BlackBerry Basics - #10 - A Tour of BlackBerry App World

The iPhone revolutionized applications for mobile phones. BlackBerry's answer to Apple's App Store is the BlackBerry App World application. Here, you'll find loads of applications to try out on your BlackBerry, both free and for a cost. It's literally never been easier to get an app onto your BlackBerry.

I’m Jay Goldman and welcome back to the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks Series. Today, we’re going to look at the newly launched BlackBerry App Store, a fantastic way to download and install new applications on your BlackBerry. The first thing you’ll need to do is install the apps or application itself and you can find a link and instructions on the Butterscotch.com show notes. Once you’ve downloaded the application, you’ll find it in your Downloads folder on your device under BlackBerry App Store. The App Store is organized into a number of easy to navigate sections which are outlined along the bottom of the main screen. The first is categories which shows a long list of categories that you can browse through. The second is top downloads which shows the most poplar items. The third is Search which allows you to search for an application using keywords and the last is My World which shows any previous applications that you’ve downloaded. You can browse through the applications in the featured items by clicking on the left or right icons or on a Storm by sweeping your finger back and forth. Tap on an application’s icon to view details about that application including reviews and screenshots as well as the ability to recommend and see that the AOL Instant Messenger Application is rated 2½ out of five stars and is a free download 1.45 megabytes. Make sure that you're aware of the size of applications you’re downloading as they will count towards your data plan if you’re using your Blackberries data connection while you’re downloading them. Doing a download is as simple as tapping on the Download button which will take us over to the My World Screen where you can see that I have previously installed an application, I have a Pause download and I’ve got a new download going. Use the Back key to return to the main screen back again to see the list of featured applications and in this case we’re going to jump over and take a look at an application that has a cause associated with it. Brain challenge too is a great game, it’s $499.00 and can be purchased directly from App World. Instead of a Download button on the Apps detail page, you’ll see a Purchase button which you can tap on and take you into a PayPal check-up. If you don’t have a PayPal account already, go to Paypal.com on your computer not on your BlackBerry and sign up for new account and then come back into the App Store on your device and go ahead with your check out. If you do have an existing PayPal account, you can just tap on Okay and do the check out directly from here. Once the application is finished downloading, it will run the installer automatically and complete to install for you. You can keep tabs on your downloads as they’re going on the My World Page and this is a much better processed than they’re used to be for installing applications on the App World. So although it may not be quite as lick as Apple’s App Store, it’s a big step forward for BlackBerry owners and highly recommend. Thanks for watching the BlackBerry Tips and Tricks series. Stay tuned for more.