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CrackBerry Live: Chad Tetreault talks joining #TeamBlackBerry and supporting HTML5 apps

The BlackBerry Live 2013 interview train keeps on a-rollin' with Chad Tetreault. This time last year, Chad was an indie developer at mblware, which was probably best known for their JeeoSuite Wi-Fi remote file access app.

Since then, he's joined #TeamBlackBerry in a very real way as an Application Development Consultant. Basically, that means he helps HTML5 developers chew through whatever their problems may be, often through the community support forums. Be sure to take a listen and get a feel for what it's like on the inside of BlackBerry. 

CrackBerry Live is, err, live! Hop in, chat with our stars, and catch these interviews as they happen!

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TELUS agrees to acquire Mobilicity for $380 million

The wireless landscape in Canada is changing once again as TELUS has now announced they've agreed to acquire Mobilicity. The deal worth $380 million will still need to be approved by the Competition Bureau, Industry Canada, and Mobilicity's debtholders. Over the past little while, Mobilicity was looking to have the company change hands due to financial concerns but if all goes through, it will ensure all 250,000 Mobilicity customers continue to have service without disruption.

"A concern for our customers and employees led us to approach TELUS, which has a reputation for a strong customer focus, as evidenced by their industry leading client loyalty," said Stewart Lyons, Mobilicity President. "I am confident TELUS will look after our employees and our customers, mitigating any disruption to their service, while offering the best outcome for all stakeholders."

In addition to maintaining service for customers, TELUS will also retain all 150 Mobilicity employees throughout the transition process and will offer long term employment to those employees. If you're looking for the full details, the press release from TELUS and Mobilicity can be found below.

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CrackBerry Live: 10 Minutes with the one and only Vivek Bhardwaj

If you're a BlackBerry fan and have tuned into any of the BlackBerry conference keynotes the past year and a half, you will know Vivek Bhardwaj. Vivek has been doing demos for the latest and greatest BlackBerry features for years now as head of the BlackBerry Software Porfolio. Adam and I run through the show's big announcements with Vivek, get some insight to what happens behind the scenes at these general session demos, and close things off with a typing speed duel that you won't want to miss. 

CrackBerry Live is running right now! Hop on if you want to catch more interviews from the last day at BlackBerry Live 2013.

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Need to hang a picture?  Check out Level Camera for BlackBerry 10

When it comes to apps there is one thing that really floats my boat and that's a simple application that does what it says on the tin. Level Camera is just that. It is solely designed for making sure that when hanging pictures on a wall you get the picture/frame straight.

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Can you rescue your family with Myth Ville for BlackBerry 10

Myth Ville for BlackBerry 10 is a platform style of game but not quite the same as any I have played before. You play as one of two brothers (yes, I thought one was a girl in the video!) and your character must move from left to right across the screen avoiding obstacles and naughty evil creatures such as snakes and scarecrows. The game is set in the Caribbean although I can't really see the connection but the purple colors that are used look real nice on the eye.

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CrackBerry Live: A chat with Marco van Hylckama Vlieg

Marco van Hylckama Vlieg has a long history with CrackBerry, reaching way back to the BlackBerry Super Fanboy contest we held in 2011 where he was a finalist and ended up being one of the winners. He's all around a great guy, and spent some time on the CrackBerry Live set with Kevin and Adam. One they got past the correct pronunciation of Marcos name, and discussed the trend that Marco unknowingly started by wearing his PlayBook on a chain around his neck, they moved on to talk a bit about his current apps. Marco is the developer of the wildly popular The Last Weather App for the BlackBerry Z10 as well as Screamager and several other apps.

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CrackBerry Live: AIO Remote promises ability to control Android devices from BlackBerry 10

Here at BlackBerry Live 2013 we met up with Hisham Hassan Bakr, an Egyptian developer in charge of a PC control app called AIO Remote. For some time, All In One Remote has been offering the ability to seamlessly control your PC, Linux, or Mac computer over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, complete with native BlackBerry 10 keyboard, presenter slide control, media control, mouse movement, and file system access.

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CrackBerry Live Podcast: BlackBerry Live 2013 Wednesday Edition

Hail, hail the gang's all here!

For Wednesday night we played our cards right and managed to get everyone from the CrackBerry team that is here in Orlando on to the podcast. Kevin, Bla1ze and I were joined by two James', Alicia, DJ, Simon and Brian to talk about everything that went down at BlackBerry Live on Wednesday. In addition we got to know each of the CB writers a bit more. 

Since we had a good 24 hours to ponder things a bit we also recapped much of what was announced during the keynote and everyone got a chance to pitch in their thoughts. 

Even our good friend Rene Ritchie had his time under the lights as he showed us the new Google Hangout app for iOS and what it means for cross-platform BBM

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CrackBerry Live: The World of Pootermobile (plus a contest!)

Joining Adam on CrackBerry Live today was Marco Miranda, the man behind The World of Pootermobile! Marco is a dedicated BlackBerry user and a long time developer, starting out a few years ago with themes and moving on to apps more recently. You've probably seen his themes and apps here on the CrackBerry blogs in the past, because he is awesome. Check out his interview in the video above!

As a special thank you to CrackBerry community for always being so supportive, Marco is giving away a Pootermobile t-shirt to one lucky reader! All you have to do is log in and leave a constructive comment below, and you might win. By constructive, we mean let Marco know your favorite theme or wallpaper he's created, which shirt is your favorite, what you'd like to see from him in the future.. you get the idea. We'll announce next week who the winner is! Good luck!

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BlackBerry Live 2013 Keynote now available for viewing

The keynote at BlackBerry Live 2013 truly blew some minds I think. With announcements such as BBM going cross platform, the BlackBerry Q5, and BBM Channels, I think it was one of the best keynotes I have seen from BlackBerry in quite some time. If you missed out on watching the keynote or just want to relive the moment, you can watch it all via the magic of the internet. The whole keynote session clocks in at around 99 minutes, so it has been conveniently broken down in to 4 segments for your viewing enjoyment.

What was your favorite part of the keynote? Let us know in the comments below.

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Bleacher Report Team Stream now available for BlackBerry 10

If you're a hardcore sports fan and using a BlackBerry 10 device, keeping up to date with all the latest news and scores just got a lot easier. Team Stream by Bleacher Report has arrived in BlackBerry World and is ready for both the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10. Using the app, you can select your favorite teams / sport and set up 'streams' to pull in scores, stories, videos, and pictures from all the best sources across the web including local papers, national websites, blogs, Twitter, and of course, Bleacher Report. Best of all, it's available for free. You can grab Team Streams for the link below.

Download Team Stream for BlackBerry 10

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CB10 wins BlackBerry Developer Community Award!

Tonight at BlackBerry Live 2013, our own Marcus Adolfsson won the BlackBerry Developer Community Award for Best Built for BlackBerry App! Okay, awesome, yes, but really - how many of you guys are surprised? CB10 is the most awesome app on BlackBerry 10 for a reason. It brings all of the latest, hottest BlackBerry news right to your device, operates smoothly using the native look and feel, while also being rich in functionality.

Mad props to Marcus for working his Swedish behind off on the app, and there are still plenty of more features yet to come. If you're curious, you can find out more about the winners over here. We'll be following up on our fellow winners shortly. As a prize, maybe we can get the name changed to CrackBerry at some point...

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Next up on our BlackBerry Live 2013 stage is Moog. they're bringing a high-quality synthesizer app to BlackBerry 10 geared towards professional and avid amateur musicians alike. The vast majority of the music jargon was well over my head, so let's let the official app feature list do the talking.

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Mark Rigley of QNX and Thorsten Heins, President and CEO, BlackBerry took the stage at BlackBerry Live 2013 to give everyone a good look at the QNX Bentley GT and show off the power of BlackBerry 10. We've seen the Bentley before at CES when Dan Dodge gave the CrackBerry Nation a demo but this time around it was a little more advanced, as they were able to demo updating the software on the car directly through a BlackBerry 10 device. Of course, no demo happens without some fun being added so Mark and Thorsten gave Vivek Bhardwaj (who faked being on vacation) a call over BBM Video using the dashboard display. Awesome!

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A quick look at the BlackBerry Elite Lounge at BlackBerry Live

Chances are you may of heard of the BlackBerry Elite program that BlackBerry rolled out last year. The team of Elite members are hand picked developers or BlackBerry 'super fans' who BlackBerry value greatly - not just for their dedication, but also for feedback.

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BlackBerry Achievement Award recipients announced

The votes have been cast and the results are now in. Held each year to recognize creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, exceptional businesses and developers who push limits, the BlackBerry Achievement Award recipients have been announced. This year, the awards were classified into five categories: App of the Year, Putting Customers First, Mobile Innovation of the Year, Making the World a Better Place, and Entrepreneur of the Year:

  • App of the Year Award - PriceCheck Pty Ltd -- PriceCheck Mobile for BlackBerry 10
  • Putting Customers First Winner: ING DIRECT Canada
  • Mobile Innovation of the Year Winner: DIRECTV
  • Making the World a Better Place Winner: e-Cycle LLC
  • Entrepreneur of the Year Winner: Nobex Technologies Inc

Congrats to all the winners and the finalists. If you're looking to learn more about the winners, finalists and their apps, you can read on down below for the full press release.

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What's the latest from Mobile Innovations at BlackBerry Live

We've featured Mobile Innovations here on CrackBerry many a time. The company - among other things - are focused on providing software and hardware solutions for law enforcement agencies. Many Police forces now use the BlackBerry PlayBook both in car and hand held but with the PlayBook now being a couple of years old and no new BlackBerry tablet news on the horizon I was interested to speak with Gary Bauer from Mobile Innovations to see how things are going and also what the future holds for them.

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CrackBerry Live: Talking with long-time mobile developer Damian Montero

We took a break from product demos at BlackBerry Live 2013 to chat with Damian Montero, who not only had a hell of a story to tell about his personal journey through mobile development, but was also sporting the best headwear at the show by far.

We got to check out his first smartphone, his busted-up limited edition BlackBerry Z10, and get his general impressions of working on BlackBerry, Damian's a great example of an enthusiastic developer that's getting a ton of support direct from BlackBerry.

Developers, how do your  experiences with BlackBerry line up with Damian's? Be sure to keep an eye on CrackBerry Live - who knows who we'll have on the livestream next?

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Hands on with Education Apps for BlackBerry 10

We told you just a short time ago that Education Apps was available for BlackBerry 10 devices - both the Z10 and Q10. I hooked up with the creator, George Burgess, at BlackBerry Live to go hands on with the app for the first time on BlackBerry 10.

As you will see from the video the app runs like a dream. With it being exam time in the UK, Education Apps could well be the perfect solution for helping you pass your exams without being tied down to a text book or computer.

The app is free to download and then it's just a case of purchasing the content you need - which is all very reasonably priced.

More information/Download Education Apps for BlackBerry 10

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When Alicia Keys took the stage at the BlackBerry Live keynote she not only brought up the scholars program for women in tech, but also mentioned an astonishing statistic: 56% of BlackBerry users are women. Building on that momentum, Ms. Keys moderated a session later in the day titled Women in Tech: Redefining Ambition with a distinguished panel that consisted of Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code, Elisa Camahort-Page of BlogHer, and Leila Janah, Founder of Samasource. 

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