A good news reader for BlackBerry seems hard to come by lately, but a new player to the game hopes to change that. SideSwipe is a great news reader for BlackBerry that is now in beta and seeking testers. I've had the pleasure of playing around with the app for the last week and I have to say it's one of the best yet.

We live in a time where the amount of readily available information is increasing faster than we can keep track of it, let alone understand it. There are more than 150 million blogs and billions of tweets, yet we still get most of our information from a handful of sites. The sheer volume of information is overwhelming; think of it as trying to drink from a fire hose. This is where SideSwipe comes in, offering users the ability to expand their information horizons without drowning in data.

Our proprietary cloud technology marries popular content with less obvious sources, using personal preferences and social networking to provide a broad offering of interesting content. Utilizing powerful background processing and storage capabilities, the BlackBerry client packages up the content in a viewing experience not yet seen in other mobile device offerings.

Having the news you want, when you want it is important, and SideSwipe does just that - and it does it well. The fluid UI, ease of use and all around fun of the app make it simply awesome. Your content is stored locally so there is no wasted time accessing data, the swipe navigation is amazingly smooth and quick, you can save and share articles and much more.

SideSwipe is now in beta and seeking testers. There are 1000 spots open for eager users to try it out. You'll need to use the app and report back with your findings, but that shouldn't be too hard. If you're interested in helping out, head to the link below to claim your spot. Keep reading for more screeshots.

Get in on the SideSwipe beta now

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Spotify has officially released their new BlackBerry app into public beta. Spotify is a music  streaming company that has become quite popular as of late so the app couldn't have come at a better time. There's only 2 slight problems, you need to be on a GSM network (no love for us CDMA users yet) and it's only been tested on the following devices: 9780, 9700, 9300, 9000, 8520.

Features included in this release are:

• Million of songs available instantly on your BlackBerry
• Offline playlists – listen to music with no mobile connection and avoid using your data allowance
• Create and sync playlists
• Star your favourite tracks
• Search tracks, artists, album
• Browse “What’s new” and “Top tracks”
• Scrobble tracks to Last.fm
• Receive music from friends via the inbox

As with all Spotify mobile applications, you will need a Premium Subscription ($9.99 a month) to stream songs from their catalogue. Also, remember this is in beta so you should probably back up your device before installing just to be on the safe side. If you're one of the daring ones and download the app onto one of the devices not listed above, leave us a comment down below of which device and how well it's working.

More information / download Spotify for BlackBerry beta

We are big fans of JeeoSuite here at CrackBerry, and for good reason. If you haven't heard of it yet, JeeoSuite is a wifi portal for your BlackBerry. You can transfer files, access email, bookmarks, stats, and tools right from your computer via your browser. This app is really awesome, and up until now it was also hard to get your hands on as mblware still had it locked down in a private beta. Well, the wait is over. If you've been itching to get your hands on JeeoSuite and you haven't been able to yet, you'll be happy to learn that you now can. Mblware sent out emails last night to people who had signed up but not been chosen for the private beta informing them that a public beta version is now available. To download JeeoSuite for your BlackBerry you can visit http://get.jeeosuite.com from your phone.

So go get signed up, install the app, and give it a go! If you're already part of the private beta, you will want to update your version of JeeoSuite as well. Full instructions on what to do once you've installed are after the break, and if you're still unsure of what exactly JeeoSuite is, or why you want it, check out the video below for a full rundown. Let us know what you think of it in the comments below or in the forums, and if you have feedback for mblware be sure to submit it to them!

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There is a growing need for wireless synchronization. Besides the obvious solution that goes by the name of BES (and the free BES Express), many companies have thrown their hat into the ring to provide users a way to feed that need. Some offer only contact, calendar and email synchronization, others offer only access to files. Today, the folks at Funambol decided to toss their own hat in and announced their beta for a ‘mobile cloud service’ for BlackBerry. Through Funambol BlackBerry service, you are able to sync pictures between your BlackBerry to your PC – or to numerous social networking sites (Facebook, Flicker, etc). You can also enjoy two-way synchronization with Outlook of contacts, calendar, tasks and note. All of this is done OTA and you can choose whether you want to manually sync or schedule automatic syncing.

Funambol is already up and running on other platforms and it’s about time that BlackBerry is shown some love as well. They say that their service is equivalent to what Android would expect from Google or what iPhone users get with MobileMe. Funambol is currently in beta and can be found in BlackBerry App World. Based on the reviews on BlackBerry App World, it’s been there since at least October. Full Press Release after the jump

More information/download of Funambol App

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For all of you out there that signed up for the BlackBerry Beta Zone, you may have received an invite to check out the new BlackBerry feedback tool offered by Research In Motion. Now, before you go stating that I shouldn't have posted this, keep in mind Research In Motion has open betas and closed betas within BlackBerry Beta Zone and this is among one of the open betas.

The new feedback tool offers direct access to send feedback for any Research In Motion developed application from within each app. The feedback can be specific to that application or if you just happen to think of something, you can choose the option of general feedback. This information allows Research In Motion to identify trends in issues that users may be seeing. With the collective information being reviewed, they can act more quickly in resolving any issues that arise. Remember, only BlackBerry Beta Zone users have access to this tool so be sure to sign up if you haven't already.

• Sign Up For The BlackBerry Beta Zone Via The BlackBerry Website>>

After a short delay from the initially scheduled release, Research In Motion has just sent off emails with links for BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.1.5 to some in the BlackBerry world. The changes overall seem to be back end work that has no impact for users visually. A few things have been added that users might notice however. Keep in mind not all beta testers were sent the release today and more will be sent out later. We got some screenshots and explanations of what's new after the jump

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I love simple applications that make my life easier. Even more so, I love simple apps that make life easier and look good doing so. Splitcosts fits right in that category nicely. The application which was essentially developed using simple code UI offered by Research In Motion that shows how easy it is to make something simple, look great and functional.

As the name implies, Splitcosts offers an easy solution to splitting up bills and debt between any number of people. At a business meeting and need help figuring out the splitting of the bill? Split costs can figure out your part of the bill in just a few quick seconds. At this time, 20 different currencies are supported, address book integration (non touch devices) is in place and you can even take pics of receipts and email them off for accounting purposes. Splitcosts is currently free as it's still in beta. If you download it and find any bugs, be kind and pass them along to the developer using the "send feedback" button in the menu. Be sure to leave some comments on what you think of the app as well folks.

• For Full Details On Splitcosts And To Download Your Free Copy Click Here>>

Our friend Fabian Heuwieser is looking for some feedback on his latest iteration of Later Dude Pro. If you are a current user or new to Later Dude Pro here is your chance to check out what's up and coming. As Fabian has posted in the CrackBerry forums, you can now get your hands on the latest version which has some newly added features to make Later Dude Pro more robust app. Have a look in the forums and if you want to give Fabian a hand with the testing, be sure to grab the download.

• For More Information And Download Details Check Out The CrackBerry Forums Post >>

The long awaited, oft rumored Twitter for BlackBerry app has been released in beta form for a while now. Granted, not everyone was able to get their hands on a copy due to the invitation only nature in which the app was released. But that also hasn't stopped others from taking their own avenues in getting the same version released to those with invite codes. In fact, it's been in enough hands now to have generated quite the amount of feedback I assume considering RIM has placed the feedback URL right within the application itself.

So with that said, how come there have not been any updates released so far? Surely Research In Motion is working on the "beta" app. And if so, wouldn't they want the latest bug fixes and implementations tested? Many of you may not have noticed when installing Twitter for BlackBerry but the EULA (End User License Agreement) clearly stated the terms and conditions of the Pilot program end on March 31st, 2010 (shown above). So it should be fairly safe to assume we'll see a full on roll out shortly before or shortly after that and let’s hope by then they'll have pushed out some updates to the already existing users to check out and test.

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Henrik from BellShare just sent us an email letting us know that BerryWeather 2.1 is now available in Public Beta form and that they're looking for feedback from CrackBerry readers to help put the finishing touches on it. Henrik says this version will be a lot faster and easier on memory than previous versions (good stuff!). The full changelog is as follows:

• Complete rework of the core. BerryWeather will now fully close when sent to background. The homescreen wallpaper and icon will keep updating.
• Using new server protocol to improve update speeds and minimze CPU load
• Changed forecast/advisory update settings. New option 'With Forecats' for advisory will update advisories whenever forecasts are updated, 'Never' will never update advisories
• Added data+settings backup to memory card
• Added support for setting the icon size on homescreen walllpaper
• Added support for blacking out the settings screen (on by default)
• Added support for selecting whether to show radar/webcam links in internal viewer or browser (allows adding mp3/video/hrml links)
• Fixed lag on image browser for background image selection
• Fixed lag issues on BlackBerry Tour (and other devices)
• Fixed several potential memory leaks
• Fixed errors on first time built-in map loading
• Version 2.1 is using a new storage format. This means all data will be lost.
• We strongly recommend uninstalling any previous version before installing version 2.1
• You will need a valid BerryWeather 2.x license or this beta will be limited to a 3 day trial.
  

You can follow the link below to jump over to BellShare's forum for the download links. Feel free to leave feedback there or in the comments of this blog post. If you don't have Berry Weather 2.0 yet, you can purchase 2.0 here to have the 2.x license.

• Download BerryWeather 2.1 Public Beta for BlackBerry Smartphones >>