Hasta La Gadget!

After months of rumors, speculation and official teases, RIM’s BlackBerry’s first full-touch BlackBerry 10 device — the Z10 — is finally official. Look familiar? It should. Thanks to an incessant stream of leaks, the handset you see in black and white above had become something of an open secret. But now we can confirm that candybar slab does indeed pack specs quite similar to that of the Dev Alpha unit that preceded it.

Bucking the bigger is better trend we’ve seen in the mobile industry as of late, the Z10 comes outfitted with a palm-friendly 4.2-inch 1,280 x 768 display — amounting to a pixel density of 356 dpi — and measures in at 5.13 (130mm) x 2.6 (66mm) x 0.37 (9.3mm) inches, making it significantly bulkier than, say, the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III. So, it’s not the thinnest device we’ve seen as of late, but at 138 grams, the Z10 certainly won’t be weighing down your hand. Beneath its mixture of aluminum and hard, textured plastic lies a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus buffered by 2GB RAM, a removable 1,800mAh battery, slots for microSD (up to 32GB supported) and micro SIM, as well as radios for Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (integrated into the backplate) and WiFi a/b/g/n.

Because no 2013-era smartphone launch could go without it, the Z10 will ship LTE-ready for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, with carrier-branded models across the top four US operators. Long time BlackBerry fans will be glad to note that the Z10 does, indeed, sport that familiar red notification LED, in addition to ports for micro-USB, micro-HDMI and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the imaging front, the handset packs a 2-megapixel front facer (720p video) and 8-megapixel rear shooter capable of 1080p recording — both perfect for using Sclalado’s Time Shift camera software. Of course, it nearly goes without saying that the Z10 is RIM’s showcase entry point for its BB 10 OS. Verizon is the first to confirm that it’ll charge $199.99 for the handset on a two-year deal when the hardware arrives in March, and has also called shotgun on the white version as exclusive to Big Red.

You can read along at our liveblog!

Daniel Cooper contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, RIM

Comments

RIM (now just called “BlackBerry”) has officially unveiled their new BlackBerry 10 devices at its launch event in NYC (with satellite launch events in several other locations around the world), and they’re just now announcing pricing details, and we’re also gathering announcements from carriers about pricing and availability of the new BlackBerry Z10 and Q10.

Vodafone UK will offer the BlackBerry Z10 starting tomorrow, and users can get it for as low as nothing depending on the wireless plan they choose. Vodafone UK is touting the Z10 as the carrier’s first “4G-ready” device. Other UK carriers, such as EE and Three, have also announced some details. EE will offer the new phone starting tomorrow, and will be priced at 49 pounds under the two-year 41-pound-per-month plan. Three, on the other hand, has only announced that the Z10 is “coming soon.”

Verizon will also be offering both the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 in its stores. The carrier will sell the Z10 at a price of $199 after signing a new two-year contract, and it will be compatible with Verizon’s 4G LTE network as well. It will launch sometime in mid-March. Pricing for the Q10 has not been disclosed yet, so stay tuned for that.

T-Mobile will have the Z10 in stores as well, although they didn’t announced any pricing or availability details — those will be coming at a later date, according to the carrier. AT&T will also have both the Z10 and Q10 in stock, but will announced pricing and availability at a later time. It’ll be the first BlackBerry device to run on the carrier’s 4G network.

We’ll post up more details here as we get them. The launch event is wrapping up and carriers have begun sending out details, but a lot of them are announcing pricing and availability at a later date, so we’ll update you when we hear about more details on this front. In the meantime, check out any of our BlackBerry 10 news that you might have missed.

BlackBerry Z10 retail pricing run-down is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Starting today, RIM is rebranding itself as BlackBerry. With the official name change, you can say so long to all your RIM-related innuendo. More »

How could we forget that there is another player in the digital camera market after all of the releases yesterday? Fujifilm, has just announced the Fujifilm FinePix S6800 long zoom digital camera which will come with a 16-megapixel 1/2.3-inch BSI-CMOS sensor, which is ideal to shoot quality low noise shots, especially at sensitivities that go up to as high as ISO 12800. It has an autofocus speed of 0.3 seconds, and can shoot photos just a second after booting it up, while there is a 0.5 seconds interval between shots as the FinePix S6800 delivers a continuous shooting speed of 10fps.

Other than still photos, you will also be able to capture video in Full HD resolution at 60fps with stereo sound. The inclusion of a convenient secondary zoom control that is located on the side of the camera’s lens barrel lets you adjust the zoom appropriately with your left hand. You will be able to select from a trio of zoom speeds, or rely on the Auto Return Zoom control so that you can achieve the right high-magnification focal points. A quartet of AA batteries will power the Fujifilm FinePix S6800 as it comes in black, white and red shades. Any takers? [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: 3D Printed Pez Dispenser Head Toppers, Hollywood Looks To FAA For Permission To Shoot Movies With Drones,

All of the more recent smartphones and tablets that run on the Android platform deserve to have an update released for the operating system to the latest version, and the same can be said for the Motorola Razr i. It seems that the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update has just been released for the Motorola Razr i, where it will deliver an expected improvement in performance all round. Just in case you were wondering, the Razr i will run on an Intel processor which is different from the usual Qualcomm-powered devices that we are so used to seeing.

You should take note that the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update itself weighs in at around 300MB, which would then make it more suitable for a download over a Wi-Fi connection instead of relying on your data connection. Distribution has already begun in France, but it is tipped to be released across the rest of Europe in due time. Better late than never, I guess, so for those who have already received the Jelly Bean update, how do you find it?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: AT&T BlackBerry Z10, Q10 To Arrive Soon, BlackBerry Q10 Headed To Sprint,