http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356301,00.asp1. AP Mobile News 2.5.5The Associated Press; bb.apnews.comJust like its brethren on other mobile platforms, this news program gives you complete, flexible access to local, national and international news. On top of giving you up-to-the-minute news, the latest version of this app lets you send stories to Facebook or your friends, read stories off-line, or watch news videos. If you're looking for multiple news sources, try Viigo below, but AP can satisfy any needy news junkie. Download AP Mobile News from the Web site above.2. BBNotePad 1.1.2Qin; http://krzysztow.com/BBNotePad/#downloadmBBNotePad is a big step up from the built-in BlackBerry notepad. It features three different font sizes, allows you to save a file as .txt so you can open it directly on your computer, and lets you send memos or notes using Bluetooth to other handheld devices. Download BBNotePad by using the link above.3. Bloomberg Mobile 1.9.11.5Bloomberg LP; m.bloomberg.comBlackBerries have a lot of hard-core, costly options for serious stock gurus, but Bloomberg is the best free business app. It provides news, stock quotes, company descriptions, a customized list of stocks, and market trends. It's also pretty easy to use, considering the amount of data it's throwing at you. Bloomberg Mobile is available from BlackBerry App World.4. BOLT 1.5Bitstream; www.boltbrowser.comThe built-in BlackBerry browser is a mess. To the rescue rides BOLT, a fast, high-quality browser that downloads pages which actually look like desktop Web pages. BOLT comes with all the browser usuals, such as bookmarks and an RSS reader, but its most important attribute is desktop fidelity - pages look really good in this browser, even including some Flash content. It's a huge step up from the BlackBerry browser. To download BOLT, go to www.boltbrowser.com.5. Facebook 1.7.0.18Research in Motion; www.blackberry.comThe latest Facebook app transforms your BlackBerry into a miniature version of the Facebook desktop site, sans add-in apps. The Highlights feature works like your news feed, letting you view recent status updates, photo uploads, comments, and wall posts without having to dive into the app's various menu icons. You can upload or tag photos, check out photos, and add comments to photos or news items. This is a strong, successful transformation of Facebook into a useful mobile app. Facebook is available in BlackBerry App World.6. FlashLight 1.0.2App Pro Shop; No Web siteThere are many free flashlight apps to pick from, but we choose FlashLight by App Pro Shop. It's extremely easy to use, and the light is bright. You can adjust both the color and brightness of the light to your taste, too; according to the manufacturer, different colors of light work better in different situations. Green, for instance, won't spook the fish. FlashLight is available from BlackBerry App World.7. Gmail 2.0.6Google; m.google.com/a/Hey, wait a minute - why do you need to run an app to get e-mail on a BlackBerry? Because you get many more features that way. Reading Gmail through the built-in BlackBerry client is a pretty basic experience. Loading the Gmail app, you get access to your contact list, sent and archived mail, labels and stars. It looks like Gmail, too. You can download the Gmail app from the Web site above. If you're looking for a better Gmail experience within the existing BlackBerry email app, try RIM's relatively-new Gmail plug-in, downloadable at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/features/communication/gmail.jsp?.8. Google Maps 3.2Google; m.google.com/mapsIt's GPS navigation for free; what's not to love? Google's BlackBerry app offers driving, transit and walking directions (albeit without voice prompts) for businesses and street addresses, with real-time traffic updates that help you steer around congested areas. The new Layers feature lets you view various kinds of information - for instance, Wikipedia entries - overlaid on a map, while Latitude tells you where your friends are. If you ever leave the house, this app is a must-have. Go to the Web address above to get Google Maps.9. Ka-Glom 1.4Magmic; www.magmic.comIt's hard to find a good free game for BlackBerries that works on the latest devices. This puzzle game is the best of the bunch. It's a bit of a Tetris clone, but with the bonus of exploding chain reactions between different kinds of falling blocks- and who doesn't like exploding chain reactions? If you're sick of BrickBreaker and Word Mole, this is another quick, colorful, casual game that will give you something immersive and different. Ka-Glom is available from BlackBerry App World.10. Opera Mini 5.0Opera Software; mini.opera.comWhere BOLT (see above) focuses on fidelity, Opera Mini goes for speed. Especially good on lower-resolution BlackBerries like the Curve, Opera Mini compresses pages so they transfer more quickly, and reformats them so they're readable on small screens without zooming in and out. If you want to, you can also look at a desktop view of the page. The latest version, 5.0, adds tabs and a graphical bookmarks page. Download Opera Mini from the Web site above. 11. Poynt 1.4.2.72Multiplied Media Corporation; www.poynt.comAn unusually elegant local-search app, Poynt uses multiple data sources to find you the best restaurant info, including CitySearch, OpenTable and Yelp. It has both white and yellow pages components, which will save you more than a few calls to 411. And it finds movies near you. It's really the interface which sets this app apart, though; everything looks great. You can download Poynt by going to m.poynt.com with your BlackBerry Web browser.12. Qik LiveStreaming 1.0.15Qik Inc.; www.qik.comThis app turns your BlackBerry into a video broadcast device, which can stream live to the Web or to other mobile phones. It's easy to set up and user-friendly - as long as you have a good 3G or Wi-Fi connection. All of your videos are also automatically archived and shared for later viewing, and your viewers can respond to you in real time. Qik is available from BlackBerry App World.13. Slacker Radio for BlackBerry 2.0.91Slacker; www.slacker.comSlacker for BlackBerry lets you stream Slacker.com radio stations wirelessly or cache them on a memory card so you can listen to music when you don't have a signal. Using Slacker for BlackBerry is a lot like using Slacker.com. You'll find exactly the same features, in fact. The station selection is identical, and you can even create custom stations directly from the player. You can also ban songs you hate and mark songs as favorites so they appear in the rotation more often. Slacker is available in BlackBerry App World.14. ScoreMobile 1.2Score Media Ventures; m.thescore.com/scoremobileThis app offers a great package to fulfill any sports fan's needs. It has a simple and easy to use layout that provides up-to-the-minute scores, news, stats, leaderboards, point spreads, live blogs for certain games and more. It covers both professional and college sports - and yes, "professional" includes soccer. ScoreMobile is available in BlackBerry App World.15. Stitcher Podcast Radio 1.2.14Stitcher; www.stitcher.comSlacker is great for music, but it doesn't do podcasts. Enter Stitcher, a podcast client with a twist; it collects groups of similar podcasts together and plays them in sequence as virtual radio stations, so you never run out of content. You can "stitch" together your own channels made up of your favorite podcasts, too. (I think most people call these "playlists.") Stitcher is a streaming program, though, so it kills your battery; if you want to play podcasts for more than a few hours at a time, you'll have to download them and transfer them over from your PC. Stitcher is available in BlackBerry App World.16. UberTwitter 0.925UberTwitter; www.ubertwitter.comThe best of the free Twitter apps for BlackBerry, UberTwitter seems to have a perpetual free beta program going. It hits all the right Twitter notes - it supports location, photo attachments, searches, timelines, trending topics, and even does a neat trick by trying to find users Tweeting who are physically near you. The interface is fast and smooth, whether you're skimming through your timeline or exploring new possible friends to follow. The free version puts some relatively unbothersome ads onto the screen. UberTwitter is available in BlackBerry App World.17. Viigo for BlackBerry 3.1.486Viigo; www.viigo.imIf you only download one app for your BlackBerry, make it Viigo. When I meet people with BlackBerries, I grab their phones and immediately install Viigo. Viigo is the best single information app for any handheld platform. Under the hood, it's an RSS reader. But it finds and presents its information brilliantly, whether it's a slew of news sources and Technorati searches, weather, sports scores, flight information or even Tweets. If you like to know things or read things, Viigo will immediately double the value of your BlackBerry; it's that good. Viigo is available in BlackBerry App World.18. Vlingo 3.2Vlingo; m.vlingo.comDo you like voice dialing? How about voice everything? Vlingo lets you search the Web, update your Facebook status, and of course dial the phone by voice. There's a bit of a tease in the voice-to-text and voice-to-email features, which top out and require you to upgrade to a paid version after sending ten messages, but the free version is still much better than the BlackBerry's built-in voice commands. You can download Vlingo from BlackBerry App World.19. WeatherBug 1.0.0.874AWS Convergence Technologies; www.aws.comWeatherBug has more features than the competing WeatherEye, which gives it a slight edge in the BlackBerry weather competition. It's pretty much assumed that you should get live local weather updates, detailed forecast summaries, weather alerts, camera views and detailed radar maps from a weather app nowadays. WeatherBug goes a bit further by integrating with your contact list (is it raining where you are, Mom?) and BlackBerry Maps, letting you tap on a map to find out how the weather is over there. WeatherBug is available in BlackBerry App World.20. WorldMate Live 3.0.33.52WorldMate; www.worldmate.comOne of the oldest BlackBerry apps, WorldMate has been helping travelers out for years. The free version lets you forward travel confirmation emails to WorldMate, where they'll get automatically synced into your BlackBerry's calendar. It also gives you a world clock, currency converter, global weather, and portal to local Yelp listings if you want to find cheap eats near you. A $99/year "Gold" subscription gets you flight alerts and schedules for frequent fliers who often need to re-route themselves. WorldMate is available in BlackBerry App World.
