RIM and BlackBerry 10

With BlackBerry 10 about to launch at the end of the month, and a plethora of leaked information, it can be difficult to know the difference between the wheat and the chaff.   Will the hardware be solid? Will the OS be a disappointment?  Will RIM be able to deliver? These, and many more questions have been raised recently - and we will soon find out! 

Although we do not have all the details, we do have an idea of what the hardware is rumoured to be for the all-touch Z10; a 4.2-inch high definition display with a resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels, Dual-Core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 CPU, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, micro-SD card slot, an 8-megapixel 1080p rear camera with 5x digital zoom, a 2-megapixel HD front-facing camera, NFC, Bluetooth 4, 4G LTE and an 1,800 mAh removable battery.  The details are unknown regarding the full QWERTY keyboard model (X10) which is slated to be released shortly after the Z10, though the screen resolution should be a 720 x 720 pixels HD screen as per documented specifications, and as for the rest – it should not differ greatly from the Z10. 

The new BlackBerry 10 operating system has been built from the ground up on the QNX Neutrino RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) micro-kernel core.  QNX, which is owned by RIM, is widely used as the basis for automotive electromechanical systems and infotainment systems found in many of today’s automobiles, as well as industrial control systems, medical instruments, nuclear power plants, robotics, Defense systems and UAV’s, and the Internet’s High-Speed core switches.  So, as you can see, it is not unproven as an OS!  The graphical user interface has been designed for the mobile platform and has many familiar features found on other popular mobile phones, as well as a few that are exclusive to BlackBerry 10 – true multi-tasking (the ability to run several applications simultaneously). 

The theme of BlackBerry 10 is “Peek, and Flow”.  You will no longer have to open an “app” to access your email, texts, BBM’s, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter accounts as they will all be available from the “Hub” – via a simple swipe across the screen.  If you are in another application and you receive a notification that some communiqué has been received on your phone, you can “peek” from within the application you are in to see what kind, if it is important, and does it require immediate attention, or not.  If it does, you can continue with the swipe gesture and “flow” into the Hub to address whatever requires your attention, if not, you can return to where you were in your application without ever closing, minimising or leaving it. 

For those of us who are linked to our corporate email via a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), it will be possible to have two separate profiles on a BlackBerry 10 mobile phone; known as BlackBerry Balance.  One work profile, and one personal profile – essentially two phones in one!  The work profile can be secured, and controlled by the IT policies enforced by your company, all the while leaving you in complete control of your personal profile.  Use your BlackBerry 10 smartphone for work, and access email, apps and documents without compromising your personal content, and vise-versa.  BlackBerry Balance keeps your personal information separate and private from your work data. Switch between your profiles with one simple gesture.  The dual mode has the added advantage of allowing business folks to avoid work email, etc. for the weekend by switching the phone over to personal mode and pretending all those unread work missives don’t exist!  As well as the usual contact data (telephone number, email, etc.), BlackBerry 10 displays additional up-to-date info about the individual sourced from the internet and social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as all past communications you have had with them, like phone calls, emails, meetings, etc. Tapping on an ‘updates’ button on a contact’s page will display a stream of online updates relating to the person via their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, as well as their corporate web space (as long as that information is entered in their contact info).

Browsing the Internet on previous models of BlackBerry mobile phones has been lacklustre at best, but on the new BlackBerry 10 platform it is faster than nearly all other browsers – on any device, mobile, tablet, or PC!  The browser includes full support for Flash and HTML5. The browser includes a reader mode view which repackages web content to give it a “clean text look” and simplifying formatting for the smartphone form factor and to avoid the need to do lots of zooming in and out.  As well as a fantastic bookmark management system.

Now, as most of us are reluctant to give up our trusted keyboards, the question is – how good is the virtual keyboard found on the BlackBerry Z10?  Well, RIM licensed the core keyboard from SwiftKey, and then they went on to improve on it (racking up several patents along the way).  The final product is an excellent and effortless typing experience that holds several unique traits.  The ability to set up to three input languages, so that as you type, it can suggest words, or correct words in multiple languages within the same sentence automatically.  Add to that the word suggestions are conveniently placed above the next logical letter in the word being typed; for example, if you type ‘Roger” the word ‘Federer’ might appear above the ‘F’ key – and with a flick of your digit it is added to your phrase.  The keyboard software also analyses your messaging history to learn more about the language you use — and will incorporate what it learns about your choices of vocabulary and slang into more relevant suggestions.  Additionally, the virtual keyboard learns your typing characteristics and finger placements over time – that is to say, that if you have a tendency to press the lower right hand quadrant of the “W” key more often than the “sweet spot”, it will realign your keyboards “sweet spot” to better reflect your typing style. 

For those who use the camera on their device, a new “Time Shift” ability should be quite popular.  You will be able to pinpoint and adjust elements of your picture to get the photo you want. “Time Shift” mode captures milliseconds before and after your photo – so you can scroll back on the dial to open one friend’s eyes, then forward to catch your other friend smiling, before combining it all to create the perfect picture.

Add to these features Research in Motion’s recently approved Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution for Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payments, which will enable you to use your mobile phone as a method of paying for goods and services securely around the globe.
As we approach the launch day of BlackBerry 10, one thing is sure – these will be interesting and exciting times for RIM and BlackBerry!

By Brett Johnson