For those of you out there who can’t use an iPhone and all of the goodness associated with it, you know how frustrating it is to find good usable apps for your SmartPhone/Smart Device. While I can’t commit with 100% certainty, I’d probably give up my trusty BlackBerry Curve for a iPhone if Verizon ever offered it, but until that point (I’m not holding my breath) I am pretty happy with what I can do with my BlackBerry and the range of apps that have come available lately for it.

However there is one area that was definitely a sore point for me. I really never found a usable application for connecting to my self-hosted WordPress blog so I could post on the go and manage what I needed to. Sure there were other ways to get content to my blog, but it left a lot to be desired. A month or two ago Matt Mullenweg (founder of Automattic the creators of WordPress) announced at WordCamp San Francisco that his team was committed to creating an application for the Berry users. Of course it was well behind the release of an iPhone app that served the same purpose, but the word was finally official. What wasn’t clear was the timeline and a lot of us were left holding our breath and hoping it would be sooner rather than later.

It appears that it was sooner rather than later after all. Earlier today, the WordPress BlackBerry client launched in a public beta of a new open source BlackBerry WordPress application borne out of a collaborative effort between the folks at Automattic and the folks at Danais, who led the MoPress Open Source project. You can read more about their work on the project on their blog (WordPress for BlackBerry):

Here are some things to consider while taking a tour of this new BlackBerry app:

* The app is for WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress version 2.5.1 or newer
* This app should work with any of the new BlackBerry devices such as the 8700, Pearl, Curve, Bold, and Storm
* BlackBerry OS requirements are OS 4.2.1 or newer

Being a public beta, it’s important to realize the large amount of potential bugs that can occur, before writing this app off as not what you want. If you’re not interested in trying a pre-release version of this software, you should wait until 1.0 is out.

To install the beta application: Point your BlackBerry browser to http://blackberry.wordpress.org/install and follow the instructions.

I’m going to be putting it through its paces for the next few days and will report back on my impressions. Stay tuned for more.