8 Things You Need To Know About The BB10 Launch

If you remember this post from yesterday, then you should know by now that the BlackBerry 10 aka BB10 has gone “live”. At least in the United States. Prior to the BB10 launch, we’ve heard nothing but rumours about how it’s going to be a game changer for the smartphone makers.

And although we haven’t gotten our hands on a unit yet (therefore, we can’t exactly judge), here are some of the top few things that you need to know about the BB10 launch:

1. BlackBerry is now BlackBerry

At the start of the event, the first major announcement was as monumental as it was shocking. “Research in Motion” (RIM) is now BlackBerry. According to BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, they changed their name to make it one brand.

2. A BlackBerry by any other name

So, the new BlackBerry phones are called the BlackBerry Z10 (all-touchscreen version) and the BlackBerry Q10 (with physical keyboard).

The Z10 boasts:

4.2 inch 1280 x 768 356PPI screen (same resolution as the Lumia 920)
A textured back
Two colours; black and white
A 1.5GHz processor
2GB of RAM
16GB of internal storage (microSD storage up to a 32GB card)
NFC
LTE
An 8MP camera (shoots at 1080p)
A front-facing 2MP camera with video capabilities

The Q10 boasts about the same save for a physical keyboard and a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a 720×720 pixel resolution.

3. How the BlackBerry works

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4. Type, type, type

The swipe-to-autocomplete/predict provides a much more intuitive way to predict words than putting them in a bar above the keyboard – on top of swiping to the left to delete a whole word and swiping down to access punctuation. There’s also an option to switch the predictions between three separate languages at a time.

5. Can I have your BB PIN?

Two words: screen sharing. The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) is one of the vital parts of a BlackBerry user’s experience. And now, you can share your whole phone’s screen with someone you’re video chatting with. Good for sharing pictures, guiding someone how to get something done, and business presentations (if any).

6. BlackBerry Remember

This whole new app will allow a BlackBerry user to save everything and anything to it. We’re talking, web pages, e-mails, and documents, saved with notes, due dates, and voice notes. As a matter of fact, Evernote is actually integrated too. Mind = blown.

7. Smile, you’re on BlackBerry camera!

The BlackBerry camera now comes with a time shift to capture images 10 milliseconds before and after a photo is taken. It recognizes faces and lets you pick out the “best picture”. Nothing new when compared to the ones on competitors’ products but it’s change in leaps and bounds for BlackBerry.

8. BlackBerry’s new Global Creative Director

Introducing, Alicia Ke..wait, what?:

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(Source)