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Blackberry Cellphones

Leaked Photo Shows Touch-Screen BlackBerry 10 Phone 112

Posted by Soulskill from the finally-arriving-at-their-own-party dept.
alancronin tips this quote from CNet: "A new leaked photo of the BlackBerry 10 smartphone, or the 'London,' promises a completely different looking BlackBerry than the world is used to. According to the BlackBerry news site N4BB, a photo of the device (which is designed by Porsche) shows a slender touch-screen phone that is the color 'gun metal.' Several apps are shown in the photo, including Facebook, BBM, and DocsToGo. ... The London is the first BlackBerry 10 and is slated to have a TI OMAP dual-core CPU running at 1.5GHz, as well as 1GB of RAM, 16GB storage, and an 8-megapixel camera."
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Leaked Photo Shows Touch-Screen BlackBerry 10 Phone More

Leaked Photo Shows Touch-Screen BlackBerry 10 Phone

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  • Irrelevance and mediocrity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LordLimecat ( 1103839 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @01:28AM (#41231921)

    The entire reason I loved my blackberry was its keyboard-centeredness. Why the heck do I want a business phone that has a crappy touch keyboard? Theres android and iPhone for that.

    I guess we still get the BES stuff, but which users are actually going to want a blackberry? If youre going to mandate a business phone, why mandate one that sucks at being a business phone?

    I mean, I guess what they had wasnt selling phones, and their market share was shrinking-- seems logical to make a change, right? Except they just killed 80% of what made blackberry so popular to begin with. Being just another touch-device clone isnt really the way to claw your way back into the game.

    • With keyboard as well (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @02:24AM (#41232217)

      RIM have already announced there will be a version with a physical keyboard and a 720*720 screen, for "real" BB users. The BB on-screen keyboard as on the PlayBook is, in my view, better than others, but I agree: as someone who uses a BB for messaging, I am waiting for the keyboard version. Preferably the slider.

      Currently the meme is that RIM is dying and I suspect this has its origins in the large and well staffed Apple and Microsoft PR departments. But consider: the difference between a BB phone and Android/iOS is that the BB doesn't phone home all your private information to Google or Apple. A lot of "apps" are basically Trojans for privacy violation. What message do you think that RIM is addressing to corporates, right now?

      • Re:With keyboard as well (Score:4, Insightful)

        by somersault ( 912633 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @05:12AM (#41232843) Homepage Journal

        Currently the meme is that RIM is dying and I suspect this has its origins in the large and well staffed Apple and Microsoft PR departments

        Um. Okay. Nothing to do with Blackberrys being shit to use, and requiring a third party server add on to work effectively, then?

        • Have you actually tried one? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Kupfernigk ( 1190345 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @05:54AM (#41232977)
          Are you comparing like to like? Like to like is a Bold 9900 versus an iPhone, not a corporate 2010 model versus a 2012 phone. The last generation of BlackBerries are actually not hard to use, very configurable for business use (different notifications for different classes of incoming message, auto clock mode in dock, powerful security certificate handling), and the "third party server add on" is a messaging server - how well does your corporate iPhone work without one? Exchange is a third party add on from a phone point of view. I assume you mean that the BES is an add on to your Exchange server, but does your Exchange server provide secure XMPP or an equivalent out of the box?

          Apple and Google have very carefully shifted the grounds away from considerations of message security and integrity, messaging flexibility, and privacy to - ooh shiny! Angry Birds! But I suspect that eventually people will realise that it's panem et circenses to keep the mass buyers happy. A phone is always a compromise as a media device, which is why screen sizes keep creeping up, and a media device is always a compromise as a phone (too big, battery life too short).

          • I've had to support Blackberry users several times in the last 10 years, and the configurations options on the phone are just organised really badly. I'm sure the interface is fine for using if it's set up correctly, but it's not like iOS or Android are hard to message with either.

            I'm happy with HTTPS security, I don't work for a government agency.

            I don't see Exchange as a third party add-on, because we already used Exchange for years before ActiveSync DirectPUSH came out. It's not "third party" because it

            • I do work for a government agency... (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward

              I'm happy with HTTPS security, I don't work for a government agency.

              ...and I'm happy that you're happy with HTTPS security because that makes my job even easier. ;-)

              • I hope you're interested in mechanical engineering, and where I might be going for lunch. You'd be better off monitoring Skype though.

                • Unsecured email access is how massively expensive leaks and intrusions occur. They tend to be a LOT less likely with remote wipe capability, built in device memory / storage encryption, and effectively (for all meaningful purposes) uncrackable transport security.

                  HTTPS is fine, as long as you are super confident in all of those trusted root authorities, or if youre not using a self-signed cert. Both of those are remarkably unsafe assumptions.

            • I use IMAP with TLS encryption on my Android devices, and full device encryption with pin code to access. I have remote wipe and locator functions through a third-party anti-virus app. I don't see any benefit of using a BB at this point.

          • Anecdotal remark...
            All members of our department were given or offered BlackBerry Bold 9000-series phones... 3 of us tried to use them but gave them back, 1 didn't accept it to begin with, 1 was the dept head and he's sick of it and waiting for the iPhone 5. Only one person kept their BlackBerry, and that person is the BES admin... and he's consistently frustrated with it.

            So, in our world you have:
            • 1 with a BlackBerry Bold 9000 (or newer): Not very happy but can hardly switch since he recommended the BES s

            • Its entirely possible that none of those users are too concerned with email / phone, and are more concerned with "other things" the phone can do. That being the case, a blackberry would be the polar opposite of what they wanted.

              and our relatively generous policies.

              One of the reasons BES's benefits arent that great for you. Most of the benefit on the admin side is the massive control you have.

              Im not sure what the frustration your users might have experienced was, but Ill say that initially I was frustrated with my blackberry (4 or so years ag

              • You are right at least in part. The reasons people didn't like it were (in no particular order): Internet capabilities / pages not showing properly; Intranet pages not showing properly or functions not working; SharePoint pages not showing properly or not working or too slow; Can't navigate with the little roller ball; Fingers too big for the little keys; Can't connect to our VPN; No terminal emulation; Lack of business-related apps for monitoring servers, troubleshooting wifi, checking MySQL servers for da

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by zlives ( 2009072 )

                  The first part of your post is spot on. RIM dropped the ball, sitting on their laurels as others surpassed them.

                  keyboard wise, swype(on my droid) is a life saver, but still not as good as my torch for typing.

                  from an IT and admin point of view, BB is still more secure than any other phone. there are no good corporate tools for managing droids and iPhones to prevent intentional and unintentional data loss. I for one will keep an open mind till i see what BB 10 and BB10 server? can do before deciding.

                  I had hop

                • At least a few of the issues you mentioned simply arent real problems blackberries have:

                  1. No terminal emulation-- I used a terminal emulator for years on my blackberry. BBTerm i think it was called, but cant recall of the top of my head.
                  2. *VPN problems-- All blackberries support a large number of VPN endpoints. It certainly supports IPsec, with profiles for the most popuilar vendors. Certainly its VPN support is vastly superior to that of IOS or Android.
                  3. *Troubleshooting wifi-- There were a number of wifi ap

          • FWIW, I'm happy with VPN+IMAP with the iPhone. I'm not interested in having to purchase, install, and maintain RIM's crap software + exchange + windows to use a Crackberry when a Linux box running Scalix or Exim works just as well with the iPhone - for free. :-)

      • But consider: the difference between a BB phone and Android/iOS is that the BB doesn't phone home all your private information to Google or Apple.

        My level of caring about that given the work I do is pretty minimal. What I have always cared about is being able to make calls without looking at the screen, having robust keyboard shortcuts, and having a keyboard that never, ever, ever fails to register a keystroke or register a hardware button.

        My old blackberry bold hit all of those criteria; it may have occasionally stuttered (even while taking notes) but I could fly on that keyboard and it would keep up. I got a new "BlAndroid" (as I call it-- a Moto

    • Re:Irrelevance and mediocrity (Score:4, Informative)

      by Eyeball97 ( 816684 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @02:31AM (#41232257)

      Been using touchscreen BB since the storm. Truly a horrible machine, hardware-wise, and the storm 2 wasn't much better. But, and I suspect I may be in a minority, I still prefer my storm 2 touchscreen to my SGS2 for one simple reason - the hardware "click". I've lost count of the number of times I've cursed at Android for following a link (i.e. picking up a 'click') when I'm actually just trying to scroll. Never happened on the BB, not even once.

      As for bb and "keyboard-centeredness" I came from a Bold 9700 to the Storm, and if I had a time machine and could go back, I'd give up the keyboard in exchange for display real-estate again in a heartbeat, despite the shortcomings of the storm. I did curse, throw fits and desperately miss the physical keyboard for a couple of weeks but after that, I became accustomed to the touch keyboard and now don't miss the physical keyboard at all...

      I'm not convinced the keyboard alone accounted for "80% of the popularity". For me I could care less - it's BBM and Push/Notifications that make it my choice of 'business' phone.

      • Maybe part of the problem is hand-size. Ive got monstrous hands (Im 6'7 or so), and accurately hitting links or text locations in edit mode is phenomenally frustrating. With trackpad + physical keyboard, none of this was ever an issue. My perfect device would be the Bold you mentioned but with a touchscreen for those things touch is good for.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I had a Bold 9700 for about three years and loved it for email. The keyboard allowed me to type so quickly and with minimal errors. Unfortunately the thing was falling apart so I had to upgrade. My choice was Android or iPhone. Seeing as the Blackberry was a work phone and I already I have an Android (Galaxy Nexus currently and many other Android phones previously) for personal use, I thought I'd give the iPhone a shot. I seriously couldn't see myself doing the same level of emails on an Android compared t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kye4u ( 2686257 )

      The entire reason I loved my blackberry was its keyboard-centeredness. Why the heck do I want a business phone that has a crappy touch keyboard? Theres android and iPhone for that.

      I guess we still get the BES stuff, but which users are actually going to want a blackberry? If youre going to mandate a business phone, why mandate one that sucks at being a business phone?

      I mean, I guess what they had wasnt selling phones, and their market share was shrinking-- seems logical to make a change, right? Except they just killed 80% of what made blackberry so popular to begin with. Being just another touch-device clone isnt really the way to claw your way back into the game.

      This is the classic innovator's dilemma. It is how once great companies can miss the boat on new markets. They are constrained and encumbered by the demands and wants of their current customer base, which are responsible for the huge profits. Satisfying current customer demands can result in not allocating enough resources needed to develop technologies for emerging/new markets. It is easy to ignore new markets as they do not initially provide the profit opportunities that the companies current market pr

      • If in some alternate reality a car maker in the 1890s was going out of business because everyone was raving over the new horse-and-buggy, I would be much happier that they stick to their "failing" model rather than removing their excellent product from the market. Thats basically how I feel now-- in the name of general purpose cellphones and youtube everywhere, we are giving up one of the most outstanding business comms form factors.

        Physical keyboards disappearing-- whats not to love? Unless of course you

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I had a Blackberry Curve back in 07. In 09 I got a shiny new Android phone. Then I got a Palm Pixi. Then I realized what I really missed was my Blackberry. I like push notifications. I like being able to forget to charge my device for a night or two. I don't want a glorified game console, I don't have time to waste like that. That's just me.

      That said, the current Blackberry software sucks. Whenever you upgrade or delete an app, the phone has to reboot. Acceptable for 2007. Insane for 2012.

      • My one major complaint about the 9900 is the battery life. Even with wifi turned on (which, if you're in range of wifi all the time, lengthens battery life), I'm lucky if mine lasts 24 hours. Granted I get a crapload of mail, but it was really nice to charge 2-3 times a week.

        That being said, the 9900 is pretty nice. The keyboard is big enough, screen resolution is nice, touchscreen is pretty nice, my only other complaint was they got rid of the "Reader" function in the web browser (but I guess that's wha

      • That said, the current Blackberry software sucks. Whenever you upgrade or delete an app, the phone has to reboot. Acceptable for 2007. Insane for 2012.

        There was a lot that sucked about the Blackberry OS, but Ive seen what the alternative is, and Im happy to accept those shortcomings for what I got in return.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      BB10 will launch with a touchscreen model. A keyboard model is expected to come 3-4 weeks later. it will be very much like the BB phones of old. hald screen, half keyboard.

      And reviews of that touchscreen keyboard say that it is amazing and better than anything out there. And it's patented.

    • I've heard rumors [bgr.com] that the new phones won't support BES natively, but be part of a new overall BES architecture [blackberry.com]. Where the "new" BES will be a management console for the "old" BES that you all know and love, and a VPN like service for the new phones/playbook.

      IMHO this will help kill BB. The one solid thing you could count on was BES, now you're adding complexity with multiple BES servers, multiple UIs, and hoping it all gels together while you're trying to keep your head above water. That, and the consumer

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        from my understanding (BB mobile fusion http://us.blackberry.com/business/software/blackberry-mobile-fusion.html#tab-1 [blackberry.com] )... and since i havnt deployed, just read some info, take with a grain of salt.
        there is a separate manager for iPhone and droid devices to deploy BB software to apple store and play store (droid?) and to centrally rule them all through one console. That way if your corporate infrastructure allows for multi-brand (bb, Apple, Droid) phones you can mange them from one location.

  • and is slated to have a TI OMAP dual-core CPU running at 1.5GHz

    Is this considered good or no?

    • For 2011, yes. For the 2013 launch date, no.

    • http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-tegra-4-wayne-arm-a15,15261.html [tomshardware.com]

      By 2013, NVidia's Tegra 4 gonna be out.

      It's rumored to have a Kepler GPU and run 10 times the performance of Tegra2, more or less the equivalent to the TI-chip the Blackberry is based on.

    • As a forced-to-use BlackBerry user, it is entirely frustrating hitting the red "end" key and having to wait 2 seconds or so before the phone goes back to the main operating "home" screen. Or if you have to scroll to the next horizontal home screen and wait 2-3 seconds. I for one welcome faster and more usable devices with better processors as long as the battery life is still decent. Just like once I got an SSD on my laptop, there is no looking (or going) back to slow and unproductive hardware.

  • Wrong product name (Score:5, Funny)

    by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @01:30AM (#41231929)
    They should call it the Blackberry 12, since it'll be released one chapter after Chapter 11.

    • They should call it the Blackberry 12, since it'll be released one chapter after Chapter 11.

      RIM is a profitable company. You know, they're adding money to their bank account quarter after quarter. That's not the best way to approach bankruptcy.

      • RIM is a zombie company. The vultures are just deciding which pieces they'll devour first.
        • Stock-wise, they're at 6.61 right now with a 52-week range of 6.56 to 32.48. They're scraping the bottom of their 52-week range, and are 20% of the value from their 52-week high. Trend is flat to downwards. It seems the market doesn't like them.
        • Technology-wise, they have old, tired products and their biggest asset is the corporate customers who haven't already migrated away.
        • Marketshare is dropping steadily.
        • Apps: They

  • Leaked photos are sooo 2003. They need to step up their game a bit, maybe have an exciting car chase as the photo-taker desperately tries to make it to a hotspot.

  • Doesn't tell you much (Score:3)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @02:22AM (#41232209) Homepage

    Does everything have to be a rectangular grid of icons? With a shiny screen?

    The video seems to be a video of a phone playing another video showing the battery replacement procedure.

    "Gun-metal color"? Right. If they actually made the thing out of Parkerized steel, it would be a great industrial-strength design. But what we're probably seeing is the usual scheduled consumer electronics color rotation from black to white to grey and back to black. Yawn.

    • Maybe they're simply trying to take the heat off Samsung.

      In all seriousness though it doesn't all have to be a grid of icons. The tile concept in the Windows Phone is a truly marvellous ... ok how about the hexagonal layout of icons in the earlier windows phone surely that's a stroke of brilli....

      You know what? I'm staying with grided icons.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Animats ( 122034 )

        In all seriousness though it doesn't all have to be a grid of icons. The tile concept in the Windows Phone is a truly marvellous ... ok how about the hexagonal layout of icons in the earlier windows phone surely that's a stroke of brilli....

        There are other alternatives. As soon as there are more icons than will fit on the screen, the ease of use of an icon grid breaks down. At that point, the usual options are "pages", scrolling or a hierarchy. All of which break the simple paradigm.

        Then, of course, there's "search". When things are known by their icons, rather than a textual name, search is painful.

  • They left out the best part: QT

  • just go android already. keep the bb email system and bb messenger and the coporate guys would be fine with it. and get all the android apps the users would be happy about.

    • just go android already. keep the bb email system and bb messenger and the coporate guys would be fine with it. and get all the android apps the users would be happy about.

      It took RIM long enough to port that stuff to QNX, and now they should start all over again..? That's what brought Nokia to its knees.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dynamoo ( 527749 )
        Well, RIM are definitely following the path of Nokia. There's a direct parallel between what happened with Maemo/MeeGo and QNX. But the difference is that Nokia shitcanned MeeGo when it realised that it had missed the boat by about two years. RIM doesn't seem to understand this, a 2013 release date for these new QNX based devices is simply too late.

        Don't get me wrong, QNX is a rock solid OS to build your mobile platform on. MeeGo is (was?) also very good. You could also say a lot of nice things about WebO

  • It's not only the hardware (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @04:53AM (#41232783) Homepage

    Sure, the hardware is a thing. But it's only a thing that supports better software and performance. The main thing is the things people can do with it.

    The "wow" about iPhone, and later Android, was "look at all the things I can do with it! And the number of things I can do with it is growing like crazy!"

    The thing about Android is "look at all the things I can do with it! with fewer restrictions! and cheaper!"

    What does Blackberry bring? Developers? Apps? Freedom?

    They bring business maturity. That's about it. Is it enough?

    • The "wow" about iPhone, and later Android, was "look at all the things I can do with it! And the number of things I can do with it is growing like crazy!"

      It's a bit surprising to remember that the app store didn't launch for over a year after the iPhone.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It's a bit surprising to remember that the app store didn't launch for over a year after the iPhone.

        As a Blackberry user at the time when the iPhone launched, my friends and I laughed at the iPhone. Our Blackberries were super powerful machines by comparison featuring things like voice dialing, voice notes, copy/paste, videos, third party apps (over the air no less!), GPS, MMS messaging, games, Bluetooth support that wasn't crap, instant messaging, expandable storage, removable battery, any MP3 as a ring tone, set a background picture, etc etc etc. About all the iPhone had going for it at the time was a g

        • Frankly, the music player was enough. Even now, except for possibly Zune on WP7 depending on your tastes, media handling on cell phones is dismal AT BEST.

          Then there was that web browser...you mean I can actually use the web on a phone? The G1 came out a year after the iPhone and looked positively archaic even at the time. It was Mobile Safari and Mobile Safari alone that has driven the development of the mobile web, quite literally since all other mobes are based on MOBILE webkit and not just website.

          This i

  • If it had a real keyboard and focused on being secure, didn't send my info everywhere, and was completely open, and lets me manage memory, disk space, processes and battery life. And lets me back it up easily to a Mac, and add patches..
    In other words has everything I wish android had. I love my HTC Evo 4G but also it provides frustration. My biggest gripes are that it makes it impossible to do maintenance by hiding files or not providing simple utilities. It doesn't let me delete old attachments from main m

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