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

It’s that time again folks. We here at BBerryDog have become up to our necks and we need your help! As you can see, it’s been a little quiet here at BBerryDog lately, and we sincerely apologize. To avoid this happening again in the future, we’re looking to bring on a few more writers to our team. The positions currently available are for our news team, and could possibly lead to other positions with proven hard work and dedication.

Here are the things that you need to know:

• We want individuals who can offer engaging, thoughtful content.
• You must be well-versed in how to utilize periods, commas, and how to spell correctly.  Needless to say, that kind of stuff is essential.
• You must be reliable, responsible, and trustworthy.  The position will require regular research and fact checking, and we’ll be checking your work from time to time as well.  Plagiarism is not acceptable.
• Previous writing/blogging experience is highly desired, but not required.
• A great attitude is essential for the position.

Note: This is not a paid gig at this time, but an opportunity for people who want to break into the online journalism field and/or have a passion for the wireless industry.

(This is where I started with BBerryDog, now I’m the Managing Editor. The positions have great potential to grow.)

Here’s what you need to include in your e-mail:

• Submit two posts in the BBerryDog writing style.  We’re not going to publish them to the website, but we want to get an idea of your writing style and “voice” (i.e. how well you can do this whole tech thing).
• List your top three favorite gadgets/phones (not included in your sample posts), and why you enjoy them.
• Tell us how much time per week you can commit to writing for the website – what days, time blocks, etc. (We have a minimum requirement and will discuss this if you “make the cut.”)
• Send us any questions that you may have about the position.
• Tell us where you’re located.
• Tell us your age (note: must be 13 or older for consideration).
• Include your contact information and the best time/way to reach you.

A few additional details:

• DO NOT send attachments.  If you do, we will ignore the e-mail.
• Check your work prior to sending it.  If u type like thes, your work isn’t going to be considered.
• Don’t send writing from other websites that you’ve worked with in the past.
• BBerryDog is written in English – please make sure your e-mail is too.
• Due to the large volume of e-mails that we receive, we won’t be responding to everyone.  If we’re interested, we’ll get in touch.  If you don’t hear back, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad writer – we’re just looking for different writing styles.

To submit your work, email taylor@bberrydog.com. Good luck to you all!

It’s been a long time coming. There was once a rush by many developers to produce the best Twitter client and get it out to the public as fast as possible. Along came some heavy hitters like UberTwitter, Seesmic, and even RIM gave it a swing with Twitter for BlackBerry, but there were some far superior teams working on clients that give you more than just Twitter at your fingertips, they gave you Foursquare, Facebook, and more. SocialScope, the elusive BlackBerry private beta application is one of those, and Hootsuite is the other. Now SocialScope is becoming more and more available and spreading out to other platforms, and Hootsuite is in private beta. Few are lucky enough to have a taste of the Hootsuite beta, but I am hearing good things about it. Only to rub that in our faces, Hootsuite themselves have given us a peek at what the application looks like, and I am fully impressed. They kept it clean and simple, unlike many others, and it looks like they could be bringing the heat to the SocialScope team. I’m glad to see there’s still room for competition in the Twitter client world. It seemed almost as if everything had leveled out for good, but the SocialScope starts updating and you see features you never thought of. Eventually, TweetDeck for BlackBerry will also release, let’s just hope their BlackBerry app launch doesn’t go quite like it did for Android.

If you have your hands on the Hootsuite beta, let us know how you like it. Share some screenshots, give us the good, the bad, and the ugly.

via: RIMarkable

Source: Hootsuite

For all of those still rocking the 9000, rejoice!  AT&T has decided not to forget the on of the original gamerchangers, and updated you to 5.0.0.822 today.  Most companies are notorious for updating older phones or phones that have left the spotlight, so it’s nice to see that AT&T has not done this.  Let us know of any changes you find!

via: BerryReview

Well, Big Red (aka Verizon) might finally be joining the ranks of those carriers with prepaid BlackBerry plans (please take this with a grain of salt.  It was proposed to come August 23 and we haven’t seen it yet).  From the look of the above document, you will still need to pay an extra $30, on top of your normal prepaid costs.  We are unsure of what devices will be offered, how much the devices will cost, and if this plan will even come into existence.

I personally love this idea.  I myself am I Verizon user and I stand behind them (even when maybe I shouldn’t).  This is truly a step in the right direction.  Bringing the BlackBerry to the public in more ways than one is exactly the kind of exposure that RIM needs.  If it does happen, will you be joining the ranks of prepaid customers in order to escape that vicious contract? Let us know in the comments below.

via: BerryReview

Well pups, with all the hype of the Torch and BlackBerry 6, it has been quite a while since our last leak (which we were used to seeing almost weekly).  As it always is with leaks, please make sure you know what you’re doing (if you don’t please refer to our How-To guide on the subject).  Also, we cannot be held responsible for any instabilities that this leak may bring, so proceed at your own risk.  You can find the links to the file here.  Comment below and let us know of any problems or improvements you encounter!

via: BBLeaks

That was fast! There are apps out there that never seem to leave their beta. When I first found out that Trillian was coming to BlackBerry, I wasn’t all that thrilled. I wasn’t that much a fan of the computer-version. When it came to beta, I tried it and was impressed. As of now, we get the officially released version available for download through BlackBerry App World. It’s available for $4.99 as an introductory offer, so grab it as soon as possible if you’re interested. I really think this one might get a little price increase in the near future.
No free trial available and no “light” version available, which is sad, for some users might not want to buy it just to try it. I really hope Cerulean Studios might consider a future trial or light version. I’m not going to purchase it, I’d rather go with a light version.

How about you? What do you think of Trillian?

via: CrackBerry

On a day where a juicy story is difficult to come by, we like to throw our readers a delicious bone to chew on while we wait for RIM to fill up our doggy dish.  But let’s get back to this review, eh?  PingChat is a multi-platform application, similar to BBM.  It allows you to create a unique username (similar to IM but without all the additional setup) and send messages to anyone who has a PingChat ID.  We over here at BlackBerryDog have found this application invaluable, as not all of us have access to our BlackBerry at any given time (possibly due to our hands being tied up with chopsticks, right Taylor?) and most of us have additional phones.  More after the jump!

PingChat’s user interface is rather straight-forward and easy to use.  Most of the functions are accessible only through the BlackBerry menu, where things can get a little confusing at times.  If you start a new chat, you will not be able to add from your contacts list (which I will get into in a moment).  You must either a) remember their PingChat ID, or b) Ping them from your contact list.  A handy little feature that comes alongside PingChat is the ability to link a specific ID with a contact in your address books.  This allows you to go to ‘contacts’ as opposed to trying to remember each individual ID.

All in all, I would give PingChat a 9/10.  It is a very easy app to use and invaluable for those of you without SMS plans who would like to be able to contact those with BlackBerry, Android, or iPhone.  PingChat is now available in the BlackBerry app world as a free download.

If you’re anything like me, you listen to very obscure music.  If at any given time you can be listening to Animal Collective, the Wu-Tang Clan, or Ratatat, then this is the application for you.  More after the jump!

As you can see, Graffiti’s UI is relatively simple and easy to use, although it can be laggy at times.  Graffiti is a legitimate radio station (for those of who use an hd radio, you may already to listen to it), so you don’t get to ‘choose your station’ such as you would on Pandora or Slacker.  Despite this, Graffiti plays a laundry list of interesting hiphop, electro, freak-folk, experimental, and folk bands to keep even the biggest music snob happy.  Not only will you hear the aforementioned, but also the music that inspired that particular band.

As a whole, I’ve grown to like Graffiti.  It plays a lot of music that I like, but has also opened my eyes to different bands or new music that I have grown to like quite a lot.  If your music taste is diverse enough to match mine, you will love the variety that this application puts into the palm of your hand.  Grafitti can be found in the BlackBerry app world for free (and deleted just as easily, so it’s worth a try).  If you give Graffiti a shot, let us know below whether you liked or disliked it.

Cellmania is a company that runs behind the scenes without too much recognition.  They are responsible for creating the  mobile application storefronts that can be seen on many of today’s operating systems (such as Android, Symbian, and Java).  RIM purchased Cellmania today, although the terms and conditions lying therein are not known to us.

According to their site, Cellmania will continue doing what they’ve been doing, only it will be exclusively with RIM.  Cellmania provides a habitat for those who develop content and that which said content is developed for.  Hopefully, this will be used to up-the-ante on BlackBerry’s app world, as Cellmania’s expertise in the area is brought into play.

Despite App World 2.0 being released mere days ago, we can only hope that RIM is taking the bull by the horns and working to create a more user friendly experience for it’s users.  Furthermore, I think I smell another update, or even App World 3.0, on it’s way!  So what would you like to see in the next installment of App World, pups?  A faster experience, more organization, better search?  Let us know in the comments below!

via: TechCrunch ]]> http://www.bberrydog.com/2010/08/rim-buys-mobile-storefront-company-cellmania/feed/ 0