BlackBerry 10 Announcement: Live Blog
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 30, 2013 9:19 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- RIM
- BlackBerry
- Mobile
- Blackberry 10
11:23AM EST - The announcement is coming to a close, thank you all for following, we'll have more on the announced devices later today
11:19AM EST - BB Keep Moving project: challenged several of the world's top athletes, film makers, etc... to create content with the new platform
11:18AM EST - Alicia will work closely with retailers, designers, carriers, developers, folks in the entertainment and music business
11:17AM EST - I feel like with all of these celebrity endorsements the companies involved need to be more transparent in the exact terms of the agreement with said celebrity
11:16AM EST - Alicia Keys talking about how she used to be a BlackBerry user but left for something that "had a little more bling"
11:16AM EST - Intel has will.i.am, RIM has Alicia Keys, who's going to scoop up 50 Cent?
11:14AM EST - Alicia Keys is BB's new global creative director
11:14AM EST - Looking to reach out to artists and working moms
11:14AM EST - We wanted someone at the top of her field, immensely creative and very talented
11:14AM EST - Creating a new position at BB: Global Creative Director
11:13AM EST - Another big announcement
11:12AM EST - Most partners will be launching preorder websites today
11:12AM EST - In the UK, the Z10 will be available tomorrow
11:12AM EST - in the UAE the Z10 will be on the February 10th
11:12AM EST - Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but the Z10 will retail for around $149.99 with a 3 year contract
11:11AM EST - In Canada the Z10 will be available on February 5th
11:11AM EST - Availability for most US carriers of the Z10 to be in March
11:11AM EST - In the US market: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will begin announcing price plans today
11:11AM EST - By the end of February lab testing with 110 carriers globally will be completed
11:08AM EST - Can install multiple apps simultaneously, no reboots required
11:07AM EST - All major record labels and independents represented in the BB World music section
11:07AM EST - BlackBerry World is now the one stop shop for BB apps, games, movies, TV shows and music
11:04AM EST - Over 1K top apps committed to BB10 today
11:04AM EST - and Angry Birds
11:04AM EST - SAP committed to BB10
11:04AM EST - WhatsApp as well
11:04AM EST - Amazon Kindle committed to BB10
11:04AM EST - Skype committed to BB10
11:03AM EST - Over 70K apps today
11:03AM EST - BB10 launches with more apps by far than any first gen OS
11:01AM EST - All major labels and networks to supply content to BlackBerry World
11:01AM EST - "We will launch with an amazing collection of music, TV shows and movies"
10:59AM EST - Sounds a lot like desktop iMovie but on BB10
10:59AM EST - Select videos, choose music, add titles and credit, Story Maker automatically stitches it all together
10:58AM EST - Now talking about BB10 Story Maker
10:58AM EST - BB Flow - avoiding constantly having to go back to a grid of applications
10:57AM EST - Real time photo effects
10:57AM EST - Built in photo editor
10:56AM EST - Showing off the pictures app
10:56AM EST - BB timeshift - let's you select a face from a different capture than the rest of the scene
10:56AM EST - Tap anywhere to take a photo, drag the focus box around to move focus
10:55AM EST - BB10 Camera demo
10:55AM EST - It's one location to save everything you want to remember, organized in folders
10:55AM EST - Remember allows you to save evernote notes, emails, tasks, etc...
10:53AM EST - You can add attachments, photos, videos, URLs to reminders
10:53AM EST - BlackBerry Remember demo on the Q10
10:53AM EST - I really wish all of these real time communications protocols weren't closed
10:52AM EST - real time share of information while in a voice or video call
10:52AM EST - "great collaboration tool for small enterprises"
10:52AM EST - official name: BBM Video Chat with Screen Share
10:51AM EST - Great for flipping through photos, presentations, etc... remotely
10:51AM EST - You control the experience, the other end of the line just sees whatever you see on your screen
10:51AM EST - You can remotely share your smartphone screen with another BB10 user
10:50AM EST - BBM Screen Share: not only shares your camera, but also share your entire screen
10:50AM EST - BlackBerry Messenger now supports video calling
10:49AM EST - BlackBerry Messenger: 60M subscribers globally
10:48AM EST - Briefcase icon denotes a work app, only allowed to use a certain portion of storage
10:48AM EST - BB10 gestures seem very fast and smooth, this can definitely work for enterprise users
10:47AM EST - Single unified user experience but can multitask and quickly switch between work and home environments on a single device
10:47AM EST - In work mode you get access to a different app store, everything your enterprise server wants you to have access to
10:46AM EST - Swipe down from the home screen to switch between home and work profiles
10:46AM EST - BlackBerry Balance
10:46AM EST - Now talking about users who have to carry two devices: work and personal
10:46AM EST - Very big focus on international usage in this launch, BlackBerry knows its audience
10:45AM EST - No toggling between languages, just dynamically move between them
10:44AM EST - Prediction quickly works and spans multiple languages
10:44AM EST - Swipe down anywhere on the keyboard to switch to numeric entry
10:44AM EST - Predictive text lets you flip words right to the screen with one thumb, just swipe words up from the keyboard
10:43AM EST - "We have the aspiration to be the best keyboard experience period"
10:42AM EST - Conceptually I'm interested in the idea of something like the BB Hub that lets me do everything in one application, in practice I've never seen something like this work well - will have to spend some time with it
10:41AM EST - UI seems very smooth and fluid
10:41AM EST - Contacts aggregate as much available information as possible using Linkedin, fB, etc...
10:41AM EST - BB10 automatically pulls down photos from Linkedin when you look at meeting details, so you can see who you're meeting with
10:39AM EST - All activity/engagement in one single place...assuming there are no new major services you want to interact with
10:39AM EST - You can tweet straight from the BB Hub
10:38AM EST - One thumb operation to get in and out of the hub and navigate around
10:38AM EST - BB Hub aggregates content from email, FB, LinkedIn, BBM
10:38AM EST - Red notification LED tips you to peak at the BB Hub
10:37AM EST - Swipe to peak at the BlackBerry Hub even while watching a video or playing a game, nothing gets paused
10:36AM EST - Switching between apps looks very smooth and fast
10:36AM EST - BlackBerry Flow: quick task switching, real time true multitasking
10:34AM EST - Q10 has a 3.1-inch screen
10:33AM EST - The Q10 is the first BB10 smartphone with a physical keyboard
10:33AM EST - (the earlier specs were for the Z10)
10:33AM EST - Big focus on content aggregation within BlackBerry 10
10:33AM EST - Textured back
10:32AM EST - 4.2-inch screen, 356 PPI
10:32AM EST - BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10
10:29AM EST - "We have reinvented this company and want to reflect this in our brand"
10:29AM EST - One consistent brand, ditching the RIM name makes sense
10:29AM EST - One brand, one promise
10:28AM EST - From this point forward RIM becomes BlackBerry
10:28AM EST - "we have defined our vision"
10:28AM EST - "we have transformed ourselves inside and out"
10:28AM EST - "Took heartfelt and...brutal honesty"
10:28AM EST - "We absolutely knew it was risky"
10:28AM EST - Bringing an entirely new platform to the market...took careful planning
10:26AM EST - Thanking the RIM and QNX teams for building the foundation of BB10
10:25AM EST - Having a good camera, apps, web browser, etc... is expected, how does BB10 go beyond those expectations?
10:23AM EST - "BlackBerry 10 - Built to keep you moving"
10:22AM EST - Thorsten is thanking the RIM employees and congratulating them on launching BB10
10:21AM EST - "Innovation is at the heart of RIM"
10:20AM EST - (Sorry for the super considerate videographer that decided to setup right in front of us)
10:19AM EST - Here we go, I think the launch is now starting - Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of RIM is taking the stage
10:16AM EST - Now Lil E is on video rapping about BlackBerry 10, this is bizarre
10:15AM EST - Now showing a video of some BB fans
10:15AM EST - "the largest catalog of applications ever for a first generation launch in mobile"
10:15AM EST - Big focus on developers and a global audience with BB10
10:14AM EST - "We've seen all types of developers we haven't seen before: young people"
10:14AM EST - The official presentation hasn't really started yet, this is sort of the pre-game show at this point it seems
10:13AM EST - VP of dev rel, Alec Saunders is speaking about getting BB10 developers on board
10:10AM EST - Playing a video of user reactions to BlackBerry 10 now
10:09AM EST - and we're starting!
10:06AM EST - Should be starting soon...
09:59AM EST - Luckily 5GHz WiFi and wired ethernet are both available at the venue
09:59AM EST - We're being asked to disable any personal wireless hotspots...that request never works
09:53AM EST - We're being asked to take our seats - "the BlackBerry Experience will begin shortly"
09:47AM EST - T-minus 15 minutes until this thing starts...
09:39AM EST - On the plus side for RIM, I feel like we're quickly approaching maturity in the current era of mobile devices. The next era will be mobile/desktop convergence and no one has demonstrated obvious leadership towards that end yet.
09:36AM EST - I suspect winning over the first group won't be all that difficult, it's the second that I'm unsure of.
09:35AM EST - Success will be determined in two phases imho: can RIM retain its faithful user base and then, can RIM begin to win back users who have been lost to Apple/Google
09:35AM EST - The world is a very different place today, but there are still a significant number of BB and BB enterprise users who RIM can still sell to
09:34AM EST - I was a huge BlackBerry user through college, it was the first platform I could really be productive on after my old Palm V
09:30AM EST - So far both NYC and the venue are cooperating - weather isn't horrible and upstream bandwidth is awesome http://www.speedtest.net/result/2473371220.png
39 Comments
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jjj - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
They do have a live stream for the event http://tremolo.edgesuite.net/blackberry_experience...chuckit82 - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
This will be like trying to go from an F to an A - let's hope they do this./BES Admin
menting - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
I hope they succeed. More competition means lower prices and better features for everyoneblanarahul - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
I hope they succeed. They are using last year's hardware. I hope the software is good enough to convince people.karasaj - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Last year's hardware?Snapdragon S4 Plus is not last year's hardware...
Screen size doesn't matter; it's good for businesses. I like what I see. Blackberry (and Microsoft) have the OS and the hardware needed to be relevant (if not monstruous) competitors. All they need are customers.
mayankleoboy1 - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Then i took an Android phone...nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Nothing is more embarrassing than rap at a conference, especially a room full of suits... I doubt that even rappers rap at rap conferences. It's even more embarrassing than Ballmer sweating all over the products.dmk2000 - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
100% agree.Are they trying to sell BB10 to gangsters ?
nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Young people are only interested in rap/R&B/hiphop, OBVIOUSLY.Nah, I mean, I get it... I just think it's really stupid.
nikon133 - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Well, gangsters do need secured communication...