To download Viira, just open App World on your Playbook and search for “Viira”.

Viira for the Playbook is a free beta and requires Playbook OS 2.0 or later. This version is a Playbook-only version and does not sync with your BlackBerry device - yet. However as we roll out our cloud sync service over the coming months our goal is to provide just that: a seamless BlackBerry-Playbook wireless sync of your GTD system - so stay tuned!

Sign Up For Viira for Playbook Announcements And Updates

The current beta version (version 0.9.2) provides the core pillars of a GTD system on the BlackBerry Playbook such as projects, contexts, a day view and an In-Basket. Over the coming months we will be rolling out support for additional productivity constructs to bring the Playbook version of Viira en par with the feature set of Viira 4, including support for capabilities like task ordering, calendar integration, next actions etc.

In the meantime we would love to hear your feedback so let us know what you think of Viira for the Playbook as well as ways that you think will make it better and more effective!

The main theme within this release is two-fold: richer integration with your native BlackBerry applications like Contacts, Memos and Messages as well as support for advanced aspects of Getting Things Done like Next Actions.

Without further ado, here is what’s new in Viira 4.0:

• Contact tasks. You can now organize your communications, tasks and commitments with your contacts - and add a touch of CRM to your GTD system. Creating a task based on a contact is easy - just select a contact in your Contacts application and select Create Viira Task from the menu. Contact tasks maintain a link to the original contact making it easy to call, email and follow-up.
• Next Actions View. Next Actions are a core concept in Getting Things Done and Viira helps you manage those with ease. The new Next Actions view displays all tasks that have been marked as next actions.  To help you focus on what is actionable first, next actions also appear specially marked and are automatically displayed at the top of any list.
• Multiple contexs. Any Viira task can now be tagged with multiple contexts - as many as you want. This powerful feature will allow you to file and organize a task in multiple filing “buckets” and make it easier to find the task when it’s time to find the next action that needs to be completed.
• Memo tasks. Incorporate existing notes to your GTD system by creating tasks based on your notes and memos. Once created, a memo task will hold a link to the original memo making it easy to view it by clicking on View Memo.
• Dashboard. The Viira dashboard is your new organization control center and provides you with one-click access to the major areas within Viira.
• Email Tasks integration. Email tasks created with Viira 4 maintain a link to the original email making it easy to view the email as well as to reply and forward it.
• Two-way task sync. Viira now syncs with your native Tasks app: every task created in Viira gets added to your native tasks and any task entered in your Tasks app is added to your Viira In-Basket for further assignment. You can now sync your tasks to any cloud sync provider such as Google Tasks.
• Data export/import to/from SD Card. We have made it easier to backup your Viira data or move it to a new or replacement BlackBerry device. Starting with Viira 4 you can importa and export all your Viira data to and from your SD Card. The new feature is accessible from the Settings screen.
• And more! We have added a number of other productivity and convenience enhancements. For example, completed tasks now automatically get moved at the bottom of any task lists while task marked as next actions always go to the top.

As always, Viira 4 comes with a free trial so download the free trial and see for yourself what you can accomplish with Viira now! You can also download Viira Over-The-Air by pointing your BlackBerry’s browser to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb.

Viira 4 is supported on BlackBerry OS 5 or better and buyers of older version can upgrade for a special low price.

Note to App World buyers: in order to take advantage of our special upgrade pricing you must register with the same email as App World.

Viira Outlook Suite Buyers

[UPDATE] For those of you currently using the Viira Outlook Suite, version 2.0 of the BlackBerry client already contains most of the new features introduced in Viira 4, such as contact tasks, memo tasks, email integration, two-way task sync, etc. So you don’t need to upgrade.

The remaining new features in Viira 4 like the dashboard and Next Actions view will be added to the BlackBerry client in version 2.1 which will be a complimentary upgrade to all buyers of the 2.0.

Here is what’s new in version 2.0 of the Viira Outlook Suite:

• Contact tasks [Outlook screenshot here]: Create tasks based on your contacts when you need to call, contact or follow-up with anyone. Simply select Create Viira Suite Task from the right-click menu in your Outlook contacts or from the menu in your BlackBerry Contacts application.
• Touch-screen interface. Owners of a BlackBerry Bold 9900 or Torch 98xx series device can perform all frequent actions with a tap on the screen.
• Memo tasks [Outlook plugin screenshot here]: Integrate notes and memos into your GTD system with ease. Just like contact tasks, memo tasks can be created both on your BlackBerry and from Outlook and get synchronized between the two.
• Quick Add: Add New Tasks Quickly. Perfect for the times where you have a number of new tasks or ideas to record, the quick add field enables you to enter them one after the other in quick succession. Just type in the tasks name and press ENTER, then repeat as needed! Available from both the Outlook plugin and BlackBerry client.
• Print. You can now print from any of the views of the Outlook plugin.
• Overdue tasks in Outlook plugin. Just like in the BlackBerry client, the Day View tab of the Outlook plugin displays all overdue tasks in red to make sure no tasks gets inadvertently forgotten.
• Starred projects and contexts. Mark your important or frequently used project or contexts with a star. Starred projects and contexts always appear at the top of the list making it easier to navigate or select them.
• Compact Mode. Fit more of your Viira data on your BlackBerry’s screen. Particularly useful for owners of touch screen models like the BlackBerry 9900 or the BlackBerry Torch series, turning on compact mode lets you see more of your tasks for any project, context or day. You can turn on Compact Mode by going to Settings->General Settings->Compact Mode.
• And more! The new release contains a number of other small updates, too numerous to list here.

Version 2.0 of the Viira Outlook Suite requires BlackBerry OS 5.0 or better and is compatible with all versions of MS Outlook since 2003. You can download the latest version from the Viira Outlook Suite download page.

As always, the Viira Outlook Suite comes with a 14-day free trial and buyers of previous versions as well as Viira 3 can upgrade for a special low price.

Our development team was tickled pink to see the product that they have been working on featured right along prominent BlackBerry application like BBM and BlackBerry Travel. We would all like to take this opportunity to welcome all the new members to the Viira community. It’s great to see you onboard and stay tuned for even more organization and productivity-enhancing features to come in the near future!

Viira Featured In App World

• Email integration fix. Under certain circumstances Email tasks created from the Messages App didn’t display the full list of projects or contexts available for selection. This is now fixed.
• Copy and paste fix on Project/Context screen. It was reported to us that copying and pasting project and context notes on occasionally doesn’t work. The problem has been fixed.

We have also taken the opportunity to add a couple of new capabilities to Viira’s feature roster:

• <No Project> and <No Context>. You can now make Viira display all the tasks that haven’t been assigned a project or a context. Those tasks will appear under a heading titled <No Project> and <No Context> on the Projects View and Contexts View, respectively. To turn this feature on or off, please go to Settings->General Settings.
• Selecting a project or a context with ALT. Did you know that in addition to selecting items from a list by clicking on it with your trackpad (or tapping on it, if you have a touchscreen device) you can also open a list of available choices by pressing the ALT key? This is now fully supported throughout Viira and you can select a task’s project or context by using the ALT key to open the list of available projects and contexts.

Version 3.1.1 is available from Viira’s download page as well as through our mobile site.

Sign Up For Viira for Playbook Announcements And Updates

When our development team was at DevCon 2011 in San Francisco last month we managed to get a bit of one-on-one face time with RIM technical reps which helped us install and see how our current version of Viira will look and behave on a pre-release Playbook running the 2.0 update. And here is a picture of Viira looks on an actual Playbook:

Viira on the BlackBerry Playbook

Why wait until the 2.0 update to the Playbook? As a third-party software application Viira requires key tools and libraries in order to function on the Playbook. At present RIM has not provided these tools and libraries but they made a formal announcement that everything necessary for porting apps like Viira to the Playbook will be available in the 2.0 update. The 2.0 update to the Playbook is currently slated for February 2012.

A minor clarification is probably needed here. The 2.0 update to the Playbook does not represent a new version of the Playbook but rather a software update that RIM will be making available to all BlackBerry Playbook owners over the coming months. For up-to-date info, reviews and even rumours on everything Playbook-related you can check out the Playbook page at Crackberry.com.

For the 4th year in a row the Karta Mobile dev team made the voyage to San Francisco, California for the annual BlackBerry Developers Conference, a.k.a DevCon. We always strive to bring the latest in BlackBerry technology to your fingertips - and what better way to do so than going straight from the source.

For a second day in a row now we have been getting the latest details, technology roadmaps and best practices directly from our partners at Research In Motion and we are very excited to bring everything that we learned to the Viira community over the coming months. We have several important product announcements that resulted directly from collaboration at DevCon, so stay tuned as further details will be coming out over the next few days!

Here is what’s new in Viira 3.1:

• Touch Screen Interface. If you have a touch screen device like a BlackBerry Bold 9900, a BlackBerry Torch or BlackBerry Storm you will see a command panel with touchscreen buttons that contain the most frequently used actions in Viira. You can now create, edit, delete and mark tasks as completed with just a tap on the screen.
• Quick Add: Add New Tasks Quickly. Perfect for the times where you have a number of new tasks or ideas to record, the quick add field enables you to enter them one after the other in quick succession. Just type in the tasks name and press ENTER, then repeat as needed!
• Starred Projects and Contexts. Mark your important or frequently used project or contexts with a star. Starred projects and contexts always appear at the top of the list making it easier to navigate or select them.
• Compact Mode. Fit more of your Viira data on your BlackBerry’s screen. Particularly useful for owners of touch screen models like the BlackBerry 9900 or the BlackBerry Torch series, turning on compact mode lets you see more of your tasks for any project, context or day. You can turn on Compact Mode by going to Settings->General Settings->Compact Mode.

And here are a few screenshots from Viira 3.1:

Viira 3.1 is a free upgrade to all buyers of the full version. You can download it from the Viira download page or by pointing your BlackBerry to our mobile site kartamobile.com/bb.

Viira Mobile Checkout

We know that being able to do anything that you can from your computer or laptop with your mobile device is very important to many of you. That’s why buyers of both Viira and the Viira Outlook Suite have always been able to purchase the full version directly from their BlackBerry with Paypal.

Over the past week we decided to take advantage of some recent improvements in mobile payment technology in order to enhance the mobile checkout experience.

Here is a screen capture of what the new Paypal mobile checkout page looks like. It provides a detailed description of the item as well as a stylish Paypal login page. Buyers of the Viira Outlook Suite can also use the enhanced mobile checkout.

To buy the full version directly from your BlackBerry just click on “Buy Viira”/”Buy Full Version” from the context menu or point your BlackBerry’s browser to our mobile site www.kartamobile.com/bb.

Over the next few days we will continue with the final stages of our quality assurance and testing process after which Viira for Android will be available for download by everyone. Stay tuned!

Viira for Android: Projects View

Viira for Android: Contexts View

Day View