This isn’t exactly official, per se, as CrackBerry simply found the leaked slide, but this is pretty darn close. The BlackBerry London was hinted at and leaked before, but that was when we were still calling it the first BBX phone. Now, it’s BlackBerry 10 and the hardware design is distinctly different. There’s almost something about it that reminds me of the Galaxy S II and others of that slim smartphone ilk.

Some people are saying that the BlackBerry London is more like a shrunken down, phone-sized version of the BlackBerry PlayBook. That almost makes sense, especially with that great rubberized-feeling back. As far as specs, we’re hearing of either a TI OMAP5 or Qualcomm chipset, both of which are of the 1.5GHz dual core variety. They’ve seemingly done away with hardware buttons too, not unlike the PlayBook.

The London will also be joined by the BlackBerry Lisbon and the BlackBerry Laguna, all of which will be doing the BlackBerry 10 thing and all of which should be due for release later this year.

The post Revealed: BlackBerry London Superphone with BlackBerry 10 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

According to a post at Crackberry, the Blackberry Playbook has now been cracked…. errr, rooted, I wanted to say.

A team named Dingleberry (immature name, I know) made up of three mysterious guys nicknamed as xpvqs, neuralic, and cmwdotme have succeeded in gaining access and reverting some Blackberry OS system permissions. This allows the OS to be tweaked into doing some things it couldn’t before.

The first video shows the BB Playbook blinking with LEDs and dimming the backlight accomplished on remote from the host computer’s terminal. A bit better visual proof of the successful root is shown in video below:

This second, quite brief video shows the usually not very playful BB Playbook successfully running the Hulu (Android) app.

This is all the evidence of the root for now, but you can try to follow the Dingleberry developments through all their tweets:

http://twitter.com/xpvqs

http://twitter.com/neuralic

http://twitter.com/cmwdotme

As of today, they also promise the release of their Dingleberry Tool soon, and an IRC channel to converse with a more technically inclined audience.

So far, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of heavily discounted BB Playbooks were met with mixed success. There are also  some people at the Crackberry forum who are claiming that they are RIM’s employees and predict fire sales of BB Playbook 16 GB at the HP Touchpad price point: $99.

Refurbished units could be had at $150 – $170 these last couple of days. All these rumors and slashed price tags may lead to the situation that BB Playbook could become a good playground for various tinkerers. The majority of them these days are definitely Android hackers.

The BB Playbook’s reference design is quite similar, or is a direct ascendant of the platform used in the NOOK Tablet. The NOOK Tablet is just a blind (=no cameras) and disoriented (=no GPS) stepson of mighty BB Playbook with perfect HD vision.

Evidently, both these relatives’ hardware employ the same military-strong protection and security system named M-Shiled by Texas Instruments.

Until now, there were no reports of compromising, or circumventing M-Shield’s stronghold imposed on bootloader or other critical parts of respective systems. Keep in mind however,  such a protection is a multi-layered business by definition, and some of its tiers might be not really protected against simple exploits. Nothing of these exploits ever touches the integrity of QNX microkernel itself though.

One of such rooting exploits was used to root the NOOK Tablet, a similar exploit helped in rooting Amazon Kindle Fire — another BB Playbook’s stepson, this time not only blind, but also deaf (no microphone) and with a loss of external memory compared to NOOK Tablet. Today, it is unclear whether these new “e-reader” tablets will be capable of running other than stock kernels, but as of now customizations based on them are moving on fast.

My take on it goes like this: If the Dingleberry Team or any of their followers will be successful, BB Playbook will run Android Market, Google Apps (like Google Mail, Google Voice, Google Talk, and whatever Google) via the BB OS Android App Player. In a sense, a similar sandbox approach, only quite narrower and straight-jacketed for users longing for a “native” email app, was already demoed by RIM engineers themselves who are developing their version of Android “compatibility” for the forthcoming BB OS 2.0 release.

This is to say, that as long as a Dalvik Virtual Machine (aka Android) could be sandboxed and running safely on the QNX-based BB Playbook, there’s nothing threatening the integrity of QNX core itself could be assumed from such a development, or from Dingleberry Team’s exploit for that matter.

Personnel of nuclear installations, at International Space Station, of major Internet routers and other QNX critical installations of “mission impossible” rank may again breathe freely: these types of ‘hacks’ won’t harm you.

If Android apps really can run well in a sand-boxed mode, then this BB Playbook for $99 (or even for $199) may become a very attractive Christmas gift if compared to those blind and deaf Kindle Fires and NOOK Tablets.

The post Blackberry Playbook Has Been Rooted appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The sale will apparently begin at Staples starting on Nomember 18th and the sale will run until December 1. If you want to spend more, the 32GB and 64GB model are receiving the same $300 cut, bringing them down to $299 and $399, respectively. But Staples isn’t the only place participating.

It turns out that the same deal is being offered by Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada too, as well as what appears to be Wal-Mart. I suppose part of the motivation is to clear out stock for the holidays, but the PlayBook could represent a much better buy than the TouchPad. Even though RIM is hurting, it’s unlikely they will discontinue QNX any time soon, so the PlayBook will still get plenty of support. RIM might be crazy enough to release a PlayBook 2 for all we know. Sales of the current PlayBook have been lacking, but I have a feeling they’re going to be sold out everywhere well before the weekend is out.

The post BlackBerry PlayBook Slashed Down To $199 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You know how we heard QNX still doesn’t support BES? I guess one way around that is to create yet another operating system and that’s exactly what the Waterloo crew have decided to do, today announcing the next-generation BBX OS for BlackBerry smartphone and tablet devices.

Mike Lazaridis, who is still recovering from the recent BlackBerry outage, took the stage at RIM’s app developer conference to announce the new development. Basically, BBX is a middle ground between QNX and the company’s usual BB OS stream.  After apologizing for the outage and offering $100 in premium app downloads to those affected, Lazaridis continued.

Research in Motion is encouraging developers to create their games using HTML5, since that’s supported by QNX, as well as older platforms like BlackBerry OS 5 and OS6. This way, they can code once and deploy everywhere. There’s also something called Cascades, which is a native UI framework built into BBX, giving developers access to low-level APIs.

On the Enterprise side, unlike pure QNX, BBX should fully support BES. What’s more, enterprise apps can get their own shelf in App World and they would then be hosted by a company’s BES (and be undeletable by employees). There’s also something called BlackBerry Balance that will provide a “corporate partition” for separating BES (work) stuff from the rest of your life.

There was a brief moment discussing how BBX will support the Android Runtime.  A demo was later shown to developers in the Technical Session, but a simple app with menus was just ported.

Even though it’s yet another OS for RIM to handle, BBX could be the unifying factor to help minimize fragmentation and hopefully improve profits for BB app developers. Until we get some more details (like screenshots and demo videos), we’ll have to reserve judgement.

The post RIM’s New BBX Operating System Marries BlackBerry With QNX appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Research in Motion knows that its company has seen brighter days, but the recent BlackBerry outage has added plenty of fuel to the fire. While they are quickly working to fix the situation, RIM founder Mike Lazaridis has come forward with a public apology for the whole situation, saying sorry by way of online video.

“Since launching BlackBerry in 1999, it’s been my goal to provide reliable, real-time communications around the world. We did not deliver on that goal this week. Not even close,” said Lazaridis. “I apologize for the service outages this week. We’ve let many of you down…. You expect better from us. And I expect better from us.”

They say that they’re working around the clock to get the situation under control. “Normal levels” of service have been largely restored in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, but they’re still ironing out the kinks and you’re going to have some late messages trickling through. The good news, if you can call it that, is that Laziridis says compensating angry customers is “something we plan to address very soon. And that is a priority.”

Yes, RIM used to be a precious Pearl in the business community. However, they stopped making Bold moves and the rest of the industry threw Curve ball after curveball. They’ve got another Storm to weather and the future looks like it might get Torched. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) Maybe the lack of BES support in the QNX-powered Colt isn’t such a bad thing?

Lazaridis admitted: “We don’t know why the switch failed and why service never failed over to another alternative switch.”
Someone spoke about compensation for RIM users, Lazaridis said it “was something we are thinking about. We have enjoyed a 99.97 uptime over the past 18 months.”

The video is up on ABC News if you want to check it out.

The post BlackBerry Down: Biggest Network Crash in History, Lazardis Apologizes appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

An obvious trend that has emerged in the last few years is that people like smartphones with giant touchscreens and they’re getting less interested in having physical keyboards. While e-mail remains at the heart of the BlackBerry business, RIM recognizes that touchscreens are the present and the future. And that’s why the upcoming QNX-powered Colt superphone will be all touchscreen.

At least, that’s what the rumors are leading us to believe. Apparently, the BlackBerry Colt will be RIM’s equivalent to the emerging Android superphones with touchscreens of four inches or bigger. Maybe. At least we’re hearing that the Colt will rock a display that’s “possibly” bigger than 3.7-inches. Unlike the current Storm and Torch, the BlackBerry Colt sounds like it’ll do away with the trackpad too.

Naturally, the QNX operating system — which currently runs the PlayBook tablet — will be the real star here and that’s possibly why many RIM fans are holding off on BB7 devices. Oddly though, the Colt is rumored to have just a single core 1GHz processor. Considering that the BlackBerry superphone won’t launch until Q1 2012, that puts it in a similar release window as NVIDIA Tegra 3 “Kal-El”… which is a quad core mobile processor. Much like the PlayBook, will the Colt be a matter of too little, too late, missed the boat and doesn’t even have a paddle?

The post BlackBerry Colt superphone with QNX ditches the physical keyboard, trackpad appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Set for release in the first quarter of next year, the phone itself isn’t exactly a huge departure from the Curves, Tours, and Bolds we’ve seeing for some time. You still get a hardware QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad, but it’s the miniaturized version of the PlayBook’s OS that is the real star. The phone version is pretty much the same, only smaller… which is kind of the reverse of what Apple did with iOS for the iPad.

Since RIM is apparently having so much trouble getting the BES code to support QNX, it’s quite possible that the Canadian company is creating a QNX-specific BES. In the meantime, though, the BlackBerry Colt may not support BES at all. Does this make it dead on arrival? Maybe, maybe not. You can use Microsoft ActiveSync out of the box though.

So, where do you stand? Are you going to grab something from the BlackBerry 7 line or are you going to wait out for some QNX-based first-gen goodness next year?

The post RIM BlackBerry Colt first smartphone with QNX-based OS in 2012 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

There’s just one sign after another that Research in Motion rushed its tablet to market, hoping to strike the pan while it was still hot. The PlayBook came roaring out of the gates with all kinds of promises, only for us to learn that these promises aren’t exactly being fulfilled at time of launch. Like being able to run Android apps. Well, that’s almost here we think.

At the time, RIM announced a very bold strategy, saying that in addition to the apps being developed specifically for its new tablet platform, the PlayBook would also support the thousands of pre-existing apps developed for Google Android. It still can’t do that, but now we’re hearing that it will do that in “late fall.”

Earlier, RIM said that the Android compatibility would be ready for the summer. We’re about halfway through the summer already and there’s no Andy love on the QNX-powered PlayBook in sight. The “late fall” time frame comes by way of a “reliable source.” The way things are shaping up, we might not get a dose of Android on the PlayBook until a PlayBook 2 is released. Le sigh.

The post When will Android apps finally run on BlackBerry PlayBook? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

On the AT&T side of the equation, they’ll have three phones with BlackBerry OS 7. First, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 is much like the older Torch, except it’s been rehashed with a faster 1.2GHz processor, HD 3.2-inch screen, 8GB internal memory, and HSPA+. You can expect that to launch this month. Also coming to AT&T with BB OS7 are the Bold 9900 and the Torch 9860, the latter of which is AT&T’s first touchscreen-only ‘Berry. Those two should launch later this year.

On the Sprint side of things, they’re moving forward with BlackBerry 7 by providing two handset choices. The BlackBerry Bold 9930 is essentially a Sprint-friendly version of the 9900, giving you a 10.5mm profile, 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen, a wide QWERTY keyboard, and NFC. The BlackBerry Torch 9850 comes with a 3.7-inch screen (the largest ever on a BB). Both come powered by a 1.2GHz processor, plus Liquid Graphics technology for a better “visual experience.”

The specs are good, but I think I’m with everyone else on the ‘Berry front: we want to see how a QNX-powered BlackBerry would fare in this world of Gingerbreads, Mangos, and iOS.

The post The BlackBerry 7 lineup coming to AT&T and Sprint appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook is the companies first effort to join the newly created applucrative tablet computing market. Apple launched the iPad just over one year ago, and in that time sold 14.8 million units or more. They have also recently launched a successor to the iPad 1 tablet, bringing many more features to the table that were expected the first time around. Despite this, the Apple App store really changed the world and the way we use computers today. Google has followed suit with their Android optimized OS for tablets, and as of recent, support for anything and everything; the OS for the world. RIM was a late comer to the tablet party, but despite this we wouldn’t be quick to rule them out. The PlayBook is a very well made device, although lacking in the apps department it does offer basic functionality that even the iPad 2 is without. Now, on to the review.

Hardware

A pure black slate with an industry first advanced capacitive touchscreen 4-finger multi-touch and gesture supporting display. That’s a mouthful.  Gestures are activated by the outer glass bezel surrounding the 7-inch, 1024 x 600 display. The introductory tutorial basically gives you the skinny; swipe from the bottom of the glass up to the screen to pull up the alt+tab style application navigator. Swipe from the top bezel down pulls in additional functionality (if built into the specific app you are in).

Size is actually quite nice. It’s large enough to know its not a smartphone, but small enough that it still fits in the back of your blue jeans pocket. I was quite impressed because it makes it more “mobile” than say, a larger 10-inch tablet.

The Playbook has quite a bit of processing power under the hood. RIM has opted for a 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB RAM to run the new powerful and sexy QNX OS. This speed combined with memory will give RIM an advantage in the gaming department over the iPad’s 512 MB RAM. Increased RAM literally translates to bigger games being ported from the desktop space to the tablet space.

HD video out via micro-hdmi, comes standard, no extra dongles need to be purchased. Here’s a list of the full specs and features for your perusal;

BlackBerry PlayBook Specifications

• 7″ LCD display, 1024 x 600 screen resolution
• High resolution, WSVGA, capacitive screen with 4-finger multi-touch and gesture support
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• BlackBerry® Tablet OS with symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GB RAM
• Powerful, user-friendly QNX technology: It’s what the World Wide Web runs on
• True simultaneous multitasking — apps run simultaneously and in real time
• Accelerometer, 6-axis motion sensing (gyroscope) and digital compass (magnetometer)
• GPS
• Micro USB port
• Games, media, apps and all the rich content the real Internet has to offer
• Full Adobe® Flash® 10.1 enabled
• Built-in support for HTML 5
• No-compromise rendering of text, graphics and video
• 3 MP 1080p HD forward-facing camera
• 5 MP 1080p HD rear-facing camera
• Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
• Crystal clear video; H.264, MPEG4, WMV HDMI video output
• Micro HDMI port for 1080p playback
• Music Store by 7 Digital, BlackBerry® Podcast app
• Reliable BlackBerry Tablet OS, powered by QNX technology
• Supports POSIX OS, SMP, Open GL, WebKit, Adobe Flash and Adobe Mobile AIR
• 0.9 pounds/425g
• 7.6″/194mm x 5.1″/130mm x 0.4″/10mm

It weighs 0.9 pounds, lighter than the iPad, but heavier than the Galaxy Tab.

The buttons are crap. Yes, I said it and I do hope RIM will change this for the next version. I have become used to them now after 2 weeks of use, but it was no easy feat. The power button is nestled within a bevel to the left of the audio toggles. Basically here’s how you can skip two weeks of fuddling around and become a pro right off the bat. Use your left index finger only, place it on the top of the tablet edge, slide it across to the right until you hit the audio toggles, then just to the left of the first toggle press down. It’s awkward and I have yet to find any other way.

The camera’s are OK. They work, they are pixelated, slow and grainy, but this isn’t a camera-centric device anyway. It’s often blurry and video is, well, acceptable and not terrible.

Sound is quite good. The speakers are cleverly ported on the outer front edges and give you a real stereo effect.

Not as impressive as I would have imagined. I usually find it completely drained after falling asleep with say, a 60 minute mp3 playing in the background to send me off to la la land. You would think it would perform much better considering it goes into standby and disables Wi-Fi only after 5 minutes. Once you wake it, you will have to manually connect to your Wi-Fi again. A nuisance which will probably be addressed in later updates. I calculated north of 6 hours on a good “light day.”

Get used to that screen; you’ll see it frequently as the BlackBerry Tablet OS continues to improve.  But  I will say the BlackBerry Tablet OS (QNX) is the sexiest tablet OS I have seen to date. I say this from a professional standpoint, being a user interface designer myself, as well as from a consumers point of view; usability is paramount to what’s out there now. Swiping and menu bounces are all dialed in, the opacities and overlays look very clean and high-end. You know who RIM is targeted when you look at this OS. It is a first generation, so obviously there are quirks to it that I’m sure will be sorted soon. Some buttons are a pixel off and shift position when you touch, no search capabilities within the OS, apps tray shows up even when no apps are there, I have noticed small things like this but nothing too serious. Even the volume toggles require you to press them once per step up or down, you cannot just hold it to do a quick change.

I’m not a BlackBerry user so that limits me to not being able to test the full functionality of BlackBerry Bridge, but if you want to learn more read up on it. Without it you can’t send email attachments and do other BlackBerryific stuff.

The app store for BlackBerry apps. Although not loaded to the nines with flashlights, fart sound apps and 20 Angry Birds knock offs, they are slowly building up a good library. Once the Android App browser is released it should open things up plenty. Check the video at the end of this review for more on that.

The thing is blazing fast, serious. Just give the bundled Need For Speed Undercover game a run and see for yourself. I did notice some jittery after “effects” when playing the bundled Tetris game while simultaneously playing the built-in Tetris music. I would blame this on software as I can’t conceive a 1GHz processor being inadequate to perform this task.

Yes, it is a commonly advertised feature that everyone likes to shout out loud with the their thumbs hanging off their waste belts “it can multitask.” But how much multitasking is possible with the Playbook? It will vary depending on what you are doing. You can technically “run” multiple programs and have them in a suspended state for later. This kind of ruins part of the YouTube experience but not entirely. The YouTube app and MP3 Player will keep playing while you are in another app.

If you are an iPad or iPhone user you may share the same feelings as me and believe the YouTube app is crap. The BlackBerry official YouTube app is not far off, but they do actually allow you to use the traditional YouTube website to playback a freaking flic. Try this on iOS and you will get the boot into the YouTube app with entirely different search results. Yep, I’m outing you Google and Apple, you are not giving YouTube users the same search data that native web users get. But low and behold, RIM has really made an impression on me. Not only do you get flash, but you get the actual native web browser search results since you are able to access YouTube from within the “browser” and not just the “app.” This may or may not be a big deal to you, but to someone throwing a party that has a tabletized self-jockey ability enabled for guests, and to ask those guests to play songs and videos they love but only to leave them disappointed with different search results than they are used to, well, this just doesn’t go over well. Words are spoken, not nice ones, and usually about Apple. I should make a note that the BlackBerry official YouTube app also delivers different search results than the native website, but you do have the browser alternative unlike iOS.

Finally, YouTube within a browser that works on a tablet!

YouTube in the PlayBook app (meh)

iOS Search Results

Technical Support

If you have any issues with the PlayBook, setup, software, etc. you get 90 days of free support. Thereafter you must purchase an extended warranty for 2 years. It’s $129 and they say gets you “protection against drops and spills” too which is pretty good if you’re clumsy like that. Save yourself a headache though and register first before calling; if you dare do call that is. You just enter your serial number at the bottom of the support page, accept a TOS, then call in.

Once registering I got the following message: “Your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet has been registered. Your 90-Day Complimentary Support expires on 2011-07-27, so you have 72 days remaining.” I’m wondering where the other 18 days went to since I never called in previously. Technical support said not to worry, I have 90 days. Shrug. Dont even waste your time entering serial numbers or case numbers into the phone prompts, no one gets them once you are transferred.

When you phone in the first level support has very bad English and due to RIM policy were unable to tell me where they were located. After trying to comprehend what the agent was saying, repeating and repeating over and over again, then going back and forth with another technical support agent for more than five minutes trying to determine and resolve the issue for why BlackBerry Desktop Software does not work on Mac, not to mention after recommending I download the latest PC software, they finally decided to transfer me to the next level which was about the same experience, just alot longer. I finally ended up with an email listing step by step instructions how to uninstall, reinstall and restart my computer. I am still unable to get this software to work on Mac OSX 10.6.7. I spoke to a third agent who then said he would send me more instructions and ask another higher-level of support about “configuration specifics.” Well, 30 minutes of hold and then a hangup, I got a call from Bill, the fifth and final rep who actually spoke English and let me know that the BlackBerry Desktop Software does not work for the PlayBook just yet. Anyway, to make a long annoying experience short — I believe I was the first Mac user to call in – just use Wi-Fi. Here’s the instructions thanks to Bill to setup your PlayBook share with a Wi-Fi connection

.

BlackBerry PlayBook Tips

 

If your Playbook for some reason would become frozen. Press and hold the power button down for 15 seconds, this will give it a hard restart.

To wipe out your device and start over (this literally wipes out everything) go to Settings > Security > Security Wipe. From here on you will basically revert to a new device, same startup, mandatory tutorials, etc. If you wipe you will lose Need For Speed Undercover and some crappy fake Bust-a-move game upon refreshing the OS; go to App World and get them again for free.

Playbook above China Craptablet (aka: CherryPad)

Bottom Line

This is a great tablet, it’s small, fast, the design is solid and doesn’t feel like a MIC craptablet. It’s got a great form factor, the virtual keyboard is kick ass since the size of the tablet allows you to use it as a perfect thumbboard — I think RIM thought this one through. The OS is slick and sexy, although basic and could use some “bells and whistles,” keep in mind it’s a first gen OS and wow, what a first gen. Technical support is free and not up to the Apple standard just yet. If Android portability and market support come through without any hiccups, technical support passes ESL (I did press 1 for English) RIM could have a serious game changer on their hands. Would you buy one?

The BlackBerry PlayBook is a Wi-Fi only tablet that can use your BlackBerry smartphone’s Internet connection. It is priced at $500 in 16GB capacity, with 32GB and 64GB options for $100 more each step up.

 

The post BlackBerry PlayBook Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

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