Folks, Research In Motion has just launched Blackberry 10, the firms next-generation Operating System in the Blackberry World event 2012. RIM is previewing the platform on a completely new developer device and pressing its hopes for the future on the QNX-based software. RIM recently appointed Chief Executive said “We’re taking our time to make sure we get this right”. Perhaps hoping to squash criticisms of the long run-up to the availability of BB10 devices.
Blackberry 10 is simply based on the QNX OS used in RIM’s Playbook Tablet. RIM Chief Executive showed off an early view of the OS, BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha, running on developer preview hardware. Developer’s attending the Blackberry World conference will receive one of the prototype BB10 devices, which will help them begin to develop new apps for the platform. There’s also an initial developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development, fresh and ready for download today, with RIM is hoping coders get busy creating apps ready for launch-day.
The Blackberry 10 interface is quite simple: the home screen consisted of four widgets (weather, calendar, music, and photos, in the demo today), as well as phone, camera, and search buttons on the bottom of the screen. Notifications come in on the right side of the screen, and you can also swipe right to move into the app that the notification came from. Vivek Bhardwaj, RIM’s head of software was also keen to demonstrate the typing ability on BlackBerry 10. Bhardwaj demonstrated a swiping type method that uses algorithms to learn your texting techniques. For instance, if you tend to hit the letter ‘m’ slightly off-center, BlackBerry 10 will soon learn this and adjust accordingly. It will also learn your most used words making suggestions accordingly.
Research in Motion briefly showed off the BB10 Camera. A revolutionary camera experience is not something we’d necessarily associate with RIM, but BlackBerry 10 offers just that. You know that time when you take a great photo only for it to be ruined by one person closing their eyes? Well take a snap using a BlackBerry 10 device and you’ll be able to “go back and forth in time” ensuring you get the possible shot. Moreover It also gives you the ability to step back or forward slightly from the moment you took a picture — so if someone blinks, you can save the picture pretty easily.
Furthermore Blakcberry 10 is expected to be available for consumers later this year. The good news is that with RIM issuing developers at BlackBerry World each with an Alpha Dev device, by the time it does arrive there should be plenty of content to download.RIM has some examples of the sort of apps possible with the current SDKs here, including Slacker, Foursquare and Wikitude, and is promising more BlackBerry 10-specific feature adds over the coming months. What do you think to BlackBerry 10? Sound off in the comments below.
