Best Apps for BlackBerry, February 2012

Check out the latest and greatest in apps for your BlackBerry with our monthly app roundup.

Luko Remote for PlayBook

Turn your PlayBook into a remote control for your PC.
Luko remote allows you to turn your PlayBook into a keyboard and mouse for your PC, allowing control directly from the comfort of your chair/couch/beanbag/hammock/bed (in approximate order of comfort). Better than this, the app also comes with a file browser, so you can launch apps and specific files without having to squint at the scratchy fonts on your cathode/monitor/HDTV/projector/JumboTron (in approximate order of awesome).

Of course, this app is targeted at those with home theatre PCs, but you can still do some handy things with it, such as controlling music at a dinner/gathering/bbq/party/rave (in approximate order of musical importance), freaking out your kid brother/mother/teacher/boss/captor (in approximate order of bad-assedness), navigating through your next work presentation (well, that’s boring), or just a way to make sure you’re keeping your calorie burning under control.

The app requires you to install a server program on your Windows XP/Vista/7 PC (available here), and also that your PlayBook exists on the same Wi-Fi network. There isn’t an option to use it over 3G, but, unless you have some particularly good binoculars, I don’t really see much of a use case there, anyway.

The server is easy enough to set up with the only foreseeable hiccup being a wayward firewall.

Jewel Breaker

A great Bejewelled clone for BlackBerry, Jewel Breaker has three game modes – Standard, Timed, and Infinite – that should suit your mood and time frame. In case you’ve not played a game like this before, the object is to switch pairs of gems around in order to line up three or more.

When you do, those gems disappear, and more squeeze down from the top to fill the gap left. This, in turn, can cause combos, and every gamer loves combos.

Xploding Boxes

A graphically basic version of a casual gamer classic. Touch the cubes to have them explode, sending shrapnel in four directions. The shrapnel will cause other boxes to explode, starting the aforementioned, ever-satisfying, combo move. Different coloured boxes require a different amount of touches (whether by finger or shrapnel) to explode, turning this into a puzzler, rather than a free-for-all experiment in ballistics.

The stark graphics help in loading times, meaning you can usually squeeze a round in between answering emails, no matter how old your device.  
LocalBar for PlayBook

If you’re sick and tired of having to hook your PlayBook up to your PC just to sideload an app that doesn’t exist on the BB App World, then LocalBar will provide you with the sweet relief that you crave so much.

Of course, to get LocalBar onto your device, you’ll have to do the PC-Dev-mode-shuffle, but, once it’s on your device, you’ll be able to download and install .bar files directly from your PlayBook browser.
Original Source 

Blackberry App Development