A lucky private beta tester has shared a new traffic application for BlackBerry that RIM is working on. We’ve been hearing a lot about how RIM has trademarked BlackBerry Drive and will be collecting anonymous GPS data to estimate traffic conditions; combined with their acquisition of Dash Navigation, this app seems to fit the bill. The main screen shows you what to expect in terms of traffic, what turns to take along your route, and how long it should take given the data the BlackBerry has to work with.

The three buttons we see below include a search option, which presumably lets you see which businesses are nearby based on keywords, and additional options provide an estimated time of arrival (and the ability to share your ETA), and stats on your speed and progress. This is definitely different than your average navigation app, which usually provides a map and turn-by-turn directions, but one can assume that at least BlackBerry Maps (and Google Maps, if we’re lucky) will be able to import a route into the app. In a way, the simplified interface is more appropriate for at-a-glance information, since your attention should be on the road.

Head on over to the BlackBerry Beta Zone and see if you can sign up for this app.

[via PocketBerry]

World Cup South Africa 2010 is coming up fast… it gets underway June 11th! For any soccer/football fan this is the premier event we wait for every four years… An event that crowns the world’s best soccer nation. Personally, yeah, I’ll watch some of the games… But being Canadian and all (and with our national team not making the World Cup, AGAIN), I’m much more interested in the Stanley Cup Finals (Go Blackhawks!)… Especially when you consider Chicago captain and superstar Jonathan Toews used to live right around the corner from me. Gotta cheer for the local boy.

ANYWAY, getting back to the World Cup ( ), a new (and free) app for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has been released by the good developers over at S42 and ZonaBlackBerry. The World Cup 2010 app for BlackBerry delivers live scoring updates, team stats, integrates nicely with your calendar and much more. It’s an ideal companion for World Cup time, especially if you need to be updated on-the-go. The app is available in English and Spanish, and YES, it is compatible with the Storm series, but I hear there have been some compatibility issues… A touchscreen UI wasn’t really built-in to this one, so there may be a learning curve when it comes to navigating the app on your Storm.

But I digress… hit up the download link below for more information on World Cup 2010 for BlackBerry.

World Cup 2010 for BlackBerry (Free) [Download OTA]

Note: So, the question I have for you this morning is this: Who do YOU think is going to win World Cup South Africa 2010? Brazil? England? Spain? Italy? Some very interesting groups will be heading into action in just over a week… Actually, now that I write more and more about this, I’m getting more excited. I may have to pop down to ‘little Italy’ here in my hometown and watch some Italy games with the crazed fans. It’s always a good time

[Via: BerryReview]

YouMail Visual Voicemail has gone version 2.0 with new features that were heavily requested by users. YouMail 2.0 gives users a streamlined user interface, enhanced organization tools, improved transcription and faster voicemail followup.

With the streamlined user interface, the main screen now shows the number of new messages and each caller’s photo or avatar, which can be imported automatically from Facebook. Also, the message play screen supports fast-forward and rewind, allowing users to get through their messages even more efficiently. YouMail 2.0 users are now able to access any folder directly from the app, not just the inbox. This includes the standard Saved, Spam and Trash folders, as well as user-created folders. Users can also can turn their voicemail box into a “To Do” list by easily flagging messages for follow-up directly in the app.

YouMail 2.0 also features improved transcription, with the play screen showing more of the transcribed message text, lessening the need to scroll. Users can also copy and paste directly from the transcription, allowing them to easily insert message text into searches or responses.

The YouMail app is also now integrated with the phone’s default SMS client, enabling users to easily reply to voice messages using SMS messages. Simpler menus also allow users to easily forward and reply to voicemail while including the original voicemail as a MP3 or WAV file.

Check out YouMail 2.0, free in BlackBerry App World.

The folks at NewspaperDirect Inc. have launched 2 new versions of their very popular PressReader app. The new apps are for the iPhone and BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), and bring more than 1,300 full-content digital replicas of newspapers, magazines and more right to your device. Very cool.

Once installed, users can browse newspapers and magazines from around the world available from PressDisplay.com, the world’s biggest online newspaper kiosk. Download the publication, and read it offline whenever you want. You can zoom and pan around the document, access on-demand audio, navigate each publication via jump links, and much more.

Alex Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect commented on the new apps:

“While other news applications offer limited website access or a reduced version of the publisher’s content, PressReader delivers the publication in its original layout with all of the content from its print edition, including advertising… As the mobile and handheld market evolves, we plan to offer PressReader on additional, new smartphones, e-readers or tablets, as they are announced. This includes the highly anticipated Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) tablet.”

Oooooh, Apple Tablet you say, huh? Interesting

You can pick up the PressReader app for free right now in BlackBerry App World and the Apple App Store (iTunes link).

[Via: PitchEngine]

RIM today announced at their BlackBerry Developers Conference in San Francisco that the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) OS will soon support OpenGL ES for 3D graphics acceleration.
The arrival of 3D graphics support should finally bring the BlackBerry platform out of the dark ages, where BrickBreaker and other 2D games reigned supreme. RIM and EA Mobile took to the BBDC keynote stage to show off the still-in-development “Need For Speed: Shift” 3D game, giving the world a glimpse of what’s to come. The game looked impressive, to say the least, so we figured a hands-on video was in order.

We sat down with EA Mobile and gave the game a solid once-over. Before we continue, we should mention again that Need For Speed: Shift is still in early stage development, and what you see below is actually the first ever playable version of the game. As such, there weren’t too many cars to pick from, and the game had only a single playable track. Still, the accelerometer-based controls were easy to use – they were responsive but not twitchy (like a lot of racing games on the iPhone). In-game audio was impressive and really gave the game a more polished feel than the two weeks worth of development time would have suggested.

EA Mobile promises to have Need for Speed: Shift polished off by the time it hits the BlackBerry App World. By that time the game should support more computer rivals (AI enemies), a drift-turn feature to slide around corners and player-points to upgrade your ride. Check out the video below!

That was a quick update from Google since they just updated Google Voice 2 weeks ago. Nikolaus let me know that Google has updated Google Voice for BlackBerry to version 0.1.6 from version 0.1.5.1. Once again it is a pretty minor version bump but considering how popular Google Voice is and the features Google has been adding it is probably worth downloading.

Pick it up at:
m.google.com/voice

Let us know in the comments if you notice anything new! Now I can finally go to sleep!