BlackBerry announced this morning that its BlackBerry Messenger app for iPhone will be available later today, but you’ll have to wait in line before you can use it.

After a disastrous attempted launch last month, the company says it has fixed all the server issues caused by a leaked BBM APK for Android, but to ease into the cross-platform launch it is implementing a waiting system where iPhone users download the app, enter their email address, and then wait for an email notification that you can finally use BBM. 

“We still have a lot to cover,” is Apple’s promise this time around. On October 15th, the company sent out press invitations for a media event that will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.

Last month we saw the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and this second event is expected to center around new iPads. But that’s not all; the future of OS X, iOS 7, and the Mac are also rumored to be waiting in the wings.

Here’s what to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event:

Did Jony Ive design iOS 7 in Microsoft Word to win a bet at the bar? Almost certainly not, but he could have. Every single one of the new iOS 7 icons — including the more intricate ones like Game Center, Maps, and Stocks — can be recreated almost perfectly in Word.

Vaclav Krejci demonstrates the whole process in the video below.

SEGA has today announced its mobile games lineup for the coming months, with a number of notable new titles heading to Android and iOS.

Highlights include a revamped Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — which will be available on Android for the first time; Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed, and a rhythm franchise that originally made its debut on the Nintendo DS.

Boost Mobile has today confirmed that as of November 8 it will become the third prepaid carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. The news comes almost a month after posters advertising the devices on Boost Mobile were leaked.

You know all those menubar items in the upper right hand corner of your Mac’s screen? The ones that–from the right–probably show the Notification Center, Spotlight, your user name, the date and time, your battery level, and so on?

Did you know you could move those things around (most of them, anyway)? Did you know you could even take some of them off of the menubar altogether? Here’s how.

Apple isn’t the only consumer electronics giant hosting a major press event tomorrow. Nokia is also gearing up to make a number of big announcements at Nokia World in Abu Dhabi, and they won’t all be new Lumia smartphones.

The Finnish firm is also expected to unveil a Windows-powered iPad competitor with a 10.1-inch 1080p display — pictured above and below — and a new music player called the “Nokia Guru” that hopes to take on the iPod shuffle.

Samsung looks to be preparing its own extended warranty plans that will provide additional coverage for its smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics, according to a new trademark registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Called “Protection Plus,” the service is expected to offer the same kind of protection that is available to iPhone, iPad, and iPod users with AppleCare+.

Apple’s obviously not going to rest until all of their appshave gone flat, and the next obvious contenders are the icons for Apple’s App Store apps, including the iWork suite, iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. But what will they look like? Wonder no longer: Apple accidentally leaked their new icons on the official built-in apps page for the iPhone 5s.

Will Apple unveil the Retina iPad mini on Tuesday or won’t they? There’s been a lot of back and forth on this vital point in the past few weeks, but now, the big boys are weighing in, with The Wall Street Journal affirming that Cupertino will indeed unveil a 2048 x 1536 version of it’s 7.9-inch tablet tomorrow.

The iPhone 5s has been in limited supply, and according to many accounts, the iPhone 5c is in limited demand. But September has still been a huge month for Apple. How huge? According to one study, Apple’s share of the U.S. smartphone market has doubled in September.

What is the point of the iPad now that the iPad mini is on the cusp of going Retina? It’s Apple’s pro device: the iPad for people who want a tablet to replace their laptops, not just be a more fully-functioning e-reader.

Why is why the latest rumor to come down the pipes makes a lot of sense. It says Apple is intending on launching its own keyboard cover for the iPad at tomorrow’s event, a la the Microsoft Surface.

Eye-Fi has just added a new 32GB model to its Mobi card lineup. This means that you can now shoot for days and then, when you decide to transfer all those photos to your iPad, iPhone or Mac, sit for another few days as the pictures are sent across via Wi-Fi.

While the highlight of Apple’s press event on Tuesday will undoubtedly be its new iPads, we were also expecting the Cupertino company to announce a new Apple TV. But a new report suggests the fourth-generation set-top box has been “delayed a bit,” and that it won’t be ready for tomorrow’s event after all.

Pencil is the name of a new stylus coming from FiftyThree, the makers of the rather lovely Paper app for iPad. If the hardware shown in the FCC filing is anything to go by, then it is a design as practically minimal as the Paper app.

Buying an iPad case on the eve of an Apple iPad event is probably not the smartest thing to do, but if any case can tempt me it’s this gorgeous Folio from Dodocase. At the very least, it’s got me hoping that any new iPad minis have the exact same dimensions as the current one. In short, the Folio looks to be the perfect marriage of old and new tech.

Picatext is a Mac app that performs OCR on your screenshots. That’s it, but as you’ll see, “that” is pretty damn handy.

The iPad mini is pretty tough. Mine fell off the top of my refrigerator (around five feet high) and landed corner-first on a terracotta-tiled floor. It survived with nothing but a dent in the corner and a slightly-bent screen as it approaches this corner.

If I’d been using the SlipStopper, though, it mightn’t have fallen at all.

Fastmail, a mail device which really is fast, has just gotten even faster, and even slicker. The best alternative to Gmail just launched a brand new mobile interface that is so good that you might even ditch the native mail app on your iPhone and iPad.

Google is in the smartphone business, obviously. But are they in it to win it, or just f**king around?

Sometimes I wonder.

Google is obviously a visionary company with incredible technology and the capacity to build some of the greatest stuff out there.

In fact, Google already has created all the elements of a monster, iPhone-killing super-phone. Yet some invisible, internal company flaw seems to be stopping the company from putting all those elements into an actual phone.

The iPhone-killing elements are scattered all over different phones that Google sells, and some of the elements aren’t in the phones at all.

As a result, Google’s fans are faced with an artificial choice between this feature or that feature — or just giving up and buying either a non-Google Android phone or an iPhone for a more compelling mobile experience.

What’s stopping Google from integrating all its best stuff into a single phone that would thrill everybody and dominate the market?

Is it Microsoft-style company politics, where internal power struggles among VPs and product managers create a hyperpluralism that paralyzes the company?

I don’t know. But what I do know is that Google could completely transform the market by simply using what it’s already got.

Here are the four actions Google needs to take to use what it’s got to create the ultimate iPhone killer super-phone.

Apple has quietly updated the OS X Mavericks developer GM to a new build number ahead of the software’s imminent public release. The new build number is 13A603 while the original seed is 13A598.

Aside from some print ads, Apple’s advertising for the iPhone 5s has been quite scare compared to the iPhone 5c. Multiple iPhone 5c ads have aired on TV already, but the 5s hasn’t gotten any TV attention. Today the first ad dedicated to the iPhone 5s was finally released. The title is “Metal Mastered.”

As you can imagine, it’s all about the gold model, and the song is even by an artist named Goldfrapp. How appropriate. Liquid gold slowly forms into an iPhone like a Terminator, and the gold Touch ID ring around the home button is placed last as the finishing act.

Updates on the French and German versions of Amazon.com suggest a new, replacement Apple TV coming the day after this week’s Apple announcement — just in time for Christmas.

The prospect of a shiny new Apple TV product makes everyone think of a radical new Apple TV box with crazy new user interface options, or an actual Apple TV set, both of which people have been predicting for years.

And then that Scrooge MG Siegler comes along to say he’s hearing that the Big Apple TV Update has been delayed, and that maybe there will be a minor update to the existing product.

Whether something grander has been delayed or not, I think TV will be the most interesting product at the Tuesday announcement — not because of hardware, but because of a new software interface and new deals I think Apple will announce.

Google has updated its free Hangouts iOS app with a major feature: free voice calling anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. The app now integrates Google Voice to make calls over cellular or WiFi. 

Confirmed! Apple’s October 22nd iPad event is locked and loaded, but it’s not just iPads we’re expecting to take the stage. We’ll walk you through what other treasures to expect sultry new CultCast. Then, Steve Jobs and his nights of profound amore; Apple hires a fashion icon to man retail stores; and we review a new app that makes it insanely simple to send money to anyone you know.

Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll!