Hasta La Gadget!

Just in time for the imminent launch of BlackBerry 10, Research In Motion is announcing today that its mobile payment solution has been approved by Visa. Visa said its yes to RIM’s Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution for NFC mobile payments. In case you were wondering, RIM’s SEM will act as the back-end solution for carriers to securely manage credentials on SIM cards, which are installed in all types of NFC-capable mobile devices. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Instagram Reminds Users Of January 19 Rollback To Old Terms Of Services, Phablet Shipments Expected To More Than Double At Over 60M Units In 2013,

Welcome to Tuesday evening, everyone. The afternoon started off with something of a bang with Facebook’s big event, during which the company revealed the service’s new Graph Search and explained the difference between the new feature and traditional web search. It also announced that it was partnering with Bing for search results in Graph Search, while we used the latest installment of SlashGear 101 to give you all of the details about this new feature.

We heard from one Jefferies analyst that Apple might begin preliminary production on the iPhone 5S in March, while specs for the rumored Sony Xperia Tablet Z leaked out (we’re told to expect a full HD display, among other things). A ChangeWave study tells us that iPhone demand is down though the device still dominates the charts, and Acura revealed its 2015 NSX concept car at NAIAS 2013 today. We got an up close look at the rumored BlackBerry Z10 handset in a new video, and we learned that there might be Java-based iterations of the Red October cyberespionage attacks, which would explain why the Department of Homeland Security has been so insistent in its recommendation to stop using the software.

Tesla announced today that it will open 25 new stores this year, while 2K Games and Irrational delivered the PC requirements for the incoming BioShock Infinite. A US District Court has dismissed the case against Aaron Swartz after his tragic death, and it would appear that Samsung has a new phone called the Galaxy Pocket Plus on the way. Disney Infinity was announced today, and it’s looking to take a bite out of Skylanders’ massive audience, while United has become the first international US-based airline to offer WiFi on its flights.

AT&T is offering Nexus 7 owners a $100 credit on their bill if they sign up for a data plan with it, and NASA is telling us that Curiosity may have found its first potential rock sample target on the surface of Mars. 10 more games have moved through Steam Greenlight, Call of Duty Online has kicked off alpha testing in China, and finally tonight, Simple has brought its online banking app to Android. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 15, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This month we’re ramping up to the big drop of BlackBerry 10, and along the way we’re getting pumped up with leaked video after leaked photo, one after the other, today’s offering being a full hands-on look at the smartphone known as the Z10. This device is a full touch BlackBerry 10-toting device, it making use of a lovely 4.3-inch display up front and a styling that’s able to be presented in black, white, or potentially a variety of other color casings.

What you’re seeing in the video isn’t a whole lot of new information if you’re familiar with the OS as we’ve seen it in leaks before, but for those of you new to the BlackBerry 10 leaking faucet, this will act as an OK briefing. The video shows off the BlackBerry Hub, for starters, as well as the clock. Both of these apps are native to the device and to BlackBerry 10, and will be showing up on essentially all BlackBerry 10 devices through the future.

The final version of the software will be presented later this month, but for now you’ll see what must be near-final versions of Task Manager, the pull-down menu abilities of the OS, and three base menu buttons. You’ll see a phone button, search button, and camera button at the bottom of the display much of the time the video plays, this giving you instant access to these most-used functions.

Pay special attention to the way the OS flows as well as how well the device is pushing the OS to the user. While we’re expecting a smoother experience at the end of this month, this presentation certainly doesn’t look half bad for a final OS/hardware combination. Stick with us through our BlackBerry 10 tag as well as right here in the main news feed on January 30th, 2013.

[via CrackBerry]

BlackBerry Z10 all-touch smartphone gets close-up video rundown is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

BlackBerry 10 is only a half-month away from launching, and RIM just recently hosted two Port-a-Thon events to encourage developers to submit their games and apps for BlackBerry 10, while offering $100 for any app approved to the store. Naturally, the $100 incentive seemed to work, since 15,000 apps were submitted over the course of just over 36 hours.

Vice President of Director Relations Alec Saunders tweeted the news earlier this morning. And while developers would be given $100 for every approved app, BlackBerry 10 hardware was also being offered. The first developers submitting between two and five approved apps were promised a free PlayBook, while those writing more than five approved apps were entered into a random drawing to receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device.

However, it’s essential to note that it’s highly unlikely that every app submitted will be approved for the store, but the company needs as many submissions as possible if they hope for a successful launch. Then again, it would be ignorant to assume the success or failure of a platform based solely on the number of apps available, which is why the devices and the OS themselves need be solid as well.

On average during those 36 hours, there were 405 apps submitted every hour, and if RIM ended up approving all 15,000 apps (unlikely), they would be paying out a whopping $1.5 million to developers, not counting all the hardware that they’ll be handing out. RIM is definitely putting their time and resources into this new platform, but let’s just hope it works for them.

BlackBerry 10 gets 15,000 app submissions in 36 hours is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ah, there you are, Sprint — didn’t speak up at first. Following confirmations by US carriers, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T that they’d be carrying BlackBerry 10 devices this year, the Now Network has joined the fray. While we’ll surely find out the full details from RIM come the OS’s official kick-off on January 30th, details are currently slim. A rep for the company confirmed the news to BGR (and Engadget, for that matter) stating, “Sprint plans to bring BlackBerry 10 to our customers later this year. We will share more details soon.” Notably, Sprint is the only carrier that hasn’t committed to having devices upon the launch of the OS — of course, being the Now Network doesn’t always mean being first.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint, RIM

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