RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10 OS to Developers: Top Features Explained

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RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10 OS to Developers: Top Features Explained

Canada based Research in Motion (RIM) unveiled its new BlackBerry 10 platform to the developers on Tuesday at an event in Silicon Valley, California during the 2012 BlackBerry Jams developers' conference.

 

At the conference, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins reportedly said, “We are committed to building an entirely new flexible platform with great tool kits that help us to succeed, that help you to succeed…and our customers to succeed.”

 

He added, “The individual pieces are not the point, the really spectacular element of BlackBerry 10 is how do they work together. What we’ve shown you today of BlackBerry 10 so far is designed to support all of you in building integrated, social and beautiful applications on BlackBerry 10.”

Carmy Levy, a tech analyst claims that this a do or die moment for the company. He also said that RIM has put in all its efforts for the new device making it better than the BB 7 OS, which was outsmarted by Android and Apple products.

Earlier reports point out that the BlackBerry 10 will be released in the later half of this year and the smartphones based on the the OS will be released into the markers starting from Q1 of 2013. But, RIM has claimed that the BlackBerry 10 is slated for release in early 2013 and that the company will start with the testing of the OS with the carriers from this fall. Developers can start submitting applications based on BB10 from October 10, 2012.

Lets take a look at the key features of the new BB10 software:

Blackberry Hub

BlackBerry’s messaging system has received a major upgrade with a new a Universal Inbox called BlackBerry Hub, which will have all the emails, text messages, instant messages and social network contacts under one roof. However, it is not being released to developers in the Dev Alpha B device.

Following the opening speech of Heins, Vivek Bhardwaj, head of software for BlackBerry, demonstrated the communications hub feature showing its capabilities.

Touchscreen instead of QWERTY Keyboard

RIM’s new operating system has saida goodby to the physical QWERTY, which made the BB so indispensable to corporate/business users. With the new development, RIM has entered in to the face-of smartphone battle among the major manufacturers of the world.

Blackberry Apps

RIM confirmed that BlackBerry App World – the app store will start selling movies, music and television to compete with the likes of Apple App Store and Google Play.

There will also be the integration of a business-friendly Balance feature, which will allow the handsets to have two profiles – for professional and personal use. Also, RIM confirmed the presence of native applications for social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn before the launch of the OS.

Further, there will also be a feature, namely, Flow, which will allow navigation within the apps, just like iOS.

Reportedly, developers will be able to easily port their Android apps into the BB10 store, or so RIM has been telling app makers.

BlackBerry Messenger

The other features would include improved camera functions, which allow users to mix and match parts of the same image taken over different times, BlackBerry Messenger that allows avatars for each user and makes it easier to track the latest conversations without opening the full thread.

Currently, the company has still not revealed whether the already launched BB devices will support the new operating system. However, RIM introduced in the event a new BlackBerry 10-enabled device, dubbed by the name of BlackBerry Dev Alpha B only for developers featuring 1280 x 768 display on a 4.2-inch screen, giving hints to all Blackberry fans, what the upcoming BB10-capable device might look like.

At the same time, numerous reports from the past have mentioned that consumers with older BlackBerry gadgets may not be able to upgrade their BB7 devices to BB10.

When will the BB10 come to the market? Well, presently, the OS and the next-gen smartphone is expented to unleash in 2013, however, there is no exact date of its release next year, however, the good news is that CEO Thorsten Heins did confirmed during the event that the update is on track and “just a few short months away.”

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