RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10, Its Big Turnaround Hope

Nerval's Lobster writes "Research In Motion has whipped the curtain back from BlackBerry 10. The revamped operating system is widely perceived as RIM's best chance at staying relevant in a smartphone market dominated by Google Android and Apple's iOS. Once a significant player in mobility, RIM watched its earnings and market-share crumble over the past few years. BlackBerry 10 abandons the longtime BlackBerry user interface, centered on grids of icons, in favor of one built on the same QNX technology that powers RIM's PlayBook tablet. The BlackBerry 10 home-screen offers 'live tiles' that dynamically refresh with updated information, and RIM is playing up how users can move between apps and alerts by swiping and flicking the screen. Other features include BlackBerry Balance, which divides the 'personal' and 'corporate' sides of the phone, as well as an updated BlackBerry Messenger. More details in the article." RIM also announced they are rebranding themselves as BlackBerry. If you like pictures, omfglearntoplay sent in an article that delivers. Gimmicks of the launch include hiring Alicia Keys as their "Global Creative Director."

Re:Very nice..

[Alomex]

I've never been a BB fan (never owned one) but I was given an iPhone and a BB10 beta to play with. The BB10 feels way better, and I mean waaaay better. With the iPhone it feels like you spend most of the time clicking on the menu button moving to another app. On the BB10 you swipe left or up and as if by magic all your other app(s) are there, still running.

Re:WTF is the point of BB Balance?

[MyFirstNameIsPaul]

I've had a BlackBerry since 2005 and I don't recall any 4-day outages. In fact, on the 2 or 3 occasions that it was out for a day or so I was only down for an hour or two, and if you read their press releases this makes sense as the outages rarely affect everyone. Similar things have happened with Apple, as I recall. However, when my phone was swiped from my pocket, I felt good knowing that all of sensitive data was safe. Just like with Carrier IQ was found installed on so many phones, it was not installed on BlackBerry. From my perspective, it is the iPhones and Android phones that are riddled with issues.

Re:Very nice..

[tom229]

The win8 phones that I've seen are terrible. They are buggy, have weird behaviour, and a ghost town of an app store. My assumption is that BB10 devices will at least share the latter of those problems and I'm tempted to recommend android, but it might be worth it to wait and see.

What I liked about BB

[smist08]

I used to have a Blackberry Curve. I now have an iPhone 4S. I like my iPhone, but it has some definite drawbacks over my old BB Curve. The Curve's battery would last for a week or more, my iPhone I'm lucky if the battery lasts 2 days between charges. The Curve seemed to be able to get e-mails without incurring roaming charges, when I traveled I could inexpensively text, phone and email. With my iPhone I get big bills, since if Wifi isn't available I have to turn on data roaming to download email. I also found the email and the keyboard much more productive on the BB. If BB still has these advantages, I'll probably go back to BB. If now the battery sucks and it runs up roaming, then I'll probably go to the next Apple phone.

Re:Observations on BB10...

[omfglearntoplay]

It looks like the BB 10 specs are the same or better than the iPhone 5 at least. It only comes with 16GB storage, but upgradable with a card. Faster processors on BB 10 and a few more pixels on the screen (if you get the big one) and better resolution.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/specs-blackberry-10-models-stack-18357208 [go.com]

BB Z10 (big touch screen version):
Display: 4.2-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels (356 pixels per inch)

iPhone 5:
Display: 4-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels (326 pixels per inch).

Weird, I don't see the processor specs on that page, but I checked them at another site a week or two ago.

More on these pages:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/blackberry-z10-vs-iphone-5-vs-galaxy-s3/ [digitaltrends.com]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/iphone-5-benchmark-lightning,3312-3.html [tomshardware.com]

Says that iPhone 5 is dual core 1.29 GHz, while the BB 10 is dual core 1.5 GHz.

My biggest thing is the CAMERA! Not the specs so much, but the software. You take one picture, it gives you a couple of seconds to scroll through and pick the best picture during that time... so no more blinks and yawns in my damn pictures. THANK YOU!