The ever-so-elusive, all-in-one, BlackBerry social inbox, SocialScope, has finally said they plan to send out more invites to their private beta later this week. People have been clamoring about SocialScope invites since the app was initially released in late 2008. It has been in private beta ever since and slowly growing hype. People are always @ replying SocialScope on Twitter begging and pleading for an invite, offering up their limbs and first-born. I’ve had SocialScope since early 2009 and it’s the only client I’ve used on BlackBerry since. Every update launches them leaps and bounds ahead of Twitter for BlackBerry, UberTwitter, and the other competition out there, and they’re about to make the jump cross-platform onto Android and iPhone.

If you’re interested in getting SocialScope, you have to sign up for the private beta, here. Let me tell you know, you are signing up for a private beta and are just now adding yourself to the end of a very long list. Let’s just hope the SocialScope team sends out a lot of invites this time. Before, when they said they would send out invites, it didn’t appear as if they had sent out too many, but there’s no way for us to really know. Sit tight and we will all see as the week is already drawing to an end!

The new SocialScope update adds:

Full Facebook Experience – We’ve upped our Facebook experience 1000x with Facebook Friends list, Facebook pages, Full Facebook Profiles, Private Messages and Notifications.  SocialScope is the best way to use Facebook on your BlackBerry.

Inbox Integration – Powerful inbox integration allows you to select exactly which messages appear in your BlackBerry inbox.

Mute – Tired of hearing from a user, application(farmville!) or topic? Now you can block those updates.

Reduced Battery Usage – We’ve tuned, tweaked and optimized SocialScope to dramatically reduced battery usage. The most powerful social networking app now also the most power efficient.

Interface Tweaks – SocialScope is faster and easier to use.  We’ve made interface tweaks through out the app based on your feedback.

Invites (coming later this week!) – You’ve been asking for a way to share SocialScope with your friends and we’ll be delivering that later this week.

Lots of Bug Fixes – We went bug hunting and fixed many issues including url shirking, removing Twitter accounts and location lookup.
These are only the first set of changes!  We’ve been hard at work to enable a whole new set of experiences with Socialscope.  Keep an eye out for them in the coming weeks.

Who already has the update? How do you like it? How does it fair against older versions or other clients? Bark it up pups!

via: BBSync

Four (now five) days after the original launch day of the AT&T BlackBerry Torch, Amazon does what it’s known for and offer great prices. While still $199.99 with a two-year contract in AT&T stores across the nation, Amazon is selling the Torch for a mere $99.99 with a two-year contract. Now, some have claimed that the low price is due to the unimpressive sales of the Torch. Nobody expected an iPhone-like launch with millions of phones sold on launch day. Nobody lined up to get their BlackBerry Torch, and we didn’t expect them to either. But that doesn’t constitute a price cut, and that isn’t what has happened here, contrary to what many others have been saying.

Amazon simply sells phones lower than carrier stores, they always have. Most online suppliers do, too. When you buy a phone from a supplier like Amazon, there are two agreements in effect, and many people are unaware of that. You’re agreeing to the carrier’s terms and conditions, as well as Amazon’s which are as follows:

When you purchase your device with service from Amazon.com, we automatically pass along an instant discount from the carrier to you. This discount has been provided to you based on your agreement to (a) activate a new, or extend an existing, line of service for this device with the carrier, and (b) maintain this service in good standing for a minimum of 181 consecutive days. If you do not activate or extend a line of service in connection with this device, or if your service is canceled/disconnected before 181 consecutive days, Amazon.com will charge you $250 per device, plus applicable taxes.

The Torch has been given mixed reviews here and there and not everyone is a huge fan of the sliding design. It is, however, running RIM’s new BlackBerry 6, which a lot of people are seeming to love. It isn’t what I want from RIM, I want more, but this is a good step in the right direction. I feel that once RIM gets BlackBerry 6 loaded on a full touchscreen device, things will go a little more smoothly for them. They really botched the marketing for BlackBerry 6 and the Torch to people that don’t follow BlackBerry news by not releasing word of the device until a week before its release. So I expected pretty low sales, but RIM has proven that they are not yet a dying breed.

Is this low price due to low sales? No. It’s Amazon, who has done the same with phones like the Samsung Captivate, which is still $200 with a two-year contract in AT&T stores, but $49.99 on Amazon with the same two-year contract. Take of it what you will, but this is nothing out of the ordinary.

via: MobileCrunch

I’ve never been one to give a rusty, dog fart about any celebrity or what they do in their spare time, but I know plenty of people who do and would love to follow a celebrity around for a living picking up the crumbs of food they drop when they eat, trash they throw away, etc. For those people, US Weekly has provided, in a way, for you do so all through BBM. I thought a long time ago that it would be a good idea for say, a local news station, a national news provider, or even worldwide news provider would offer news through BlackBerry Messenger. It’s instant  and can provide content to thousands of people, quickly, who will more than likely turn right around and regurgitate it on Twitter or Facebook. It’s an obvious way to spread news fast, but there is a drawback. CrackBerry has been the host of several BBM stress tests. BBM has its limits and either US Weekly is either unaware, or have a trick up their sleeve. Anyway, if celebrity news if your thing, scan the barcode and rock on.

You can learn more about the celebrity news provided, here.

via: CrackBerry

Source: US Weekly

Earlier this month we saw IM+ Pro being updated though all the ad-supported version users didn’t get one. Now all of us Lite users will get updated to version 8.5.1. What’s new? You’ll get a completely redesigned user interface with a new theme, convenient history review for all conversations as well as an improved multichat for MSN and Skype. If you’re into heavy IM using you should give it a try even if you’ve never heard of it. For more info go here or hit the source link.

via: BBleaks

How jealous am I of all you guys living in a country with BlackBerry Beta Zone availability! Why? RIM just posted about an official (but limited) beta of the Desktop Manager 6.0!
If you didn’t sign up yet, make sure you do now. Since it’s a limited beta, it won’t be available for everyone right away but the invitations to test the new desktop software start going out today. Check out the preview Screenshots of Desktop Manager 6.0 on the Inside BlackBerry blogs. So far it looks pretty good to me – it actually looks a lot better than Desktop Manager 5.0 in my opinion. Now I definitely can’t wait for 6.0 to hit our loved ‘Berries and our Desktop!

Let us know in the comments if you’re one of the lucky ones getting the chance to test 6.0 and how you like it!

via: BlackBerryRocks

Ever since I posted about the large amount of hidden BBM emoticons that had been unearthed, we’ve been receiving comments galore to send them to everyone’s PIN. Rather than leaving everyone high and dry, what I’m going to do is open the flood gates. Everyone who wants these emoticons for BBM, simply reply to this post with your PIN. On Friday, I will make an attempt to send them to everyone who has requested them. If you have already asked for them in the original post, you don’t have to repost, I will get those as well.

Update (9/7/2010): As you all know the attempt to send out these emoticons was one large fail. I stopped because I had a lot of people asking how I got their PIN. I would repeatedly get error messages back for invalid PINs and lots of other chaos. So, instead what I’ve decided to do is put these in a thread in our Forums so you can go and get them there as you please. If you want the emoticons, click here. You will need to copy and paste the weird looking symbols onto your device. I recommend saving them into a memo and setting them as AutoText entries for ease of use.

Also, if you’re not interested in having to copy and paste them, or set them as AutoText, there is an alternative. There is a paid application called Picticons for BlackBerry, which can be found in BlackBerry App World for $2.99. You have two days to decide which road you want to take. Go!

For those of you who may be prone to losing your phone, listen up! This is what you’ve been waiting for. BlackBerry Protect is a security application that allows you to locate your device, lock your device, backup and wipe all upon losing your device. To add the icing to the cake, it’s free. There are many security applications out there for a paid subscription that do very similar things, but RIM is offering this service completely free of charge. Here are some of the key features talked about in the press release:

Remote Device Management:

• Protect important information on a lost BlackBerry smartphone by remotely wiping or locking the device from your desktop
• Remotely add contact information to the home screen of a locked BlackBerry smartphone so it can be returned if found
• See your BlackBerry smartphone’s location and pinpoint the current whereabouts of a lost or stolen device with cell tower and GPS device tracking
• Find a nearby misplaced BlackBerry smartphone by remotely activating a loud ringer

Over the Air (OTA) Backup and Restore:

• Back up data from your BlackBerry smartphone (including Contacts and Calendar; Memos and Tasks; Browser Bookmarks and Text Messages) over Wi-Fi
• Restore your data to a new BlackBerry smartphone, or simply switch from one BlackBerry smartphone to another

There are many other features that come along with BlackBerry Protect, and can be found here. Once we get a copy in our hands, we’ll take a further look into it. Right now, Protect is only in beta and will be released first in private beta to some of those lucky enough to get an invite code in Beta Zone. It will be released into a public beta later this year, so keep your eyes peeled if Protect strikes any interest.

Photo courtesy: Inside BlackBerry

There were a few of you requesting the BBerryDog theme in different colors, so we’re (when I say we’re I mean Don from Dream Themez) here to deliver. As of right now the only other color available is crimson from Today’s iPhone, but they will be coming in the assorted colors associated with PhoneDog’s network sites, TmoNews, Today’s iPhone, and DroidDog. (Therefore, green, fuchsia, and orange are left as you can see in the picture below.)

To download your new, red BBerryDog theme, click here. As of right now it’s only available for the 85xx, 96xx, and 9700. Also, we have also received quite a few requests for a BBerryDog theme for the 83xx series. Your wait is over! You can now download the red version here from your BlackBerry Browser (blue version pending). Don is spread pretty thin between work, being a contributing editor, and making themes, so if the color you’re waiting for is not available yet, it is coming, but it may take a little longer than originally expected. He is working diligently on these themes for us and we want to make sure there is a flavor out there for everyone. So anyone who wants to show a bit of gratitude, you can follow Don on Twitter, or ask us about how you can donate. Also, if you’re an MMA fan like many of us here at BBerryDog and Don, check out Don’s other theme site Dream Themez MMA, and Unfiltered MMA where Don is a contributing editor.

Best Buy’s and Future Shops across Canada claim to have the White BlackBerry Bold 9700 for Rogers available, but according to Kevin and Bla1ze of CrackBerry, they are nowhere to be found in stores. The two stores have been claiming for two days now that the white 9700 is “in transit.” Isn’t that nice of them? Anyway, if you have no faith in the retailers, or you’re just that impatient, you can now head on over to Rogers’ online store and have one shipped to you in a couple days. The white Bold will set you back $149.99 on a three-year contract, or $549.99 for no contract. Oh, and it comes with a free white headset to match! Who’s ordering one?

via: CrackBerry

Be sure to chalk this one up in the rumor category for now, but there are rumblings about AT&T discounting BlackBerry devices by 50 percent beginning tomorrow.  50 percent!  You’d better believe I’ll be headed back to the AT&T store, considering I bought a Bold 9700 four days ago.  The deal requires a new activation and the purchase of a data plan (since AT&T requires that anyway, I don’t really see that as a roadblock).  Will the rumor come to fruition?  We’ll see tomorrow…

Confirmed: It’s been confirmed by several that the deal is in fact going on.  I’ll update with more information as I get it!

Update: Since the device has dropped to $99.99 after mail-in rebate, AT&T credited my account $100 to reflect the price difference.

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