Research In Motion launched BlackBerry App World 3.0 on Tuesday and it adds number of enhancements over the previous iteration. BlackBerry App World 3.0 offers a revamped home screen with rotating banners that display new and featured applications, an App sharing feature that allows users to share their favorite applications using Facebook, Twitter, BBM, SMS or email, new application channels for finding apps faster and the ability to manage subscriptions through the BlackBerry App World “My World” portal. BlackBerry App World is available now and the upgrade is free. BlackBerry users can visit www.blackberry.com/appworld/download on their devices to download App World 3.0 beginning immediately.
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Research In Motion announced on Friday that BlackBerry App World 3.0 is now available for download from the BlackBerry Beta Zone. The updated app store offers a number of improvements, including the ability to search for applications directly from the new home screen. Users will be able to sort search results by name, price, rating, release date, best match and most popular. RIM also added quick access to “Games” and “Themes” subcategories directly on the new home screen. “Spotlight banners” will showcase hot new applications that RIM wants to highlight, too. Finally, users can choose to share new applications via Facebook, Twitter, BBM, SMS or email.Read

Research In Motion on Tuesday announced a major milestone for its on-device software portal BlackBerry App World: 1 billion downloads served. ”The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps,” RIM’s Alex Kinsella wrote on the company’s blog. “BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!” While the achievement is still impressive, RIM did confirm to BGR that the 1 billion figure includes application updates, however, and not just initial application downloads.

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When RIM launched the BlackBerry PlayBook earlier this year, AT&T was the only carrier that didn’t provide a BlackBerry Bridge application out of the gate. As of Friday, the application is now available for PlayBook owners with AT&T BlackBerry phones. The app provides free email, calendar, and BBM sync between your PlayBook and BlackBerry smartphone, but you’ll need to subscribe to a $20 monthly plan to share data, too. BlackBerry Bridge is available immediately for free in BlackBerry App World.

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Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook launched in U.S. and Canadian markets earlier today, and that is good news for RIM enthusiasts… that is unless you have AT&T. As many of you know, the PlayBook uses a small piece of software called BlackBerry Bridge to acquire cellular connectivity and provide messaging and other crucial PIM functionality — by transferring calendar, email, and contact data between a BlackBerry smartphone and the new tablet. So what’s the problem? It’s not officially supported by AT&T. On RIM’s official BlackBerry App World page, BlackBerry Bridge is listed with the following support status:

“Supported Carriers — All carriers except: AT&T”

Determined users have found unofficial ways to load the Bridge application onto AT&T BlackBerry smartphones, but the fact that RIM’s highly anticipated tablet offering is not yet officially supported by a major U.S. carrier is very disappointing. An AT&T spokesperson provided the following comment: “AT&T is working with RIM to make the BlackBerry Bridge app available for AT&T customers. We have just received the app for testing and before it’s made available to AT&T customers we want to ensure it delivers a quality experience for our customers.”

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Research In Motion has announced a new version of Twitter for BlackBerry that includes a number of noteworthy enhancements. Twitter for BlackBerry version 1.1 is officially out of beta and offers the ability to tweet your location using the “Add location to tweet” option. The app also includes push notifications for @mentions, and will auto-complete #topics as you type them out, along with several other minor enhancements. RIM also said the UI has been tweaked with updated graphics and includes a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location options. Lastly, the app has added language support for simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Polish, Czech, and Thai. Twitter for BlackBerry is available in BlackBerry App World now. Hit the jump for more info.

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Research In Motion announced on Monday that it has updated its BlackBerry Traffic navigation software to version 2.0.0.1749. The latest iteration includes the following changes:

• Select between two routes to a destination, and can use a new traffic view that displays predicted traffic conditions for each route.
• Pre-set destinations, such as work or home, or get an ETA to destinations from within their BlackBerry® Contacts, enter an address manually, or find new places using the search feature
• Quickly share ETAs with contacts via SMS, email, or PIN message

RIM also said that, by anonymously collecting user data, the software will now optimize your estimated time of arrival, and will suggest the best time to leave based on current traffic conditions. BlackBerry Traffic requires a GPS-equipped device running BlackBerry OS 4.6 or newer. The app will be rolling into the App World over the next 24 hours. Hit the jump for a link to save yourself some commuting time.

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RIM has started emailing developers to inform them that its BlackBerry App World sign-up process is now much more streamlined; a welcomed change, we’re sure. Before the program tweak, RIM required a notarized proof of identity – yes, you’d literally have to get a document notarized before RIM would accept you as a developer into BlackBerry App World. After a rather lengthy blog post by a frustrated developer, the Canadian company seems to have gotten the message loud and clear. We’re not sure why Research In Motion felt that they could make their app store harder to sign-up for when they are notably behind Apple and Google in that area, but again, it’s great to see some progress being made here.

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Research In Motion on Wednesday announced a new version of its on-device software store for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry App World. Version 2.1 brings several changes to RIM’s app store — the most notable of which is the introduction of an in-app payment mechanism. BlackBerry app developers will now be able to offer digital and virtual goods to users from within their apps, and payments will be taken and processed by RIM’s new payment service. A related SDK has been released to developers, allowing them to build the new in-app purchase functionality into their existing apps.

Today, RIM and Amazon.com launched Amazon MP3 for BlackBerry smartphones, giving BlackBerry smartphone users in the U.S. access to Amazon’s catalog of over 14 million songs. Amazon MP3 for BlackBerry smartphones allows users to browse, preview, download, store, and tell friends about their favorite music all at the touch of a fingertip.

Key features include:

• Download music via Wi-Fi or over the air (OTA)
• Browse by what’s new, deals, top songs, top albums, genres, and sub genres
• Check back every day for the Free Song of the Day and Daily Deal album
• Preview a 30-second sample before you buy
• Tell friends about your favorites via BBM, email, SMS, Socials Feeds, Facebook, and Twitter
• Bookmark a song and come back to it whenever you’re ready for a preview or download.
• Integrated with BlackBerry smartphone features and functions, including Universal Search and Media Library

Amazon MP3 for BlackBerry smartphones is available in beta for BlackBerry users in the U.S. on BlackBerry App World in the Test Center. For more information , please visit www.blackberry.com/amazonmp3.

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If you have been itching for a decent RSS feed reader on the BlackBerry platform, you’ve finally got one. RIM just let us know that they have created an app called BlackBerry News Feeds, which conveniently aggregates and serves up all of your RSS feeds in a clean and easy to use app. We have been testing the app on and off for a little bit, and while there is no Google Reader support (the biggest omission), it is pretty easy to add feeds, bounce through unread items, mark them read, and share them as well. BlackBerry News Feeds is available from BlackBerry App World and BlackBerry Beta Zone starting today.

Today, Research In Motion announced that it has “opened the BlackBerry App World vendor portal to begin accepting BlackBerry PlayBook apps from developers.” The company has yet to communicate a release date for the highly-anticipated tablet.

“Interest and momentum behind the BlackBerry PlayBook continues to build and we are thrilled with the positive response from both the developer community and our customers,” said Tyler Lessard, RIM’s VP of Global Alliances & Developer Relations. “We are very pleased to be working with developers in advance of the product launch and the opening of BlackBerry App World to accept BlackBerry PlayBook apps is an important next step.”

The press release also noted that developers who “submit a qualifying BlackBerry PlayBook app that is accepted into BlackBerry App World prior to the initial product launch in North America” will receive a free PlayBook for their efforts.

There you have it developers. Submit early, submit often, and stake your claim to a free PlayBook!

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We were alerted to a blog post on Kik’s site just moments ago, and it seems that Research In Motion has not only removed Kik Messenger from its App World portal, but it has also disabled push services for existing users. We reached out to RIM for comment and here is the company’s official statement:

RIM became aware of a number of issues and customer concerns regarding the Kik app and service. Following discussions with Kik, the app was removed from BlackBerry App World on November 12. Upon further investigation, RIM concluded that Kik had breached contractual obligations. Based on the broad scope and seriousness of the issues and concerns, RIM terminated its agreements with Kik and withdrew RIM’s support for Kik’s service.

According to Research In Motion, the company now has over 10,000 applications in their application store, App World. While 10,000 is not a number to be scoffed at, BlackBerry pales in comparison to Apple’s 250,000 apps and Android’s estimated 100,000 figure. RIM also has the challenge of fighting Google and Apple in the application quality department; BlackBerry apps are probably the most unpolished at this point. Let’s hope RIM’s developer conference — DevCon — will kick things into the next gear.

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It isn’t like you couldn’t see this one coming from a mile away, but we know that some of you like concrete proof. RIM has published a knowledge base article to address the issues you are having with your unreleased, unannounced BlackBerry 9330 from Sprint. The article explains how you can solve that pesky issue, where “BlackBerry App World pre-loaded games are missing after the ##RTN command is preformed.” The article has since been pulled, but it looks like the lack-luster, mid-range BlackBerry will be landing on the Now Network in the near future.

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