BlackBerry World 2012: news, photos, video, and more
RIM is hosting its annual gathering in Orlando, and this year's BlackBerry World is of particular importance: the company is taking the wraps off BlackBerry 10, the most fundamental reboot of its smartphone platform in many years. Follow along right here as we cover all the news as it happens.
BlackBerry
RIM CEO confirms there's no upgrade path from BlackBerry 7 to 10
We've seen and heard a lot about BlackBerry 10 this week, but if you're a BlackBerry owner excited about the new OS, you're going to have to get ready to invest in a new handset: RIM CEO Thorsten Heins confirmed once again this morning that the company has no upgrade path for existing BlackBerry 7 devices. In fact, the two seemed destined to co-exist: Heins spoke about the new BlackBerry 9220 (and confirmed the existence of the 9320), using their "successful launch" as an example of how RIM...
Thorsten Heins on BlackBerry 10 in the US: 'We're here to win'
In addition to Thorsten Heins' discussion of BlackBerry 10 licensing and enterprise support, the RIM CEO also addressed one of the biggest issues currently facing his company: its struggles in the US market. Heins frankly admitted that RIM has an "uphill battle" in the US after missing the mark for the past couple of years. He specifically repeated his tongue-in-cheek claim that RIM was "too innovative on our touch solution," a reference to the failed "SurePress" system on the original B...
BlackBerry
RIM CEO: enterprise is 'where BlackBerry lives best'
One of the questions on everyone's mind at BlackBerry World has been how RIM is dividing its focus between enterprise users and regular customers — where does the company see BlackBerry devices being used? CEO Thorsten Heins told a group of reporters during a press briefing that while RIM's still focused on consumers, a core place for growth is going to be in business settings. In response to a question asking essentially how the company feels about enterprise, Heins simply responded that...
RIM investigating 'segmentation of BlackBerry' for licensing opportunities, says CEO
In a wide-ranging discussion with the press at BlackBerry World, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins addressed our question about his strategy for licensing BlackBerry 10. There are two major opportunities for RIM to license BB10: smartphones and "mobile computing" and in both cases, Heins confirmed that RIM is actively investigating its options.
Specifically with regards to smartphones, Heins said that he first would need to "prove BlackBerry 10" with his teams, then engage in other discussions to...
BlackBerry
LTE-enabled PlayBook coming, says RIM CEO Thorsten Heins
Evidence has been piling up that RIM is preparing an LTE version of its PlayBook tablet, but rumor no longer: CEO Thorsten Heins let us know this morning at a press briefing at BlackBerry World that there will indeed be an LTE-capable PlayBook "later this year." It appears RIM doesn't have immediate plans to change the PlayBook's hardware in a significant aesthetic way, however — we've heard a couple of times this week that RIM is very happy with the device's hardware, and with existing...
BlackBerry
RIM guarantees developers will make $10,000 on their 'certified' BlackBerry 10 apps in first year
RIM has announced at its BlackBerry Jam keynote address in Orlando today that it'll be guaranteeing that developers will make at least $10,000 in sales of their BlackBerry 10 apps in the first year — if they don't, RIM will cut a check for the difference. It's a widely-held belief that developer participation in a mobile ecosystem is what ultimately makes or breaks it (which is why Microsoft has been incentivizing developers on Windows Phone in a variety of ways), but this takes it to a new...
Mobile
BlackBerry 10 apps reveal the future of RIM's ecosystem
At the BlackBerry World keynote, RIM is currently giving its developer partners an unusually large portion of the spotlight to show off the apps they have built for BlackBerry 10, some in as little as ten days. The apps are designed to show a few things: how easy it is to port apps to BB10 from other platforms, how flexible RIM's developer tools are, and most importantly how the new Cascades framework gives developers a way to create apps that match the look and feel of BB10.
We'll update...
Mobile
BlackBerry 10 Cascades interface revealed, tools released to developers
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins just officially launched the "BlackBerry 10 Platform," or everything that makes up the development stack for BB10, including many architectural elements of the PlayBook OS. What's new is something that RIM has only hinted at before: Cascades and the Cascades UI.
"Cascades" is RIM's shorthand for a set of developer tools and resources for building apps that fit the look, feel, and interaction models of BB10. Developers can build apps using Cascades tools in either C/C++...
Mobile
BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha developer testing device hands-on impressions (update: video)
RIM may finally be ready to begin showing BlackBerry 10 to users, but right now the company has another priority: getting developers on board with the new platform. To that end, it's giving every developer at the BlackBerry Jam conference here in Orlando a phone, the "BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha developer testing device."
That mouthful of a name is actually descriptive of what this device is and what it is not. It's not a prototype, it's not a phone that will ever be released, and RIM wants to...
Mobile
BlackBerry 10 unveiled
At its BlackBerry World event in Orlando today, RIM pulled the wraps off BlackBerry 10, a thoroughly-revamped platform based on QNX that the company is hoping will bring it back into contention. Though it's been talking about BlackBerry 10 since last year (when it was known as BBX), this is the first time that RIM is getting into details about what we can expect when it debuts on retail devices later in 2012.
RIM's putting an emphasis on "glanceable" gestures in the platform, allowing the...
'Jetpack Joyride' and other games coming to BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook
RIM's gaming head Anders Jeppsson has taken to Twitter to reveal upcoming titles for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook ahead of BlackBerry World 2012. Halfbrick will be bringing Jetpack Joyride to RIM's tablet and new mobile OS, along with four more games — the studio has previously released iOS and Android hits such as Fruit Ninja and Monster Dash, though the hugely popular Jetpack Joyride never made the leap to Android. Other highlights include Fishlabs' demonstration of Galaxy on Fire 2...
Hands-on with RIM's new NFC-enabled BlackBerry Music Gateway
RIM's BlackBerry Music Gateway is a small Bluetooth A2DP music streamer and, well, not anything more. That's part of the device's charm: it contains no battery, no screen, and no complicated settings. You plug it in, pair your phone, and start streaming music.
The main new feature that RIM has added is NFC pairing. Just as with Nokia's speaker solutions, you can touch any device that utilizes a standard NFC connect protocol to automatically pair and unpair with the device — RIM says it...
