Best Apps for BlackBerry, June 2012

Remote Desktop for BlackBerry PlayBook

Connect to your Windows computer over 3G or Wi-Fi.

It’s a sort of coming of age for a platform when it gets its own remote desktop (in this case Windows’ RDP standard) client, and the imaginatively titled Remote Desktop for BlackBerry PlayBook is the first I’ve seen for RIM’s fledgling tablet platform.

So what can you do with it? Well, it allows you to connect to your Windows PC (sorry Linux geeks – don’t you all own Android tablets anyway? – and Mac lovers – iPad anyone?) and interact with it, almost as though you were in front of it. I say ‘almost’ because at the moment, it won’t send sound to your PlayBook, and you can’t yet copy files from your PC to your PlayBook.


However, for all the support professionals out there, you can create a list of different servers, as well as establish and switch between simultaneous connections.

The app has a menu icon to quickly bring up the on-screen keyboard, and supports right-click and scrolling actions. And, to save you from pinching-and-zooming like a crazy person whenever you want to close a window, the app can set your desktop resolution to the PlayBook’s native 1,024 x 600.

To set up the connection over 3G, there's a handy guide available here.

US$4.99 > Todd Grayson > Link

IM+

For those times when BBM just isn’t enough, IM+ will connect you to a plethora of services, including Beep, MSN, Facebook, Skype, Yahoo!, Google Talk, AIM, Jabber, ICQ, VK, Yandex, MySpace and Twitter. So, if you can’t find your friends somewhere on that list, it may be time to find some more friends.


The app features push notifications, the ability to send files, group chat, integration with your phonebook and a ‘Neighbours’ location-based user search, if you get lonely.

US$9.99 (ad-supported available) > Shape Services > Link

Syz EG for Playbook

Syz EG is a super-fun, multi-touch, top-down space-shooter (phew!) for the PlayBook. You use one hand to control your ship, while the other hand is in charge of aiming. The clear benefit of this is that you don’t have any onscreen controls blocking the action or reducing your area of play.


You have five different abilities, including lasers, hacking, EMP, shields and repair. Fairly unique in mobile games is the addition of recorded dialogue to help progress the story.

US$2.99 > Team Krinoid > Link

BibbyCam

Instagram for iOS set the standard for taking attractive shots and getting them online with as little hassle as possible. Unfortunately, Instagram has yet to make the jump to BlackBerry.


Thankfully there's BibbyCam, which provides the user with 14 different combinable filters – with names like Lomo, Old Photo and Sunshine – and integration with the BibbyCam social network, BBM Connect, and (more importantly) Facebook and Twitter.

Free > BibbyCam > Link