Welcome back BlackBerry fans.  If you have visited BlackBerryVoodoo before you may already be aware that several of us around here are not just BlackBerry junkies and theme developers, many of us are also hopelessly addicted gamers… I know, I know, speak for myself…  Now, as a gamer, [...]]]>

COD: Black Ops by Tony Terry

Welcome back BlackBerry fans.  If you have visited BlackBerryVoodoo before you may already be aware that several of us around here are not just BlackBerry junkies and theme developers, many of us are also hopelessly addicted gamers… I know, I know, speak for myself…  Now, as a gamer, I personally am a big fan of FPS style games and I’ve literally been counting down the days until the November 9th release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, so when our buddy Tony Terry dropped in last month to post his Black Ops theme in the forum I thought, what could be better for our November Theme of the Month?  So here we are and as for the theme, what can I say… it’s sweet!  It has some great looking COD wallpapers, a full set of OS6 icons, hidden dock/today areas, custom battery and signal meters and more.  It’s a whole lot of fun and it’s Free!  If your a fan of COD, first person shooter games or just love rocking a sweet free theme on your BlackBerry, hop on over to the’ forum and grab yourself a copy. While your there make sure to leave a comment for Tony or better yet hit the donate button in his signature and buy him a cup of coffee.  Thanks for sharing this awesome freebie with us Tony and I look forward to seeing the rest of you COD junkies online next week. Enjoy.

>> Download Tony Terry’s COD: Black Ops Theme

>> Check out the Call of Duty: Black Ops official site

Earlier this month in a post over at Inside BlackBerry Mr. Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO of Research In Motion, was noted to comment about the upcoming availability of BlackBerry 6 for several current 5.0 devices, including the Pearl 3G, Bold 9650 and Bold 9700. The news of RIM’s newest operating system finding it’s way to [...]]]>

Earlier this month in a post over at Inside BlackBerry Mr. Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO of Research In Motion, was noted to comment about the upcoming availability of BlackBerry 6 for several current 5.0 devices, including the Pearl 3G, Bold 9650 and Bold 9700. The news of RIM’s newest operating system finding it’s way to these devices was widely embraced by current BlackBerry users, especially those who have only recently picked up one of these phones and did not wish to be left holding a new device with a soon to be outdated OS. Since this announcement there has been some debate through-out the community over how well this new operating system will function on devices with only 256 MB of on board memory (Pearl 3G, Bold 9700) as BlackBerry 6 itself is reported to take up around 190 MB of space on these non touchscreen devices. To help give us all a better idea of what type of functionality we can expect to see when we finally get to upgrade our Beloved Bold’s to OS 6, Boy Genius Report has been good enough to share a video walk-through of OS 6, albeit a beta version, running on a Bold 9700. As you can see in the video above, all of the new features of OS 6 are intact, WebKit browser, universal search, GPS photo tagging, ect. and BGR reports a quick boot time of around one minute as well as a better overall BlackBerry 6 experience when compared to BB 6 on the 9800 Torch. This looks to be very good news for many Bold users out there and I expect to see similar results for the Pearl 3G. With any luck we should start to see BlackBerry 6 officially roll out for these current devices within the next two months, of course we will keep you updated with information and downloads as they become available.

Video Courtesy of BGR.

With plenty of tidbits of information regarding BlackBerry 6 circulating the [...]]]> This last week has been filled to brim with great news flooding the front pages of the BlackBerry blogosphere. The top headlines this week of course centering around the official release of the new BlackBerry 9800 Torch and it’s new operating system, BlackBerry 6.

With plenty of tidbits of information regarding BlackBerry 6 circulating the net over the last several months, we BB junkies have had ample time to speculate over which (if any) of RIM’s current devices would be eligible to run this new operating system. Today I’m happy to report that there is finally a definitive answer to this debate and it comes straight from the man himself, Mike Lazaridis. In his most recent post over at Inside BlackBerry, (announcing the Torch 9800) Mr. Lazaridis took the time to comment on the status of some of the current BlackBerry devices already in use.

“…I know many of you are also wondering about support for existing BlackBerry smartphones. I am happy to report that BlackBerry 6 will be available in the months ahead (pending carrier certifications) on some of our leading smartphones, including the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100, BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Bold 9700.”

This is certainly good news for many of us out there and perhaps a little disappointing to others, however the fact that we will indeed see BlackBerry 6 on some of these current devices is a promising sign that there could be more devices joining this list in the future. We’ll keep you posted.

Hello out there BBV readers, BlackBerry fans and fellow Leos’ whom I celebrate my birthday with this month. Can you believe August has arrived so quickly? It feels like 2010 is in some type of perilous race speeding ever onward to an inevitable crashing end. And while we’re on the subject [...]]]>

Tron Legacy Theme

Hello out there BBV readers, BlackBerry fans and fellow Leos’ whom I celebrate my birthday with this month. Can you believe August has arrived so quickly? It feels like 2010 is in some type of perilous race speeding ever onward to an inevitable crashing end. And while we’re on the subject of things racing by at break-neck speeds, anyone remember the movie TRON? The 1982 sci-fi classic staring Jeff Bridges. It had some sort of high speed race in it as I recall and I believe also ended in a crash. Now thanks to Hollywood’s current trend of rehashing everything from the 80′s (The A-Team, Karate Kid, Transformers, Red Dawn, ect, ect…) this December we’ll get a fresh new look at the world of TRON as Disney reinvents this familiar adventure with far better graphics and brings the world a sequel more than twenty-eight years in the making with the release of TRON Legacy.

Now to our Theme of the Month. If you have visited us here at BlackBerryVoodoo.com before you’ll likely know that many of us around here love to keep our BlackBerry’s consistently immersed in new themes and many of our favorite themes draw inspiration from the world of pop culture. With these thoughts in mind it seemed a logical choice for the August Theme of the Month honors to go to a new theme developer joining our community, Tony Terry. Tony has kindly shared with our community several great new themes and his latest design aptly titled ‘TRON Legacy’ celebrates the upcoming Disney film of the same name. This theme is not only beautifully designed with an outstanding layout, great images, fonts and colors but is also an excellent example of how theme developers can help keep our favorite smartphones looking fresh by sporting the latest in trends, fashions and entertainment. Pop on over to Tony’s Tron Legacy theme post to find downloads and make sure to leave a comment or just a simple thanks for sharing his time and creativity with all of us theme lovers and sci-fi geeks.

Yesterday Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple – makers of the iPhone, held a press conference at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California to address concerns regarding numerous reports of antenna issues plaguing the recently released iPhone 4. “Antenna-gate” as it has come to be known is an issue which affects the iPhone 4′s ability to [...]]]>

Yesterday Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple – makers of the iPhone, held a press conference at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California to address concerns regarding numerous reports of antenna issues plaguing the recently released iPhone 4. “Antenna-gate” as it has come to be known is an issue which affects the iPhone 4′s ability to maintain signal strength when held in a “death grip” (although it looks like a normal grip to me) which results in dropped calls. The thirty minute speech from Mr. Jobs, which is preceded by one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard, comes off in a highly defensive tone, perhaps rightfully so. However as opposed to addressing what mistakes Apple may have made in their latest design Mr. Jobs decided to take the stand that not just the iPhone 4 is prone to this issue, but rather all smartphones in general. Mr. Jobs then went on to specifically mention Nokia’s, Motorola’s Samsung’s, the HTC Droid Eris and the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as all being guilty of signal loss when held in a similar fashion. Nokias’ response came first to these allegations, followed shortly by a response by Research In Motion (RIM) co-chairs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie.

“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage.  One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”

- Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

After watching Mr. Jobs relentlessly beat a dead horse for thirty plus minutes during this press conference I certainly was glad to see RIM release the above statement, refusing to let Apple drag down competing products by trying to universalize their own design specific problems. I have personally never experienced any type of signal issues involving how I hold my phone with any of the BlackBerry devices  (or Nokia’s for that matter) that I’ve ever owned or even used, and further more I certainly would not want to rely on the use of a outer case or shell simply to insure that my phone would be able to function at the most basic level, but that’s just me.

So, what do you think BlackBerry users? Have you ever experienced the “death grip” signal loss issues? Is Apple out of line pointing fingers at other smartphone manufacturers? Is a outer shell a reasonable fix to this problem? Leave a comment and let us know what you think about this… More to come.

July has arrived, Summer is in full swing and the weather is hot! While we here in Albuquerque wait for our local monsoon season to kick in and help cool things off here the high desert. BlackBerryVoodoo’s own OoFRYoO has been hard at work developing a theme [...]]]>

Plazmic, by O o FRY o O

July has arrived, Summer is in full swing and the weather is hot! While we here in Albuquerque wait for our local monsoon season to kick in and help cool things off here the high desert. BlackBerryVoodoo’s own OoFRYoO has been hard at work developing a theme that is guaranteed to keep our BlackBerry devices looking cool all summer long. Titled ‘Plazmic’, in tribute to the original content developers kit. Fry’s latest creation is a brilliantly designed, ultra-sleek, and stunningly beautiful theme built for 9700, 9630, 9650 and 8900 devices. Featuring 10 user-customizable home screen icons that display elegantly on top of a a black glass double hidden dock which slides and hides seamlessly under a completely customized bottom banner. Plazmic users will also enjoy dark gray menus, custom battery and signal meters, turquoise and white fonts, and smooth screen transitions that bring everything neatly together for a futuristic look and feel with absolutely no compromise in performance. Plazmic is the perfect theme for professionals who demand the most from their BlackBerry device, to those just looking to stand out from the crowd with some amazing eye candy. Plazmic is by far one of the best all around themes I have personally used and it will most certainly be in use on my 9700 long after the Summer is gone.

» Download Plazmic here in our mobile app store.

Heads up! Our friends over at Elecite have once again graced the BlackBerry community by releasing one of their elaborately designed themes for Free! Stasis, a theme designed with lots of intricate details, smooth animations, and a bio-mech look is sure to make quite an impression for those [...]]]>

Stasis theme - Free from Elecite

Heads up! Our friends over at Elecite have once again graced the BlackBerry community by releasing one of their elaborately designed themes for Free! Stasis, a theme designed with lots of intricate details, smooth animations, and a bio-mech look is sure to make quite an impression for those looking for something unique on their phone. The Stasis design focuses around a hatch that opens to reveal 6 customizable icons as well as 5 quick access icons (depending on your knob choice.) The theme is animated beautifully to showcase how the hatch contents switch while rotating the vents and chambers. This is a killer theme at the best possible price. If you’ve never downloaded one of Elecite’s themes there is no better time to check one out. Go grab this sweet freebie while it last!

>> Download Stasis free from Elecite

>> Check out the Stasis theme video preview

BerryBuzz, the wildly popular app from Bellshare GmbH which greatly extends the default Blackberry alert system by allowing users to customize their LED Colors, add repeating audible reminders for many alert types and also allow the option to vibrate while ringing for incoming calls and notifications has received a major update to [...]]]>

BerryBuzz 3.0.66

BerryBuzz, the wildly popular app from Bellshare GmbH which greatly extends the default Blackberry alert system by allowing users to customize their LED Colors, add repeating audible reminders for many alert types and also allow the option to vibrate while ringing for incoming calls and notifications has received a major update to version 3.0.66.

This update brings several new features and improvements to this already awesome app, including:

• Added support for YouMail Visual Voicemail
• Added support for Tweetissimo
• Added support for crunchSMS
• Improved contact matching for incoming calls (fixes LED not working for contacts)
• Fixed SocialScope support
• Fixed clearing of IM+ notifications
• Clear messages on first key activity’ now applies to messages, not only e-mail/SMS
• Fixed activation not working via direct TCP/IP
• Fixed custom profiles being deleted on BerryBuzz deinstallation (OS 5.0 only)

BerryBuzz is truly one of the best apps I have used on my BlackBerry and it only keeps improving. Head on over to any Mobihand powered app store for updates, or if your not already a BerryBuzz user you can find more images, specs, a full list of features, and a ton of informative reviews. You can even check out a free trial, and see for yourself why this is such a must have app.

>>Download BerryBuzz Here

From our Forums:

Here’s a great freebie from our friend and BBV team member O o FRY o O. Built to satisfy several request from fans of the highly caffeinated world of Monster Energy drinks Fry has taken the high-contrast designs of the brand and incorporated them in to a techie [...]]]>

Monster Energy Theme

From our Forums:

Here’s a great freebie from our friend and BBV team member O o FRY o O. Built to satisfy several request from fans of the highly caffeinated world of Monster Energy drinks Fry has taken the high-contrast designs of the brand and incorporated them in to a techie looking, user friendly theme. Built for 9700, 9630, 9650 and 8900 devices running OS 5.0 and up, Fry’s Monster Energy theme is clean, fast and guaranteed to amp up any Monster fan’s BB.

>>Download O o FRY o O’s Monster Energy theme for free

>>Find more Monster Energy stuff at MonsterEnergy.com