Being day two of RIM’s first ever Developer Conference brought lots of press releases. RIM introduced the Application Center similar to Apple and Google’s App stores. This will allow developers to sell applications and receive payments via Paypal. The App Center wasn’t a very big surprise after it was leaked weeks ago.

Check out all the press releases RIM sent out today:

RIM to Launch BlackBerry Application Storefront and BlackBerry Application Center

New online distribution channels to benefit consumers, carriers and developers as market for BlackBerry applications continues to grow

Santa Clara, CA - BlackBerry Developer Conference – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced two major distribution initiatives for BlackBerry® smartphone applications at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. A new online application storefront and a new on-device application center will help application developers and carriers reach millions of BlackBerry® smartphone users worldwide and will provide consumers with greater choice, enhanced application discovery and an easy method for managing installation, upgrades, and purchases.

RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009 and BlackBerry application developers can begin submitting their applications and content for inclusion in the storefront in December 2008. The storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and developers will retain 80 percent of the revenue generated from their applications. RIM is working with PayPal, a leading global online payment service, to provide consumers with a convenient and trusted way to pay for applications within the new application storefront, right from their BlackBerry smartphone. Organizations that have deployed BlackBerry® Enterprise Server or BlackBerry® Professional Software will retain control of what applications can be downloaded to BlackBerry smartphones within their corporate deployments.

RIM is also working with its carrier partners to provide carrier-customized, on-device application centers to help foster after-market application downloads. The BlackBerry application center will allow each carrier to offer a convenient catalog right on the device where a customer can discover and download applications. RIM has already worked with carriers successfully to provide this type of on-device distribution system for individual software applications, such as the popular Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application. The new BlackBerry application center will allow a carrier to build on that success with a broader catalog and provide customers with a convenient and easy method to purchase and download applications.

“The BlackBerry platform enjoys strong roots in the enterprise market and we continue to invest for growth and success with our enterprise channel partners, but the introduction of more consumer-friendly features in BlackBerry smartphones has clearly helped generate a groundswell of interest with new developers that has already resulted in the introduction of thousands of consumer and lifestyle oriented applications for BlackBerry smartphones,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry application storefront and BlackBerry application centers will further support the growing BlackBerry ecosystem and help bridge consumers with developers and carriers as more and more innovative and interesting applications arrive.”

RIM is already working with carrier partners on plans to roll out the BlackBerry application center on future BlackBerry smartphones. For more information on the BlackBerry application storefront, interested developers should visit www.blackberry.com/storefrontinfo and sign up to receive periodic updates.

RIM Takes Push to a New Level with BlackBerry Web Signals Technology for Third Party Content Services

Online content providers can now push notifications to BlackBerry smartphones and enable streamlined mobile access for their customers

Santa Clara, CA - BlackBerry Developer Conference – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the availability of the new BlackBerry® Web Signals technology for the BlackBerry developer community.

BlackBerry Web Signals leverages RIM’s unique push technology to allow online content providers to automatically notify BlackBerry smartphone users when relevant content has been published and to allow streamlined, one-click access to the online information. With online content services powered by BlackBerry Web Signals, BlackBerry smartphone users can spend less time searching the web and more time connecting directly to the content that matters to them personally. Content providers will offer a range of services powered by BlackBerry Web Signals that enable customers to stay connected with news, weather, sports, entertainment, financial information and more.

“BlackBerry Web Signals technology allows content providers to engage their customers on a whole new level and to make mobile web access a much more interactive and personalized experience,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President at Research In Motion. “Push technology makes a night-and-day difference to the mobile experience and BlackBerry Web Signals will help online content providers add value for their customers while driving significant additional traffic to their web sites.”

BlackBerry Web Signals technology leverages BlackBerry push APIs to enable content providers to push relevant and timely alerts to BlackBerry® smartphone users based on a customer’s opt-in preferences. Several members of the BlackBerry developer community are already set to launch services powered by BlackBerry Web Signals technology:

“CBC is pleased to be working with RIM on this unique service for BlackBerry smartphone users,” said Steve Billinger, executive director, CBC digital programming and business development.  “CBCNews.ca is Canada’s favourite destination for online news and information. Through our multiple mobility services, we deliver the day’s headlines and breaking news to Canadians when, where and how they want to access them. With the innovative CBC service powered by BlackBerry Web Signals, users can have instant notification of breaking news and access it as it happens.”

“The BlackBerry Web Signals technology allows our customers to access their favorite music and get alerts, right on the home screen of their BlackBerry smartphone, of new tracks from their favorite artists on Dada.net,” said Daniel Cohen, Vice President, Business Development, Dada Entertainment. “A large number of our customers use BlackBerry smartphones, and this new technology makes it easier than ever for them to experience The Dada Music Movement wherever they go.”
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“Thumbplay adds thousands of pieces of new entertainment content every week,” said Are Traasdahl, CEO and Founder of Thumbplay.  “With BlackBerry smartphones being the most popular handsets used by our members, the new Web Signals technology is a terrific way for us to keep many of our customers up-to-speed on the latest music, games and videos.”

“washingtonpost.com readers will soon have the opportunity to receive enhanced breaking-news alerts on their BlackBerry smartphones, making it even easier to access our coverage wherever they are.” said Peter Barclay, Director of Mobile Services for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. “With the new Web Signals technology, users can see when a new story has been posted to the site. The washingtonpost.com icon on their BlackBerry smartphone’s home screen will change to reflect a breaking political story, sports piece or other topics of coverage that users sign up to receive.”

RIM Updates BlackBerry Developer Tools

Latest Versions Further Support Innovative, Streamlined Mobile Application Development for BlackBerry Smartphones

Santa Clara, CA- BlackBerry Developer Conference - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced new versions of various BlackBerry developer tools that further support innovative, streamlined mobile application development for BlackBerry® smartphones. The developer tool updates include a new public beta of the BlackBerry® JDE® Plug-in for Eclipse, as well as new releases of the BlackBerry® Plug-in for Microsoft® Visual Studio®, BlackBerry® MDS Studio, and Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit™ for the BlackBerry platform.

“RIM continues to support innovation on the BlackBerry platform by providing developers with robust tool sets that include new capabilities and the latest advances in mobile application development,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platforms at Research In Motion. “Corporate, commercial and entrepreneurial developers have the flexibility to choose the right tool to support their skill set and feature requirements, whether they are mobilizing their organization’s business systems or creating new and innovative mobile applications for consumers.”

The developer tool updates, available today, include the following:

• BlackBerry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse is designed for developers who want to create and test robust wireless applications for the BlackBerry platform from within the familiar Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE).New features with this latest public beta include deeper integration with Eclipse and standard Java projects, pre-processing capabilities supporting a multi-build environment, support for the BlackBerry JDE component pack version 4.3.0 to version 4.7.0, and the ability to install updates of the BlackBerry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse through the standard Eclipse software update mechanism. The plug-in is available for download at www.blackberry.com/developers.
• BlackBerry Plug-in 1.1 for Microsoft Visual Studio, enables enterprise developers to mobilize back-end enterprise systems by creating mobile applications from within the familiar Microsoft Visual Studio environment that take advantage of the features of BlackBerry® Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS). The BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio features a visual user interface designer that enables developers to quickly create and customize user interfaces for their mobile applications using a visual drag-and-drop approach.New features with version 1.1 include the ability to integrate customized mobile applications with core BlackBerry smartphone applications, as well as compatibility with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Windows® Vista®. The plug-in is available for download at www.blackberry.com/developers.
• BlackBerry MDS Studio 2.0, which is available as a standalone application and as a standard plug-in for Eclipse, enables rapid application development for enterprise developers to mobilize back-end enterprise systems and takes advantage of the robust feature set of BlackBerry MDS. It features a visual user interface designer that enables developers to quickly create and customize user interfaces for their mobile applications using a visual drag-and-drop approach.New features with BlackBerry MDS Studio 2.0 include support for collaborative development, fully integrated JavaScript debugging, hotkeys support, mobile application access controls and GPS location notifications. The new application and plug-in for Eclipse are available for download at www.blackberry.com/developers.
• Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit 4.6 (Plazmic CDK) for the BlackBerry platform is a suite of tools for graphical content designers that simplifies the creation of rich, interactive and colorful media for BlackBerry smartphones. This tool enables the creation of custom themes, including unique user interfaces, home screen icons, wallpaper graphics and fonts. It also optimizes rich media content for efficient delivery and use on BlackBerry smartphones.New features with Plazmic CDK 4.6 include support for the BlackBerry® Bold™ and BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip smartphones, and the ability to create animated content using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) for use in themes, games, applications and web portals. The new version is available for download at www.plazmic.com.

As announced earlier this month, BlackBerry JDE v4.7 (which enables mobile application development for the BlackBerry® Storm™ smartphone) is available in public beta and BlackBerry JDE v4.6 (which enables mobile application development for the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphones) is generally available.

Mobile applications built for BlackBerry smartphones can leverage the market-leading features of the BlackBerry® platform, including efficient wireless connectivity, push technology, and best-in-class security.

Developers can visit www.blackberry.com/developers for the latest developer tools, as well as news, community forums, instructional videos, support, downloads, sample code, and other resources for mobile application development on the BlackBerry platform.

RIM to Bring the Power of the Web to BlackBerry Application Development

Announces New Developer Tools and Support for Gears to Enable Next Generation Web Application Development

Santa Clara, CA – BlackBerry Developer Conference - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to introduce powerful new tools and technologies for web application developers to build highly-responsive, interactive, standalone web applications on BlackBerry® smartphones. The new tools and technologies will include a new plug-in for Eclipse developers and new features for the BlackBerry® Plug-in for Microsoft® Visual Studio® that support web development capabilities; as well as support for Gears, enabling web applications to run as standalone applications on BlackBerry smartphones.

“As the BlackBerry Browser evolves to provide customers with a richer, more desktop-like experience, we are introducing powerful new web development tools and technologies to help developers create a more robust and optimal web experience for BlackBerry smartphone users,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “Supporting web technologies and services is part of our ongoing commitment to providing best-in-class tools and services for mobile application development on the BlackBerry platform.”

New Developer Tools for Web Development, planned for availability in 2009, include a new plug-in for Eclipse developers and new features for the BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio that support web development capabilities, enabling developers to create rich, dynamic BlackBerry applications that leverage the push capabilities, security and efficiency of the BlackBerry® platform. Developers will be able to build applications using HTML, JavaScript and XML that get packaged and executed as native Java applications on BlackBerry smartphones.

Gears Support, planned for availability in 2009, will enable developers to create highly-responsive, standalone web applications on BlackBerry smartphones that can be used both in and out of network coverage. Support for Gears will include local cache, database and multi-threaded JavaScript execution, which allows web application functions to run in the background.

RIM also separately announced the availability of BlackBerry Web Signals today, which leverages BlackBerry push APIs to enable content providers to push relevant and timely alerts to BlackBerry® smartphone users based on a customer’s opt-in preferences.

[Source for all PR's- RIM.com]

T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi packing BlackBerry Curve 8320 has finally been updated to OS 4.5.0.81. Most carriers have already updated their devices to 4.5 this is one of the last. Starting today any T-Mobile USA client can download OS 4.5 from BlackBerry.com. It took them long enough but its finally here.

Get OS 4.5.0.81 at BlackBerry.com >>

If you own a Rogers BlackBerry Bold then you might want to read this. Rogers and RIM have officially release a new OS upgrade for the Bold (4.6.0.162) which will hopefully fix a few issues such as drop calls, memory leaks, battery life, etc.

The Rogers Bold ships with OS 4.6.0.125 so this is quite the upgrade. You can download the operating system directly from RIM’s website here then install the package and open up Desktop Manager it should update from there. Make sure you do a backup before installing the software (in case for some reason you loose everything).

Download Link for the OS >>

Thanks Don for emailing tip!

Looks like you don’t have to wait for the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin) to run safe mode on your BlackBerry. Apparently the newer version of OS 4.6 for the BlackBerry Bold will be featuring safe mode. What this means is if your running a third party application and it causes your BlackBerry OS to die you can boot it into safe mode and fix it (think Windows).

To activate safe mode:

1. Remove and reinsert the battery
2. Wait for the red LED light to go out when that happens HOLD the escape (back) key.
3. When dialog appears asking you to enter safe mode select yes

[BBNews]

Good news for us Canadians today… Both Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility have launched OS 4.5. Rogers has released the OS 4.5 for Curve 8310 and 8320 (4.5.0.81) and Bell has released OS 4.5.0.77 for both the Curve 8330 and Pearl 8130. Keep in mind you if your carrier doesn’t offer OS 4.5 yet you can still install it - Just follow these steps.

Head on over to your carrier download page at BlackBerry.com >>

Thanks Shawn for sending this in!

This will be a handy tool if you need to check someones trackball for example.

[Source]

A new feature that RIM has introduced today is BlackBerry operating system upgrades via BlackBerry.com/upgrades. You will be able to update your OS with the latest version provided by your carrier. So for any carriers that currently support OS 4.5 you will be able to get the latest version. This new software detects available updates by your device PIN (check whats available here).

Check out the latest OS upgrades at BlackBerry.com/upgrades >>

With the upcoming releases of the BlackBerry Storm (running OS 4.7) and BlackBerry Javelin (running OS 4.6) we don’t expect this new OS to launch until sometime next year. You will notice that the menus look pretty much the same, but keep in mind its not near ready yet.

Upgrading your BlackBerry operating system is fairly simple. The good news is even if your carrier doesn’t offer the latest OS updates you can still install them on your device from another carrier. Your first step is to visit RIM’s carrier download page and find the latest OS you want. Just make sure you device model matches.

For example: I currently have a Telus BlackBerry Curve 8330 and I am running US Cellular’s OS 4.5.0.66 on my device. We will explain how to upgrade your OS below.

Step 1: Download the latest OS from RIM (Check here for our latest OS news)
Step 2: Install the .exe file that you downloaded from RIM
Step 3: BACKUP YOUR BLACKBERRY - this is very important (open Desktop Manager software and connect your device).
Step 4: Open this folder (c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader) and delete the file vendor.xml
Step 5: Plug in your device into the computer and re-open Desktop Manager select Application loader
Step 6: Select upgrade as prompted

Now the entire process can take about 20-30 minutes. Make sure you do a full backup before doing a software upgrade in case you get an error and have to format you device. Please note that we are not responsible for any problems that you incure while upgrading your device software.

US Cellular is the first carrier in the United States to launch OS 4.5 for the CDMA Curve 8330 and Pearl 8130. They have launched OS 4.5.0.66 for both units and its now available for download on USC’s BlackBerry download page. Keep in mind you don’t have to have a USC BlackBerry you can find details on how to install it here.