BlackBerry 10 Platform together with BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 Smartphones Launched

The company formerly known as Research In Motion (they officially changed their company name to “BlackBerry”) just concluded the BlackBerry 10 launch and it was an event packed with a lot of major announcements. Some of which caught us completely off-guard but we’ll get to that later in the post, hehe. The biggest news of course is the official unveiling of the BlackBerry 10 platform together with two new devices – the full touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 and the BlackBerry Q10 with a physical keyboard. Both devices have stunning hardware with equally intriguing software.

To know more about the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, watch the walkthrough and hands-on videos below.

Meet the BlackBerry Z10

Meet the BlackBerry Q10

Cool phones right!? I’m seriously considering buying both, haha! Anyway moving on let’s quickly do a rundown of the features of BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry Flow

BlackBerry Flow is BlackBerry’s take on multi-tasking and app management. It’s a gesture based system that’s not only intuitive but also very cool, hehe. How does this work? To unlock the phone, swipe up. THis will open up the last screen you were on. Another swipe upwards will display minimized versions of apps running in the background which BlackBerry is calling “Active Frames”. All apps are running and not in freeze or sleep mode.

BlackBerry Peek

Using BlackBerry Flow you can easily check the BlackBerry Hub and take a literal “peek” into your latest messages, updates, and appointments. This works very well when you’re watching a video and you don’t want to pause it. You swipe sideways, check out what’s on the BlackBerry Hub, and then go back to your video afterwards.

BlackBerry Hub

The BlackBerry Hub is probably the biggest draw of BlackBerry 10 for a lot of users. This is essentially a unified inbox for all of your social accounts, calendar appointments, and reminders. It’s probably the most advanced notifications system ever made for a mobile device. With the BlackBerry Hub you can do actions across your social networks without even opening the apps themselves. For example, you can accept a friend request on Facebook or LinkedIn directly from the Hub.

BlackBerry Balance

BlackBerry Balance lets you create individual settings and app selections for your work and personal uses. Pretty straightforward.

BlackBerry BBM Video Chat and Screenshare

Now these features are hot. First, BBM gets video chat. With one tap you can call your friend on BBM via 3G or WiFi. Definitely a much-needed function. Even better though is that while on a video call you can actually do Screen Share. This will let you present presentations, images, or videos while talking over them. Definitely innovative. Check out the video below for details.

BlackBerry Keyboard

The BlackBerry 10 keyboard is touted as the best on-screen keyboard mainly due to the predictive software built-in as well as the gesture motion of you flicking upwards to send words to the screen. I’m really keen on trying this one out.

BlackBerry World: Packed with over 70,000 apps on launch

BlackBerry definitely did their work in getting as many developers as they can to the platform. They showed a video featuring all the top apps across different categories. Watch it below.

Didn’t see Instagram there though but the amazing high number upon launch is encouraging!

BlackBerry Remember and BlackBerry Story Maker

Other than the usual apps, BlackBerry also announced their own custom made applications – BlackBerry Remember and Story Maker. BlackBerry Remember is some sort of note taking app that also saves links and websites to folders you create. It reminds me a lot of Evernote and Pocket It.

Story Maker is a multi-media video editor. Here’s how it works:

Cool!

Our Initial Thoughts

Two words: Impressed and Hopeful. We are looking forward to seeing this reach the hands of consumers. On paper and on video BlackBerry 10 looks amazing. Now let’s see if it can actually amaze and capture the hearts of people around the world. We’re definitely going to get both units as fast as we can so we can give you guys the unboxing and the review. Watch out. 🙂

Availability and Pricing

No pricing and availability was announced for the Philippines but Thorsten did say that several of their major markets will be getting it this February (Canada, UK, UAE). Based on the usual time it took BlackBerry to launch their products before, it’s safe to say we’ll get it sometime in April or May.

But wait… there’s more!

SURPRISE! BlackBerry Hires Alicia Keys as Global Creative Director

In what could be the most surprising reveal ever, BlackBerry announced that they hired Alicia Keys as their new Global Creative Director. Hopefully Keys will be instrumental in always keeping BlackBerry forward thinking and innovative.

Anyway, congratulations to BlackBerry on finally getting BB10 off the ground! Take a bow guys, this moment belongs to you.