Spotify For BlackBerry Is Here. Does It Matter?

Already available for the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian devices and even the ill-fated Palm series, Spotify officially arrived in the BlackBerry App World Tuesday.As with versions of the app on other mobile operating systems, you’ll need to have a premium subscription to Spotify in order to be able to stream tunes. 

With that premium subscription you’ll be able to play music on-demand from your music catalog within the app, as well as play specific playlists you’ve created. You can search for different tracks, artists, and albums on the service, star songs you enjoy, browse what’s new and hot on the service, and send and receive tracks form friends.When you’re headed somewhere you might not have service you can also make your favorite playlists available for offline listening.If you haven’t given Spotify premium a spin previously, then you can give the service a whirl via a free 48-hour free trial. The app’s description page within BlackBerry App World also references a longer 30-day trial for BlackBerry users, with instructions sent via email on how to take advantage of that promotion once you log into the service.Spotify for BlackBerry is compatible with the following devices – 9780 Bold, 9700 Bold, 9300 Curve, 9000 Bold, 8520 Curve. Currently the app only supports phones running on GSM networks. CDMA-network phones and Torch 9800 are not currently compatible.

Recently RIM revealed that its sales were down 43% on the previous quarter — a loss per share of 28 cents. It has also indicated that the next version of the BlackBerry OS – BlackBerry 10 – will not be available until 2013.

Yahoo Launches Web Browser Axis, Makes Searches More Visual

Google isn’t the only search engine in town with its own web browser. Yahoo announced its own new browser Wednesday evening: Axis.

Working seamlessly between your iPhone, iPad and computer Yahoo is aiming to streamline your searches and connect your experience across devices by giving you access to the same information no matter what device you’re accessing it on.

Visual previews of sites in Axis eliminate the traditional step in web searches where you’re looking through links and replaces that experience with an image of the website you’ll be going to. Some searches can even be done without leaving the page you’re on.

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iOS

Tapping the Axis Bar -– which combines the search box and address bar into one -– will bring up a list of trending searches. You can tap a particular trending search to learn more, or enter your own search term or website address into the bar.

Answers will begin to appear automatically for common searches like movie times and weather, often allowing you to see what you’re looking for without having to leave the page you’re on.

For other searches the browser will create a row of visual previews to websites matching your specific query. You can swipe through the results, and then tap on a picture to visit a specific page. If you don’t like the result you’ve selected you can swipe across the screen to check out the next search result.

An Axis homepage gives you access to the sites you’ve recently visited not only on your iOS device, but also on your home computer or any other device you might use running Axis. So, the homepage on your iPad will show a website you visit frequently on your iPhone, or one you check out often while browsing at home.

Searches can also be continued from one device to another. For instance, a “Continue from iPhone” button will appear on your iPad and allow you to continue viewing search results you were looking at one your phone on a bigger screen.

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On your computer

On your computer Axis is a plug-in for your favorite web browser rather than a stand-alone product of its own. Available for Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Safari, the Axis toolbar shows up at the bottom of your web browser and can be used much like the iOS version to see visual previews of sites, and to look up information without leaving the page you’re on.

The homepage option is also available within your browser, letting you to look at favorite websites and continue viewing search results from your iPhone or iPad.

Axis is available now. What do you think of the web browser. Can you see yourself using it? let us know in the comments.