BlackBerry 10 is about integration, usability
Summary: As the Jan. 30, 2013, launch of BlackBerry 10 draws nearer, here's a look at the some of the key elements of the upcoming operating system.
I attended the latest BlackBerry 10 Jam developer conference held in Bangkok last week. With less than two months until its official unveiling on Jan. 30, 2013, I found the company more open to demonstrating some of the key elements of its brand new operating system (OS), though, what it showed was by no means the final user interface (UI).
Here are my thoughts on the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform based on what I've seen.
Integration and flow
Unlike a traditional smartphone, key tasks are no longer kept within silos but are integrated across apps. All activities culminate at the BlackBerry Hub, which contains important information such as signal strength and time. RIM has exploited the multi-threaded capabilities of the underlying QNX kernel to let users "peek" or access the Hub from any app. If anything, BlackBerry 10 can be said as more "touch" than the iOS or Android platforms.
Social is also at the core of the new OS, and is deeply integrated into the platform. For example, photos and data harvested from social networks--including LinkedIn profiles--are automatically extracted and used to build a comprehensive user profile.
Other nifty touches can also be seen throughout the few default apps which were demonstrated. Before taking a photo with the camera app, drag the autofocus grid around the screen to set the focus correctly. Tapping on any part of the screen will capture a photo. And like the PlayBook, clicking both the up and down buttons also serves as a shortcut to snap a photo.
The virtual keyboard
Vivek Bhardwaj, head of software portfolio at RIM, talked about the virtual keyboard during one demo, where he highlighted the technology behind the new virtual keyboard. While not widely publicized or known, the superior tactile feel of a BlackBerry keyboard is due to the unique shape and size of each key.
As this doesn't make sense for a virtual keyboard, RIM has instead emulated it by modeling an invisible layer under the virtual keyboard to better map physical key-presses to the intended symbols. Moreover, the keyboard will also learn and adapt based on the current context of what is being typed to deliver the same BlackBerry typing experience.
Bhardwaj suggested that users can master the new keyboard by simply "letting go" and typing. While a physical keyboard may still be superior to folks who "write novels" on their BlackBerry smartphones, some may actually find themselves typing faster on the virtual keyboard, he said.
App support
There is never any doubt that app support is the linchpin of any new OS platform. On this topic, Alec Saunders, who is RIM's vice president developer relations and ecosystem development, promised the company is looking at the "largest number of apps for a first-generation device that the world has ever seen".
While Saunders did not give any figures, the BlackBerry 10 platform is expected to launch with tens of thousands of applications. "Our goal is to get as many applications out in the store as we can," he reiterated at a media briefing.
All these apps are not appearing magically either; developers whom I've spoken to at the conference agreed that putting creating a BlackBerry 10 app is a relatively simple affair. Programmers may want to read more about the development options for the BlackBerry 10.
Conclusion
When it launches early next year, BlackBerry 10 will be the newest and quite possibly the most advanced mobile OS. While this is no guarantee that it will ultimately succeed, RIM is at least doing all the right things on the development front. Indeed, the development team has been heard touting the new platform as "integrated, social and beautiful". From what little I've seen of it so far, this is not an idle boast.
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Talkback
Blackberry 10: AWESOME... an opinion article
Yes, there are things a BlackBerry can't do very well or at all. But it is capable of doing so many things that its rivals can't match. You have to wonder if the rest of the phone industry has been taking some strange stupefying drug.
For example, the BlackBerry knows when it's in a holster. It knows when it's on a nightstand so it can do all kinds of "I'm in a nightstand now" things. You know what's "incoming" without taking it out of its case - you can tell that from the LED indicator. (Enthusiasts have written programs to allow you to set sophisticated 'Blinkenlights' sequences of coloured flashes, telling you in much more detail what is going on.) The obsession with usability extends to giving everything a shortcut key. You can set up a custom shortcut key to show you all the emails from Alice in the last three months, for example.
Nobody else does this. Has RIM replicated this in its new user interface for BlackBerry OS 10? We've already written up a quick preview of the QNX-powered mobile operating system - here's a follow-up hands-on tour of the kit.
First off, BlackBerry-maker RIM has acknowledged, or not forgotten, that getting to messaging fast is what the BlackBerry is all about. If BB10 has a "home" screen, it's the "Hub": a list of calendar appointments, and messages aggregated from SMS, email and social networks. Everything else is a kind of card-style overlay on this. Yes, there's a Palm-style app grid. Software can be put into folders, just like on Apple's iOS."
source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/23/bb10_latest_ui/
BlackBerry rocks!
Even if other O.Ss did the software side of email and other communications standards as well as BlackBerry -- and I have not seen much evidence of that --, a physical keyboard is still a sine qua non if one does any serious amount of text input.
I don't care how flashy or fashionable my handset is. I need it to fulfill my needs efficiently, effectively and reliably, and BlackBerry does that par excellence. I've owned BlackBerrys for the past four years and I'll be definitely buying an O.S. 10 handset when it's released early 2013.
Better be careful...
Because if your organization doesn't UPGRADE its current BES system to the new one...you aren't going to be able to send or receive messages on your BB10 device.
And if your organization is still using current BB devices, they will need to have BES setups for BOTH the old & new devices. They are not cross compatible.
ActiveSync
IT_Fella
Hey Sparky...
"Thus if you're looking to operate a mixed fleet of BBOS 7 and older devices together with BB10 devices you'll need both the old and the new pieces of software."
http://www.zdnet.com/youll-need-to-deploy-bes-10-for-blackberry-10-to-make-any-sense-7000005551/
LOL..nope not clueless
correction
Again ?
BlackBerry 10 Ready Program for Enterprise
1/ BB10 will support ActiveSync (worst scenario)
2/ Current BES5 users will receive a free update to BES10.
Get updated ! :)
obviously everyone has what they like
most advanced OS?
BB10's only real chance of success lies in the one thing RIM is still good at- security. BYOD is becoming more and more popular, and BB10 will for the most part fail in these places. In companies obsessed with security they have a chance to get their phones locked in there. If they get a large enough install base they will have a chance to built BB10's features and app library and become truly competitive.
You don't know much
You're assertion is not correct. Use any good process utility
You don't always have to explicitly code threading to have multi-threads. For example if you receive events from a USB device they will be on a different thread.
Any application that has a complex GUI will likely be doing multithreading or the application won't be responsive. Just a quick examination just know shows over 300 threads. One of my Chrome browser instances has 27. Another process has 170. Internet Explorer (fresh launch) has 22 on my system.
Seriously people need to quit this business of saying that applications don't utilize the extra cores or aren't multi-threaded. Just a cursory examination would put that to rest.
Better match for MS than Nokia?
Metro is basically a design language
At 1.6% Market Share, RIM needs a miracle
To put things into perspective, RIM's North American market share is now smaller than then newly launched (and not well received) Windows 8 phone, and their market share continues to decline. Truly, RIM needs a miracle to turn things around.
I believe RIM's recent stock run-up is inspired by the hope (belief?) that RIM's BB10 operating system will indeed be that miracle. January 30, 2013, BB10's official release date, will be the final curtain call to see if that miracle manifest, or not. I predict that die-hard Blackberry fans will praise BB10 for being the best thing since sliced bread, and "better" than the competition, while the public at large, including enterprises and government organizations, view it as "too little, too late," and continue leaving Blackberry for other products. Eventually, RIM will become a footnote in Canadian telecom history, much like Nortel Network. It will be remembered that RIM died for the same reasons that Palm Computing did: They were once the industry leader, and they believed they were so good, than nobody could best them. They were wrong.
Not the whole story
Second, I know many people with many different devices, and I don't know ANY that are apologetic for the device they own (other than if it is a non "smart phone") or that obtain any sort of "image value" from their device, so I'm not certain what circles you travel in where you see that happening.
Lastly, I will almost certainly be upgrading from my BB Torch to a new BB10 device in 2013, not because of a misplaced loyalty to the product, but because I have always been impressed and satisfied with the quality of my RIM devices (PlayBook included), the functionality they provide suites my needs well, if not better than other offerings, and in comparison with other devices (many Apple and Android devices included), the RIM offering is better all around for me. You may have a different experience, and that's fine, but I wouldn't want to pretend that either of our experiences necessarily "translate" to others.
What continues to surprise me, and I see this more from Apple users than others, but not exclusively so, is the willingness to forcefully express an opinion that device A is better than device B, without consideration how either device might suit an individual's needs, and oftentimes without any meaningful exposure to "not my device".
But I guess we'll wait until 2013 for early indications of RIM's fate.
Fell for it with the Playbook
Great article