It's been said multiple times that the first BlackBerry 10 device will be full-touchscreen. This doesn't sit well with a lot of people that love their BlackBerry for the QWERTY keyboard, as many are hesitant to switch to a device without physical keys. Understanding this hesitation, Research In Motion has poured a lot of time into making the BlackBerry 10 on-screen keyboard experience as phenomenal as the physical keyboard is. In the video above from the BlackBerry World 2012 keynote session you can see not only predictive text and gesture-based control, but some other "key" features that will be present in the upcoming OS.

"The BlackBerry Mini Keyboard is an awesome setup that has me using my BlackBerry PlayBook more than ever."

The BlackBerry Mini Keyboard for the BlackBerry PlayBook is one of those accessories that everyone wanted at launch. I remember my excitement over the BlackBerry PlayBook Convertible Case; had there been a keyboard tucked into that package - I can only imagine how pumped I would have been. At the core, the BlackBerry Mini Keyboard is a Convertible Case just tweaked in various areas with a stand and bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo. The keyboard itself looks great as the black/white/blue color scheme fits in with the rest of the case. As first glance you can see the keys will be a bit rough for those of us with bigger hands due to their small size. With its good looks and portability, I found the BlackBerry Mini Keyboard has me using my PlayBook more than ever. Read on for my full review.

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The new Predictive Text feature on the BlackBerry PlayBook. is one of those features that makes us wonder how we got along without it prior to the 2.0 update. It is a great approach to predictive text.

Thanks to the new SwiftKey keyboard on the PlayBook 2.0 software, you have the ability to enable Predictive Text and it truly is a huge help and a great time saver. The keyboard on the PlayBook has always been easy to type on, but now with Predictive Text, the PlayBook predicts as you type letting you simply tap words shown above the keyboard to complete them. As you type along, you find yourself starting a word, tapping and then semlessly continuing. The popup bar isn't too obnoxious so it fits in well with the keyboard and is really a welcome feature.

The keyboard even predicts in context, so you'll see words pop up as you go that the software thinks you may want next. Usually, there are five options given from which you can choose. It's amusing at times and you can almost make a game out of it and see what kinds of crazy sentences you can come up with (reminds me of Mad Libs or magnetic poetry). Pretty cool stuff, right? Bundle this with autocorrect and you'll find yourself cranking out long emails from your PlayBook in no time at all. If you're more of a purist you do have the option to turn it off, but if you give it a shot I'm sure you'll find it only helps get things done faster.

If you do want to turn off the feature, just pull down the main Menu, select Keyboard and move the radio button next to Show predictions and suggestions to the OFF position.

Check out the video above for a quick look at predictive text on your BlackBerry PlayBook.

We all have our own reasons for sticking with BlackBerry, and one that we hear time and again is the indispensable keyboard. A lot of converts to other platforms brush it aside, saying keyboards are overrated and out-of-style, but then a story like this pops up and reconfirms just how much we rely on those smooth QWERTY keys.

Richard Lee is a professional English footballer currently playing for Brentford as goalkeeper. There came a point in his career where he considered quitting altogether, but instead he chose to fight for his place on the team and ended up writing a book about the challenges he faced. What's unique about Richard's book, is that all 50,000 words were written on his BlackBerry Bold. In a recent interview, Richard revealed that he actually started out writing a blog for his website, but before long was 10,000 words in and had a lot more to say. You can read an excerpt from the interview after the break, where Richard goes into further detail about why he wrote the book on his BlackBerry, and why he chose that over a different type of phone. (Spoiler: It's the keyboard!)

This isn't the first time a book has been written on a BlackBerry. CrackBerry member Jessica Meigs wrote a novel on her BlackBerry as well, and even paid tribute to Kevin in the story, naming a virus after him. You can find out more about Jessica and her zombie horror series The Becoming on her blog, becomingzombies.com.

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The virtual keyboard on the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the best virtual keyboard in the smartphone market. There I said it; though I also said in on our last CrackBerry Podcast, too. I'm a firm believer in the fact that I can use the virtual keyboard better and faster than the physical one on my Torch. Yet whenever I mention that fact to others, I get such a look of incredulity that I feel I need to back away very, very slowly. Even polls here on CrackBerry.com show that I'm in the minority.

Now when I first got my BlackBerry Torch, I admit that it was not an easy thing to learn to type on the screen. My fingers were constantly typing the letter slightly to the left (or the right) of the one I wanted. I was constantly pressing the backspace key in an effort to correct my typing on that horrible keyboard.

Then I started doing an odd thing; I began to trust the keyboard. Instead of backspacing and fixing every mistake as it happened, I just kept typing. Over time, either the keyboard began to understand me or I became to understand it. Nowadays, I sometimes think the keyboard knows what I'm trying to type better than I do.

Perhaps some of this animosity and ill-will towards the virtual keyboard comes from using those on other platforms, like iOS and Android. In this author's humble opinion, the BlackBerry keyboard is nothing like them. Added to whatever magic makes the keyboard understand what my fat fingers type is the standard CrackBerry keyboard goodness. Autocorrect and word substitution are not limited to just the physical keyboard, after all.

There are no websites devoted to mocking the poor word substitutions of the BlackBerry keyboard. And that's for a reason. BlackBerry smartphones are designed to be first and foremost tools of communication. At the heart of that communication is the BlackBerry keyboard. Your name doesn't become synonymous with communication and your devices won't be used by millions in government, business, and law enforcement if you have a crappy keyboard. And be it physical or virtual, that keyboard is still the best in the business.

If you are one of the many people waiting anxiously for the BlackBerry Torch 9850/60, you'll want to have a look at the video above. This video takes another look at the 9860, showing off the hardware as well as running through the software a bit. You can also see the new keyboard in action, in both portrait and landscape modes. The device seems really responsive overall, from what we can see, and the keyboard looks like it's easy to type on. I'm not a huge fan of virtual keyboards, but I think this might grow on me. Thanks for posting this in the forums sridharsuresh!

To discuss this video in the forums

As Joseph pointed out not long ago, the virtual keyboard on the BlackBerry PlayBook is a little harder for some people to get accustomed to using, in part due to a different layout than that of the BlackBerry Torch/Storm virtual keyboard. As seen in a picture posted in the forums, the virtual keyboard of the Torch 2 9810 (and presumably the Torch 9850/60) will be getting an update with BB7, and will now look a lot more like that of the PlayBook.

What's your opinion on the change? If you're a current user of the on-screen keyboard, will this totally throw off your typing, or is it a welcome adjustment? If you don't currently use it, will the change encourage you to give it another try? Let us know in the comments.

If you are tired of accidentally mashing your BlackBerry keys and dialing strange numbers cause your BlackBerry is floating around in your purse or pocket, you’ll need to lock your BlackBerry keyboard. You can do it with or without a password, but either way, then number of accidental calls to complete strangers should go way down.

There are multiple ways to lock the keyboard on your BlackBerry. The first and easiest is the lock icon on your home screen. Highlight it and start it up by pressing the trackwheel or trackball. Your BlackBerry is now locked, meaning that pressing random keys on the keypad is less likely to make bad things happen. To unlock it, press * and then the green phone key. If you have set a security password, then you will have to enter that password to unlock the device.