Update: There’s reason to believe these screenshots could be fake.

Earlier this year a rumor started making the rounds that Research in Motion was preparing to launch BlackBerry Messenger apps for Android and iOS. On the one hand, this would open up the company’s popular instant messaging service to a much larger audience. On the other hand, it could hurt BlackBerry smartphone sales since right now BBM is pretty much a BlackBerry exclusive — if you want to chat with your friends on the service you need a BlackBerry device.

Now TechRadar received some leaked photos that give the rumor a little more credibility. They show BlackBerry Messenger on an Android phone.

The photos reportedly come from a RIM employee who says the app is still in testing, but that it could launch next year.

Research in Motion has been dealing with sluggish BlackBerry Tablet sales and declining smartphone sales as Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 pick up steam. The company still makes solid communications devices, but BlackBerry is still a brand that’s most often associated with business users, while the smartphone and tablet market is largely catering to consumers these days.

While the company has made some strides in adding social features, a new touch-friendly interface, and powerful multimedia capabilities to its recent devices, most people don’t think of BlackBerry products as “fun.”

So perhaps porting BBM to Android and iOS makes good business sense: Maybe RIM’s days as a hardware vendor are limited. But if the company can port some of its more popular software applications to run on other platforms, there could be a market for RIM’s communication and business-oriented services on Android, iOS, and other mobile operating systems.

BlackBerry App World 3.0 is now available for download. It was expected to launch in August, but I suppose it’s better a little later than a lot late.

The new app store for BlackBerry applications supports BlackBerry OS 5.0 and up and offers a quick way to find, purchase, and install apps for BlackBerry phones and tablets.

The latest version brings a number of improvements, including

• A redesigned home screen with banners that rotate to show more highlighted apps
• New channels for apps, games, and themes
• Social sharing, allowing you to share apps from the details screen with your contacts on BBM, Facebook, Twitter, email, or SMS
• Manage your BlackBerry ID and payment information on your device
• Manage subscription content and receive notifications when a renewal payment is due

via @BlackBerry

Despite many BlackBerry devices launching with RIM’s latest operating system, there are still a number of high profile apps that don’t support OS 7. Fortunately now you can cross Dropbox off that list. Dropbox is a cloud-based storage service that lets you store files online and access them from a computer or mobile device.

Now, courtesy of the Crackberry forums, a new build of the popular cloud service will function properly on your BlackBerry’s OS 7.

The Dropbox build also packs some added features, while resolving issues on the new Bold and Curve devices, as well as bugs on the thumbnails screen (where only a few thumbs previously loaded.) The new features include a security passcode, enhanced speed (performance), and various design tweaks.

You can also save email attachments to Dropbox in this build, which is especially convenient if you’re used to receiving files via email.

To download Dropbox for BlackBerry OS 7, hit this link to get a free compatibile version of the app.

Popular location-sharing network Foursquare has updated its app for BlackBerry to version 3.2.1, packing a host of new features and a redesigned UI.

The most notable feature is the overhaul of the Venue and Check-in screen, while the entire layout is now amended to take into account devices with high-res screens. Also, many users were having issues connecting to BBM servers, so Foursquare responded by improving the handling and performance of connecting to BBM terminals. However, the app still lacks the ability to set keyboard shortcuts for non-touchscreen phones, a popular feature found in the Twitter app.

Other new features include major technical improvements to the GPS/location-based services, which were notoriously inaccurate on the BlackBerry platform. You’ll also find several bug-fixes and tweaks for battery-life optimization, which is certainly helpful for an app that utilizes your device’s built-in GPS.

The update to Foursquare v3.2.1 is available in BlackBerry App World for free, and is available for any device running OS 4.2+.

via Crackberry

Samsung has unveiled its answer to BlackBerry Messenger, iMessage, and pretty much every other messaging service for mobile devices. It’s called ChatON, and the app will be available soon for Samsung phones running Bada OS or Android, as well as for devices running iOS, or BlackBerry OS.

In fact, ChatON won’t even require a smartphone, a simpler version will also be available for feature phones. There will also be a web app that you can use to send and receive messages from a PC.

ChatON lets users engage in text-based chats as well as group chats with larger groups of contacts. Users can share pictures or movies with contacts, as well as location information. There’s also support for non-real-time communication: you can leave comments on a friend’s profile or leave comments on pictures or videos shared in a chat room.

Another neat feature is something Samsung calls Interaction Rank. You can see stats showing who you talk to the most.

Research in Motion has launched a new subscription-based music service called BBM Music. The good news is that at $5 per month it’s one of the cheapest music subscription services available for any mobile device, and there’s a strong social element that allows you to hear the songs your friends are listening to. The bad news is that if you don’t have many friends you can’t listen to much music.

Here’s how it works: You pay up your money and BBM Music gives you access to 50 songs that you can stream over the internet or cache on your device for offline playback. If you want to change songs, you can only change 25 per month. When you compare this to services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, or Rdio, which offer unlimited access to music it sounds like a ripoff.

But here’s the innovative feature: BBM Music is a social app. If your other BlackBerry Messenger contacts are using BBM Music you can access any of the 50 songs on their devices. This way you can discover new music and expand your library… by convincing your friends to pony up $5 per month too.

From RIM’s standpoint, BBM Music could be an excellent way to lock users into the BBM service. After all, if you have a few hundred friends and a few thousand songs, you may be a little less likely to replace your BlackBerry phone with an iPhone. From a user standpoint… yeah, I’d probably rather just use a non-social music app. But maybe that’s just me.

RIM is expected to give the BlackBerry Playbook and future BlackBerry smartphones the ability to run Android apps as well as native BlackBerry applications.

The ability to run Android software will come through an “App Player” released directly by RIM to select devices, only one of which is currently on the market (the Playbook.) While the PlayBook will get the App Player through a software update, (and an early version has already been leaked to the public), Bloomberg reports that smartphones running QNX may come with the software preloaded.

It’s not clear that all QNX devices will be able to run Android apps. While it’s beginning to seem likely that RIM will eventually base its entire mobile offering on QNX software, the lower end models like the Pearl and the Curve may be limited to just BlackBerry App World, which has just a sixth of the amount of apps in the Android Market, while higher end devices get access to Android apps.

via Bloomberg

GroupMe is a group messaging service that lets you create groups from the contacts on your smartphone and start conversations involving everyone in the group. The company offers clients for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 and also works over SMS.

Today Skype announced that it’s acquiring GroupMe — which actually means Microsoft is buying GroupMe, since Microsoft acquired Skype recently.

Skype offers voice, video, and text chat services for PC, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices. Earlier this year the company also acquired Qik, a service for recording and sharing short videos.

In a press release, Skype says the GroupMe acquisition will bring the company’s expertise in “text-based communications,” location sharing, and photo sharing to Skype. In other words, we could see group messaging capabilities coming soon to Skype’s mobile apps — as well as some of the company’s SMS features which allow you to engage in group communications with non-smartphones.