Talk about taking your time…

Let’s see, back in March we found out that RIM was sponsoring U2’s latest tour.  In July, RIM began hyping a mobile album and application that would be coming out for BlackBerry users.  Then, the waiting began.

A lot of people thought that when U2 kicked off their North American Tour on September 12th something cool exciting mildly interesting would happen with the BlackBerry/u2 joint venture.  No such luck.

Instead of a big announcement. No no Blackberry commercial featuring the band. At least not so far. (Given the speed lack of speed with which things are being rolled out perhaps there is one pending for next year month),

Nope, all we got is an app… if you can find it. To get it you have to go into BlackBerry App World and search for the application. Good news is once you find it it’s  free. (That assumes you are in a country that has access to BlackBerry App World since our poor friends in Australia still don’t.) 

The application itself is pretty well put together.  So long as you don’t mind waiting for songs and video clips to download you get some nice animated transitions and a user interface that doesn’t look like it was pulled from 1984.    So, what exactly does this U2 app do, you ask?

- Get inside the album with access to songs from No Line On The Horizon, essays from the band, and video clips

- View the original, origami-style photo displays inspired by the music

- Access dynamic news feeds from U2.com and receive alerts when new content is available

- View exclusive images of the band in the recording studio and on the road

- Mark your place in the crowd with geocoding, chat and share images with other fans, and view postings from the band (feature coming soon…)

- Tap into the Who’s Listening section and see when and where other users are listening to the album (feature coming soon…)

- Track the tour as the band moves across the globe – see where they’re going and where they’ve been (feature coming soon…)

It’s a bit of a bummer to see many of the features still listed as “coming soon” now that the application is released after it was COMING SOON for what seemed an eternity.

Overall the application is fine. It does not offer much real content right now but maybe the “wow” will come with some of the features that aren’t yet live.  Then again, will you really be all that excited to see who’s listening to the album near you or where you are in the crowd…during the concert?

Thanks to Adam over at CrackBerry for the summary of features.

PS – If you want a good first-hand experience letdown from the North American 360 Tour Kickoff, BGR nicely summed up the odd the paring of the Irish Rock Band and the Canadian smartphone maker.

Oh, and RIM… remember, we only tease you because we love you so much…

Final note-  To use the App you have to be using a ‘Berry that has OS 4.5 or higher installed.

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