Sunday, September 1, 2013

How I Built my blog a Blackberry World App for FREE using Blackberry App Generator #VZWVoices #Save

FREEISMYLIFE looks good on a Blackberry Z10
Blackberry App Generator is the TOTALLY FREE way to build a Blackberry App in just minutes...

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Savers Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.

One of the great things about trying out a brand new mobile operating system is that there is always something new to learn and research. Before joining the Verizon Savers Voices Program and being given for review a Verizon 4G LTE Blackberry Z10 smartphone on the new BB10 operating system, I did not know a thing about the Blackberry ecosystem.

Of course I had heard the term "Crackberry" as it was used for Blackberry lovers back-in-the-day when Blackberry was the king of mobile phones for business users, but I had never tried a Blackberry or even held one. Although I have tried out many Apple and Android products, Blackberry was never on my radar so my knowledge was very limited.

Now that I have had a couple of months to test out the Blackberry Z10 smartphone, I have found the hardware to be very solid and I have enjoyed playing with some of the neat features like the predictive keyboard that learns words as I type, the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) app that allows private group chatting (also coming to iPhone and Android soon), and using my Blackberry as a superfast Verizon 4G LTE hotspot for my laptop and iPad while on the go.

One of the major criticisms of the new BB10 OS is that the Blackberry Market Place has a limited selection of apps. Since the original Blackberry mobile phones were not app based, Blackberry has some catching up to do with both Apple and Android to get a app marketplace that is rich in content.

The Blackberry App Generator is very easy to use...
Build apps in minutes with Blackberry App Generator...
I have always wanted to have an app for my blog in the Apple and Android App Markets, but price and time have been an obstacle.

Paying a developer to write a simple app with my blog posts, Facebook and Twitter feeds and YouTube channel, along with the fees to be part of each market was not in my budget. So I was very happy when I found out through the Blackberry Blog that I could use an online service called the Blackberry App Generator to develop my own FREEISMYLIFE Blackberry World App for FREE - and that there are NO FEES to have my new app submitted to the market - HOLLA!

Easy Signup Process...
The first step to getting an app in the Blackberry World Market is to signup for a Blackberry App World vendor account. Signup was easy and I received an email with my approval within 24 hours of starting the process.

The Blackberry App Generator shows exactly how the app will look on each device 
After being approved for my vendor account, I could login to the online Blackberry App Generator website and begin making my app.

All I had to do was point the generator to the RSS feed for FREEISMYLIFE, pick which content sources I wanted for my tabs, and hit submit. My tabs show my blog posts, my Facebook feed, Flicker feed, and YouTube channel feed. Unfortunately, including Twitter as a feed is not an available option. The generator shows you exactly what you app will look like on a Blackberry Z10 device and a Blackberry Q10 device. You can even demo the app within the generator.

When you are all set with how the app looks, you can choose a price (mine is free), choose to include ads to generator revenue, and which countries you want the app approved for. Then you hit submit and the app goes to Blackberry for content approval. It took about 2 days for my app to be approved. The entire process was quick and very easy compared to app creation and submission on other marketplaces.

Check out this video that shows how easy it is to use the Blackberry App Generator


Blackberry says they have about 120,000 apps in the Blackberry World Marketplace.  Now thanks to the FREE Blackberry App Generator, we can raise that count to 120,001 with my new app for FREEISMYLIFE.



Check out the FREEISMYLIFE app in the Blackberry Market and watch for the next post in my Verizon Savers Voices series coming soon...


Enjoy!


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