RIM knows that a large chunk of their user base is located in the United States, so to celebrate one of America’s greatest holidays, the 4th of July, they have compiled a nice guide of BlackBerry apps and accessories for you to check out. These apps and accessories can help you use your BlackBerry to make your 4th of July experience the best yet. The guide starts below and follows past the break!

Planning your Getaway

The Fourth of July is one of the busiest travel times of the year. It’s important to plan ahead, but it’s equally important to be ready to adjust on the fly so you can avoid the unexpected, sometimes nightmarish travel.

BlackBerry Travel lets you plan and manage your trips. This app puts all travel updates in one place. If there are any changes to train/plane/bus reservations, you’ll receive an immediate notification!

Want to avoid traffic as best as you can? BlackBerry Traffic, with hands-free turn-by-turn directions, gives you an ETA, as well as the most efficient travel routes based on current traffic conditions.

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RIM has updated the BlackBerry Travel application to v2.5.18.99 today. This is a planned update to bring BlackBerry Travel into the circle of BBM-Connected applications. The update brings BBM-connectivity and not much else. The full change log is as follows:

• BlackBerry Travel is now BBM-connected, allowing you to share your travel plans and flight changes directly with select BBM contacts or your entire BBM community
• Turkish localization

If you’re an avid BBM and BlackBerry Travel user, you’ll definitely want to grab this update. If you’ve never checked out RIM’s own travel app, now is a great time to give it a try.

• Download BlackBerry Travel in App World

This post brings some good BlackBerry app news, unlike some of our other app posts this week! The team at Kayak.com has gone ahead and ported over the Android version of their travel search application onto the BlackBerry PlayBook. The application allows you to search Kayak’s large database of flights, hotels, and rental cars to get you the best price for your trip. The app is available for free in BlackBerry App World, and if you use Kayak to plan your trips, you’ll want to give this one a try today.

• Download Kayak for BlackBerry PlayBook

In addition to the BBM Music update, RIM has also updated BlackBerry Travel. The updated version is v2.0.40.99. This version brings mostly bug fixes and minor changes, but the big changes are:

• Special discounted rates for major cities in Europe, exclusive to BB Travel
• Easily make limo reservations upon arrival

If you’re already a BlackBerry Travel user, especially if you travel in Europe, you’ll want to grab this update. And if you haven’t used BlackBerry Travel yet, what are you waiting for?

• Download BlackBerry Travel in App World

RIM has been running the Travel Better with BlackBerry contest and now that the contest has ended they have released an even better way to travel with BlackBerry. BlackBerry Travel v1.1 has a ton of bug fixes and new features, including:

• Mobile Rental Car Booking: To get you where you need to go, you can now book a rental car from almost any rental car agency anywhere in the world, whenever you need transportation.
• World Clock: One of the most often-requested features, we now have a world clock that has been designed to allow you to track the time across multiple locations worldwide. This is very handy when trying to figure the best time to call family back home!
• Support for Car and Hotel Bookings in local currencies: We’ve added 20 international currencies to accommodate booking in local currencies.

You can get the updated version directly from App World and, as always from native BlackBerry apps, its completely free. BlackBerry Travel is a truly great travel companion and we recommend giving it a try today if you haven’t already.

• Download BlackBerry Travel 1.1

Source: Inside BB

RIM is hosting the BlackBerry Travel “Travel Better” contest. The contest is meant to bring attention to the awesome BlackBerry Travel application.To enter the contest all you have to do is either fill out the entry form on the contest website or just tweet about traveling and include the hashtag #TravelBetter to be entered. You can send one tweet per day to enter into the contest each day. The grand prize for the contest is a trip for two to Australia. There are also weekly prizes which include things like American Express gift cards, BlackBerry smartphones, and various other travel related prizes. The contest ends June 26th at 11:59 PM ET, so be sure you get your entries in over the next three days for a chance to win!

• Visit the Travel Better contest site and enter to win

BlackBerry Travel has only been out a few months and has already received quite a few updates. Today BlackBerry Travel is getting another incremental update. The new version is 1.0.384.99 and there is no change log included with this update. BB Travel is already a pretty amazing travel application, so this update is sure to only improve upon that experience. You can get BlackBerry Travel in App World at the link below.

• Download BlackBerry Travel

BlackBerry Travel has just received an update that brings the official version of the app to 1.0.350.99. There’s no word yet on what has changed in this update but it’s sure to bring some great enhancements to the app. BlackBerry Travel is an awesome, native application that allows you to plan and manage trips and itineraries directly from your BlackBerry. If you like to travel we recommend checking out the free BlackBerry Travel app before planning your next trip.

• Get BlackBerry Travel in App World