I love my Torch. I really do. Years ago, when the first BlackBerry Storm came out, I swore up and down that I would never, ever, own a touch screen BlackBerry. It was go keyboard or go home. I never thought it would be as efficient. I can admit I was wrong, well, partially wrong, as I now have the best of both worlds. Being able to swoosh between screens or pinch to zoom is simply fantastic. Of course my ever inquisitive mind always wonders what else I could do with it…If you don’t know by now, I’m all about finding shortcuts. What could you do with other types of gestures? After ruling out some gestures, like a thumbs up and flipping my BlackBerry off, I thought I would check out an application which had a bit more experience with gesture based controls.

GesturePad is here to help out those itchy trigger fingers (and BlackBerry thumbs) by providing unique shortcuts. Ignoring traditional shortcut icons, GesturePad instead lets you access apps, and other commands, with a simple gesture. You choose what gestures/patterns to use, truly making your BlackBerry experience your own. Now allow me to gesture you towards the review.

It really hasn't been a secret that the white BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry Bold 9780 were set to come to Rogers at some point. With the holiday season upon us it only makes sense that Rogers would offer up the devices. Possibly even as part of a holiday promotion despite having just raised the pricing on the BlackBerry Torch. But, just in case you needed some visual confirmation of their arrival the above image should suffice. The in store dummy units have arrived and the actual devices are expected to follow along shortly. I'm holding out for the red BlackBerry Torch but would gladly take one of those white BlackBerry Bold 9780s right now.

If you're not familiar with Kik, the concept is pretty simple. You can think of it as a cross-platform BlackBerry Messenger style of app. It's still pretty basic in terms of functionality, but it does provide the R (read) and D (delivered) message stamps that makes BBM what it is, is pretty quick to use, and of course uses data instead of SMS. In the past few weeks especially, it's been gaining momentum with a lot of downloads and usage among smartphone users.

The growth among BlackBerry users has been temporarily stunted though... I woke up this morning to see a Kik message on my BlackBerry Bold 9780 from the Kik team which says,

New downloads of Kik Messenger for BlackBerry devices have been temporarily suspended. Kik service for all existing users (including BlackBerry) is unaffected, as are new downloads for iPhone and Android devices. New BlackBerry downloads will resume as soon as possible.

No explanation was given as to why, but it does seem the Kik page is no longer showing in App World. I was reading through the reviews of Kik on App World this week and there were a ton of comments complaining that it killlled battery life after being installed. Could be we'll see Kik again as soon as they clean up their coding a bit (though to be honest, I haven't personally experienced too much of a battery drain when using Kik, though I do exit the program fully after using it and just open when I get push notification).

As for Kik usage itself, I'm curious to see where it's at among CrackBerry readers. Take a vote on the poll above and let us know what you think of Kik in the comments!

#BlackBerry App Roundup for November 12th, 2010! Win 1 of 10 copies of Datepedia 2.0!

Howdy and welcome to the weekly app roundup! Yee-haw! This week the Style train keeps on rollin on. We’ve caught the official Style commercial and an amazing review by our own Kerri Neill! Will YOU commit to the flip? Kevin also shared his video unboxing and first impressions of the BlackBerry Bold 9780. There’s definitely a lot to look at this week. Today, we announce the winners of the MegaAlarms giveaway and also give you the chance to win one of 10 copies of Datepedia 2.0! Have a rootin’ tootin’ weekend! Giddy up!

Freebies of the Week: Barcode Assistant. mVideo Gallery, Cineplex Mobile

In Case You Missed It: CrackBerry.com Search, NFL.com Game Center

New This Week: Sixtools, Self- Hypnosis for Sound Sleep, Virtual Vault Enterprise Edition

Cool at BlackBerry App World: NavGuard Track and Trace

Contest: Enter to win 1 of 10 copies of Datepedia 2.0!

The last leak that came out for the BlackBerry Storm 9530 was OS 5.0.0.797. Now we have OS 5.0.0.937 available for download. That's a rather large jump in OS versions so hopefully, it's bringing a lot of nice changes for 9530 owners. Remember, back up your data folks and let us know in the forums how it works for you all.

*OS Disclaimer - Please Read: Keep in mind this is NOT an official release and as such is not supported by RIM or your Carrier. If you choose to install, do so at your own risk and only if you're comfortable in the process of upgrading and downgrading your device software. It is quite normal during operating system development for certain features to be crippled or disabled while others are tested, and these beta builds often reflect that. They are not always better. Depending on your BlackBerry comfort level, it may be best for you to wait for community feedback on a build before deciding to download and install for yourself or simply wait for the next official release. If you require support, you will find it in our CrackBerry forums via our extremely knowledgeable community base - do not contact your carrier or RIM for Beta OS technical support (their first course of action will be to advise you to downgrade to a supported OS). Follow the links below for more information and instructions.

Tim Bray, who we all know and love from the Android Developers Blog, made a couple interesting announcements this week about the Android Market. He wanted to remind developers about the Market features enacted this past June that help determine what devices their applications will be available for, as it seems that preparation for some new market features requires all legacy applications to get rescanned and checked against the new methods.

Of course, the words "new market features" caught our attention. We can't help but think back to I/O 2010, when we saw some great new Market features like Music streaming, that Google said would come soon, likely with Gingerbread. Is it soon yet?