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Another Inside Look at Twitter for BlackBerry – Beta v1.0.0.37

Chris 717 Comments

A couple months ago I took you inside the first Twitter for BlackBerry® beta app and shared my likes and dislikes. While I was impressed with the app’s GUI, color scheme, and features, I was disappointed with the basic features it lacked and its sluggish performance. Nonetheless, today I got my hands on the new Twitter for BlackBerry® beta v1.0.0.37 and all I can say is “amazing” – simply amazing. This new version of Twitter for BlackBerry® is a pleasure to use now that RIM added several features, made improvements to existing features, and now uses data cache to speed up performance.

The features in this new version of Twitter for BlackBerry® include:

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Qik Beta Now Available for BlackBerry Tour

Chris 754 Comments

If you are not familiar with the sequence of events that led up to the development of the Qik beta app for the BlackBerry Tour, continue reading so you have a better understanding how we got to this point.

Last year when I joined the video-sharing site, Qik, I was excited to download their app to my new BlackBerry Tour so I could start streaming live video and upload previously recorded videos. However, after visiting their smartphone support page, I noticed that the Tour was not supported. At that time the Tour was on the market for only a few days so I understood that there might be a short waiting period before I got my hands on the Qik app. Since there was already support for approximately 125 smartphones, the BlackBerry Curve, Pearl, and Bold being among those supported, I figured it was only a matter of time before Qik developed an app for the Tour.

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LinkedIn App for BlackBerry Released

Chris

Last year at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco, Adam Nash, Vice President of Search & Platform Products at LinkedIn, announced that LinkedIn for BlackBerry was in the works and even provided a few screenshots. Since most business professionals use BlackBerry as their mobile platform, this announcement was highly anticipated by BlackBerry users. Tonight, the business social network finally launched the official LinkedIn for BlackBerry app and it is now available for download online and at the BlackBerry App World store. According to the LinkedIn blog, the app supports only the BlackBerry Tour, Curve, and Bold devices that are running BlackBerry OS v4.3 or later.

As a BlackBerry user and a LinkedIn member, I was excited to get my hands on this app and I’m sure this will be a very popular app in the professional arena. Although the LinkedIn for BlackBerry app is not as feature-rich as the iPhone app, it does just about everything you need it to do and a little extra. The app features six key modules: Network Updates, Search, Connections, Invitations, Messages, and Reconnect.

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Foursquare App for BlackBerry Updated to Version 1.7

Chris

Recently Foursquare pushed out app updates to both iPhone and Android users just in time for SXSW so it was only a matter of time before BlackBerry users got their hands on an update. Well, as expected, Foursquare pushed out a new update to BlackBerry users this morning. If you are running the Foursquare app and don’t already have the v1.7 update, simply launch your Foursquare app and it should automatically update to the newest version. You can also download the app from the BlackBerry App World store or visit the Foursquare Web site to download.

There is not a whole lot going on under the hood in this update other than changes to the UI. After firing up the app you will notice four icons in the top navigation menu: Friends (F), Places (P), Tips, and More. While some of these icons might look familiar to you from the previous version, the “Tips” icon is a new addition to the navigation menu. Let’s take a quick look at the new navigation menu and what changes took place.

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HubSpot Launches Foursquare Grader

Chris 11,183 Comments

HubSpot, the company that created Twitter Grader, has launched their latest tool, Square Grader. The tool simply analyzes your usage on the location-based social media site, Foursquare, and gives you a grade and rank based on comparison to other Foursquare users who have already been graded. Since Square Grader is still in its early development stage, it might take several weeks or perhaps months before the database grows and has a large enough sample to make the grade and rank accurate. Although this tool is for amusement purposes only, let’s take a quick look how the grades are generated.

It is rare for a company to publicly discuss their algorithm details simply because there are people out there who are always trying to game the system. However, according to HubSpot Co-Founder, Dharmesh Shah, Square Grader uses several algorithm factors when measuring your Foursquare grade. Although Dharmesh did not go into detail about the priority or weight of each factor, he did mention some of the factors that are taken into account when measuring your grade.

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How Do I Remove A Foursquare Badge From My Profile?

Chris 12,829 Comments

When Foursquare launched their location-based service back in 2009 there was one particular badge that received a lot of attention, the “Douchebag” badge. While some users thought the badge was funny, others felt the badge was offensive and did their best to avoid unlocking it. Although it is outside the scope of this article, you can read more about the “Douchebag Problem” at TechCrunch.

Regardless how you feel about the badge, if you unlocked the Douchebag badge or any other badge and want it removed from your profile you’re in luck.

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