10 BlackBerry Apps for IT Managers, IT Contractors, Road Warriors

by Don Sears

Networking has never been so easy. Send your mobile business card to other BlackBerry users’ address books with the press of a button. DubMeNow allows you to send LinkedIn invites, and soon you will be able to add up to 20 social media networks to your card.

This app lets you preview e-mails without opening them, saving you time and effort. An update now shows links to phone numbers and e-mail addresses while you preview.

Search and post to Twitter, and save your searches for handy go-to pages to find again when you want them.

Listen to your e-mails and messages while you drive rather than fumbling with the device while in traffic. Your daily commute gets a lot easier, and safer, with a voice-read app. Apparently, the free version reads sponsorships to you as well, so if that’s annoying, get the professional version.

Hey, sometimes you need extra light. Why not use the camera light to brighten your view? That’s what this app does … easy and useful.

Sales and business development pros will want this app, which is a mobile version of Hoover’s, with 37 million executives in your hand.

This is a no-brainer for budget management people. Includes everything you’d expect in a 12C calculator, including depreciation, amortization and bonds calculations.

Get all your MS Office applications in one place on your BlackBerry. It’s not cheap, but it’s worth the time saved.

For anyone who needs to bill hourly, this app lets you track, bill and document your work—and it’s not only for phone calls. You can track e-mails, log expenses and generate reports (and no PC integration is required).

Get the clean and functional iPhone touch screen layout. Touts itself as the “most accurate iPhone theme” for the device and now includes the nifty slide action for unlocking (BlackBerry Storm only).