If you’re a member of BlackBerry Beta Zone, then you’ve probably been testing out beta versions of native applications which connect to BBM.  RIM has announced today several native applications updating in the next ten days which will be BBM connected.  Here’s a brief summary of them:

• Facebook and Twitter: Automatically share your Facebook status or latest Tweet with your BBM friends right from within the app.
• BlackBerry Travel: Share your travel plans and flight changes directly with select BBM contacts or with your entire BBM community.
• BlackBerry App World: Easily update your BBM profile to let friends know about the great new app you’ve just downloaded on BlackBerry App World.
• BBM Music: Recommend friends right from within the BBM Music app itself, making it easier for you to connect and expand your music collection.

  Solitaire is a really popular card game on computers, tablets, mobiles, or even with a plain old real deck of cards.  Now it’s become competitive thanks to BBM.  Droid Mobile Software just released Solitaire with BBM Connect so you can challenge your friends through BBM, email, or even text.  Features include:

• Lots of Cards Background to choose
• Customizable game Backgrounds
• Cards movement animation
• Unlimited undoes
• Change score type, amount of cards to reveal
• High scores
• BBM Connect
• Challenge your Friend

Solitaire with BBM Connect is free to download for BlackBerry smartphones.  Click the link below to grab a free copy and be sure to invite all your BBM friends to start competing!

Download Solitaire with BBM Connect >>

 Facebook for BlackBerry just updated to version 3.0.0.6 in BlackBerry Beta Zone.  This update includes the long waited for BBM integration which has been spotted previously for internal testing.  Also, a few other goodies are included such as Facebook Publisher  which allows you to add your location, tag a friend, upload a photo with your status updates, and share with BBM.  Here’s a list of all the new features in v3.0.0.6:

• New Facebook Publisher
• Share with BBM Contact
• UI Discoverability Improvements
• Improved Facebook Notifications
• User-Friendly Error Messages

It looks like the next update for the BBM Social Platform SDK is out!  This one’s version 1.3 and includes some new features.  Some highlighted features include:

• Users can manage their settings in order to “Allow [app name] to connect you with other app users”. With this feature, the user has the ability to prevent dialog boxes from prompting when making/requesting to join public connections.
• The character limit for setting personal messages within the user profile has now been increased to 160.
• Users can easily enable the Profile Box by clicking the checkmark “Post recent activities to BBM Profile” when the app initially connects to BBM.

You can read more on the new SDK at the BlackBerry Developers Blog or click here to download it.

Browsing via BlackBerry? Click here to view video

It was already something new when RIM started advertising applications in their commercials.  Now we’re seeing BlackBerry Messenger get some publicity with the new BBM Social Platform, enabling third party developers to connect their apps to BBM.  So here’s a funny commercial showing BBM integration with Navita Sports for BlackBerry.

Connect 4 has landed for BlackBerry! It doesn’t look to be the exact original, but the game is certainly the same.  For those who aren’t familiar with Connect 4, it’s a game where you have to get four of your colored chips in a row to win the game.  Each color takes turns putting their chips in where you’ll have to play a bit of defense to stop your opponent from getting four in a row.  Features include:

• Play the game versus your BBM existed contacts or friends.
• Start offline game, two players can play against each other in a single device
• In-game chatting. That means, you can chat with your opponent right in the game
• Send invitation to download game!
• Send file to your friends
• Send popup message to your friends
• Start an BBM chat with your opponent or your BBM contacts
• Host public game
• Join public game

You can grab Connect 4 from the PocketBerry Store for only 99 cents.  Click the link below for more screenshots or to purchase a copy.

Connect 4 for BlackBerry >>

Browsing via BlackBerry? Click here to view video

Poynt for BlackBerry has officially updated to version 1.8.1 adding BBM 6 integration.  A few weeks ago we saw this build leak out and a few of you may of already had this version, but now it’s official.  Here’s a video above demoing how it works with BlackBerry Messenger.

In other news, Poynt has recently updated their PlayBook app to support Events feature powered by Eventful.  You can check out Poynt for BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook free at BlackBerry App World.

Poynt for BlackBerry >>

Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook >>

BBM integration is getting more and more popular everyday with third party applications since RIM officially launched the service.  It started out with a few apps including Foursquare and ScoreMobile, and now there are plenty of apps supporting it.  In BlackBerry App World (3.0 Beta), I noticed a category dedicated to BBM Connected applications.  Found it useful for seeing all apps connected, as before you pretty much had to search for them on your own or wait to hear about them on the blogs.  There are premium and free apps in the list, and I’m sure you’ll find some you didn’t know had BBM integration yet.  Check it out at App World!

It’s no secret that a lot of applications are updating nowadays and getting integration with BBM.  Gist was bought out by RIM earlier this year.  The app officially launched while we were at BlackBerry World.  With the BBM Social Platform at arm’s reach, it was necessary for an application by RIM to support BBM integration so here it is in the latest update of Gist.

Download Gist for BlackBerry >>

Foursquare for BlackBerry just updated to version 3.1.5.  The last update we saw, it brought in the BBM integration for everyone, rather than the previous alpha build which limited to only a number of people.  It looks like this build has some UI changes but not a huge jump from the previous v3.1.  No change log attached to this one, but if you spot something be sure to let us know!

Download Foursquare v3.1.5 >>

 

Source: N4BB