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Oftentimes we get excited when we see that a popular application has been updated. For me, the excitement comes from wondering whether any of the improvements I’ve thought about have been implemented. That makes it a bit disappointing when an update comes without a change log. Google has done this twice recently. They’ve updated their Google Maps and Gmail applications for BlackBerry, but haven’t let users know exactly what changed. That usually means there are just some bug fixes, which is fine. If you have these apps, you probably want the bug corrections.

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I’ve seen a lot of online file storage sites over the past few years, but for some reason Dropbox is catching on better than almost all of them. Maybe it’s because they’ve developed an excellent application across the three major platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux). Maybe it’s because their interface is the most user-friendly i’ve seen. In any case, I’ve been recommending it to people ever since someone at the office got me hooked. You can also access Dropbox from your BlackBerry, and according to BerryReview, it could be getting easier.

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Major League Baseball started something this year when they released an app that broadcasted full games to iPhone users. It was a popular app for the 2009 season, and should continue to grow next year. The only problem is that there don’t seem to be any plans for a BlackBerry version. The NBA just released a streaming iPhone app, but unlike MLB they’ve already announced their BlackBerry intentions. Fans should have an NBA BlackBerry app by the end of the year, which will make available up to 40 games per week. In the meantime, BlackBerry App World has a pair of apps to hold you over until the streaming app.

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We already know that you can assign custom alerts to specific BlackBery contacts. We also know that the process can get cumbersome if you want to assign specific alerts to a large number of contacts. For the ringtone, it’s pretty simple: just create a new exception and change the ringtone. But for other alerts, like text messages and emails, it’s not that easy. You have to follow the process in the above-linked post, meaning you have to create new profiles for each unique alert, and then assign those profiles to contacts with exceptions. This can be a pain if you have a large address book. There’s a new BlackBerry app that can help you take care of that task simply and easily. It’s called MailTones, the latest in the line of Electric Pocket BlackBerry apps.

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If the Internet has been good for one thing, it’s comparison shopping. There’s no need to make a hasty purchase now, because once you get home you can check the price at various online outlets. This is perfect for the holidays, especially if you start shopping early. Mobile devices have furthered this cause, allowing customers to look up prices online, right as they look at the item on a shelf. What hasn’t developed along with it is online shopping. That will change over the next few years, and to kickstart things, Amazon.com has partnered with Handmark to create the Amazon App for BlackBerry.

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As teachers and students know by now, cell phone use in class is frowned upon. Not only do they present a distraction, but they also aid cheating. Friends can text message answers, and students can take photos of tests with camera phones. But just because a phone isn’t welcome in the physical classroom doesn’t mean it is useless in the learning process. In fact, there are many BlackBerry applications that can help teachers and students alike. These computational, reference, and organizational applications can be excellent supplements to the teaching and learning processes.

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When is it okay to spy on someone? It’s a tough ethical question, and recent technology developments have made it even tougher. I don’t have all the answers, so it is with caution that I mention Mobile Spy. As the name implies, it provides tracking services for many devices, and that now includes BlackBerry. If you have suspicions that someone close to you is acting inappropriately, you can install the software on his or her phone. It will reveal just about everything except recordings of voice calls. The question, of course, is of when this an acceptable action and when it is represents an ethical violation.

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Over the summer, Google released Google Maps 3.2 with layers for Windows Mobile. On top of the normal map view, users can overlay traffic information, public transit routes, local items of note including local search results, Wikipedia information, Google Latitude friend locations, and more. You can also use multiple layers for even more information. I caught on BlackBerry OS yesterday that Google has now extended this upgrade to BlackBerry users.

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Have you ever faced a situation where you know you should send someone a text message or email, but would rather have it sent later? For many teenagers, that means sending the check-in text message to their parents. For cheating spouses, that’s sending a text message as an alibi. There are less devious purposes of a scheduled message, of course, but whatever your reason it’s something that is bound to come up. Scheduling delivery times is not a native feature of the BlackBerry, but BlackBerry Cool points us to an application that does it for you.

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Just after last week’s BBGeekcast, the new Facebook hit the airwaves. It’s version 1.7, which we first learned about last month. It adds a few new features to the BlackBerry Facebook experience, like better filtering options for friends’ updates. It’s pretty much everything that was reported back in September. After the jump, the list of new features.

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