the MicroSD card so they can be HUGE in filesize and therefore extremely pretty with tons of nice graphics and video. The best of both worlds combined. 

We're back from Mobile World Congress 2010 battered but excited for the upcoming year in smartphones. We had coverage from the show at all six sites. If the above isn't enough to whet your appetite for Mobile World Congress news, we've helpfully collated a list of all our coverage up to this point after the break. There are still a few more posts to come as we empty our memory cards and ponder what we held in out hands out in Barcelona - so stay tuned!

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Mobile World Congress 2010 is winding down which means Dieter, Phil and myself are packing our bags and heading home. Before I packed the podcasting microphone away though we setup for one final podcast to wrap up the news from the final few days. We also recorded a podcast Monday night which mainly talked about the Windows Phone 7 Series announcement - if you want to take a listen to that one you can find it here.

On this show we talk Black (Berry) Tuesday, working yet again through the topics of BES Express, the BlackBerry WebKit Browser, Super Apps and "the impending datapocalypse" as Dieter has called it. After covering BlackBerry, we focus on some of the other news coming out of MWC2010 like HTC's new phones and Samsung's Wave - a device that offers a pretty sweet display via its Super AMOLED technology. Take a listen and enjoy the show!

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.

• Read The Full Press Release Via The BBC Press Office Website>>

Following up on RIM's announcement of BES Express, demo of their WebKit browser and discussion on Super Apps yesterday in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2010, I had a chance to get some clarification and answers direct from RIM today. I haven't had a whole bunch of time to catch up on my RSS feeds and forum post reading since these stories broke, but from the little I have seen so far it seems there has been at least some confusion and questions (and even rumors) out there surrounding these topics.

I sat down with Rory O'Neill and Mike Kirkup of Research in Motion and in 18 minutes set the record straight and get some additional details as to what it all means for BlackBerry users. In case you missed our BlackBerry in Europe podcast back in November and don't know them yet, Rory is the Senior Director of Business Marketing in the EMEA region and Mike is the Director of Developer Relations. Huge thanks to them both for taking time out of their crazy schedule to talk to CrackBerry Nation.

Be sure to take a listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you have any lingering questions that I missed and they didn't get addressed, let me know and I'll do my best to get the answers. Enjoy the show!

Day 2 of Mobile World Congress has been a busy one for RIM, with BlackBerry Developer Day taking place at the App Planet venue (looked like a great turnout when I was there!) and RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis taking center stage in this morning's keynote session. I grabbed Mike L's keynote on video so you can kick back and watch all of today's announcement like you were there in the crowd. 

In addition to announcing BES Express and giving us a glimpse of RIM's new WebKit browser, Mike Lazaridis introduced RIM's take on Super Apps (more on that to come in another post/podcast) and also spent time in the beginning reinforcing that spectrum is a finite resource and that RIM continues to care about respecting a carrier's bandwidth in its focus on data efficiency. Check it out and be sure to drop your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy the show! 

The announced but not yet released WebKit-based BlackBerry web browser was shown off via video demo twice today at Mobile World Congress. Mike Lazaridis, RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO, gave it a minute of glory during the morning's general session, while an hour later it was Mike Kirkup, RIM's Director of Developer Relations, who gave a quick walk through of what's in store for the browser at the BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet to those in attendance (video above).

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On the first day of Mobile World Congress 2010, 7digital dropped an update to their popular 7digital Music Store for BlackBerry app. I caught up with James Shannon from DevelopIQ, makers of the app, to give us the run down of what's new and improved. You can catch the video above. If video isn't your cup of tea, then here's the Coles Notes on version 1.2:

• New: Last.fm scrobbling support
• New: Last.fm 'now playing' support
• New: BlackBerry Curve 8350i support
• New: Netherlands store & Dutch localisation
• New: Rest of Europe store
• New: 7digital store artist search
• New: 7digital store playback from locker
• New: My Music - Browse Purchased
• New: My Music - Track search
• New: My Music - Add Folder to manual playlist
• New: My Music - Delete Artist/Album/Track
• New: Media card encryption support
• Improved: My Music browsing performance
• Improved: My Locker refresh performance over WiFi
• Improved: Carrier network download performance
• Other minor fixes & improvements 

All in all it's a great upgrade and James says even more is coming in version 1.3. Good stuff, considering this is already one well-built BlackBerry application. If you don't haven't tried the 7digital app yet, be sure to give it a go by downloading it from App World.

• Learn More / Download 7digital Music Store for BlackBerry from App World >>

It turns out RIM's presence at Mobile World Congress is even bigger than I first thought. Over at the App Planet pavillion in Hall 7, RIM has another exhibit setup where their focus is on BlackBerry app development. I caught up with Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations for RIM, who filled us in on the details of what's going. Check out the video above and this link for more details.

New BlackBerry Developer Blog Launched: Mike also let us know that they just re-launched their BlackBerry Developer Blog over at http://devblog.blackberry.com. Anybody developing or thinking about developing apps for BlackBerry needs to add this site to their RSS reader and check it out on a regular basis.

I know a lot of BlackBerry users out there have been waiting for Skype to drop their official BlackBerry client. Thinking back, it was March 2009 when word surfaced that a client would be coming and at the time it was supposed to be available only a few months later. Here we are, now into 2010, and we're still waiting for it. As I walked passed the Skype booth I fired up the camera and grabbed a quick update. The word? Not what I was hoping for. I got the good 'ole It's in the works, it's an important platform for us, keep waiting answer.

But hey, at least we know it will show up one day. In the meantime, you can still check out IM+ for Skype by Shape Services. Bla1ze did an updated review of it recently - you can check it out to see his take on where they're at with it.

Leading up to the event I heard RIM would have a pretty big presence this year at Mobile World Congress and all I can say is yep, that is definitely the case. You can check out the quick video above to get a feel for the BlackBerry setup on the show floor. It's a solid setup. On the one side RIM has put the focus on their partners - with some 60 present showing off their apps and services. BlackBerry devices line the walls for people to play with. The other side of booth features meeting rooms for business to get done as well as a lounge and section dedicated to acccessories. If you're at the event, you can find it in Hall 8.

CrackBerry coverage goes to Barcelona this week for Mobile World Congress 2010! MWC is the biggest mobile-dedicated conference in the world and this year BlackBerry is going to have a big presence there. On CrackBerry Podcast 047 last week I promised we'd try and bring you some special edition podcasts so we decided to kick things off early on the eve of the event with a quick Smartpone Experts MWC preview show. While I'll be tackling all of the BlackBerry stuff at MWC, Dieter Bohn and Phil Nickinson will be covering all the non-BB stuff for our sibling sites. In this show (only 17 minutes in length) we quickly cover the things we have seen so far and talk about what we expect to see this week. Keep it locked right here for lots more MWC10 action!

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