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BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) coming to iOS and Android

by vinayak mathur

The BBM has been one of BlackBerry OS most popular features, years before there was iMessaging, Viber, or WhatsApp. Today, at the company’s annual Blackberry Live 2013 conference, CEO Thorsten Heins announced that this summer they will make the trademark BlackBerry messaging service available as a third-party app to the two most popular smart platforms – iOS and Android.

Initially, the BlackBerry Messenger or BBM, as it’s more commonly known, will only support BBM chats, multi-person chats, voice note sharing, and BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups to share calendar, photos, files, etc.

However, as Heins stated on stage, they have plans of making BBM as fully featured on those other platforms as possible. BlackBerry has plans to expand the functionality of the iOS and Android apps with some of the new BBM features such as Voice and video calls, Screenshare, and the just announced Channels. These will come as subsequent updates.
BBM Channels is a new way for BBM users to connect with the businesses, brands, celebrities and groups they are passionate about.

The BBM will be available to iPhones, running at least iOS 6.0, and to droids, running at least Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Category : Tech News

Tags : Android, bbm, blackberry, coming, ios, messenger

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BlackBerry officially unveils the low-cost Q5

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry unveiled a new low-cost smartphone Tuesday destined for emerging markets in developing countries.

The BlackBerry Q5, which is built on the new BlackBerry 10 platform, will roll out to new markets this summer, said CEO Thorsten Heins, holding up a red version of the phone.

“I think you’re really going to like it,” Heins said, speaking at the company’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

He said the phone, which has a physical keyboard, is a “sleek, slim, high performance device” that will be available in red, black, white and pink.

Heins has made it a priority to expand BlackBerry’s product offerings in the mid- and entry-level range in developing nations, since he took over a year-and-a-half ago.

“We understand the importance of having devices to suit all markets and needs and we have already said we will give global markets an opportunity to provide BlackBerry 10 performance in an ideal price range,” Heins said.

Heins didn’t provide any details about the cost of the new Q5 or whether it would ever be available in North American markets.

Earlier this year BlackBerry introduced the Z10 touchscreen device and Q10 keyboard version.

Category : Mobile Phones

Tags : blackberry, lowcost, officially, q5, Unveils

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BlackBerry R10 pictures and specifications leak online

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry seems to be gearing up to add more devices in its BlackBerry 10 portfolio. Earlier we heard rumours regarding affordable BlackBerry 10 smartphones being in the works, and there’s more buzz around the same.

A few purported pictures of this affordable BlackBerry 10 smartphone have been posted online courtesy Chinese website, DGtle. The past rumours suggest that this smartphone will be dubbed BlackBerry R10 and will be an affordable Curve smartphone.

MobileSyrup via DGtle is reporting that the BlackBerry R10 will come with a 3.1-inch display with a 720X720 pixel resolution. The smartphone is expected to pack in 2GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a 5-megapixel rear camera.

In the past, we have spotted the BlackBerry R10 in White and even Red colours but this is the first time that images of a Black R10 have surfaced online. From the pictures it seems that the BlackBerry R10 has borrowed its looks from the iPhone 3G/ 3GS. The smartphone seems to have a curved, glossy rear panel with the camera lens situated on the top left.

BlackBerry R10 will allegedly be the first BlackBerry smartphone to come with a non-removable battery. It is likely to have a 1800 mAh battery. The BlackBerry R10 will run on BlackBerry 10.1 OS.

The past speculations have hinted a Q3 release for this smartphone and also pegged that BlackBerry R10 is likely to be priced between $300 to $400 without any contract.

Category : Mobile Phones

Tags : blackberry, leak, online, pictures, r10, specifications

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Skype app coming to BlackBerry 10 devices

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry said it plans to fill one of the biggest gaps in the app line-up on its new BlackBerry 10 devices with a long-awaited Skype application.

Skype, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2011, allows its users to communicate via voice, video or chat over the Internet, by-passing traditional telephone networks. The service has hundreds of millions of users across the globe.

The announcement comes a day after BlackBerry said its new Q10 smartphone will be available in Canada on May 1, and in the United States before the end of May. The Q10, which comes with the physical keyboard that many of BlackBerry’s core fan base cherish, is the second device to be powered by the company’s new BB10 operating system.

Skype will be available on the Q10 on launch day. Users of the existing Z10 touchscreen device will have to wait a few weeks more to get Skype, after a software upgrade on the operating system, BlackBerry said.

A smaller app base than Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms has been one of the biggest criticisms of the new BlackBerry system. It has yet to offer some big-name apps like Netflix and Instagram

Category : Tech News

Tags : 10, app, blackberry, coming, devices, Skype

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BlackBerry reports profit, 1m sales of Z10 phones

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry says it sold about 1 million of its critically important new BlackBerry 10 devices and returned to profitability in the fourth quarter.

The earnings provide a first glimpse of how BlackBerry’s new touch-screen Z10 is selling internationally and in Canada since its debut January 31. Details on the US launch are not part of Thursday’s financial results because the Z10 just went on sale in the US last week.

In the quarter that ended March 2, BlackBerry earned $98 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 36 percent to $2.7 billion, from $4.2 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected $2.82 billion.

The company also announced that co-founder Mike Lazaridis will retire as vice chairman and director.

Category : Tech News

Tags : 1m, blackberry, Mobile Phones, profit, reports, sales, z10

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BlackBerry Z10 sold out in India within 2 days: CEO

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry has gotten its new touchscreen mobile device on store shelves in more than 20 countries and is very encouraged by the traction that the smartphone is gaining, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Thursday.
The company’s Z10 (Review), the first in a line of smartphones powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system (Review), is on sale in the UK, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, India, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, among other countries. Launches in other countries are coming soon, said Heins.

A US launch is due later this month.

“The feedback is very encouraging,” Heins said at the Communitech Tech Leadership Conference in the company’s hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo. “What has been a real surprise for us is that BlackBerry 10 as a platform and product is attracting users that are currently on other platforms.”

“We are just five weeks into this. We have just one product out in 21 countries, so it is early indications, but we are encouraged by what we see and hear from our carrier partners,” he told an audience of leaders of local technology start-ups.

Heins declined to give figures on Z10 sales, as the company is in a quiet period ahead of the March 28 release of its fourth-quarter results.

He said the high-end Z10 had surpassed BlackBerry’s expectations in emerging markets like India, where cheaper entry-level devices are typically popular.

“I was surprised when we launched in India how well the Z10, which is a high-end device, sold,” said Heins. “We shipped into the channel product that we thought would have been good for at least five days and I got an emergency call from our manager in India, saying that they were sold out in two days,”

“Now we are scrambling to re-load that channel.”

BlackBerry, a one-time smartphone pioneer, has bled market share to the likes of Apple’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy line and other devices powered by Google Inc’s market-leading Android operating system.

In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfare in January, and said it was abandoning its old name, Research In Motion, and renaming itself BlackBerry.

A more traditional BlackBerry with a physical keyboard will go on sale next month.

Category : Mobile Phones

Tags : 2, blackberry, ceo, days, india, sold, z10

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BlackBerry Z10 to cost Rs 39000 in India: Report

by vinayak mathur

The Canadian smartphone maker has already indicated that India and Indonesia are its two key emerging markets and it is expected that their latest flagship device will be available in these markets soon. If reports in FoneAreana are to be believed, the company will be launching Z10 in India on February 24 and the device will carry the price tag of Rs. 39,000.

BlackBerry Z10 without a contract is available in United Kingdom for 480 pounds and will be available in UAE for AED 2,599, which roughly translates to approximately Rs. 39,000.

As expected, BlackBerry India spokesperson declined NDTV Gadget’s request for comments on the report citing that the company does not wish to make any statements on the rumours. He further added that, “We would wish to get the product in India and any other key market as soon as possible but there are a certain timelines that have to followed to get any new product in the market.”

Just to recap, Z10 is a full-touch device that comes with a 4.2-inch LCD screen with a 1280×768 resolution. It runs on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system and is powered by a dual-core processor that clocks at 1.5GHz alongside 2GB of RAM. The internal storage available on the smartphone is 16GB. It has a 8-megapixel rear camera that can capture 1080p videos and 2-megapixel camera in the front. Z10 comes with 1,850 mAh battery.

If BlackBerry does launch its Z10 in India for about Rs. 39,000 then it will be at par in terms of pricing with the flagships of competing brands. Nokia had launched its Lumia 920 smartphone in India for Rs. 38,199, while Samsung prized Galaxy S III was launched in May for Rs. 43,180. Apple iPhone 5 16GB version came with a price tag of Rs. 45,500 while HTC’s full-HD Butterfly smartphone is available for Rs. 45,990.

However, if BlackBerry does want to get competitive in the price conscious Indian market, a price point of around Rs. 35,000 may just give them an edge.

Category : Mobile Phones, Tech News

Tags : 39000, blackberry, cost, india, report, rs, z10

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BlackBerry 10: 5 new features

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry Hub

Apps like Facebook have been completely integrated with the BlackBerry 10 hub. All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve centre accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email.

BB Remember

BB Remember is meant to organise content into folders and is integrated into BlackBerry Hub. This feature allows users to flag messages, set due dates, take voice notes, add attachments and find contacts.

BlackBerry Balance

A big asset of BlackBerry 10 is what the company has dubbed the “BlackBerry Balance,” a system that allows users to separate professional communications and applications from music, photographs and other personal items.

For instance, IT managers can prevent personal apps from running inside corporate firewalls, but those managers won’t have access to personal data on the device. Such an option means that if a user changes job, his or her former company can disable the device’s corporate side without affecting personal data.

Story Maker

BlackBerry introduced Story Maker, an app to aggregate content such as photos and videos into one stream. BlackBerry Story Maker is meant to allow users to create mini movies and share them on social networks.

Other features

It has multilingual support, and users can flick words with one thumb. Also improved are the picture editor, and a multitude of other features that positions the device both as a consumer device and an enterprise device simultaneously. And now the BBM chat allows you to switch from Chat to Video seamlessly.

Apps: The company said that more than 70,000 apps are available for users in the BlackBerry World.

Category : Mobile Phones

Tags : 10, 5, blackberry, features

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BlackBerry 10 based Q10 and Z10 smartphones unveiled

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry, which previously called itself Research In Motion, today unveiled two new smartphones that it hopes will aid its efforts to return to favor with consumers and business users.

One phone, dubbed the BlackBerry Z10, features a full touch screen — no QWERTY keyboard on this one. The 4.2-inch display has a pixel density of 356 per inch, compared to the iPhone’s 326ppi density.

The other, dubbed the BlackBerry Q10, includes a full keyboard similar to those on older versions of the BlackBerry.
“We have the aspiration to be the best keyboard experience period,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said during an event in New York.

Both devices include 4G LTE capabilities. Verizon Wireless said it will offer both phones to its customers. The Z10 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year contract in either black or white models. The white version is exclusive to Verizon, the company said.
The BlackBerry Z10 will hit several markets by early February, but U.S. buyers will have to wait a bit.

“We expect availability for most U.S. carriers for Z10 to be in March,” Heins said.
Along with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile will also offer the phone. Heins noted the carriers will soon announce their plans for the devices. The phone will retail for $199 with a contract or sell for $599 unsubsidized, the company said.

U.K. buyers will be able to purchase the phone tomorrow from EE, O2, Vodafone, Phones 4u, BT, 3UK, and the Carphone Warehouse. Pricing varies based on carrier and retail partners and is available on pay monthly contracts and pre-paid tariffs.
The Z10 will be available in Canada on Feb. 5. Pricing will vary by carrier partner but will retail for about $149.99 on a three-year contact.

Even the United Arab Emirates should have the phone before the U.S.
Heins, meanwhile, discussed other features of the new products and operating system, including BlackBerry Flow, which allows users to move between apps. The technology allows users to open and minimize apps through swipes, and everything keeps working. BlackBerry Peek allows users to play a video and check notifications at once.

Category : Mobile Phones

Tags : 10, based, blackberry, q10, smartphones, unveiled, z10

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BBM gets voice calling over Wi-Fi for BlackBerry 6 and above

by vinayak mathur

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has announced an early holiday present for legions of fans of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service. The company has announced a version 7 of the BBM app (currently in beta) that supports voice calling over Wi-Fi.

Users can continue to text chat with other BBM contacts while they are on a voice call. Voice calling will not work over 3G or cellular networking, likely as a sop to keep mobile operators around the globe happy.

RIM explained the key features of voice calling via BBM:

Customers can initiate a BBM Voice call directly, or instantly switch from a BBM text chat to talk, and back again.
The split-screen feature allows customers to talk and text at the same time, so for example, they can send a picture to their contact while talking with them. They can also check other BBM text chats, check email, or navigate to other apps while engaged on a BBM Voice call.
BBM provides a visual indicator that shows when contacts are available for a voice call.
BBM Voice is compatible with any accessories a customer has now for making voice calls on their BlackBerry smartphone, such as a Bluetooth or wired headset. Customers can also use BBM Voice over their BlackBerry smartphone’s speakerphone.
If it’s not an ideal time to talk, customers can simply choose to respond by texting back.

BBM version 7 also brings integration with a customer’s BlackBerry ID, which is designed to back up their BBM profile, groups and contacts so they can automatically be restored in the event they switch to a new BlackBerry smartphone.

“BBM is the quick, easy way to stay connected to the people that matter to you, and with today’s announcement we’re expanding the capabilities of the service for deeper social engagement and even greater collaboration, beginning with voice functionality,” said T.A. McCann, Vice President of BBM and Social Communities at RIM. “The new BBM Voice feature is for when you’re travelling and you want to call home without worrying about phone charges. It’s for when you have news you can’t wait to share, for quickly explaining complicated details, and collaborating with colleagues. Whenever your ideas are too big for text, there’s BBM Voice.”

BBM version 7 with the new BBM Voice feature is currently available in Beta for BlackBerry smartphones running the BlackBerry 6 OS or higher with support planned for smartphones running the BlackBerry 5 OS at a future date. The Beta can be downloaded for free from BlackBerry Beta Zone.

Category : Tech News

Tags : 6, bbm, blackberry, calling, voice, WiFi

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