The buzz today at the annual BlackBerry World conference was the introduction and preview of the new BlackBerry (BB) 10 software platform as introduced by the company’s CEO Thorsten Heins in his keynote speech. Heins, who has held the position of CEO since January, replacing founders and long-time incumbents Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie revealed a prototype phone along with a plethora of BB10’s new features.
Based on what was shown today, optimism remains subdued for the Waterloo, Ontario company however the features and potential of the platform as revealed today are definitely intriguing. Although news has been bleak for the onetime tech titan recently, a great deal of interest remains for the company internationally. The challenge for RIM however is doing enough to differentiate itself from the competition (iOS and Android) while also delivering on the lofty promises made in today’s keynote.
Among these features, RIM has taken a stab at improving the way photos can be taken on your phone using an innovative software feature that records photo frames before and after the actual photo is taken. The purpose of this is that in case someone in your photograph has their eyes closed, you will be able to zoom into their face and using a toggle style wheel will literally be able to turn back that part of the image back a few seconds until the eyes magically re-open (well technically to a time before they originally closed).
Other interesting features include an intuitive keyboard system that predicts that words you will be typing, putting the common words you use on top of the first letter they are spelt with automatically. This feature is not only a faster way to type, it also will go a long way in preventing embarrassing auto correct blunders.
RIM is intent on building an app marketplace that can compete with Apple and Google, something that is currently not the case thanks to a software platform that was not created with apps in mind. According to N4BB, the first BB10 device will be announced in August, with the devices being launched in October. This gives a timeframe for the company and third party developers to create enough quality apps to help revive the Canadian tech titan.
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