7digital and QNX have announced today that they have partnered up and will be bringing 7digital's catalog of over 23 million songs to the QNX car platform. BlackBerry has worked extensively with 7digital in the past, most recently integrating their digital music store with the BlackBerry World storefront. Now, any vehicles using QNX-powered devices will be able to integrate the entire digital music store directly into in-vehicle systems. The new partnership will allow for users to purchase digital music on the go, right from their dashboard in vehicles like Audi, BMW, Honda and Toyota. 

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When BlackBerry 10 launches this week, it will mark a major transition in the underlying operating system that powers BlackBerry. From the moment that BlackBerry 10 hits the market, the operating system that powers devices will now be the QNX Neutrino Real Time Operating System (RTOS).

BLACKBERRY'S SECOND MAJOR OS TRANSITION

Most readers may not realize this, but this is actually Research In Motion's second major platform transition since the original BlackBerry products hit the market in 1999. The first devices were actually programmed in C++. They ran on a single AA battery cell, which lasted 3 weeks for the average user. They had a data modem that could move 8 kilobits per second. There were no third party apps.

By 2001, RIM launched its very first BlackBerry device that actually made phone calls too. This device, the BlackBerry 5810, had an operating system written entirely in Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). This allowed RIM to improve security by isolating the radio code from the application code. It was also much easier, at the time, to find programmers who knew Java, so it helped the ecosystem grow.

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QNX unveiled their latest concept car at CES this week and it was a big hit on the show floor. A Bentley GT is always an eye-catcher, but outfit it will crazy QNX goodies and it's even more over the top. The QNX Porsche was awesome, but this Bentley is ten a hundred times as awesome. Kevin took the driver's seat as Dan Dodge himself took him through all of the QNX features in the car ranging from the oversized touchscreen console right down to the digital dash cluster (which has the same core as the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha). 

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QNX has been showing off their car platform technology in a Porsche 911 for a while now, but it seems that they wanted to step things up a bit a lot. As posted on the QNX blog today, their new concept car is a sparkling Bentley Continental GT. Sticking hard to the "go big or go home" attitude, QNX has gone all out this round. The new concept car features a huge center stack with full HD graphics, optical touch input technology and a physical control knob to be mounted directly on the screen. The screen supports full 3D naviagtion, media player and even as the car's virtual mechanic. 

The digital dash cluster is also customizable and features a tach, gas gauge, temperature gauge and much more. Of course you'll also find voice control, smartphone support and much more in this crazy tricked out car. I for one am excited to check this bad boy out in person (whenever that may be). Plenty more to come on this for sure, but for now head over to the QNX blog for more and keep reading for the full press release.

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Press Release

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA--(Marketwire - January 08, 2013) - 2013 International CES (North Hall, Booth 1837) - QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for in-car electronics, today announced that a release of the QNX CAR^TM application platform 2.0 and of its associated tooling environment, the QNX CAR^TM development platform 2.0, is now available to the automotive community.

The QNX CAR application platform 2.0 supports an exceptionally rich set of pre-integrated technologies, both from QNX Software Systems and from dozens of ecosystem partners. This pre-integrated platform, built on an OS proven in tens of millions of vehicles, enables automotive customers to hit the ground running and significantly reduce the time required to build connected, cutting-edge infotainment systems.

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The QNX car platform has has done some amazing things over the years and today adds another great feature to their already big arsenal. The new in-car speech recognition framework will now recognize a speakers intent for voice commands. The framework allows applications to access AT&T Watson which provides a more natural understanding of spoken commands. This means users can do things like create calendar appointments, dictate email, give voice navigation instructions or even perfom internet searches. Very cool stuff that adds to the already amazing QNX car platform. Check out the full press release below.

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This video from QNX really shows us the potential power that they may well give cars in the future. Though the video is from November, the RIM owned company has once again got our juices flowing with this sneak peak into what they are likely working on. With QNX-based BlackBerry 10 launching later this month, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some sweet integration between phone and car in the years ahead. Who knows how much of what QNX are demonstrating may be close to release? Only time will tell but it looks exciting stuff.

CES is kicking off in Las Vegas in a few short days, and we should get a good look at the latest concept car from QNX as in the past. If you'll be attending CES next week, make sure you stop by the QNX booth (Booth 1837) and check them out! The Mobile Nations team will be at there as well, so stay tuned across our network for all the news.

Back on January 22nd, 2012, when Thorsten Heins took over as President and CEO of Research In Motion, many folks were eager to hear his thoughts on the future of BlackBerry. After the initial breaking in period where he outlined all the upcoming changes, he started to talk more about 'mobile computing' and the 'convergence' of technologies such as smartphones, laptops and desktop computers and how a next generation computing platform was the ultimate goal for Research In Motion. As it turns out, he wasn't the only one thinking of these things.

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We've seen the QNX concept cars more times than we can count at this point, but there is just something about them that draws us in. Perhaps it's the amazing wow factor we get from seeing all the gadgets in the QNX police car, or the crazy integration of the BlackBerry PlayBook in the dash of the QNX Porsche. Whatever it is, we've never really seen the team behind it all. Mark Rigley, QNX Concept Design Team Lead, took some time out to talk a bit on just what goes into the cars, winning Best In Show at CES and what's next for the concept team (hint: an awesome new concept car). Check out the full interview in the video above.

Source: QNX Blog 

When RIM purchased QNX from Harman International, they didn't just purchase the bit and pieces that their next operating system would be built on. No, they purchased a full-fledged business that has been active in numerous sectors since it began in 1980 and to this day, is still continuing to grow each year.

The QNX CAR 2 application platform covers the vehicle infotainment sector has now been recognized as a International CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree, in the Software & Mobile Apps category. If you're not familiar with the awards, in order to be considered, a product needs to demonstrate innovative design and engineering and judges have now determined the QNX CAR 2 platforms fits in nicely there.

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Yesterday, QNX Software Systems (wholly owned by Research In Motion), made two important announcements. The first, and most important, is the pending launch of an SDK for the automotive market. This December, based on RIM's open source WebWorks project, the HTML5 SDK for the QNX Car 2 application platform will be released.

The second announcement pertains to support for the Nvidia Tegra chipsets for in-vehicle use. This gives the QNX SDK the power to do high quality video renders of things like Google Earth.

Together, what does this means? Think about the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK modified (and extended) to accommodate the kinds of things you'd want to do within a car infotainment system. Specific APIs have been created so developers can get access to actual car data, and control certain systems. For example, a developer might want to have data on speed, acceleration, GPS position, but might also like to control the car's heating and air conditioning system, or interact with the display and audio system.

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QNX announced today that they are working with NVIDIA and will support the NVIDIA Tegra processor in the new QNX Car 2 application platform. The small Tegra processor incorporates a quad-core ARM CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GPU and audio, video and image processors. The processor allows for video and audio playback that puts little stress on a vehicles system. The QNX technology is licenesed to millions of vehicles for systems including navigation, instrument clusters, hands-free systems and more. Keep reading for the full press release. 

QNX and NVIDIA to showcase advanced infotainment system featuring live Google Earth navigation at SAE Convergence 2012

DETROIT, MICHIGAN--(Marketwire - October 16, 2012) - SAE Convergence 2012 (booths 815, 809) - QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for in-car infotainment and telematics systems, today announced that it is working with NVIDIA to bring advanced infotainment solutions to the automotive market. As part of this initiative, the companies will integrate support for the NVIDIA® Tegra® processor into the QNX CAR^TM 2 application platform.

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QNX Software Systems has announced today the availability of a new SDK for developers. The HTML5 SDK for the QNX Car will allow developers to create automotive applications using CSS3, HTML5 and JavaScript. Unitl now, there was really no easy way for developers to create apps for the automotive envrionment. With this SDK however, they can create apps using the SDK and even test them in the provided emulator before deploying them to the marketplace for automakers. Very cool news that opens all kind of doors for developers. Keep reading for the full press release. 

Mobile developers can now create automotive apps based on standard web technologies like CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript

DETROIT, MICHIGAN--(Marketwire - Oct. 16, 2012) - SAE Convergence 2012 (booth 815) - Mobile app developers see car infotainment as a potentially lucrative new market, and automakers want to leverage the talents of the mobile community - but until now, the two sides have had little way of working together. Today, QNX Software Systems Limited announced a new solution designed to tear down these barriers and to enable new partnerships between the mobile and automotive worlds: the HTML5 SDK for the QNX CAR^TM 2 application platform.

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The above video has been uploaded by QNX to their YouTube account in the last few days and while it isn't technically BlackBerry related it sort of is. Most of you will be aware that QNX is owned by RIM, and the PlayBook OS as well as BlackBerry 10 run on the QNX platform. The video is a demonstration of the latest QNX CAR 2 in car solution from QNX based on HTML5 and although I can't confirm that the dashboard display is a BlackBerry PlayBook it may well be. Either way there are some big similarities and I thought many of you may well find the video interesting.

If you have the patience to watch the whole video (it's 21 minutes long) you will see some familiar icons in the interface. The new QNX car display has the same web browser as the PlayBook, some familiar looking applications and even the same App World icon that we are used to seeing.

The main reason I wanted to share the video with you is just to show the capabilities and customisation available on the platform. With BlackBerry 10 coming to fruition in Q1 2013 it will be interesting to see if the in-car solutions that QNX offer will integrate further with the new BlackBerry operating system. With QNX being part of the BlackBerry family it would make sense and it would be great to see the car OS being an extension of the smartphone. Only time will tell.

According to the Ottawa Citizen, RIM is now cutting down on summer vacations for its Ottawa employees and also bumping up the work week to six days. The increased work hours have been put in place to ramp up efforts to get BlackBerry 10 out the door in what is now Q1 of 2013. The new devices were originally set to launch later this year, but another delay means there are still plenty of things for RIM is looking to done before they can get the devices to the public. Hopefully the extra hours of manpower will be beneficial in the long run. 

Discuss more in the forums

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Watching the interview earlier today with Andrew MacLeod, Managing Director for RIM Canada, there was a point at which he said "...the market's very focused on the first products. For us, it's a platform for mobile computing, and that's really the core objective of the company because that's going to define our future." What he's doing here is essentially reminding us that there is a difference between the BlackBerry 10 platform and the BlackBerry 10 product (phones/tablets).

While we all sit patiently and wait for the first BlackBerry 10 phones to come to market, RIM is hard at work perfecting not just their hardware, but also the BlackBerry 10 platform. The line that struck me most was this:

"Certainly it was not an easy decision to hold off on the launch of our new BlackBerry 10 platform, but for us it was critical that we get it right and we build a platform for the next ten years of RIM's growth." 

What this says to me is that RIM is concerned more with the BlackBerry 10 platform as a whole -- wanting and needing it to be perfect out the door when it's launched. The platform itself is where the strong point will be - not in the first run of devices (although the first impression of these devices could make or break things as well). This is why there are unfortunate delays. Sure, we're all waiting on the BlackBerry 10 phones to be available, but RIM is essentially building a "ten year platform" for all of their devices. 

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Jonas Norberg, CEO and Pacemaker, gave a sneak peak of at their upcoming app for the BlackBerry PlayBook during the keynote general session at BlackBerry World this morning. The app will allow you to mix, sync, and scratch digital music on your BlackBerry PlayBook, as well as apply effects, loop, and much more to provide a rich DJ experience. Jonas stated that they were looking for a mobile platform to create an app for, and after much investigation they chose the PlayBook for its QNX OS, as it's the only "true, real-time operating system" on a mobile device. Can't wait for Pacemaker to launch; it looks amazing!

When RIM bought QNX back in April of 2010, many industry pundits suspected that the Java-based BlackBerry OS would die, and QNX would form the basis of a new operating system. This was clearly correct.

But at the time, Mike Lazaridis, a founder of RIM and then co-CEO, sidestepped questions about the future of BlackBerry OS. I remember talking to Jim Balsillie about QNX at BlackBerry World one month after RIM bought them. Instead of Jim answering my question directly, he said, "What did Mike say?" I told him Mike had casually stated that "The car is the ultimate accessory for a BlackBerry". Jim smiled as if to suggest, "good cover".

We're sitting on the cusp of a complete re-write of RIM. The executive team, the software, the hardware, and hopefully the marketing too. And outside of CrackBerry (see Kevin's discussion on the Playbook-powered Porsche), there aren't too many people talking about RIM's opportunity in the vehicle market.

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[Youtube link for mobile viewing]

It's no secret that the team at QNX Software Systems has been working on the development of their car platform. We've seen it in action a few times, most recently at CES in January, and I know many of you are anxious to see it come to your vehicle someday. In the video above, Kerry Johnson leads us through a quick tour of the QNX CAR 2 platform. Kerry is the automotive product manager at QNX, and he shows off some of the developments they've been working on including mobile device connectivity, the application area, HTML5 support, voice-enabled apps, and more. Check out the video, and head over to the forums at the link below to chat about it.

Discuss the QNX CAR 2 platform in the forums

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

Remember the new Porsche concept car QNX was showing off at CES? You might have heard that they added some cloud integration, and were showing it off at Mobile World Congress 2012. Of course, we had to check this out for ourselves. 

NewBay is an online content locker where you can store your music, pictures, video, and other files in the cloud for access just about anywhere. RIM acquired them in October, so we're still waiting to see the service bundled in with BlackBerry devices like iCloud. In the meantime, NewBay has partnered up with fellow acquiree, QNX, so that the car could access that content through the primary dash and the rear-mounted BlackBerry PlayBooks. Of course, this is just a tech demo, but it gives a very clear idea of the kinds of products RIM has coming down the pipe. 

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi at the show was pretty rough, nevermind attempting to use the QNX Porsche's integrated cellular connection, so they had to hook up the car with an ethernet cable to get everything running. The guys at NewBay and QNX apparently only took a week or two to pull off this partnership, so it's understandable that video sharing wasn't fully implemented yet.

Considering how many companies RIM has been snatching up over the last couple of years, I'm interested to see other partnerships between RIM subsidiaries pan out into real products, and not just neat concepts. 

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

RIM's QNX division has been doing some pretty impressive things in the automotive sector lately and they've brough along some pretty awesome stuff to Mobile World Congress. As seen in the video above, Derek Kuhn, VP Sales & Marketing, QNX, gives us a tour of how BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBooks can be deeply integrated making a complete automotive package.

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

I'm seriously pi$$ed I spent $500 on that BlackBerry clock app yesterday as that money really needs to be going into my new car fund so I can pick up some new wheels when the QNX concepts being shown off at CES2012 hit the market. 

You'll want to definitely watch the video above as Mark from the QNX team walks me through all of the customizations they did to this sweet Porsche Carerra. The technology here is just awesome. There are NFC tags in the car for easy pairing between BlackBerry Smartphone and the Infotainment unit (which while not being broadcast you could tell was a PlayBook in the console that boots up to a new in-car UI). The main console PlayBook was connected to two more PlayBooks mounted on the headrests, which can be controlled by the main console machine (thank QNX's distributed OS and QNet for making that happen). The main infotainment console has all the features you'd expect of a connected car and some that you wouldn't expect, including AMAZING super high definition stereo telepathy which means you can have the best voice calls ever. There's no noise cancellation happening here, but literally sound that is true to life and even moves with you through the car (it's hard to explain in text, so jump to the 4 minute mark to see it and hear it). What's really cool is that this functionality is actually part of the PlayBook OS 2 update. 

I can go on and on here but have to start packing up to make my flight home from CES 2012, so do yourself a favor and sit back and watch the video. You'll be glad you did.

[youtube link for mobile viewing]

We've seen a couple of concept cars from QNX in the past, and the latest being shown at CES 2012 goes above and beyond anything we have seen to date. The Porsche Carrera is pre-integrated with QNX products and third-party technologies to deliver an experience like no other. You can watch the video above to get a feel for what went into designing the car, and check out the full press release after the break for an in-depth look at just what this amazing concept can do. 

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Back when the BlackBerry PlayBook first launched the question of themes and customizations came up and while the answer to the question "Will the PlayBook be skinnable?" was never really dismissed -- it was never taken seriously either. It only garnered a response that when broken down equated to if the demand is there, it might eventually be considered as an option. Well, that never happened despite the demand being there and to this day, theme developers still have no access to creating themes on the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Now, with BlackBerry 7 devices out -- theme developers are once again stuck waiting on RIM to update the BlackBerry Theme Studio so that themes can be created for BlackBerry 7 devices. Their has been no mention of if and when the update will come but as we all know -- DevCon is only a few days away so that may bring a new release but what if it doesn't?

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[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

Last year at BlackBerry DevCon we got the AWESOME surprise of the BlackBerry PlayBook announcement. I've been to a lot of Research In Motion events over the years, and my BlackBerry excitement level after seeing the PlayBook on stage that day was at an all time high. The only thing that would have been even better was if we had actually been able to hold and use RIM's first tablet at the event. Instead, we were teased with a couple of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets encased in glass (including a blue one - whatever happened to that?!), which only allowed for me to do our first "hands-on glass" PlayBook review per above. 

This morning I woke up with this year's upcoming DevCon and BBX phones on my mind, and I got a bit of a feeling of panic in my stomach. We were told on the last RIM earnings call that we'll see QNX BlackBerry development phones at BlackBerry DevCon this year. To me that means we'll get to actually hold and use a QNX BlackBerry phone at DevCon. But this morning it struck me that with the precedent set last year of putting hardware in glass following an announcement, we **could** see this happen again this year if the BBX phones are not quite ready for prime time yet (better increase my travel health insurance just in case... not sure my heart can take that kind of abuse teasing two years in a row). So that leads us to...

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We're starting a new regular feature here at CrackBerry to give you a little extra smile each week: the BBDoodle from Jason Harrison, founder of BrowCo.com, whose work you may have seen before in the form of PreDoodles on PreCentral.net. Look for more Doodles on all of our Mobile Nations sites soon too! Have a great idea for a BBDoodle? Send an email to doodles@mobilenations.com and Jason'll take a gander.

In celebrating the one year anniversary of the BlackBerry PlayBook last week, I re-watched the video of the live announcement from BlackBerry DevCon 2010. Research In Motion founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis unveils the BlackBerry PlayBook, makes his way through some power point slides highlighting the hardware and features, and from there invites to the stage "the founder of QNX and inventor of the BlackBerry Tablet OS, Dan Dodge." From there Dan -- or Super Dan as I like to call him -- excitedly walks through the Power of QNX.

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By now most are aware of HP's decision to stop making webOS powered hardware but that doesn't mean the webOS community as a whole has given up on webOS devices. Our friends over at Pre Central have completed their review of the long awaited HP Pre 3 and although its story is a tragic one, considering the device many webOS fans have been waiting for will never really have its time to shine -- it's still a good read that tells the tale of what could have been.

In reading the review, it's easy to see that the HP Pre 3 was finally the device many were hoping to have webOS on. A 1.4GHz processor, 480x800 display, 512MB of RAM and the option of 8GB or 16GB for storage, and an auto-focus camera finally made it, at the time of its announcement, state-of-the art. Derek covers his thoughts on the device quite well, despite knowing that it'll never really be fully available to all, so make sure you check it out.

When the BlackBerry PlayBook launched, a lot of people related the look of the BlackBerry Tablet OS to that of webOS and when reading Dereks review, I couldn't help but wonder if what we're seeing in the HP Pre 3 is a small glimmer of what we'll be seeing when QNX BlackBerry devices arrive on the scene.

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On the recent RIM earnings call one of the most unexpected things said by RIM's Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was this:

"Well, we've got a lot of planned announcements at DevCon in October, and we've got -- we'll be announcing our new development platform for QNX and our QNX-based phones. We'll be launching the development phones, so that people can start experiencing the QNX phones and the applications. So we've got a lot of things planned. At this point, we want to be careful not to give up too many of our secrets and specifications of the product and delivery dates. But we're very excited, and the fact that we've already got the development phones operating right now and we're testing them is a great sign" 

The announcement that QNX developer phones would be present at the BlackBerry Developers Conference next month definitely came as a surprise to me. And heck, I wouldn't doubt it came as a surprise to many a RIM employee as well (just like how Jim Balsillie said the PlayBook would get native email in 60 days...lol). This definitely is a new move for RIM. Typically new moves for RIM end up having a back story to them, and by piecing together various rumors and intel I think I have a pretty good hypothesis of what's happening here.

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I honestly don't know if this is a recent change to the BlackBerry.com website or if it has been this way for a while on the PlayBook page (my attention was brought to it this morning by this CrackBerry forum thread). But as far I can recall this is the only time I've ever seen the official QNX logo used in official marketing materials of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

When the BlackBerry PlayBook was introduced, it was introduced as featuring the BlackBerry Tablet OS. Of course all of us hardcore BlackBerry users and the tech media referred to it as the QNX OS regardless, but to the average consumer that was never really a fact RIM was trying to push (the average person isn't going to have a clue what QNX is anyway and why would RIM want to dilute (or not build, rather) BlackBerry brand equity by pushing another company name for its OS, even if they own it). It has officially always been the BlackBerry PlayBook with the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

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It was a quiet weekend for BlackBerry news, but that didn't stop the rumors from flying on Sunday when parody Twitter accounts @MikeLazaritis and @JimBalsilly decided to have a little fun. Two pictures were posted to the accounts, supposedly showing QNX running on a future model of the BlackBerry Torch 9850/60, and a lot of people were left scratching their heads, wondering if these are in fact what they claim to be.

Fact is, fake Twitter accounts lead to faked statements and even faked pictures (although sometimes they might pop out some "real" news). To show you how easy it is to make such images, I went ahead and threw together a few of my own using my Bold 9900 and some screenshots from my BlackBerry PlayBook. And don't let the picture of the BBM icon being moved on the Torch fool you; I recreated that as well, minus the finger. ;)

Check out the rest of pictures after the break. 

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