Despite increasing pressure on the BlackBerry brand and worldwide sales decreases, the BlackBerry brand is stronger than ever in Africa. BIS is still a very compelling deal in SA with its high data prices. But Blackberry’s App World still has very few apps, which was one of our primary criticisms against our recent review of the otherwise brilliant BlackBerry Bold 9900.

South African developers are also slow to adopt BlackBerry, as the choice of apps might suggest. But still we think it is necessary to focus on some the good Made in SA BlackBerry apps, scarce as they might be. Here is our favourite South African developed BlackBerry apps.

1) News24

There are only a few app developers in SA who cater for multiple mobile app platforms, and News24 is one of them. While the app is by no means as sexy as the iPhone and Android versions, it is functional and stable. Using a similiar structure to the other News24 apps, the app also focusses more on weather with a quick 3 days summary of upcoming weather. Users can also check Lotto results, but cannot seem to see comments, just like with the iPhone and Android. As many would agree, it is sometimes more interesting to see people’s comments on article than the article itself. Maybe we can see this in future.

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One of the main complaints of the modern smartphone is that their battery life seems to have just decreased over time. Yet that is not entirely true – these days phones have so many antennas and sensors, that the phone is almost constantly draining power from an ever increasing battery size. Manufacturers have had a tough time – on the one hand phones are becoming ever slimmer and lighter, with more power draining features, yet the battery life has to improve as well with every generation.

I do not know what black magic Apple weaved into the iPhone 4, but its battery life is a definite step up from previous versions. Yet, if you use your iPhone (regardless which model) intensively, you are looking at around a day long battery life. But there are a few things you can do to make the battery last that little bit longer.

The main idea behind these tips is that you so not have to impede the functionality of the iPhone. Its a great device, and it would be a shame to go and switch almost all functionality. But then what is the point of having a decent phone?

These are the settings I use which do not limit the functionality of the phone: (more…)

Apple’s iOS smartphone operating system is no longer the innovative operating system it used to be – in fact recent shipments of Android-based phones have overtaken iOS device shipments. While this is not necessarily due to Android being a better OS, there is a few things that stand out in recent releases of the software which does make iOS look ancient. And its not only Android -look at HP’s latest iteration of WebOS which is about to be put into their phone and tablet devices. The multitasking system is brilliant,  and small tricks like the between-device sharing is awesome. And one unlikely candidate is also showing up – even though Windows Phone 7′s sales have not been great, you only need to spend a few minutes with it to see that it really is a great interface, despite its shortcomings.

So what can Apple do to improve on iOS? In my opinion Apple does not have to improve too much on the hardware – in fact almost 10 months after being released, the iPhone 4 is still the best looking smartphone on the market (and queue the antenna-hysteria…), and the iPad (and iPad 2) is best of breed hardware. My criticism instead lies with the operating system – iOS. So here is what I would like to see in iOS5:

1) First and foremost: a Better Notification System

This is by far the most requested feature right now for iOS. While I like the concept of push notifications instead of constantly running apps in the backround, I really do not like the way the actual notifications are handled on the device. Currently only one single notification can be shown on the screen at a time, and once a new message comes in, you cannot go back and check previous incoming notifications. This is simply pathetic. Yes, it dumbs down the device so that non-power users do not have to thing to much about what is going on. But what about users who have multiple instant messengers running, a lot of SMS interaction and rely on push notifications for certain tasks? Also, the current iOS implementation darkens the entire screen, requiring the user to stop what he/she is doing and first take note of the message. While this is fine for the occasional message, it is terrible if you get bombarded with multiple IM’s every day. And this is especially a shame on the big screen of the iPad. Seriously, you have this big beautiful screen, and I must take note of the message right now?

In my opinion Android still has the best implementation of notifications – the top bar on the phone can be filled with icons to inform you of incoming messages, and the user simply pulls down that bar to see all the notifications at once, and clear the ones that is not relevant anymore. Sure, it can become messy if not kept in check, but it works. Also, look at the way Android’s tablet version (Honeycomb) uses notifications, which does not take over the entire screen. Messages just pop up non-intrusively on the bottom of the screen, much like your desktop operating systems. Take a look here:

If you want to see a great example of how Apple can improve on its notifcation system without spoiling its current look and feel – take a look at Mobilenotifier. While only in beta and available only to jailbroken devices, Apple really needs to take a look at this. Great artists steal, remember?

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So the latest iPhone does have a pretty remarkable camera with great detail, and also brilliant low light performance. But sometimes all that image accuracy does not quite translate into pictures with the right “feel”. Yes, you have much more control over the images by just uploading them to your PC and editing them from there, but where is the fun in that? These apps allow you to be creative with your images, and instantly share the pictures right from your phone. After all, isnt that what a smartphone is all about?

So here is BB’s list of the best camera apps you can find on iPhone right now:

Instagram: (Free)

Instagram follows pretty much the same idea as Hipstamatic (see below), its only free. However, the service is reliant on you signing up for the Instagr.am service which is not as bad as it sounds. The Instagram app comes with numerous filters which also give the same “analog” feel as Hipstamatic, only you do not pay extra for additional filters. The instagr.am web integration is actually the better part – once you sign up it checks for friends (from facebook or twitter) to see who also has instagram installed on their phones. It then creates a very cool timeline of images taken by your friends. Still one of my favourite iPhone apps.

Colorsplash: ($1)

The concept behind this app is simple – you take a colour photo, it creates a grayscale image, then you simply touch the portions of the image you want to return to colour. The effect is actually pretty great – you can accentuate certain portions of a image, which you can send off, or if you have additional image editors on your phone, edit it further.

Path: (Free)

Path follows a similiar idea to Instagr.am in that you and your friends share moments from your life with each other. Whereas an app like Facebook just allows random photo uploads, Path encourages you to tag your photos with captions, emotions, locations and other people. The interface is stunning – in fact many apps can take a few pointers from Path. You are limited to sharing with only 50 friends, making it much more personal than using something like Facebook (hands up the people who have friends on Facebook they hardly know…). Like Wired Magazine put it: “…posting on Path is not an act of broadcasting or self-promotion, but sharing a moment with someone who really knows you.”  The only issue I have with Path is that at the moment it does not look as popular as Instagr.am, so not many of my friends were using the app already.  If you want a better idea, I recommend you look at the video below.

360 Panorama: ($2)

Click the next image to enlarge:

This is one of my favourites as well. While I do not use it all the time, sometimes a certain scene simply cannot be captured with a standard photo. Using the iPhone 4′s gyro meter, Pano 360 senses your phone’s position is 3 dimensions, enabling you to stitch together images which creates large panoramic scenes. The images can then be sent in an email, or can be reopened by the app, and you can still move the phone around to get a sense of direction. While great for landscapes, it is particularly handy for anything you need to get a sense of 3D space as well – for example, property surveying. Well worth the cost.

Adobe Photoshop Express: (Free)

First off – do not let the name fool you. This is not the Photoshop you have on your PC, with its almost limitless array of intimidating functions. The app is actually super simple to use – simply snap a few images, or select an image from your Library. The interface is very intuitive – you simply select icons from the screen which give you Crop, Straighten, Rotate, Flip, Exposure, Saturation, Tint, B&W, Contrast, Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen, Effects (of which there are many) and different borders. Most of those options have gradial control – you simply shift your finger left and right on the screen to select how much effect on the photo you need. While this Top 5 list is primarily for the iPhone Adobe Photoshop Express is a universal app that is even better on the iPad. All that screen real estate does make for some great image editing. I highly recommend this app – in fact, its free, so its a must have…

Honourable Mention:

Hipstamatic: ($2)

Hipstamatic tries to mimic old toy cameras, and the “analog” feel of the photos do really make them look great. You can easily switch between lenses, films and flashes -which all modify the images. The app comes with quite a few of these, but the user can purchase additional “hipstapacks” – which typically includes a themed pack of a lens, film and flash. I like using this app, but the need to purchase additional effects does bother me a bit. I see the use of in-app purchases with free apps, but dont make me spend additional money on an app I already purchased…

Related: If you want to be able download Apps, Music, Movies, TV Series etc from the US iTunes store, even if you live in SA, here is how to do it.

So you might be a seasoned twitter user, or you are eager to get a feel for this “tweet” thing everyone is talking about. Now you obviously just head over to twitter.com, but you know all the cool kids are doing it directly from their phones. Luckily its pretty easy to dive into the world of twitter with the following Twitter clients on iPhone:

5) Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the great web-based clients for your PC, so its only natural for them to focus on the iPhone as well. The interface is clean and uncluttered, and very smooth. Integration with Foursquare works well – so if you want to save switching between Twitter and Foursquare, Hootsuite might just be perfect for you. One disadvantage is that you have to use the built in Ow.ly URL shortener.

4) Tweetdeck

Now I know there are some Tweetdeck fanatics – but I do not find it the best Twitter client for iPhone. I find it too busy, even though I do like the white text on black theme. There is also Facebook integration should you want that – but its really limited. One of the advantages is that if you use Tweetdeck on your PC, you can easily import all your collumns to your phone, and its syncs your unread messages. One small thing that bothers me is that Tweetdeck is still optimised for the Retina display. How long has iPhone 4 and the latest iPod Touch been out?

3) Twitteriffic

While its not my favourite Twitter app, Twitteriffic is always a pleasure to use because they do not stick with the boring, dull, text heavy interfaces some of the other apps use. Tweets are marked in colours – with a different colour for mentions and messages. Unfortuantely it is not free, but the ads do not really bother too much. Small details like geotagging and image previews seems to be missing on the free version.

2) Seesmic

One thing I always like about Seesmic is that they have unique interfaces – while this version is not as pretty as the Seesmic for Windows Phone 7 version, it does have a unique “Spaces” environment which reminds me of Expose on Mac OS X. If you use a variety of social networks, Seesmic currently also supports Myspace, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Flickr, Blogger, Delicio.us and you can even save your tweets on Evernote.

1) Twitter for iPhone

This app used to be called Tweetie, which has always been the Twitter app that other apps tried to mimic. Small details in the interface make it an absolute pleasure to use. For example – you know that small “pull down to refresh” interface feature some apps use? Tweetie was the app that did it first. In fact Tweetie was so good that Twitter decided to buy it from Atebits, and then rebranded it as the official Twitter app on iPhone. Its very quick and integrates well with all the necessary Twitter features. My app of choice. The iPad version looks even better.