Club Empower – Premium BlackBerry Apps, Games & Themes

Back to back on the smashing success of Screensavers for BlackBerry, here is another first of its kind app for you – an Outlook style Mail Filter and Rule Manager for BlackBerry!

BlackBerry Filters & Rule Manager is an advanced system that allows you to create filters on your incoming mails and take follow up actions on mails that meet those filters. The software allows you to create an unlimited number of filters based on a set of one or more criteria. For ex, you can filter mails by sender or subject, or based on whether the mail has attachments or not, or whether it was received by a particular email account (or any combination of one or more of sixteen other filters). Once the filters are created, you can define actions to be taken on mails that pass those filters. For ex, actions like auto-forward, mark the email as read or even auto-delete the mails.

But there is more! The software has a concept of exceptions, so that you can create really complex filters to match your every need. For ex, you can create filters to auto-reply mails only on weekend. Or you can add a Sender filter to it and further customize it to “auto-reply to mails only from Bob and Alice on weekend”. You can create filters to show popup preview of only important mails from your Boss and and not of other junk mails. The total number of scenarios in which you can use this software is virtually unlimited, so listing them down is simply not possible. But the best part is, it is available as a free trial so you can download and see for yourself!

All in all, BlackBerry Filters & Rule Manager is the most advanced rule based filter and mail management system available for BlackBerry today. Automate, innovate and watch your life go simple!

Empower Threaded SMS has a free update – version 1.40!

The latest version has multiple improvements in speed, memory and performance. A number of new features like Delete All, better detection of duplicate SMS on BlackBerry, Send through Native BlackBerry SMS app, support for more than 160 characters of incoming SMS on GSM BlackBerry devices, etc are also there.

Please upgrade your copies to the latest version over-the-air from http://ota.getempower.com/

For those who are new, Empower Threaded SMS is a true threaded sms app for BlackBerry. If you have seen an iPhone and wondered how to get iPhone style threaded sms on BlackBerry, then this is the app you are looking for. You not only get threaded sms on your BlackBerry but also get support for graphic Smileys, web links, different choices of bubble colors etc to customize its UI. Moreover, Empower Threaded SMS has built-in support for different sms themes, iphone-style bubble theme being just one of them. New themes will be coming up real soon, so stay tuned.

For screenshots and complete feature details, please visit the product page at Empower Threaded SMS for BlackBerry.

With Christmas Mega Sale on all Empower BlackBerry applications going on strong, we are ready with a new gift for everyone. A Free BlackBerry Screensavers application that works just like the good old screensavers on your Windows Desktop.

Screensavers is available for free on all BlackBerry devices running on OS 4.2.1 and above. That means practically any model from Tour, Storm, Bold and Curve right down to the good old 8800

Currently, I have the “Star Field” screensaver to start with. More screensavers will be released later as and when we develop it. If you have not yet tried it, just give it a shot. Believe me, flying through the universe is a great experience on a BlackBerry

I am also accepting ideas on other BlackBerry Screensavers you all would be interested in. Just drop me a note at you-know-the-email-id or leave a comment below!

The year 2009 is closing and admist the Holiday Celebrations, I’m reflecting on the year that went by, the year thats coming ahead; and what it means for RIM and for BlackBerry developers.

It has been a terrific year for RIM, BlackBerry developers and users alike. Thanks to its newer Curve models, RIM was the fastest growing Fortune 500 company in 2009. The Curve is now the top-selling smartphone in US overtaking iPhone; and 8520 has given RIM huge strides in newer geographies and spectacular growth in countries like India & Indonesia. Way to go RIM!

2009 was also an year of marked change in the BlackBerry software market – both in reach and prices. BlackBerry software application market exploded with the launch of BlackBerry App World. Developers can now put their applications in front of millions of users. Opportunities like this have never existed before. For anyone doing BlackBerry application development, or anyone thinking about it – it looks all so simple. Make a killer app, put it out there and count the millions come by.

The trick is to figure out what makes a killer app.

While AppWorld makes it possible to reach out to millions of new customers, the average price of BlackBerry software has gone down substantially. The catalyst was iPhone and subsequent launch of AppStore that drove thousands of iPhone developers into making hundreds of thousand of apps – all priced at $0.00!

Ok, not all are $0, but you get my point

So what does it means for BlackBerry developers in these times of recession and super-low-price expectations?

A year ago, anyone and everyone was charging $20 for any and every app, that hardly took 5 days to code and 2 to debug and launch. BlackBerry users had to fork up higher simply because there were no choices available. So you would see a ‘What is my PIN’ app for the same price as the #1 BestSelling BlackBerry application for all times – Empower HTML Mail Viewer PRO.

(EMV Pro reached the #1 spot merely 18 days after its launch, and remained the #1 BestSeller for all times since then, till MobiHand decided to change the algorithm later during the year.)

Why would anyone sell ‘What is my PIN’ app for $20! Vendors did so because market reach was limited. To justify ROI and to make any reasonable profits you had to price apps high. Some vendors took the easy route: Instead of making useful apps that really provide value, they would make a ‘What is my PIN’ app and mark it for $20.

Thankfully, for everyone, all that has changed now.

Today, users pay for only the best apps. And only the best of the world apps can command a price of $20. Even with more than 90,000 paying customers and twenty apps in our offering and many more coming up, we have only two apps around that price point – Empower Work Folders & Empower HTML Mail Viewer. These apps have almost never been on sale, except now, and my users are happy (even proud) to own them. They solve real problems and provide clear and well defined lifetime value.

The lesson: Regardless of whether you are a 1-2 developer team running part-time operations from home or college, or you are a well-established company: the rule of the game is Develop Only Good Products. Unless you have a compelling product that really solves the need of hundreds of thousands of users, its going to be an uphill battle for you. True, AppWorld can give you reach, but only if your apps has any value for that reach.

The writing on the wall is clear: Embrace Change or Perish.

Today, with 90,000 happy BlackBerry users, I can safely say that.

Reasons to Rejoice Everyone!

The long and much awaited upgrade of Empower HTML Mail Viewer is here. The latest release v 3.52 is now available for OS 4.5 and 5.0. So everyone on Bold, Curve, Storm, Tour have reasons to cheer up

Install EMV Pro and your emails will never be the same again. You get a much smarter layout with different font and background options and a sleek header that displays more information in less screen space. Best of all, EMV Pro loads images in BlackBerry html automatically!

For complete details and free trial please visit www.getempower.com for Desktop installation and www.getempower.com/ota for OTA installation

Reporting live from the hotspot of BlackBerry development.. The last few months have seen frantic pace of development here at Empower. The result ?

A number of new and innovative products and a happier BlackBerry community. I am your host Ani, and I will be reporting on ways to ‘empower your BlackBerry’. Stay tuned