BlackBerry 10

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With all of the BlackBerry 10 news it's easy to get lost on information overload. L-series, N-Series, keyboards, camera, Active Frames, Dev Alphas ... it may all be a jumbled mess to you at this point. To help bring you up to speed quickly, we've rounded up what you most need to know about BlackBerry 10. As we near 2013 and an official release date, BlackBerry 10 will pick up speed and the news won't stop as we find out more details, but we'll keep this post updated so you'll have all the latest info about BlackBerry 10 all in one place. Keep reading and check out everything you need to know about BlackBerry 10!

What's New

BlackBerry 10 is a totally new platform being built from the ground up. It is being marketed by RIM as a "mobile computing platform" and not just another phone OS. BlackBerry 10 will share very little with the old BlackBerry OS, but instead offer a completly new experience for users. We've seen many hands-on demos and have a taste of what BlackBerry 10 will bring, but there is certainly much more in store. 


Hands-on with BlackBerry 10 software

Some of the new features include a brand new keyboard with predictive text and gestures, a time-warp camera, new BBM features, The BlackBerry Hub, Peek & Flow, Active Frames for minimized apps, plenty of upgraded specs and much, much more. You can see most of the new features in action in our hands-on with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha B.  

  • BlackBerry Hub - BlackBerry Hub is the inbox/messages app for BlackBerry 10. There is no Messages app now - just the BlackBerry Hub which is always there and always one gesture away.
  • Quick Settings / Menus - Swiping down from the top of the phone of the screen reveals a quick settings menu. 
  • One-Handed UI touches - All of BlackBerry 10 has been designed with one-handed use in mind.
  • Lock Screen - The lock screen not only shows your notifcations, but as you drag you finger to unlock the device, you can literally "reveal" the OS underneath. Very cool.
  • Active Frames - Minimzed apps turn into widget-like Active Frames. These frames will show useful app info (like current temparture for weather app). 
  • Keyboard - The BB10 keyboard has an aweseome predicitve text feature that actually shows predicted words over the next letter you would have to type, really speeding up one-handed typing. Check out the demo video below.

A look at the BlackBerry 10 keyboard
 

Peek & Flow on BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry Balance & Mobile Fusion

BlackBerry Balance on BlackBerry 10 makes for managing your work and personal spaces on one device a breeze. With BlackBerry Balance, you can actually just use one device and have your personal items completely separated from your work items. Mobile Fusion will allow IT departments to manage BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices and end users will be able to choose their own device.

Having BlackBerry Balance on BlackBerry 10, users will have a separate work space and personal space on their device. Both run independently of each other and users can easily switch between the two. There will be a separate App World for work and personal that will offer up different apps depending on a user/company needs. The work space can be locked to prevent access, IT can wipe work information while leaving personal intact and even information copied from the personal space will not be able to be pasted in the work space. Check out a quick demo of BlackBerry Balance below.

Devices

At launch we are expecting to see two BlackBerry devices. First will be an all-touch device (known now as the BlackBerry L-Series) followed by a full QWERTY model with a physical keyboard (known now as the N-Series). The keyboard model is expected to come a few weeks after the initial launch of the touchscreen version.

BlackBerry 10 phones

Following the first two devices, it is rumored we will see four additional devices fill out the spectrum. Ultimately we may see three touchscreen devices and three keyboard devices, all at varying pricing tiers. 

Release Date

BlackBerry 10 devices are expected to hit the market in Q1 of 2013. That means we should most likely see the first BlackBerry 10 phones made available by March of 2013 - but nothing is yet set in stone and an official release date has not been announced.

More BlackBerry 10

Discuss more in the BlackBerry 10 forums
BlackBerry 10 News
BlackBerry 10 Superpage
BlackBerry 10 running on the Dev Alpha
Many hands on BlackBerry 10 - 10 things we're looking forward to
Ten things we'll lose in BlackBerry 10

Read more