BlackBerry 10.1 official with HDR camera mode, expansions to Hub and notifications

BlackBerry Q10 and Z10

Never mind that a few developers spoiled the surprise last week: BlackBerry 10.1, BB10’s first major OS update, is official today. The release arrives chiefly to support the BlackBerry Q10’s hardware keyboard and smaller OLED screen, but it brings a swath of extra improvements that should please Z10 owners in equal measure. An HDR camera mode, which should fill out highlights and shadows in some photos, is just the start. The Hub now supports contact suggestions, PIN-to-PIN messaging and email with attached messages; notifications are more refined as well, with per-account message notifications joining options to define sound volumes and vibrations for each contact. Dive deeper and you’ll also notice more granular text selection, better calendar viewing on the Z10 and the ability to copy phone numbers into (or from) the dialer. Do be patient if you’re not bent on picking up a Q10, however — the Z10 doesn’t get its update until sometime in the weeks following the release of its keyboarded cousin.

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Source: BlackBerry

BlackBerry Q10 priced at $249 on two-year contract in US

BlackBerry Q10 priced at $249 on twoyear contract in US

BlackBerry just confirmed to us the target pricing of its upcoming QWERTY smartphone in the US, and the quick takeaway is that keyboards don’t come cheap. According to company representatives, the Q10 is intended to be sold for $249 on a two-year contract, which positions it as more expensive than the Galaxy S 4, iPhone 5, One and Z10. Now, the one hiccup in this equation is that carriers may turn around and do whatever pricing shenanigans they please, but outside of special promotions, you can rightfully expect the Q10 to be one of the most expensive on-contract smartphones of the day. With so few compelling QWERTY handsets on the market, however, it seems that BlackBerry is hoping you’ll value a keyboard more than your hard-earned dollar. If it the company’s correct, that’ll mean a lot more profit. If not, well… you know the rest.

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Source: Bloomberg

BlackBerry Q10 coming to Canadian carriers May 1st for $199 on contract

BlackBerry Q10 hands-on

It’s usually safe to presume that BlackBerry will give the most love to its home country, and that’s proving reasonable with the BlackBerry Q10. Bell, Rogers and Telus have all confirmed that they’ll be carrying the QWERTY-equipped smartphone on May 1st, quite possibly putting them on the cutting edge of the Q10 launch schedule. Smaller networks like Fido, Koodo, Sasktel and Virgin Mobile are also on deck. The big three are already taking pre-orders today, but we’d brace for a rather steep price premium — they’re all asking about $199 for the Q10 on a three-year contract, which is more expensive than many of the phone’s touch-only rivals. BlackBerry hasn’t outlined plans for the US or other countries yet, but we’re hoping they get a slightly better deal.

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Source: Bell, Rogers, Telus

BlackBerry Q10 hits the FCC en route to a spring launch

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We’re fairly certain that the BlackBerry Q10 will make its hometown debut on April 30th, but Thorsten and Co. haven’t been very precise about when the handset will land in the US. Thanks to the FCC, however, we know that it can’t be too far out, as the first BB10 device with a physical QWERTY keyboard has been passed fit for human consumption by the federal agency. We’d have guessed that professional keyboardist Alicia Keys would be first in the queue, but she probably got a freebie ahead of time.

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Source: FCC, Bluetooth SIG

Rogers leak pins BlackBerry Q10 Canadian launch date as April 30th (update: pricing confirmed)

Rogers leak pins BlackBerry Q10 Canadian launch date as April 30th

BlackBerry fans waiting for an opportunity to blend the BlackBerry 10 OS with a more familiar QWERTY form factor may know exactly how long they have left, at least north of the border. MobileSyrup received this pic tonight of what is purported to be an internal Rogers document, which lists the launch date for the BlackBerry Q10 as April 30th. A few other phones appear on the list as well, revealing the Canadian carrier will be offering the Nokia Lumia 520 and a couple of Doro’s PhoneEasy models. If this date holds up it’s a lot more specific than what we’d heard before — hopefully we’re not left waiting much longer for US release information.

Update: Rogers is going on the record for many more Q10 details… except the ship date. It tells us that the smartphone will cost $200 on a 3-year contract, and that Rogers will be the first (but not only) Canadian carrier with the white edition. The Q10 will also be one of the few Rogers smartphones to supplement the usual AWS-based LTE frequencies with the 2,600MHz band, the other notable example being the LG Optimus G. The more eager among us can reserve the Q10 today.

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Source: Mobile Syrup, Rogers

The BlackBerry Q10 Is Now Available For Pre-Order In The UK

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Good news, Steve O’Hear. The physical QWERTY isn’t dead! The BlackBerry Q10 is now available for pre-ordering in the UK and ships at the end of the month.

BlackBerry’s second BB10 device will be available on Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, EE, and TalkMobile. Carphone Warehouse lists the device at £579.95 SIM-free or free on a 2-year, £36-per-month, contract. That’s on par with other devices in the UK market.

As for other markets, BlackBerry’s blog posting states “we’ll have details on availability to follow soon.” Whatever that means.

The Q10 is the BlackBerry Bold of the BB10 era. It’s positioned as a top-tier QWERTY device — the best BlackBerry can build. Where the Z10 is a pure touchscreen device, the Q10 is a hybrid, featuring a 3.1-inch touchscreen on top of a QWERTY keypad.

We spent a bit of time with the Q10 at BB10′s launch in January. It’s a worthy successor of the solid BlackBerry Bold. In fact, BlackBerry power users should be more interested in the Q10 than the Z10. It’s that good. But, if that’s you, it would still be wise to play with one yourself instead of simply pre-ordering.

Phones4U taking BlackBerry Q10 pre-orders, giving away PlayBooks to first 300 customers (update)

Phones4U taking BlackBerry Q10 preorders, giving away PlayBooks to first 300 customers

Know what’s better than a shiny new BlackBerry Q10? A BlackBerry Q10 with a 64GB PlayBook thrown in for free, and Phones4U is the place to get it. To be clear, the UK retailer has begun taking pre-orders for the BB10 handset with a hardware keyboard today, and the first 300 folks to pledge their money will get one of BlackBerry’s 7-inch slates for free along with it. As for the Q10’s cost, it’s £36 a month on contract or £549.95 SIM-free, with the black model expected to arrive by the end of April and the alabaster version coming in the weeks after.

Update: Should you miss out on the Phones4U deal (or just don’t want a PlayBook), you can head on over to the Carphone Warehouse to place your pre-order and get a free Bluetooth speaker to pair with your Q10 instead.

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Source: Phones4U, Carphone Warehouse

Mobile Miscellany: week of March 25th, 2013

Mobile Miscellany week of March 25th, 2013

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, an unknown T-Mobile handset with Snapdragon 800 internals lit up the benchmarks, Sony was foiled at the lock screen and Rogers made 44 new promises without saying much at all. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that’s happening in the mobile world for this week of March 25th, 2013.

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Where Have All The Physical QWERTYs Gone?

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It’s approaching three years since I emailed and got a reply from the late Steve Jobs. The topic of my caffeine-fueled missive that sunny day in June 2010 was the industry’s move towards touch-based interfaces and, specifically, Apple’s one-size-fits-all approach regarding the iPhone’s lack of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

I have a disability that can make touch and other physically demanding interfaces more challenging, I explained to Jobs, and whereas the mouse-driven GUI that he helped usher in with the Macintosh had inadvertently put me on a level playing field, were touch to ever become the dominant mode of input, it had the potential to turn that world upside down.

“That’s obviously a bit dramatic”, I wrote on TechCrunch at the time. “There will always be lots of different products on the market, but it’s a possibility nonetheless.” Fast forward to 2013 and what was only a possibility has all but become a reality. Survey the mobile landscape and it’s filled with people fondling their giant slabs of touch, happily typing away on glass.

At this point I know I’ll likely get ripped apart in the comments. In the battle of the physical vs virtual QWERTY, the market has spoken, they’ll say, and those who don’t favour touch are squarely out of touch. And sadly, the evidence is heavily stacked on their side of the argument.

Survey the mobile landscape and it’s filled with people fondling their giant slabs of touch, happily typing away on glass

In the first few years of the iPhone’s existence, a ton of hybrid physical QWERTY/touch smartphones from competitors entered the market, ready to differentiate themselves from Apple by talking up their superior typing experience. But they failed to stop the Cupertino juggernaught. Typing on glass, while not ideal, was good enough. Arguably it wasn’t until Android OEMs ditched their, largely, clunky slide-out keyboards and wholesale copied and then supersized Apple’s all touch form-factor, did they begin to turn back the tide.

Meanwhile, continues the argument, the likes of Nokia fell by the wayside, plagued by an antiquated user interface that, in a desperate and confused attempt to respond to the market, tried and failed to crowbar in touch before the company finally jumped onto Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, sans physical QWERTY.

Furthermore, BlackBerry, which seemingly built its whole business off the back of its physical QWERTY-touting credentials, chose to release its first comeback device as the BB10-powered Z10, another all touch grey slab, rather than the Q10, which combines touch with a physical QWERTY in the best BlackBerry candybar tradition. It’s also been suggested that the Canadian handset maker may even view the Q10’s hybrid approach as a way to wean its traditional customers off a physical keyboard entirely, a gateway device if you will.

So yes, putting aside the fact that the market can only speak to what is put in front of it — I can’t recall a single candybar QWERTY powered by Android that was anything more than a mid-tier or low end device — it would seem that the market has indeed spoken.

But it may not have had the final word yet.

That’s if — and it’s a big if — the BlackBerry Q10, when it finally hits the market next month, surprises everybody and sells in sufficient numbers to smash through the totalitarian all touch screen. And just like the Mac had ensured before it, for this hack and others like me, 2013 won’t be like 1984 after all.

BlackBerry Q10 prototype caught in the wild with a rubberized back

BlackBerry Q10 prototype caught in the wild, shows a rubber back that might have been

When we put our mitts on the official BlackBerry Q10 design in January, it carried a “glass weave” back that was meant to convey a premium feel, not to mention give Bold 9900 series owners a sense of continuity. The crew at Genk have snagged a pre-production example that teases what could have been. Their black device has the same grippy, rubberized back as the Z10, suggesting that BlackBerry was at least experimenting with using the same extra-practical (if less refined) material up until the unveiling. What else do we learn? While we wouldn’t want to judge the user experience from a prototype, the look reminds us that there should be a 2,100mAh battery inside — a big boost over the Z10’s 1,800mAh pack, especially when there’s a smaller screen involved. If only we didn’t have to wait until later in spring to try the finished product.

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Via: CrackBerry

Source: Genk (translated)