BBM for Android coming 'in days' says BlackBerry CMO

With millions waiting, BlackBerry is poised to try their luck in Google Play once again

If you're still waiting for BBM on Android, you might see it soon. According to BlackBerry CMO Frank Boulben, the software should be available for both Android and iOS "in days." He also added that the company is confident that it fixed all the issues surrounding the un-launching last month.

For those who are still interested, we hope the hard work paid off and this time, the launch goes as planned, on-time, and with a lot less drama that we saw three weeks ago. 

Hate the new Calendar app in iOS 7? Here are the best App Store alternatives!

THE BEST ALTERNATIVE CALENDAR APPS FOR IPHONE THAT CAN GET YOUR SCHEDULE BETTER ORGANIZED AND HELP YOU KEEP IT THAT WAY.

While the new, built-in iOS 7 Calendar app is clean, it's a dramatic change from the old one and not a change everyone thinks is for the better. If you've been a die-hard Calendar app aficionado, but now you find yourself looking around for an alternative, you're in luck! There are several really great calendar replacement apps in the App Store, and they can all tie into the same iOS calendar database, so all of your appointments, events, birthdays, and more will "just work" in your new calendar app, the way they always did in the default one. Here are my favorites!

Sunrise Calendar 2.0

Sunrise Calendar 2.0 supports both Gmail and iCloud calendars but sadly, no Exchange. Not only that, you can also choose to link up your Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. You can then manage all your Facebook and personal events in one place. Foursquare checkins show up in your calendar as well so you have one main feed for everything. Sunrise Calendar is one of the very few options that handles event sharing and invites properly through iCloud as well. If that's important to you, it's a solid bet. Oh, and did we mention the interface and design is gorgeous too?

If you share events via iCloud often and like the ability to tie in networks like Facebook and Foursquare, get Sunrise Calendar for iPhone.

• Free - Download Now

Fantastical

Fantastical by Flexibits has been one of my absolute favorite alternative calendar apps as long as I can remember. The interface is dead simple to navigate and provides much of the same look and feel as the default Calendar app found in iOS 6 and before. Except it's better in many ways. Fantastical also supports true push for iCloud events and not email workarounds. Natural language support is also a huge selling point since it makes event entry dead simple. Not only that, Fantastical also offers Exchange support.

If you want something visually close to the older default Calendars app or need Exchange support, get Fantastical.

• $4.99 - Download Now

Note: Fantastical 2 is slated for release this month and will be a completely new purchase. If you can wait, we'd recommend it. If you need something right now, it's still $5 very well spent. We will update this article as soon as Fantastical 2 is available.

Calendars 5

Calendars 5 by Readdle can not only manage your Calendar, but your reminders and tasks as well. It also supports natural language input for event creation. Calendars 5 is also one of the few options that is a universal download for both iPhone and iPad. You can sync local calendars as well as Google calendars with Calendars 5. Event sharing is available for Google calendars but not for iCloud.

If universal support for iPhone and iPad are important to you and you want one solution for tasks and calendar events, definitely consider Calendars 5.

• $6.99 - Download Now

Agenda Calendar 4

Agenda Calendar 4 by savvy apps has tons of customized views that are all well thought out and designed. I think it's month view is one of the best available. Agenda 4 can also integrate your reminders much like Calendars 5 can. You can also send events and tasks to Clear, Drafts, Due, OmniFocus, Scratch, Things, and Todo.

If you want integration with other productivity and task apps, get Agenda Calendar 4.

• $1.99 - Download Now

Tempo

Tempo calendar aims to make your calendar more of a personal assistant than just lines of information for you to read. Tie in your email accounts, contacts, Foursquare, and Yelp! accounts and Tempo will get smarter. It can start serving up emails that are attached to certain tasks or what it thinks is relevant to a particular meeting. This can include attachments and documents or just email conversations. Events that involve things such as boarding passes for flights, Tempo can keep that information safe and up to date as well.

If you want your calendar to do more and you deal with lots of meetings on a regular basis, definitely give Tempo a try.

• Free - Download Now

Cal by Any.do

Cal by Any.do is one of the best looking alternative calendar apps available. It also ties in closely with Any.do for tasks. One unique thing that Cal does is plot out free time in between events. The main agenda view is reminiscent of the default Calendar app pre-iOS 7 as well so it won't be as overwhelming to new users. Cal also supports natural language input and automatically searches for physical locations in your events to attach. In my experience, it's been very intuitive and easy to use.

If you don't need tons of extra features and want something that just works, or you're already an Any.do user, Cal is worth a try.

• Free - Download Now

Your favorite calendar apps?

These are our absolute favorite calendar apps. Not only do a lot of these provide more functionality, they can also tie into all the services we care about most. If you use one of the above, let us know why you prefer it over the native Calendar app. If you use something different, make sure to let us know what!

RealNetworks unveils RealPlayer Cloud

RealNetworks has launched RealPlayer Cloud, which is billed as the first integrated video player and cloud service. You can save, watch, and share videos across multiple devices. RealPlayer can display multiple video formats on supported platforms, for example, letting you take a video on your iPhone and easily watch it on an Android device, according to RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser:

"The amount of video content that consumers are capturing and watching is exploding, but moving that video around is often painfully difficult," said Rob Glaser, founder and interim CEO of RealNetworks. "RealPlayer Cloud is a breakthrough product that gives consumers a seamless and easy way to move, watch, save, and share their videos across all their devices. In short, we've made video easy."

Realplayer will also offer additionaly video storage with plans starting at $4.99 per month. RealPlayer Cloud is available starting today as a free download for iOS, Android phones, Windows, Roku, and is also available on the web. You can actually download it right now from the App Store.

• Free - Download Now

Source: PR Newswire

How to create your own station in iTunes Radio for iOS

If you're running iOS 7 on your iPhone or iPad, iTunes Radio comes bundled right in the Music app. While you can always listen to the stations Apple is currently featuring, you can also create your own based on any genre, album, or track you'd like.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Music app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.
2. Tap on the iTunes Radio tab in the bottom navigation if you aren't there already.
3. Scroll down a bit and tap on the plus sign on the block labeled New Station.
4. Here you can search for an artist, pick a genre, or look for a particular song.
5. Tap on the result you'd like to create a station based on.

That's all there is to it. iTunes Radio will automatically start playing songs based on your criteria. The station will also appear under your My Stations section so you can always go back and listen to that station again whenever you'd like without creating it again.

Skype to add synchronized messaging, battery conservation in coming months

Microsoft's Mark Gillett - the vice president responsible for Skype - describes improvements coming to the popular communication service in the coming months. Those changes include synchronized chat messages, improvements to battery management on mobile devices and more. From the Skype blog:

We also know that people are engaging more and more with each other and with Skype across multiple devices at home, on the go, and at work so we are working to synchronize chat message status across all of your devices so you will know the current status of all of your chats on every device you use to interact with Skype. This capability will be rolling out across clients over the next few months.

The secret behind Skype's battery preservation on mobile devices comes from keeping the app in "sleep" mode and waking it only when necessary using push notifications.

A common feature in mobile apps, these notifications are the same technology that provide updates on sports scores, weather bulletins, or breaking news. In order to send a push notification message to a sleeping Skype app, the calling app sends the Skype ID and IP address of the parties, as well as the time and date, to our cloud.

Right now, when you open Skype on a second device, be it iOS or Mac or another platform, messages will explode at random intervals and otherwise make you want to end it. If Skype can fix that - big if - they'll take a huge step forwards to being a true multi-device communications systems.

But can they really do it?

Source: Skype blog

iPhone engineer recounts challenges leading to original iPhone announcement

A senior radio engineer on the original iPhone has talked about the stress the team felt in the days that led up to the announcement of the iPhone in 2007. Andy Grignon had been on the iPhone project since the beginning. Much of his stress came from Steve Jobs' insistence on a live presentation, where most such demonstrations are canned in order to avoid problems. Grigon was in charge of all of the iPhone's radios, and if they had any problems in the first public demonstration of the iPhone, Jobs would have blamed him, according to the New York Times:

Cellphones do innumerable useful things for us today, but at their most basic, they are fancy two-way radios. Grignon was in charge of the equipment that allowed the phone to be a phone. If the device didn’t make calls, or didn’t connect with Bluetooth headsets or Wi-Fi setups, Grignon had to answer for it. As one of the iPhone’s earliest engineers, he’d dedicated two and a half years of his life — often seven days a week — to the project.

The run-up to the event saw Apple completely take over the Moscone Center, with extra security hired to look after the iPhone prototypes 24/7. Jobs rehearsed his presentation for five days, and each day brought a new iPhone malfunction, from dropped calls to random freezes to complete shutdowns. On the day of the unveiling, Grignon brought a flask of Scotch to share between the engineers. Every engineer would take a shot after the portion of the demo that they were responsible for had worked. By the end of the presentation, the Scotch was gone, and the first public presentation of the iPhone had been a complete success.

Grignon later left Apple to become a part of the webOS team, moving on from there to found Quake Labs, a software startup.

Source: The New York Times

Dead on Arrival 2 as seen on the Nvidia Shield

 Dead on Arrival sequel played on the Nvidia SHIELD

Recently released, Dead on Arrival 2 is downloadable from the Google Play Store (see the link above). Controller and Tegra optimized, DOA2 pairs seamlessly with the Nvidia SHIELD. The game is free to download and play with in app purchases to advance, although our Kevin O'Quinn says

[those] aren't required. You can unlock seemingly everything through gameplay, with the purchases speeding up the process.

The game seems to run fantastically on this device; the integrated controller allows for precise hand-eye movement, the audio is nice and crisp, and the gameplay leaves nothing to want. You can learn more about the game by viewing the video after the break, If you've got a SHIELD at home and enjoy shooter games, feel free to take on the undead and let us know how you survive.