Friday, August 5, 2011

Top 10 Free Apps For Blackberry Playbook


The winner of the 2010 BlackBerry Super Apps Developer Challenge comes to the Playbook, helping you find businesses, restaurants, movies, and events near you. It also retrieves phone numbers and map directions with one click. It’s great for planning nights out – You can read reviews of restaurants and make reservations, and watch movie trailers and buy tickets.
A must download for the movie buffs, MovieNews shows you the latest DVD and theatre releases, upcoming films, and cast and crew listings.
Plan your week by checking the forecast for multiple cities around the world. It’s got a great layout but it is a bit laggy. Hopefully that will be corrected in the next update.
Get breaking news on the playoffs including schedules, scores, analysis, and tweets from the Hockeycentral panel. We’re hoping to see the Canucks face off with the Habs in the finals for the Stanley Cup!
This handy app is great for tackling your to-do list. You can create unlimited tasks or projects and include info such as the time needed to finish a task and filtering criteria like tags. It doesn’t require an internet connection so you can access your 'to do' list anywhere.
Heading to Japan, Russia, or France? Download this speech recognition app and let it translate words or phrases for you. Translate text by either speaking or typing and the translation will appear in the text box. You can translate by speaking text in seven languages and listen to translations read aloud in 18 languages. It currently supports Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese and more languages are on the way.
Stuck for dinner ideas? Use this app to get access to over 700 recipes. Mouth-watering photos accompany the recipes, as well as nutritional information. Search by keyword or categories and bookmark your favourites with a star.
Display your photos in this easy to use virtual photo frame. Show them off them individually or as a slide show.
Access your DropBox account with this simple to use app. You can create folders, copy, cut and rename files. The functionality is still very basic at this point. For example, you can’t upload files to Dropbox. It has promise though, and the developer is planning on adding the ability to upload and download files using the Playbook’s shared file system.
It’s no Doodle Jump but this entertaining puzzle game is pretty addictive. The gameplay involves drawing a line in order to get the balls to fall and roll into the container and features some pretty creative graphics.
Let us know if you have any favourite Playbook apps!

The best 5 Blackberry Playbook apps are here


BlackBerry World is in session and PlayBook talk is all over the web. A lot of that talk centers around apps for the PlayBook, particularly the lack of them. There aren’t many apps for the BlackBerry tablet, but there are a few that are pretty darn good. Here are my picks for the top 5 free apps currently available for the BlackBerry Playbook. I only include third party apps on this list and not any preinstalled on the tablet.
GeeReader. This app is an RSS reader that interfaces with Google Reader. It has a very clever UI that takes full advantage of the PlayBook’s 7-inch screen, and is fun to use. Sadly, like many PlayBook apps it doesn’t work in portrait orientation, but the landscape display is really good. There is a lot of swiping action possible that makes it fast and fun to speed through a lot of RSS feed items. Landscape only.
Poynt. Location-based apps are a perfect fit for the tablet, and Poynt is a nice one. Using Poynt is as simple as tapping what you’re looking for, food, businesses, gas, etc. It is lightning fast on the PlayBook and makes nice use of the maps in the program. It’s a particularly nice way to find movies in local theaters. Landscape only.
WeatherEye. You can’t have a mobile device without a good weather app and WeatherEye is simple but nicely designed. It interfaces with the The Weather Network and supplies complete information about the weather from hourly forecasts to long-term predictions. The graphics are nicely done and the app runs fast and fluidly. Honorable mention in this category goes to the preinstalled AccuWeather app. It may be good enough for many users, and has a nice interface. Landscape only.
Reader’s Digest. This publication is as American as apple pie and hot dogs, and the app is a great way to spend free time reading the folksy articles it is famous for. Downloading an issue of the periodical takes a good while as it involves hundred of megabytes of data, but one installed it is a good experience spinning through the edition. The app is free but I suspect new issues of the periodical will cost a few bucks. It’s worth it for those who like Reader’s Digest. Portrait only.
FourPlay. FourSquare users will want to check out this app for working with the service on the PlayBook. There is not a native FourSquare app, but FourPlay does a decent job with the basic functions of using the service. You can find venues and check-in as expected, and the app is fast and pleasant to use. Landscape only.
These are not the only apps in the App World, but are a good place to start for new PlayBook owners. There are some notable apps missing from this list, Facebook in particular. This app was just released for the PlayBook, and frankly I am disappointed with how it uses the tablet display. I find the Facebook site in the browser to be a much better experience.

Bubble Birds HD


If you’re a fan of the classic game Bubble Shooter you’ll probably get a kick out of Bubble Birds HD for the Playbook.
Shoot as many sets of three or more same color bubble birds to get as many points as humanly possible.
Features:
  • Nice bird theme graphics
  • Hours worth of gameplay

NEED FOR SPEED Undercover for PlayBook


Drive real cars really fast in NEED FOR SPEED Undercover for the Playbook. You’ll get to race 20 of the fastest cars on the planet, such as the Porsche Carrera GT.
Features:
  • Output the game to any HDMI TV or device
  • Quick Race mode
  • Race any of the 20 cars from the Tri City
  • 8 race modes
  • 3 unique environments
  • Trick out your ride
  • Earn performance upgrades
Download NEED FOR SPEED Undercover for free from the App World.

Sling Golf – Golf is not just for humans


Ready for a few rounds of golf? Practice your golf swing in the game Sling Golf for the Playbook. Choose from different fun characters and play multiple golf courses.
Features:
  • 3 different courses
  • Each course has 9 holes (27 total)
  • 3 golf characters
  • Achievements and awards waiting to be unlocked
  • Neat animations and sounds
  • New courses will be added periodically
Download Sling Golf for $2.99 from the App World.