Listen up soccer football fans. With Euro 2012 just a few weeks away, did you know you can keep up to date with all the action right from your BlackBerry?

ScoreMobile FC is the perfect free app for mobile users to stay up-to-date with all the action from the tournament in Poland and Ukraine, and this week it gets an update improving its experience.

The app, from the makers of ScoreMobile - one of the world's leading free sports apps with more than 3.6 million unique users each month - is already a must-have for the hardcore football fan thanks to its in-depth coverage of more than 100 leagues and competitions.

Although the most popular football app in the UK, it is time to spread the word to BlackBerry users worldwide with one of the biggest global soccer tournaments looming on the horizon. If you think the app will just show you scores you are so wrong. It has a vast array of features -- ScoreMobile FC is BBM connected so sharing up to date scores and news with your buddies has never been easier. Whether you are using a Bold, a Torch or a Curve the application both looks and works like a dream. With a host of customisable notification settings, missing out on up to date football news is a thing of the past.

ScoreMobile FC is offering a host of great features to ensure you never have to miss a kick during one of the world's biggest football tournaments, including:

• Free customizable push alerts (including goals and key incidents).
• Daily video "vodcasts" featuring special guests.
• Sync tournament fixtures to your calendar.
• Up-to-the-second live scores.
• Live blogs or text commentary for EVERY game.
• Comprehensive list of match times, tables and statistics.
• The latest Euro 2012 news, previews and post-match analysis in video format.
• "Bet Now" feature, allowing UK-based users to place real-time bets via licensed betting and gaming provider William Hill.

The latest version of ScoreMobile FC should be available in BlackBerry App World starting tomorrow.

More information/Download ScoreMobile FC

Press Release

CIBC and Rogers Unveil the Future of Mobile Payments in Canada

TORONTO, May 15, 2012 - CIBC and Rogers Communications today announced an agreement to launch Canada's first joint mobile payment solution, allowing Canadians to pay with their CIBC credit card at the checkout counter using their Rogers "Near Field Communications" (NFC) enabled smartphone. Beginning later this year, customers will be able to use this payment capability at merchants across Canada where contactless credit card payments are accepted.

This announcement represents the first time a bank and a wireless carrier have joined forces to offer a commercially available mobile payments solution to Canadians that leverages the secure SIM card inside an NFC-enabled Rogers smartphone. This new solution aligns to guidelines announced yesterday by the Canadian Bankers Association for mobile payments in Canada, as well as those developed by respected international associations such as the GSM Association (GSMA), the association of mobile operators and related companies dedicated to standardizing and supporting GSM technology.

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Last week I told you about Fresco, the latest theme release by popular theme developer Pootermobile. Little did I realize he had a surprise up his sleeve. By that I mean Pootermobile has released his first OS7 compatible theme for select devices. With the help of two fellow theme developers, BBThemes and drkapprenticeDESIGNS, Pootermobile has seemlessly transitioned the best of the original Fresco to OS7 and the result is brilliant. All of the unique features that made Fresco what it is are there including the smooth looking transparent banner with dedicated weather slot (#19) and the intricately designed icon set.

Now that he's built his first OS7 theme I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next. Fresco is wallpaper friendly (though I prefer the default background), stylish, uses the default OS7 layout, and is compatible with BlackBerry 9350/60, 9790, and 9900/30 running OS7. This vibrant and refreshing theme can be yours for $1.99 in BlackBerry App World.

More information / screenshots and to purchase Fresco OS7 by Pootermobile

The CrackBerry forums are a great place to not only get help with your BlackBerry, but also to meet people, share experiences, and more. Last month we started up a thread for sharing creations made with the Scrapbook app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. To make it a little more interesting, we're periodically going to choose some submissions and give out some prizes as our way of saying thanks for participating and for being awesome forum members. Keep reading to find out who won gift certificates to ShopCrackBerry this week, and to enter your own Scrapbook creations check out the thread at the link below.

Post Your Scrapbook App Pictures!

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We’ve started to see BlackBerry and RIM gain momentum over the past few weeks, pretty much since they demonstrated the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Today Hyundai USA has announced that their new Blue Link car connect application would be coming to BlackBerry in the coming months. The app will allow you to start and unlock your car, among a bevy of other features that will make the car connect application an "industry" leader, according to Hyundai USA.

Blue Link Mobile App Highlights

• Completely redesigned interface and navigation
• Swipe gestures allow quick access to core features
• Remotely access many Blue Link® features found on MyHyundai.com
• Manage multiple Blue Link-enrolled vehicles
• Remotely control vehicle functions: Door lock/unlock, horn & lights,
• lights-only and remote vehicle start (not available on all models)
• Search, save and send POIs to vehicles for in-car navigation
• Innovative new features: car finder, parking meter/timer and vehicle diagnostics
• Remotely manage Blue Link alerts and notifications

The application is currently available on Android and iOS and is currently in development for the BlackBerry platform. One thing to note is that there wasn’t a mention if this app is being developed for the current BlackBerry platform or BlackBerry 10; if Hyundai is on the ball they’ll make sure it’s available on the current platform as well. Stay tuned because once the application is available we’ll take to the streets to test it out. You can read the full press release below.

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3 Ways To Win: Leave a comment to this post or follow @crackberrykevin on twitter and add +Kevin Michaluk to your circles on Google+. Do all three for three chances to win!

* Update - May 15th, 2012: OK folks, this is it. Today is the final day to get entered to win my Porsche Design BlackBerry! If you're not in on the contest yet, what are you waiting for?! I'll be announcing the winner here tomorrow on CrackBerry! *

Original Post - April 27th, 2012: As the world's #1 BlackBerry Fanboy, I take pride in always having the latest and greatest BlackBerry. So when the $2,000 Porsche Design P'9981 Smartphone from BlackBerry went on sale in North America, I just had to have it. The P'9981 is an exclusive (and expensive!) smartphone that gets a *lot* of attention thanks to its distinct styling and limited availability. As I mentioned in my P'9981 Review, you kind of feel like a celebrity just owning one.

And as much I enjoy using the P'9981 and being a member of the newly-formed Club P'9981 owners group, I've decided it's time to pay my P'9981 forward to a lucky member of the CrackBerry community. As was pointed out to me in an email I received from a reader earlier this week, the Fearless Leader of CrackBerry Nation should rock a BB more representative of the 99% of CrackBerry Nation, not the < 1%. I couldn't agree more. So I'm back on my white Bold 9900 and my P'9981 is up for grabs! 

How to Win Kevin's P'9981: So this is it... your chance to win my slightly used but not abused Porsche Design BlackBerry. And because this contest prize is so awesome, I'm going to give you three ways and three chances to win:

• Chance #1 - Leave a single comment to this post (tell me why you want my P'9981!)
• Chance #2 - Follow me on twitter: @crackberrykevin
• Chance #3 - Add me to your circles on Google+: +Kevin Michaluk

That's it. Do any of the above and you're entered. This contest is open worldwide. Contest ends May 15th at Midnight PST. The winner will be announced May 16th (my birthday!). Best of luck! And let's hope OS 7.1 is available for the P'9981 by the time you get my P'9981! :)

Gaming has never really been something that BlackBerry was known for. We've had the old-standby Brickbreaker since the start as well as a few good games here and there, but we never had the "latest and greatest". When the BlackBerry PlayBook was released, BlackBerry fans everywhere were overjoyed and gaming on the BlackBerry platform changed forever. With the new hardware, we could now have our share of great games as well. Things have come a long way in the last year, and moving forward to BlackBerry 10, it looks like they won't be slowing down.

At BlackBerry World 2012 this year there was a huge BlackBerry 10 vibe, but more so there was a great buzz about gaming. Plenty of big game companies like Marmalade and Gameloft were showing their support and excitement for the BlackBerry 10 platform, and that itself is truly something to look forward to.

As BlackBerry 10 approaches, more and more game companies are getting on board and either making new games for the platform, or porting existing titles over since RIM has been making it so easy to do so. Keep reading and we'll take a quick look at what we can expect for gaming on BlackBerry 10.

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While RIM just recently released the official build of Facebook version 3.0 with BBM integration, they are already hard at work with an updated version in BlackBerry Beta Zone. Facebook version 3.1.0.9 is now available to Beta Zone members. In this new version, one of the fixes is to an issue some were experiencing with comments taking an extended amount of time to load. This build also features many other improvements and bug fixes, all of which can be found below.

Updates in v3.1.0.9

• Status Cleared notification doesn't make sense
• Update help URLs for Facebook 3.1
• Got a state that could not exit Facebook setup wizard if Facebook opened from other access points
• No photo on post
• Facebook does not update while on Wi-Fi. Mobile Wi-Fi does work however.
• App takes very long time to refresh comments.
• Clicking “resend" on a status update doesn't seem to work
• Focus is lost after scrolling thru a very long post.
• Likes count incorrect in Likes list if launched from stagnant comment screen
• Doesn't work on Wi-Fi only connection
• Send icon is missing in command screen
• User is not able to scroll to Facebook title bar to open navigation screen on the new chat conversation screen if cursoris not at the beginning of text box
• Comments for Notes are limited to 1000 characters while on the web the limit is 8000
• Event Created By lists incorrect name
• BBM Text for check in is not localization friendly and might cause issues in other languages
• Focus order on comment page
• Focus jumps to the top of the notifications list after marking an unopened notification as opened

If you’re not a member of BlackBerry Beta Zone you can sign up for free at BlackBerry.com/Beta, once you’re a member you will have access to the Facebook beta, along with others as RIM sees fit. If you notice any other improvements that aren’t listed above toss them in the comments below, you never know what could be hidden in this build.

Check out more in the BlackBerry Beta Zone

Using a standard SIM card in your GSM (and some CDMA) BlackBerry is pretty easy to grasp at this point. Most come pre-installed if you buy your device from a carrier store, and even if it isn't, getting it in your phone is pretty straight forward. If you're like me however, you might have a micro SIM you want to use in your BlackBerry (I often use both an iPhone 4 / Bold 9900 and swap SIMs between them) it can be a bit more tricky.

Going forward to BlackBerry 10, the micro SIM will most likely be the card of choice for phones as we've seen in the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha already. If you want to use a micro SIM in your current BlackBerry however, you'll need to either pick one up from your carrier or cut down your current SIM (which I don't recommend). You'll then need to purchase a micro SIM adapter. Read on and we'll take a look at how to use a micro SIM card in your BlackBerry smartphone.

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In Stuttgart, Germany a few days ago the BlackBerry Porsche P'9981 was honoured at the Plus X Awards by receiving the gong for Smartphone of the Year 2012. The Plus X Awards celebrate innovative technologies, as well as sports and lifestyle products that are "viable for the future and possess at least one 'Plus X' factor" (as quoted from the Award's website).

The BlackBerry Porsche P'9981 won the award for combining the Porsche Design's classic and 'puristic' design with RIM's own innovative BlackBerry technologies. Axel Kettenring, Managing Director RIM Germany, says: "We are very proud to receive this seal of quality. Receiving the Plus X Award for the Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone confirms we are operating at the cutting edge with our demand for design and quality."

Even if the Porsche P'9981 isn't a BlackBerry device that the majority of our readers will own, it's nice to see it win quite a prestigious award. Don't forget there contest is still open to those who would like a chance of winning CrackBerry Kevin's very own Porsche Design BlackBerry. Today is the last Day to enter, so if you'd like a chance to win check out the link below.

For a chance to win CrackBerry's Kevin's Porsche P'9981

Source: Porsche Design Press Release, via: @BBEMEABusiness