RIM demoes BlackBerry10 features

BB10 has long been discussed, and at the Canadian company’s mobile app developers conference in San Jose, California yesterday, a little more than just a glimpse of the upcoming OS was shared.

One of the most obvious misses on this one is that of the physical QWERTY keyboard— it has been replaced by a touchscreen! Ironically, BlackBerry phones were known for their QWERTY keyboards, among other things. It offers auto-complete support in multiple languages. Elaborating on this feature, TechHive shares that if a user types a sentence in English, but uses a Japanese word, then the auto-complete function will complete the word just as it would in English.

A sneak peek into BB10

Adding to this, TechHive shares that BB10 will feature a touchscreen keyboard and the apps will show up in a grid format. “There’s also an updated browser that promises more HTML5 adeptness,” adds the report further. 

BlackBerry 10 has Flow – a term given to a new feature on the OS, using which users can go back and forth between apps. Interestingly, as per reports, the new OS will have an App World store with its own app ecosystem. TechHive shares that according to the company, developers will  be able to port their Android apps into the BB10 store. Also included are apps for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Foursquare, and as per reports, there is a Contacts app that syncs with the user’s social networks. 

Importantly, there is still no clarity on what devices will support the new OS. However, as reported on TechHive, “From what we’ve heard at BlackBerry Jam this week, users with older BlackBerry gadgets may not be able to upgrade their BB7 devices to BB10.”

It seems that RIM has promised of some more surprises coming before the OS finally goes public next year. Another one of popular BlackBerry services has been messaging and with BB10, TechHive reveals that BB messaging system will get the BlackBerry Hub. Users will be able to access features like email, text messages, BBMs and social networking notifications "in one centralized location."

Reports just this morning revealed that RIM shared it was receiving positive feedback on its BB10 devices from the carriers who previewed the new phones. Quoting RIM's Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins, the report added, "We are making believers out of our partners. We are making believers out of those who had previously written BlackBerry off."