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“I am thrilled to tell you that we are about to officially resume our rollout of BBM for Android and iPhone customers around the globe!” 

-Andrew Bocking on Blackberry’s blog.


“In the next few hours, people will start seeing BBM in Google Play, the App Store and in select Samsung App Stores – where it will be free to download.”
he further said.

BBM was supposed to be released last month but was cancelled after an unofficial BBM version for android was downloaded by users. Blackberry claimed this version of the app had issues and cancelled the proposed plan.

The app will be available in Google Play Store, Apple Apps Store and some Samsung app stores in hours. Of course everybody on both platforms will be able to download the app but not everybody will be able to use the app.


UPDATE 1: BBM for iPhone is now available for download in the App Store. The app weighs in at 30.9MB and requires iOS 6 or later. I've included a couple of screenshots below, and you can download it right here.



UPDATE 2: And now the BBM for Android app has appeared in the Google Play Store. I've got some screenshots of the app below the iPhone app images, and you can download the app for yourself right here. BBM for Android is 13MB in size and requires Android 4.0 or later.



After the suspension of the initial plans to roll out BBM last month, Blackberry implored people to sign up for updates about the app. Only those who signed up will be able to use the app right away.
Anybody not yet on the list will supply his/her email and be placed on a queue. The concerned parties will be notified when they are qualified to use the service. This according to reports was to reduce the load on Blackberry servers.

Apple is hoping to reverse the trend on Tuesday. The company is expected to reveal its first revamped iPad in a year during an event in San Francisco.


But don't expect Apple to produce a radically new device in an effort to turn the tide -- the new iPad will likely be a marginal upgrade from the current version. Apple is expected to unveil a slightly thinner and faster iPad with a fingerprint sensor.

"What are they supposed to do, add wings and make it fly?" asked Colin Gillis, senior tech analyst at BCG Financial. "It's a tablet. There's only so much you can upgrade."
During Apple's fiscal third quarter, which ended in June, iPad sales fell to $6.3 billion -- a 27% drop over last year. But this year, Apple didn't get a boost from a new version of the tablet. The company released a new iPad in March 2012, while the fourth-generation iPad came out in November. Even though last quarter's iPad sales were weak, tablet revenue jumped 40% and 22% in the prior two quarters.



More striking is the fact that Apple no longer dominates in tablets. Apple's global tablet market share currently stands at 32%, down from 60% a year ago, according to IDC.
That's because rivals are taking advantage of Apple's lack of major updates: The tablet market share controlled by Samsung, Acer and Lenovo tripled last quarter from the previous year. That kind of wild changing of the guards is common for markets that are in their infancy -- but it still isn't particularly good news for Apple.
Although the iPhone gets the lion's share of Apple hype, the iPad is still extremely important to the company's overall business.

"The iPad is the company's second-largest revenue stream, so you definitely can't discount it," said Gillis.

Apple is also expected to update the iPad mini on Tuesday, giving it a much more robust upgrade. Most notably, the mini tablet is expected to get a Retina display, significantly upgrading the resolution of its screen.
The "mini" category of tablets that includes the iPad Mini, Amazon Kindle Fire and Google Nexus 7 is primed for skyrocketing growth, analysts believe.
"The seven-inch is absolutely dominant right now, and we expect it to stay that way for some time," said IHS iSuppli tablet market analyst Rhoda Alexander.


Tablets with screens smaller than eight inches accounted for only about a quarter of the tablet market in 2011, according to IHS, but the consultancy predicts the category will take a majority 55% share this year and grow to 57% by 2017.
Meanwhile, medium-sized tablets like the iPad are expected to fall to a 37% share in 2017.

"Apple caught a lot of heat for launching the iPad Mini, with critics saying the low end isn't where the competition is," Alexander said. "But they've overcome the naysayers pretty quickly."

Google today updated its Maps app for iOS with new features and support for the Arabic and Hebrew languages. You can download the new version now directly from Apple’s App Store.

The biggest improvement is that accessing navigation is now faster and you can also expect faster and more accurate re-routing. The added route and traffic overview should also be helpful, especially when you’re driving.

The new tips and tricks section is only really for those who don’t consider themselves power users. Nevertheless, you may want to flip through it to see what you find.

Here’s the full Google Maps 2.3.4 for iOS change-log:

• Faster access to navigation, complete with route and traffic overview.
• Tips and Tricks available in the side menu.
• Arabic and Hebrew now supported, including voice guidance in navigation, where available.
• Bug fixes.

This appears to be a minor update, and we’re not just saying that because the version number has barely budged. The first two additions are relatively minor, and they were added to Google Maps for Android back in September. That being said, the third point is obviously a big deal in the Middle East.

Google is likely working on bringing the latest Maps features on the desktop (see below) to both Android and iOS. We’ll keep you posted when that arrives.

In a matter of weeks, possibly this month, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will be available for download on Android phones and Apple’s iPhone. Already, Samsung has been reported to be running adverts to spread this news. Readers of BlackBerry blog CrackBerry reported seeing TV ads in a few different African countries during the last Manchester United vs. Chelsea match. The advert briefly appeared on Samsung Ghana’s YouTube account before being taken down.

Samsung Ghana’s Facebook page is currently teasing users with the status, “Another messenger is coming on Samsung phones sooner than you think… what is it?”

Last month, Samsung Africa revealed BBM would become part of the Samsung Messenger Hub, but didn’t announce a date.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Blackberry  CEO, Thorsten Heins, at the BlackBerry Live conference in May,  had earlier made the announcement that BBM which had been the major attraction to Blackberry phone, apart from the pride of owning one, was to become a multi-platform application. Now, the company has offered some insight as to why it is making this move. According to a Wall Street Journal report, BlackBerry might decide to spin off one of its divisions.

CLICK IMAGE TO GET THE NEW BB Q5 FULL SPEC. REVIEW

BlackBerry is trying to determine whether it should spin off its BlackBerry Messenger service to a separate company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the plans. The newly formed company would be known as BBM Inc., according to the Journal’s sources.

As BlackBerry faces the prospect of potentially having to part out its more valuable assets for sale, BBM is a natural opportunity that comes to mind, and the recent decision to take the messaging platform to both iOS and Android makes a lot more sense once one considers that it means diversifying the brand prior to a potential sale.

The possible BBM spinoff comes after BlackBerry announced that it had appointed a special committee to explore “strategic alternatives” for its ailing option. BlackBerry claims to be open to any and all options, including selling its operation to another firm.
Culled from UpdateNigeria

VideoLAN's original VLC for iOS had a brief and rocky history: open source licensing quirks led to the media player being pulled from the App Store just months after launch. More than two years later, it's back with a compatible license -- and it's bringing a slew of new features in return for the wait. VLC 2.0 supports all the file formats of its desktop counterpart while throwing in AirPlay, background audio, network streaming and numerous smaller tweaks. It's also better suited to sharing with support for Dropbox, the iOS sharing prompt, web downloads and WiFi uploads. The revived VLC app is gradually rolling out now, and its source code should be available for tinkering by today July 19th.