The Right ClickBlackBerry 10′s new features explained at BlackBerry World 2012
Despite RIM's ongoing struggles, the company is trying to pull up its bootstraps by introducing the new BlackBerry 10 operating system for its mobile devices.
While many, including Yahoo! Finance Canada blogger Carmi Levy, remain skeptical if the new OS will actually help to save the company, it is ultimately up to consumers whether BlackBerry 10 is a long-awaited saving grace for BlackBerry users.
Developers at BlackBerry World 2012 got the full lowdown on the features of BlackBerry 10, as CNET reports. Here's everything you need to know about what to expect from BlackBerry 10:
A Whole New Look
The new tiled look of BlackBerry 10 appears to be some sort of hybrid between iOS, Windows Phone 7 and Android 4.0. Big graphics are the order of the day, doing away with the small icons of BlackBerry 7. There are four widgets featured on the Home screen, VentureBeat reports. In the BlackBerry World 2012 demo, weather, calendar, music and photos were showcased. How the graphic interface will function exactly remains to be seen.
Don't Have To Go Home, But You Can't Stay Here
The Herald Sun reports that you no longer need to return to the Home screen in order to open up a new application. Instead, users can swipe to the left or the right to move between applications.
Touch Screen, or Not to Touch Sceen?
RIM is testing the waters with new touch-screen devices, departing from the strictly physical keyboard. Many users still prefer having a real keyboard (it is, in fact, currently one of the selling points featured in BlackBerry commercials), so there will be physical keyboard models coming eventually (likely in 2013), but eWeek reports that touch screen models will be arriving this year.
It Keeps Going, and Going, and Going…
Apps in BlackBerry 10 never stop running, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said at the conference. While the idea of not having to wait for applications to load is nice, many BlackBerry users may be questioning what this will do to the device's battery life.
Say Cheese!
Some of the most interesting features of BlackBerry 10 are related to the device's camera. When taking a photo, you can step forward or backwards in time by a moment or two from when you take the photo. That way, you'll never have that person blinking and spoiling the photo again. RIM also demonstrated how you can click anywhere on the screen to take a photo.
Let Your Fingers Do The Walking
The new user interface in BlackBerry 10 introduces gesture controls, like swiping up or down to accept or reject an incoming call. CNET also reports that BlackBerry 10 will adjust to individual users over time; the device will pay attention to where your fingers hit the on-screen keyboard, and adapt to make your typing more accurate. More details on the new user interface are yet to come.
You can get a sneak peek for yourself in this video, which was shown during the BlackBerry World 2012 keynote, which was delivered by Heins:
