CupidRadar has recently launched their BlackBerry app that uses your phones’ location data to find you matches nearby. The dating service boasts a very healthy, nearly 50% women userbase that seems to be a bit rare among their mobile online dating competitors.

I recently asked CupidRadar a few questions about the app, here’s what they said:

Tell us about the CupidRadar BlackBerry App.

The idea is, wherever you are during your day, chances are there are other singles physically near you- whether a few feet or a few miles away. And since single people don’t wear t-shirts that say, “Hey, I’m single- please talk to me,” I wanted to develop something that enabled technology to do that for us more privately, discretely, and interactively. The advent of smart phones like Blackberry devices allows us to now have such a product. Once approved, you can log into CupidRadar and do a search- we’ll return your match results and tell you how far they are from you, rounding their distance for added security. You can then message the people you’re interested in. We never display or reveal anyone’s actual location, but rather just their distance from you.

What about the CupidRadar Service?

One of the thing we’re very proud of is how balanced our male to female ratio of users is. Many new dating companies or sites struggle with this because, as one might imagine, it’s easier to gain male users than female, and as a result, they end up with lopsided male-female ratios. We attribute our balanced user base to our robust and selective approval process and user screening. When new dating sites or apps launch, one of the most difficult challenges to overcome is growing the user base from scratch, and unfortunately to try to overcome this hurdle, many new sites and apps opt for severely relaxing their approval process all the way from “not verifying if user emails are valid” to “not requiring pictures or filled out profiles.” On CupidRadar, women respond positively to how much effort and work we’ve put into the privacy, security and legitimacy of our users’ profiles. So, in turn, more women sign up and refer us to their girlfriends, which balances our user base nicely.

Where there any challenges during app development?

One of the most important things is determining the trade-off between functionality and speed to market. You can quickly launch something simple with minimal complexity and functionality to get your foot in the door, but then users might complain about lack of functionality. Conversely, you can obsess over getting the “perfect” app and 27 yrs later be out of the market because everyone else passed you by.
Another common pitfall is at what point to launch an app versus going with a mobile site. With sophisticated smartphone browsers these days, many sites can run perfectly smooth on smart phones without even needing an app. Each site has unique characteristics that lend better to one or the other option.

Download the CupidRadar.com BlackBerry app free from App World.

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eBuddy has announced the updating of their free messaging app: XMS for BlackBerry. XMS is a free cross platform messaging service that allows you to send video and photo messages. The service offers free unlimited messaging across all supported platforms complete with send/read notifications. XMS also uses your contact’s Facebook profile pic for avatars while chatting.

This release’s new feature is the addition of group messaging. XMS now supports chatting with up to 30 friends in a single conversation. In group conversations, users can still send each other IMs, photo and video messages.

Download XMS for BlackBerry free from App World.

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Hookt Messenger (created by airG) is a free, easy to use, cross-platform social messaging app. You can chat with anyone, anywhere in the world, on any smartphone or computer (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, tablets, computers, pretty much anything that has an internet connection).

Hookt’s integration with other social apps (such as Facebook and Twitter) makes it easy to add friends on Hookt, and also find and invite new friends. Everyone gets a unique Hookt ID that can easily be shared. Currently, the app has pretty much all the features you would expect of a messaging app, and we’re told it’s rapidly evolving and soon to have features such as the ability to play social games while you chat.

Here’s what’s new in the latest update:

• Share your status with all your Hookt friends
• Share your Hookt status on Twitter and BBM
• Photos are now organized by folder so you can easily find which one you want to upload and share
• French and Japanese translations have been added

Download Hookt for BlackBerry free from App World.

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Dust off those red-cyan 3D glasses; the free scrapbook app for BlackBerry Playbook was updated a little while ago with a few new templates, one of which is in glorious 3D.

Browse your saved and sent Scrapbooks from a cool “clothes line” list to create, share and enjoy your scrapbooks. Other than the new content packs, Scapbook got a BlackBerry Bridge update giving it Facebook connectivity while on the go. Prefect for roadtrips!

Get Scrapbook for Playbook free from BlackBerry App World.

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For those that are actively following @BlackBerryHelp on Twitter®, you’ve probably noticed the hashtag #BBTips — awesome little BlackBerry® device tips in 140 characters or less. Today I’d like to share with you the five most of the popular #BBTips based on feedback we’ve received!

If you aren’t already following @BlackBerryHelp and you want to receive lots of tips and tricks, start following today using Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones and keep an eye out for the #BBTips hashtag.

With that being said, here are the five popular tips that we’ve shared with our fantastic followers:

1. Video Camera Flashlight

Try the following steps to quickly turn a physical keyboard-equipped BlackBerry smartphone into a flashlight so you can find your way!

1. Open the Video Camera app
2. Press the space key to turn on or turn off the flashlight.

Note: Using a smartphone with a virtual keyboard only, such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone? If so, you can also make it a flashlight by opening the Video Camera App and pressing the Menu key, then selecting Options followed by checking the box for Video Light.

2. Copy contacts to a SIM Card

Did you recently upgrade to a new BlackBerry smartphone or are switching a different model? If so, complete the following steps to copy your contacts stored on your SIM card to your new smartphone.

Add one contact from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Select the contact you want to import, and then select Add to Contacts
4. That contact will be then added to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list.

Add all contacts from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Display the menu and select Copy All To Contacts
4. This will add all contacts to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list
5. Check your Contacts on the device to ensure that they transferred properly.

Check out Eric’s post on how to transfer contacts from your SIM card to learn more. You can also look up the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Autotext/Word Substitution

One of my favorite tips to share with other BlackBerry smartphone owners is the ability to use Autotext/Word Substitution to quickly enter information you commonly enter, such as your PIN number, the current date or the expansion of an abbreviated term.

For example, if you type something that can be replaced with an Autotext entry, the text changes after you press the Space key (BRB will change to Be Right Back if you’ve added it to your Autotext database).

Here a few must-know Autotext/Word Substitution entries:

1. mypin – Your BlackBerry smartphone PIN, i.e. “pin:XXXXXXX”
2. mynumber – Your BlackBerry smartphone phone number, i.e.” XXXXXXXXXX”
3. ld – The long date, i.e. “Thu, May 10, 2012”
4. lt – Long time, i.e. “10:24:10 AM”

In addition to the entries above, your BlackBerry smartphone includes dozens more! To view them as well create some of your own, check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

4. How to perform a soft reset

A soft reset is a three-key combination that resets the BlackBerry smartphone without removing the battery. This method of resetting a smartphone is only available on BlackBerry smartphone models with a QWERTY keyboard, such as the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone or BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone.

To perform a soft reset, complete the following steps.

1. Press and hold the Alt key (1)
2. While holding down the Alt key, press and hold the Right Shift key (2)
3. With both of those buttons still pressed, press the Backspace/Delete key (3)
4. When the screen turns off to indicate that the BlackBerry smartphone is restarting, you can then release the keys you have been holding.

To learn more, read our blog post on how to reset a BlackBerry smartphone.

5. Message shortcuts

For those using a BlackBerry smartphone that has a physical keyboard (such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone or the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone), try the following shortcuts while using the Messages app to fly around your inbox and manage messages quickly!

While viewing a message:

• R – Reply to a message
• L – Reply to all in a email or PIN message
• F – Forward a message
• I – File a email message
• N – Move to the next message
• P – Move to the previous message

While viewing your messages inbox:

• C – Compose a message from a message inbox
• Alt + U – Mark a message as read or unread
• W – Add a flag to the message
• ALT + F – View all flagged messages
• ALT + I – View received messages and received call logs
• ALT + O – View draft and sent messages
• ALT + V – View voice mail messages
• ALT + S – View text messages
• ALT + P – View call logs

Moving around your messages inbox:

• Shift + Space – Move up a screen
• Space – Move down a screen
• T – Move to the top of the inbox
• B – Move to the bottom of the inbox
• U – Move to the next unread item
• J – Move to the next related message
• K – Move to the previous related message

To learn about other useful shortcuts, including shortcuts for those using touch screen-only devices such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 or BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380 smartphone, make sure you check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

Got a question? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Article source: http://helpblog.blackberry.com/2012/05/bbtips-from-blackberry-help/