I'll probably be adding a couple of apps to this a day Review Terms Function : Usefulness and Reliability Features : Is it missing something that would be nice to have Ease of Use : Pick up and Use Design : How well the features blend together and the look and feel of the application. Instant messaging Applications Beejive IM Beta 2.0 RC1 Overall Rating : 4/5 Function : 4/5 Features : 4.8/5 Ease of Use : 5/5 Design : 5/5 "featuring desktop-like instant messaging and always-on efficient networking. Works with AIM®/iChat®/MobileMe®, MSN®/Windows Live®, Yahoo!®, MySpace, GoogleTalk®, SameTime®, ICQ®, & Jabber." (Beejive.com) Good: Beejive IM offers a full desktop experience rather than the limited mobile version that other applications offer. *Ability to see the status of contacts and user icons *Well made design *Buddy list layout is customizable by accounts or by user defined groups. *Chat Rooms *Customizable Alerts when a message is received *File Transfer Bad: *Has slight connection issues in areas of low service (0-2 bars) *Occasionally fails to send or receive messages *Price $19.99 per device or $29.95 for use on one device at a time. *Would have liked to see Skype support added *Processor heavy for older phones You can download Beejive IM Beta 2.0 RC1 here Over the air (direct download to BB via web browser) http://www.beejive.com/otabeta5.0storm 5.0 OS - Storm & Storm 2 ONLY http://www.beejive.com/otabeta4.7storm 4.7 OS - Storm ONLY http://www.beejive.com/otabeta5.0 5.0 OS http://www.beejive.com/otabeta4.6_vga 4.6 & 4.7 OS with VGA screen http://www.beejive.com/otabeta4.6 4.6 OS NON-VGA screen http://www.beejive.com/otabeta4.3 4.3 & 4.5 OS http://www.beejive.com/otabeta4.2.1 4.2.1 OS Desktop Install http://www.beejive.com/beta5.0storm 5.0 OS - Storm & Storm 2 ONLY http://www.beejive.com/beta4.7storm 4.7 OS - Storm ONLY http://www.beejive.com/beta5.0 5.0 OS http://www.beejive.com/beta4.6_vga 4.6 & 4.7 OS with VGA screen http://www.beejive.com/beta4.6 4.6 OS NON-VGA screen http://www.beejive.com/beta4.3 4.3 & 4.5 OS http://www.beejive.com/beta4.2.1 4.2.1 OS Palringo (looking for better Images) "Supports Windows Live Messenger ® (MSN) AOL ® Instant Messenger (AIM) Yahoo! ® Messenger Google Talk ™ ICQ ® Jabber ® iChat® / MobileMe ® Gadu-Gadu ® Facebook Chat (Alpha)" (Palringo.com) Overall Rating : 3/5 Function : 2/5 Features : 4/5 Ease of Use : 2/5 Design : 4/5 Good: *Message Delivery Status *Desktop like experience *Facebook IM *Easily Manage Accounts *Supports most common Instant Messengers *Runs in Background *Voice Chat *Image Transfer *Set status per account *Free Bad: *Major Connection Issues *Contact List Sorting would be nice *No Notifications *Lacking in Customization Palringo is a solid Instant messenger application, it lacks in a few areas such as notifications and buddy list management but is well made for a free application. The ability to run in the background and set statuses puts it just above nimbuzz for advanced users but the user interface could really use some improvement. Overall this application shows promise and in a few more releases, it just might get there. You can download Palringo from the official website http://www.palringo.com/en/gb/download/ Nimbuzz for os 4.5 and below "All in one: Skype, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, AIM, studiVZ, GoogleTalk, Facebook, MySpace, Jabber and many more"(nimbuzz.com) Overall Rating : 4/5 Function : 4/5 Features : 4/5 Ease of Use : 3.5/5 Design : 4/5 Good: *Desktop-like Experience *Supports many different Instant messengers (Facebook) *File transfer *Easy to manage all your accounts *Supports user icons in chats *Free Bad: *Connection issues in low service areas *lacks support for older phones (I snagged a link from the website to run on my os 4.5 8330 curve) *Could have better sorting and grouping methods *Lacking in customization of notifications (LED Notification) As this is the first nimbuzz release for native blackberry, I hope they consider it a beta and continue working on it. It has an extremely strong base to build off of and could develop into an amazing application that blackberry users with love. It severely lacks in customization and the user interface is not very friendly. Besides that I consider it the best free Instant messaging app around. Keep your eye on nimbuzz to become a strong competitor in later releases. You can download Nimbuzz from Blackberry App World or Nimbuzz Homepage If you don't have os 4.6 or greater (like me) post a comment with what type of Blackberry you have and I'll track it down for you. Internet Radio Pandora "Pandora Radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your BlackBerry. Just start with the name of one of your favorite artists, songs or classical composers and Pandora will create a "station" that plays their music and more music like it." (Pandora.com) Overall Rating : 4.8/5 Function : 5/5 Features : 4.5/5 Ease of Use : 5/5 Design : 5/5 Good: *Features a smart system that matches up songs like the one you searched for *Great Audio Quality *Good Response Time *Able to remove songs from the generated playlist *Huge Music Collection with up to date releases *Simple User Interface *Free Bad: *Can only skip 6 songs per hour *Advertisements every 7 or so songs *Has some artist name spelling errors You couldn't ask much more from a free radio internet application, and pandora's smart music system gives it an edge over other competitors. With its large collection you can enjoy listening to hours of songs that match your tastes. You can download Pandora from the official website http://www.pandora.com/blackberry Slacker "Listen to all of your favorite personalized Slacker stations on your BlackBerry® for free! You can listen to over 100 stations programmed by music experts or create your own custom stations right from your BlackBerry. You'll have detailed artist biographies, full album reviews and more. Best of all, the music can be stored on your phone so you can listen even when you don't have a connection!"(slacker.com) Overall Rating : 4.5/5 Function : 5/5 Features : 4/5 Ease of Use : 4.8/5 Design : 5/5 Good: *Preset Stations featuring similar songs and top hits *Great Audio Quality *Large Song Collection *Good Response Time *Ability to hide songs from a playlist *Create your own song station *Free Bad: *Would of liked to see a smart music matching system *Missing some of the newer songs *Can only skip 6 songs per station per hour *Annoying banner advertising *Constantly runs in the background A Great music program if you want a little more customization than Pandora offers. Can't ask for much more from a free internet radio application. You can download Slacker from the official website http://www.slacker.com/everywhere/mobile/blackberry/ Internet Browsers Bolt Browser 1.5 Overall Rating : 4.5/5 Function : 4.7/5 Features : 4/5 Ease of Use : 4.5/5 Design : 4.5/5 Good: *Fast *Quick full page rendering *Quick Navigation (Favorites and History) *Zoom Function *Free Bad: *Copy function is a bit awkward to use. *Fonts must be downloaded for high quality text Overall the Bolt browser is everything a blackberry user would need as a browser on their phone, unfortunately the copy function is biggest draw back to this app, you have to use a select box and drag it over the text you want to copy. But besides that it is a solid replacement browser for the blackberry. You can download Bolt Browser from their website http://boltbrowser.com/download.html Opera 5 Mini Beta 2 Overall Rating : 4.7/5 Function : 4.7/5 Features : 4/5 Ease of Use : 4.5/5 Design : 5/5 Good: *Beautiful Interface *Download Manager *Multiple Tabs *Fast, Full Page Rendering *Customizable Shortcuts with Image Preview *A lot of personalization *Free Bad: *Beta *Lacking a Zoom Function Opera 5 mini looks to be an amazing browser when it comes out of beta, So far I have not noticed any major issues, but I've only done a light amount of testing. The Interface an design of this is extraordinarily well done and the tab feature is just icing on the cake. The lack of a zoom feature is sadly a large drawback and can make certain web pages difficult to read. The copy function is slightly more accurate than the one in bolt browser but is also slightly slower. If you are going for looks this is the browser for you. You can download Opera 5 Mini beta 2 from the official website http://m.opera.com/next

Leave a comment if you disagree with anything I've said or you want an app (or a group of apps) reviewed.