RIM’s BlackBerry Developer Conference is just around the corner and according to @BlackBerryForum, today is the last day to register online!

The 2009 BlackBerry Developer Conference features more than 110 sessions that will appeal to commercial developers for both enterprise and consumer markets, corporate developers, business decision makers and application architects and designers. There are a range of sessions designed to accommodate both beginner and advanced application developers, including web developers, .NET developers and Java® developers. In addition to General Sessions and Breakout Sessions, the conference features Hands-on Labs, onsite BlackBerry Developer Certification testing, a Mobility Pavilion and Talk With The Experts areas.

The BlackBerry Developer Conference is being held in San Francisco, CA from November 9-12th. If you’ve already registered you can check out the BlackBerry Developer Conference Mobile Guide available in the BlackBerry App World. The mobile guide allows attendees to schedule sessions, look up speaker and sponsor information, get the latest news from the show, access conference maps and offer feedback. App screenshot below…

For more info visit blackberrydeveloperconference.com or check out the press release after the jump.

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In the beginning of May I posted about the BlackBerry Partners Fund announcing the second BlackBerry Developers Challenge at WES 2009. The Challenge opened yesterday at 12 A.M. and will run until September 25, 2009 at 11:59 P.M.

The Grand Prize will consist of a cash prize of $75,000 plus a $25,000 Grand Prize Package, with 16 finalist prizes including one week in the App World Featured Application Carousel, a DevCon Pass, a BlackBerry smartphone and participation in BlackBerry Partner Fund Demo Event at DevCon.

Full details after the jump or click here for more info.

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This morning the BlackBerry Partners Fund announced the second BlackBerry Developers Challenge at WES 2009.

We believe that strong developer ecosystems yield significant innovation and opportunity. As venture investors, we are always looking for bright entrepreneurs doing never-before-thought-of-things. So this year we are merging an app contest and business plan competition to discover a compelling investment opportunity for the Fund. The Grand Prize may be valued at $50,000, but if we are successful it could be worth much much more.

You can submit your email address to be notified when the challenge opens at the BlackBerry Developers Challege 2009 page. For more info check out the BBFundBlog.

Good luck to those developers who plan on entering!

A few weeks ago I posted about the Xobni desktop application and their new partnership with the BlackBerry Partners Fund.

TechCrunch got a picture Xobni running on a BlackBerry showing its contact search feature.

Here’s a description of Xobni:

Xobni, the word “inbox” spelled backwards, has created a new way to look at your email. Xobni takes the effort out of organizing, searching, and navigating your email.

The only thing that has changed with email in the last ten years is that everyone gets more of it. Email is overflowing with information. It’s hard to find what you need. It’s hard to know what you have.

Xobni creates an information profile for each person you interact with, and surfaces historical information that is relevant to what you are working on. Xobni displays contact information, threaded conversations, attachments, related people, email usage statistics, and information from the web. Xobni organizes your communication data and makes it available through intuitive navigation and super fast search.

Xobni currently integrates with the popular Microsoft Outlook email client and will extend to integrate with other email clients, instant messaging applications, and social networks.

Who already uses Xobni on their desktop? Check them out at Xobni.com

* UPDATE In my haste to post this (was running late for a class) I placed it in the wrong category. Xobni is actually meant for use on a desktop PC. I posted about it because I thought it was pretty cool with all its features, and because of their new involvement with the BlackBerry Partners Fund. I also changed the screenshots to a demo video so you can see what it’s about. Sorry about the confusion. *

Some highlights from the press release:

• Xobni, the popular Outlook search and relationship plugin, today announced an investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund to bring the company’s Series B round to over $10 million. The company has also removed its beta label with the introduction of Xobni v1.7. The new version of Xobni includes significant performance improvements to its relationship management sidebar and is available as a free download here: http://xobni.com/download
• The BlackBerry Partners Fund’s investment allows Xobni to continue developing innovative solutions, including its lightning fast inbox search and powerful relationship management tools.
• Since the launch of Xobni’s public beta in May 2008, the company has been working to optimize speed and performance.
• Xobni has also enhanced its product offering throughout the past year by developing strategic partnerships with leading content providers including LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Skype and Hoover’s.

Read the full press release after the jump.

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PRESS RELEASE

Toronto – October 29, 2008 – The BlackBerry Partners Fund LP, a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry® and other mobile platforms, announced today that the Fund has made investments in buzzd, Digby and WorldMate.

“Since its inception this past May, the BlackBerry Partners Fund has had the opportunity to review thousands of business plans from companies focused on developing the next generation of business and consumer applications for BlackBerry and other smartphone platforms,” said John Albright, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund.

“Today, we are announcing investments in companies that are leaders in the mobile application marketplace.”

“Around the world, people are becoming increasingly reliant on mobile devices in every facet of their lives, whether for business or personal use,” said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “To capitalize on this unprecedented market opportunity, the BlackBerry Partners Fund is helping entrepreneurs drive innovation and develop cutting-edge mobile applications and services with a compelling user experience.
Our goal is to be the primary destination for entrepreneurs that are building behavior changing smartphone applications and that are determined to be the architects of the mobile ecosystem of the future.”

BlackBerry Partners Fund is proud to announce the following investments:

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PRESS RELEASE

BlackBerry Developer Conference – Santa Clara, CA, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ – The BlackBerry Partners Fund LP, a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry® and other mobile platforms, announced today that Poynt, Strands Social Player and Nobex Radio Companion are the Best in Show Grand Prize Winners of the BlackBerry Partners Fund(TM) Developer Challenge.

Poynt is a free local search tool that connects users to businesses, movie theatres, and retailers, whenever and wherever users need them. Poynt includes such features as target site browsing, interactive maps, driving directions, GPS compatibility, show times, movie trailers, and ticket purchase. With Poynt’s intuitive interface, users can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Strands Social Player, developed by Strands Inc., is a music player that lets you discover new music, connect with people, and share your tastes with friends. It automatically shows cover art, provides artist and song recommendations from over 6 million songs featuring free previews, and fully integrates with a social network of music enthusiasts.

Nobex Radio Companion, developed by Nobex Technologies, shows you what song is playing on any of 2700 radio stations and when you hear a song you like click “Get It!” and it will send you an email with a link to buy the song, so you can keep your music collection fresh. Over a hundred stations are now playable on your BlackBerry Smartphone.

As winners, the three companies will receive a $150,000 investment from the BlackBerry Partners Fund and are entered into the BlackBerry Partners Fund “Jump Start” program. Detailed information on the Jump Start program can be found at: http://www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/jumpstart.

“The BlackBerry Partners Fund is dedicated to identifying and supporting organizations that are bringing innovative applications to the BlackBerry and other mobile platforms, and the creation of the Developer Challenge is evidence of this commitment,” said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “We would like to congratulate Strands Inc., Multiplied Media and Nobex Technologies for demonstrating the outstanding technological vision and superior operational execution worthy of earning the top prize in the Developer Challenge.”

The BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge invited developers to create BlackBerry applications in five categories: Gaming, Multimedia, Personal Productivity and Lifestyle, Enterprise and Web. The grand prize winners were selected from 15 finalists. More information on the challenge and the finalists can be found at:

    www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/challenge.

    About BlackBerry Partners Fund

The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry platform and other mobile platforms including mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and banking), vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services (navigation and mapping), media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications. The Fund considers all stages of development and is to be co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners. For further information visit: www.blackberrypartnersfund.com.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

TORONTO, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ – The BlackBerry Partners Fund LP, a $150 million venture capital fund formed to focus on applications and services for the BlackBerry(R) platform and other mobile platforms, announced today that it has launched its Jump Start Financing Initiative.

The Jump Start initiative provides entrepreneurs with capital infusions of up to $250,000. The funding initiative is designed to bring new and innovative ideas into the development process faster allowing entrepreneurs to focus on building great smartphone applications instead of raising seed capital.

“At the BlackBerry Partners Fund we believe it is important to encourage the development of an industry that is predicted to become the fastest growing application market the world has ever seen,” said Rick Segal, Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund, who is spearheading this program. “We are eager to review pioneering ideas and assist entrepreneurs with the advancement of their concept into a viable product faster and more cost effectively than ever before.”

“Building a business to compete in the fast moving mobile marketplace requires focus,” said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund. “We want entrepreneurs to spend time building innovative applications instead of searching for start-up capital in a time where the economic environment may prove unnecessarily distracting.”

By offering up to $250,000 in the form of a convertible debenture, the BlackBerry Partners Fund is providing entrepreneurs with a standard financing package that is not onerous on the entrepreneurs while giving the BlackBerry Partners Fund early exposure to the opportunity. Entrepreneurs interested in the Jump Start Funding Initiative should visit www.blackberrypartnersfund.com.

About BlackBerry Partners Fund

The BlackBerry Partners Fund is a $150 million venture capital fund focused on applications and services including mobile commerce (payments, advertising, retailing and banking), vertical and horizontal enterprise applications, communications, social networking, location-based applications and services (navigation and mapping), media and entertainment, and lifestyle and personal productivity applications for the BlackBerry(R) and other mobile platforms. The Fund will consider all stages of development and is co-managed by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners. For further information visit: www.blackberrypartnersfund.com.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

Best of Show Grand Prizes

Two (2) $150,000 Investment Opportunities by the BlackBerry Partners Fund™. These investment awards will be in the form of a convertible debenture. There will be additional terms and conditions with respect to the investments with which the winners must agree to prior to the issuance of this debenture.

Finalists

Personal Productivity and Lifestyle
Finalist: AP News Mobile by Associated Press and FreeRange Communications
Finalist: PaperIQ Digital Flipchart by DevelopIQ
Finalist: Poynt by Multiplied Media

Multimedia
Finalist: Flycast Mobile Broadcast Network by Flycast
Finalist: Nobex Radio Companion by Nobex Technologies, Inc.
Finalist: Strands Social Player by Strands Inc.

Web
Finalist: Billing Revolution Merchant Account Tool by Billing Revolution
Finalist: Gym Technik by TSR Gym Technik Ltd.
Finalist: MLB.com Gameday by Major League Baseball Advanced Media

Game
Finalist: Astraware Platypus by Handmark
Finalist: Hard Rock Casino 2 by EA Mobile
Finalist: Nintaii by Mobigloo LLC

Enterprise
Finalist: B*Nator Remote Control for BlackBerry by ISEC7 GmbH
Finalist: Bridge for Highrise by Metova, Inc.
Finalist: Optimii by Outerin Limited

Source – BlackBerry Partners Fund

I recently made a post about the BlackBerry Partners Fund website being down. Well it turns out that the site was being updated to an entirely new look with a few additions. Not only that, but a developers challenge was announced.

Gain distinction by entering to win the BlackBerry Partners Fund™ Developer Challenge for BlackBerry® Developers. The challenge is designed for BlackBerry® developers that have created their own BlackBerry applications in one of five main categories:

• Most Innovative Game.
• Most Innovative Multimedia Application.
• Most Innovative Personal Productivity and Lifestyle Application.
• Most Innovative Enterprise Application.
• Most Innovative Web Application.

Each category will have three (3) finalists, for a total of 15 winners. A Grand prize winner will be chosen for each category.

The contest officially begins August 19, 2008, but applications are already being accepted. The deadline to submit applications is September 30, 2008.

Registration for the Developers Challenge is now open.

For more info and to register click here.

The BlackBerry Partners Fund is also sponsoring a 2008 BlackBerry Developers Conference which will be held on October 21 and 22 in Santa Clara, California. Click here for more info.

To check out the new BlackBerry Partners Site website click here.