Welcome to this month’s edition of the Top 15 Free BlackBerry Apps. While the top 3 typically stays consistent with BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry App World and Pandora, WHERE and Free Imagining Theme jump into the top 5. The newcomers to the list include Shazam and Free Sea Storm Animated Theme. Other excellent apps making a return are ScoreMobile and the WeatherChannel.
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. (13) Dictionary and Thesaurus – Dictionary.com 1.0.1 (Education) 4 Stars, 925 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”
14. (6) WeatherBug 1.1.0.147 *recent version upgrade* (Weather) 3.5 Stars, 1421 reviews, 825KB
“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.”
13. (NR) Shazam 2.5.1 (Music Services) 3 Stars, 926 reviews, 540KB
“Lovin’ that tune? Create music moments: discover, buy and share music. Enjoy and use Shazam for FREE* limited to 5 Tags per calendar month with options to buy and share your music discoveries.
Shazam now offers even more…
YouTube: Watch the video! The YouTube features allows you to view related videos and other music content on YouTube.
Twitter: Tweet your Tags! Post artist and track details to Twitter in seconds
7Digital: Buy MP3s from 7digitalAlternatively, upgrade to enjoy additional features: unlimited Tags, Tag Chart, Similar Tracks, Artist Bios, Reviews, Discographies and Search by Lyrics. Try before you buy: 7 day FREE* trial of our additional features with this download. After trial, upgrade or keep Shazaming for FREE* with limited usage and features. Available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
Compatible with the Bold 9000, 9700, Curve 83XX, Curve 85XX, 8900, Pearl 82XX, 81XX, World Edition 88XX and Storm 95XX.”
12. (3) Poynt 1.5.3.14 (Maps & Navigation) 4.5 Stars, 3641 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”
11. (NR) ScoreMobile for BlackBerry 1.3.2 (News & Scores) 4 Stars, 4233 reviews, 409KB
“ScoreMobile is a true application that’s been built from the ground up for all recent BlackBerry® smartphone models. We provide up-to-the-minute sports scores, boxscores, player stats, betting odds, game previews, recaps, top stories, and league standings. In addition we publish exclusive live blogs for key games.
Coverage currently includes: American Football (NFL, NCAAF, CFL), Baseball (MLB), Basketball (NBA, NCAAB Men’s), Hockey (NHL), Golf (PGA), Auto Racing (NASCAR Sprint Cup, F1) and Soccer (EPL, Champions League, MLS).
Personalization:
-The Dynamic Home Screen Icon is a unique feature of ScoreMobile where the application continues to monitor in the background the league or game which was last viewed.
-Users can personalize Favorite Teams and Data Refresh intervals.
-Game start times are customized based on the Time Zone setting on the device.”
10. (5) Animated Screen Savers Free 2.20 (Personalize) 4 Stars, 1009 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)”
9. (8) UberTwitter 0.971 *recent version upgrade* (social networking) 4 Stars, 1190 reviews, 493KB
“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.”
8. (7) Facebook 1.7.0.22 (social networking) 2 Stars, 3521 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!”
7. (NR) The Weather Channel 1.5 (Weather) 3.5 Stars, 369 reviews, 2098KB
“It’s The Weather Channel® when and where you need it the most. Get detailed conditions and forecasts, radar maps, local and national severe weather alerts, airport delays and more. You can even access the weather from your calendar or address book, and forward alerts to friends and family.”
6. (NR) FREE Sea Storm Animated Theme 2010.2.23.810 (Nature Theme) 4 Stars, 961 ratings, 671KB
“Features:
* Professional Front Screen Animation
* Custom color scheme on menus
* New front Hidden Dock navigation for full front screen Animation display
* Animation pauses when phone is on standby to reduce battery drain”
5. (1) Pandora 1.1.3.2 (Music & Audio) 4 Stars, 4977 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.”
4. (NR) WHERE 1.6.0.3 (Local Search) 3.5 Stars, 795 reviews, 1285KB
“Looking for somewhere new to eat tonight? Want to know what movies are playing at the local theater or somewhere else close by? Traveling and want to find the cheapest gas or closest cup of coffee? Everywhere you go, this app will help you find just about anything local – restaurants, news, weather, cheap gas, movies, friends and more!
This application is a local portal that will connect you with information that will help you find the people, places and things around you everywhere you go, while also saving you time and money. Local information includes weather, news, restaurant reviews, a store locator for top brands of your choice, cheap gas, traffic updates, movie show times and trailers, and the ability to connect with other people anywhere for a quick chat. And, location enabled coupons and special offers from top retailers and restaurants will help you save money while on the go. It also helps you get wherever you are going with maps and directions. “
3. (10) Imagining Theme 1.2 *recent version upgrade* (Abstract Themes) 3 Stars, 1528 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.”
2. (2) BlackBerry Messenger 5.0.0.57 (Instant Messaging) 3 Stars, 4330 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. (11) BlackBerry App World 1.1.0.33 *recent version upgrade* (Shopping Tools) 3 Stars, 1294 reviews, 835KB
“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.
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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.
et. At the moment, the Android Market consists of 39,450 Android Applications, which have been used 5,695,170 times.
