Hasta La Gadget!

The phone that could unexpectedly become BlackBerry’s saviour, the Q10, won’t hit US shores until May—at the earliest—according to CEO Thorsten Heins. More »

I’ve never been a BlackBerry user. But I’ve seriously considered one at a few points over the years, and I’ve been genuinely curious to see how the first BlackBerry 10 device fares. Last week’s launch event didn’t sell me on one, but I’m still curious to try it. Unfortunately for BlackBerry, née RIM, the event also served to again highlight some of the problems that have plagued the company in recent years.

You’ll get different opinions about when those problems really started, but you can directly trace last week’s launch event back to one date almost three years ago: April 9th, 2010. That’s when RIM announced it was buying QNX Software Systems, the company whose operating system would ultimately provide the basis for BlackBerry 10 (and the PlayBook before it). At the time, the acquisition didn’t signal a massive shift for RIM — it mostly talked up things like in-car infotainment systems and “intelligent peripherals.”

Filed under: Mobile, Blackberry

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Turns out BlackBerry’s proud claim that the new BB10 phones are launching with 70,000 bespoke apps was a bit of a lie—with one of the company’s own men admitting that up to 40 per cent of these are frantic Android port jobs. More »

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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You know, for a company that made its mark thanks to devices with physical QWERTY keyboards, BlackBerry really didn’t spend much time chatting about the Q10. It’s going to hit the street well after the all-touch Z10 does so it’s an understandable move, but I’ve heard many a person begrudgingly stick with an ailing BlackBerry because of its top-notch keyboard. Thankfully, I managed to corner a Q10 for a little hands-on time, and its keyboard is just as good as ever — the big question is, how’s the rest of it?

Looking at the Q10 is much like a catching a glimpse at familiar-looking stranger walking down the street — the broad strokes are similar, but many of the smaller touches are different and surprising. Take BlackBerry’s legendary keyboard, for instance. It doesn’t look entirely unlike the ones seen on recent BlackBerry 7 devices like the Bold 9900, and it retains the spacious layout and highly-satisfying click of the BlackBerrys of days past, but the familiar row of navigation and menu buttons have finally been put to rest. The volume rocker also looks like its been plucked off of a PlayBook too, which isn’t much of a surprise — the same could be said of the company’s Dev Alpha units.

The Q10 is actually quite a looker despite those borrowed bits. Its rear-end is buttery soft thanks to its glass-weave construction, and the end result is a carbon fiber-esque pattern that looks awfully familiar to the sort of things Motorola has been doing with its recent smartphones. And don’t worry you special little flower you, because the initially cagey BlackBerry rep on hand said that no two Q10 backs would look the same. It’s not the thinnest device I’ve ever seen at 10.3mm thick, but it’s surprisingly light and felt like it could take a few hits before giving up the ghost.

Sadly, the BlackBerry representatives on hand didn’t allow for much fiddling with the software (an effort to prevent people from monopolizing demo units for too long), but what I did see was very promising. Checking the hub, peeking at apps, and generally just zipping around the OS was smooth and unfettered, thanks in part to the Q10′s 1.5GHz dual-core processor and its 2GB of RAM. Darrell did a fine job deconstructing all of BlackBerry 10′s particulars in his Z10 review so I won’t rehash it all, but there was a distinct difference in feel between how gestures and navigation work on the two devices. Things are generally a bit more intuitive on the Z10′s expansive display, and having to reach over the keyboard to swipe around is a bit curious at first, but folks coming from touch-enabled devices like the Bold 9900 will already be used to that.

Overall, the Q10 is a surprisingly handsome device that seems well-equipped to handle the needs of existing BlackBerry fans who need more than just a touchscreen in their lives. Whether or not it’ll cause Android or iOS devotees to jump ship remains to be seen (though I highly doubt it), but that’s more of a quandary for BlackBerry 10 as a whole rather than the device on its own. Sadly, there’s no hard word on when you’ll be able to get a hold of one yourself: CEO Heins mentioned in a post-presser Q&A session that the device will likely hit store shelves in the U.S. and beyond some time in April.