Welcome to this month’s edition of the Top 15 Free BlackBerry Apps. Pandora continues to cream the competition. In fact, in my 13 months of compiling the top lists of BlackBerry Apps, I’d guestimate that Pandora has been number one 75% of the time and in the top five 99% of the time. It’s the best BlackBerry App in the business and the Michael Jordan of the Music Apps across the various platforms (iPhone, Android, etc).
We know how dominant Pandora has been, but BlackBerry Messenger is always number one or two sharing the spotlight with Pandora. I’m happy to see one of the best built BlackBerry Apps, Poynt, get its due at number 3. Other staples to the list are BlackBerry App World, Drive Safe.ly and WeatherEye.
The Top 15 Free BlackBerry Apps are calculated by number of downloads from BlackBerry App World. Previously, I was compiling this list each week but have transitioned into a monthly post. Since the transition, I’ve decided to bump the number up to 15. The information provided is via BlackBerry App World.
15. (9) XENOZU YouTube Player 1.0.15 (Video & TV) 2 Stars, 1675 reviews, 578KB
“Enjoy your favourite YouTube videos on BlackBerry® now with FULL SCREEN SUPPORT !
With XENOZU FREE YouTube® player for BlackBerry® you can stay in touch with your favourite videos while on the go !NOTE: video and audio format/quality is controlled solely by YouTube itself, the app has no control over it.
Videos are categorized by Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, Top Rated, plus you can search for the videos of your choice. You can also bookmark a video, view the history of the videos you ve watched and get additional video details. “
14. (NR) BeBuzz Free – LED Colors and Audible Reminders 2.1.40 (Gadgets) 3.5 Stars, 621 reviews, 85KB
“BeBuzz *Free* contains some of the most used features of the #1 selling application BeBuzz completely FREE!
*** Want to try all features that the full BeBuzz offers? Search AppWorld for BeBuzz and download the 7-day trial!! ***
NOTE: After installing BeBuzz on your BlackBerry you will find it as a new item in your BlackBerry options. A battery pull (phone restart) after installation may be necessary.BeBuzz *Free* allows you customize the LED color and create repeating audible reminders for incoming and missed calls. Plus it adds customizable vibrate for incoming calls. Finally you an have your BlackBerry vibrates while it is ringing.
Features:
* Customizable LED color and set an individual repeating alert for
* – Missed phone calls
* Customizable LED color for
* – Incoming Call
* When multiple alerts are active at the same time, every color will flash in a repeating pattern.
* Customizable rapid flashing LED for incoming phone calls
* Customizable vibrate for incoming calls. Vibrates while ringing.
* “Disco” LED color, will flash all colors in sequence
* Optimized for minimum battery and memory usage
* Automatically runs when your BlackBerry is started”
13. (NR) Dictionary and Thesaurus – Dictionary.com 1.0.1 (Education) 4 Stars, 811 reviews, 258KB
“Dictionary.com – Dictionary and Thesaurus
The only free dictionary app for BlackBerry® is from Dictionary.com. Our well-known reference content from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com includes more than 500,000 words, definitions, and synonyms. The app also features phonetic and audio pronunciations, spelling suggestions and Dictionary.com’s popular Word of the Day that is enjoyed by millions of people.
* Dictionary and Thesaurus
* Word of the Day English and Spanish
* More than 325,000 words and definitions
* More than 275,000 synonyms
* Phonetic and audio pronunciations
* Spelling suggestions
* Recent history
* Social networking functions
* Email integration”
12. (7) Drive Safe.ly 1.14.3 *recent version upgrade* (Utilities) 3.5 Stars, 1136 reviews, 572KB
“DriveSafe.ly reads your text messages and emails out loud so you can concentrate on the road. Eliminate the temptation to reach for your phone by letting DriveSafe.ly read to you and automatically respond for you. Stay connected by listening to your messages without texting while driving or reading emails in your car. DriveSafe.ly is the answer to texting while driving TWD .
For even more functionality download DriveSafe.ly Pro – also available on BlackBerry® AppWorld™. DriveSafe.ly Pro adds the ability to use additional voices, listen to text messages and emails without sponsor messages and much more!
Features include:
-It is free to use DriveSafe.ly
-Automatically plays incoming text SMS and email messages
-Play messages on demand through menu
-No complicated software to install easy to use
-Small footprint lightweight app does not slow down your phone
-Customizable auto-response and timeout duration
-Human sounding text to speech powered by iSpeech.org”
11. (4) BlackBerry App World 1.1.0.24 (Shopping Tools) 3 Stars, 973 reviews, 827KB
“Discover a world of possibilities at the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Personalize your BlackBerry® smartphone with games, social networking, personal productivity applications and so much more. BlackBerry apps can take full advantage of proven features like BlackBerry push technology and GPS to name a few so you can experience apps like never before. Put more of your life on your BlackBerry smartphone.”
10. (3) Imaging Theme 1.1 *recent version upgrade* (Abstract Themes) 3 Stars, 998 reviews, 320KB
“The luxury imagining theme reflect the prosperous of modern city life!
Changelog in v1.1:1.Fonts changed
2.Default icons setting inside
3.Fixing bug of cutting off the PM/AMFeatures:
1. Dedicated background with splendid feeling!
2. A theme can be used for long time and wont feel tired!
3. A theme will not drag system performance.”
9. (NR) TuneWiki – Lyrics with Music 1.1.0.10 (Music Services) 2.5 Stars, 460 reviews, 406KB
“TuneWiki is a revolutionary new way to experience your favorite music on your Blackberry. TuneWiki’s social media player provides you subtitled lyrics to 3 kinds of music: 1. The music in your stored library, 2. Music Videos that you can watch on your device, and; 3. Internet Streaming Radio through SHOUTcast™ radio. As you play music, lyrics scroll on the bottom of the screen. You can also search for lyrics to over 2.5 Million songs. Use Music Maps and real time Top 50 charts to see what people are listening to around the world and to discover new music!
Other features include creating your own playlists of songs to listen to, searching for lyrics to your favorite songs, and communicating what you’re listening to via Facebook and Twitter integration.
Users can also purchase an ‘ad free’ version inside the application. “
8. (NR) UberTwitter 0.964 (social networking) 4 Stars, 988 reviews, 487KB
“UberTwitter is a full featured location aware Twitter client which supports all of the features of Twitter as well as advanced capabilities such as: photo integration, embeded videos in tweets, tweet shrinking, URL shortening, twitter lists, changing your twitter avatar, and a plethora of other features.”
7. (10) Facebook 1.7.0.22 (social networking) 2 Stars, 3175 reviews, 1397KB
“Stay on top of your social life with Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones. This free application makes Facebook services – like sending messages, poking friends, writing wall posts, inviting friends to join and uploading photos – available on the go! Take Facebook wherever life takes you and don’t miss a beat!”
6. (NR) WeatherBug 1.1.0.145 (Weather) 3.5 Stars, 1185 reviews, 1010KB
“Stay informed and prepared with live local weather, severe weather alerts, in-depth forecasts, camera views, detailed radar maps and international weather. The features of the WeatherBug application for the BlackBerry Storm include:
* Live neighborhood weather from over 8,000 weather stations in the U.S.
* Current weather, forecast and NWS alerts for your GPS location.
* Current conditions icon and outdoors temperature on your BlackBerry desktop.
* “Always on” NWS weather alerts such as Tornado warnings.
* 7-day and hourly forecasts.
* Detailed radar and maps.
* Daily National Weather Outlook broadcasts provided by WeatherBug meteorologists.
* Check the weather on BlackBerry Maps by simply touching any area on the map for two (2) seconds.
* View snapshots and time-lapse animations from more than 2,000 weather cameras in the U.S.
* Set-up new locations by pulling the location information from your contact list.
* Share the current weather information, forecast, alerts and camera views with friends and family.The application is Advertising supported and free for consumers.”
5. (NR) Animated Screen Savers – Free 2.20 (Personalize) 3.5 Stars, 450 reviews, 295KB
“Animated Screensavers for BlackBerry® smartphones. Please give a 5 star rating if you like these. More screensavers will be released in due course. If you have any suggestions for new Screensavers please email me at ani@getempower.com and I will try to add them!
Note: Screensaver will not work if your battery is below 40%. This is to save your battery. Please don’t put it as a ‘Does not works’ review – please charge your battery instead
Note: The error screen is a part of the BSOD screensaver that simulates the Windows Blue Screen of Death. It is not an error but just a screensaver reminding you how better BlackBerry is from other smartphones
Random Screensaver now shuffles screensavers every minute.
Version 2.20 includes the following screensavers:
* Bouncing Balls
* Falling Hearts
* Floating Hearts
* Bubbles
* Decay Screen
* Starfield
* Snowfall
* Dull Jack
* BSOD(The infamous Blue Screen of Death)”
4. (NR) WeatherEye 2.0.1.4 (Weather) 2.5 Stars, 2286 reviews, 851KB
“WeatherEye for BlackBerry® provides you the following information and allows you to select from any city The Weather Network provides content for Current conditions, Hourly forecasts, Short-term forecasts, Long-term forecasts, Radar Maps, and Warning updates. Search cities using GPS.”
3. (8) Poynt 1.5.3.14 *recent version upgrade* (Maps & Navigation) 4.5 Stars, 3265 reviews, 712KB
“Use Poynt to find people, businesses, movie theatres, retailers and restaurants near you. Poynt uses GPS or cell-site locations to pinpoint you and quickly deliver the information you need whenever and wherever you need it.
- Find phone numbers and connect with one click, browse websites and map directions
- Plan a night out – book movie tickets and dinner reservations, add it to your calendar and invite your friends
- Add listings to your BlackBerry® Address Book, add movie and restaurant events to your BlackBerry® Calendar, share listings using BlackBerry® Messages
- Poynt is free and available in Canada, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and now in France, Italy and SpainDiscover why Poynt won the 2008 BlackBerry Developer s Challenge Grand Prize and was recognized as the Most Innovative Consumer Application in GSMA s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix, EMEA Tournament”
2. (1) BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.57 (Instant Messaging) 3 Stars, 3876 reviews, 3213KB
“Battery life has been improved with the latest BlackBerry Messenger. This version also addresses some of the issues identified in BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.33, such as file transfer not working or working slowly, no file preview, and file transfer requests expiring after a short period of time. This version does not include any new features. The Check Spelling As You Type feature has been restored for all devices.”
“Share your pin or unique barcode to connect with friends anywhere, anytime. Take comfort in knowing your friends are only a BlackBerry Messenger message away whether you want to make plans for the night or ask a quick question. Chat and share funny stories, pictures, videos and more with individual contacts or groups of friends instantly. Stay in touch like never before with BlackBerry Messenger”
1. (2) Pandora 1.1.3.2 *recent version update* (Music & Audio) 4 Stars, 4764 reviews, 352KB
“Pandora. It s radio that is personalized just for you, playing only the music that you love. Simply enter one of your favorite songs or artists and Pandora creates a radio station that explores just that kind of music. With your BlackBerry® smartphone, Pandora brings an effortless personal soundtrack right to you whenever you want to listen to music.
Pandora plays all your current and old favorites and introduces you to new songs that you ll love. Rate songs as they play because Pandora caters your radio stations to your tastes and adapts the playlist to your feedback on the spot. Pandora has all styles of music – from hip-hop to jazz, country to classical, latin to rock, dance to pop, and much more.”
What’s your favorite Free BlackBerry App? Which do you think are too high? How about ranked too low or not listed? Feel free to share your favorites.
