Blackberry are looking to cash-in with their new low-cost Qwerty smartphone. The Blackberry Q5 was unveiled by CEO Thorsten Heins on Tuesday in Orlando.

The Q5 features a trademark Blackberry QWERY keyboard, along with a 3.1-inch touch screen, but that’s about all we know about the entry-level handset from a hardware point of view. Blackberry have announced that the Q5 will be available in black, white, red, orange and pint and will go on sale in selected markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia from July. No pricing has been announced yet.

What’s most interesting about the Q5 is that it is clearly a budget device — something that Blackberry originally intended to keep BB10 away from for a while. What do you think of the Q5? Hope it comes stateside?

[ Source ]

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Fans of Blackberry’s QWERTY equipped phones will be interested to hear that a new budget-oriented phone could be making an appearance next week at the Blackberry Live conference.

The news comes in the form of a leaked photo of the R10 along with purported specifications from Chinese website DGtle. According to their sources the Blackberry R10 will feature the same 3.1-inch display and 2GB RAM as the more costly Q10 but with a lower spec 5 mega-pixel camera, 8GB ROM and just an 1800mAh battery.

The R10 will be aimed at the entry-level market but would also make a great replacement for anyone wanting to update their older Curve handset. What’s interesting is that Blackberry has said that they will be focusing mostly on the high-end with BB10, so either they’ve changed their mind or they are simply billing this as their first mid-ranger. What do you think, would you be interested in a cheaper variant of the Q10? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

[ Source ]

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There is still no firm release date attached to the BlackBerry Q10, but the official splash page on the Fido website has it listed as “available soon.” As a quick refresher, this phone will come with a 3.1-inch 720x720px OLED display, the full QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry OS 10, a 1.5GHz dual core processor, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, LTE compatibility, 16GB storage, 2GB RAM and a microSD expansion slot good for up to 32GB more storage.

The Fido website has the BlackBerry Q10 listed at $350 on select 2-year Tab24 agreements (presumably on the “Smart” plans) or $650 outright without a Fido agreement. If you click through to the product page, you’ll find that there is an additional offer for existing Fido customers where they can reserve a BlackBerry Q10 for $200 when they renew on a 3-year Fido agreement (presumably they mean the Tab36 with a Max plan). The $25 hardware upgrade fee still applies.

Giving this “available soon” wording, we can probably safely assume that the other Canadian carriers will also be launching the BlackBerry Q10 pretty soon too.

The post BlackBerry Q10 Shows Up on Fido Website, Launch Imminent appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I used to be a stickler for the physical keyboard. That’s why I got the HTC Legend, the Nokia E71, and the Palm Pre 2. They all had physical keyboards, because I didn’t want to wrap my head around a virtual keyboard. That’s changed now, but there are still people out there who like the physical feel of keys. And for those people, there is the QWERTY-packing Spike case for iPhone.

Designed by SoloMatrix, the Spike case is a protective case for the iPhone, except it comes with a clever bonus. The bottom half contains a QWERTY keyboard that can swing out to the front when you need it, and swing around to the back when you don’t. There are two similar designs–the Spike1 and the Spike2–the key difference being that the Spike2 allows the keyboard to flip a full 180-degrees to the back. With the Spike 1, the keyboard only swings out to the side for removal.

What’s great is that neither case requires a Bluetooth connection or external power, so your battery life should be better than the wireless alternatives. The initial run will call for versions in Pitch Black and Ice White. Solomatrix is currently seeking funding by way of a Kickstarter project. If the plan goes ahead, the expected retail will be $35 for the Spike1 and $60 for the Spike2. The current designs are for the iPhone 4/4S, but there are plans for an iPhone 5 version by January.

[Source]

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There’s no official model name or number for this device just yet, but we’re hearing that the first BlackBerry 10 device (formerly BBX) will be touch-only, falling in line with Windows Phone, Android, and iOS. It’s not the first tiime that RIM has released a touch-only smartphone, but it did establish itself in the market with one of the best thumb-friendly hardware keyboards out there.

It sounds like RIM isn’t going to focus solely on doing the touchscreen-only thing moving forward. As not to alienate its (shrinking) user base, a BlackBerry 10 device with a physical QWERTY keyboard is being projected for a Q1 2013 launch. It could be a slider, like the Storm, or it could have a smaller display and conventional keyboard, like the Bold.

Now if only RIM can convince more app developers to start working with the platform…

[Source]

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Remember that tablet/notebook cross which was shown off by Sony at CES earlier this year? The convertible concept tablet dubbed “Hybrid” looked interesting although there was no confirmation whether the company would work on the prototype for market launch. And now a new info suggests that Sony has plans for bringing out the QWERTY-equipped slider.

In case you were out cold during CES, Sony’s hybrid tablet is Windows powered and is suspected to feature Intel’s Clover Trail Atom chip. The device is also thought to be coming equipped with a stylus for the pen input.

A print advertisement for the device, which comes to us courtesy of Pocketnow, hints that Sony might be planning to launch the device under the Vaio U brand. Although a release date is not mentioned, the poster suggests that the device might arrive with some changes.

When compared to the prototype (see below), the device in the ad does not have a stylus holder at the front of the keyboard and it appears to have a larger bezel as well. It also looks a bit thicker. And it will be awesome if it runs Windows 8, if it’s coming that is.

We will let you know when more info arrives. In the meantime, you can take a peek at a few pictures of the Hybrid prototype here.

[Image Source]

The post Sony ‘Hybrid’ Prototype Tablet Might Arrive As VAIO U appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

To be available in stores starting on November 21, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL isn’t a smartphone. Instead, it’s a feature phone that is clearly geared toward the social networking fans in the audience. It comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard that includes a dedicated Facebook button.

Clearly hitting the lower end of the pricing spectrum too, the MOTOKEY SOCIAL is less than 10mm thin and comes with a 3MP camera. The user interface features five home screens, two interface themes, and plenty of integration to Facebook, Twitter, and so on. You also get Opera Mini and an email client. It’s no smartphone, but it’ll do the job for many folks. At $89.99 on prepaid, it’s pretty cheap too.

The post Telus Prepaid Offers MOTOKEY SOCIAL Facebook Phone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

No, the aesthetic isn’t quite the same, but it’s obvious enough that the Samsung Galaxy Pro is very much following in the same footsteps as the Motorola Droid Pro that came out oh so long ago. It’s an Android smartphone in bar form with a physical QWERTY keyboard and a small touchscreen display.

The good news is that this kind of smartphone might be more suitable for people coming from devices like the Nokia E71 or BlackBerry Curve. The bad news is that the specs leave quite a bit to be desired. The 2.8-inch display merely boasts a QVGA (320×240) resolution. The camera? Yeah, it’s only a three-megapixel shooter.

What about the real guts of the machine? Well, it’s rocking an unspecified 800MHz processor, which should theoretically put it on par with something like the HTC Desire Z. Rounding out the specs are Android 2.2 Froyo, dual-band HSDPA 7.2Mbps, Social Hub, Samsung TouchWiz, and aGPS. You’ll need to rely on a microSD card too, since there’s only 2 gigs on board for storage.

It’s been more or less confirmed that Three UK (3 UK) will be picking up the Samsung Galaxy Pro, but they have not yet indicated price. For their sake, I hope it’s dirt cheap. Otherwise, the appeal of a physical keyboard isn’t exactly enough of a draw for a phone like this.

[Samsung Hub]

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Yeah, the Verizon iPhone 4 is here, but it’s not really all that different from the GSM-friendly AT&T version. Most enthusiasts are more interested in the possibilities of the iPhone 5, but what are the latest rumors telling us?

First, let’s start with the iPhone 5 itself. By many indications, the next-gen iPhone will go with a bigger display. Up until now, all iPhone models have had a 3.5-inch screen. For the next one, Apple might opt for a four-incher, putting it in line with the Samsung Galaxy S and many other Android phones. This rumor seems awfully likely.

Second, we could be seeing a smaller iPhone. Call it the iPhone nano or the iPhone mini. The rumors are quite varied as to how much smaller (I’ve heard anywhere from 30% to 50% smaller), but they’re all pretty consistent in touting a $200 (sans contract) price. This would certainly go against the “elite” or “high-end” image that Apple products typically get, but we’ve seen this already happen to the iPod line in the past. Can you imagine an iPhone shuffle?

Third, some reports are pointing toward the possibility of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, not unlike the Palm Pre 3 or the T-Mobile G2. I find this much less likely, as Apple seems really bent on making for the sleek multitouch display interface. It would address a common gripe about the iPhone though.

[ via TechVibes, Photo: BoxWave iPhone 4 QWERTY Slider Case]

The post Rumor: Bigger iPhone 5 + QWERTY Keyboard and iPhone Nano Phone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

So we’re still not totally sure how it works, but SnapKeys 2i definitely caught our interest at CES 2011. Using only four imaginary letter keys and one hell of an advanced word prediction engine, SnapKeys hopes to change the way people type on their smartphones and tablets forever.

“There is a fundamental problem in entering data on mobile devices. Keyboards were meant for fixed devices, not mobile ones, and screens are supposed to support your output, not be cluttered by your input interface,” says Benjamin Ghassabian, CEO of SnapKeys Limited. “SnapKeys 2i resolves that problem. By allowing users to interact with the screen using an extremely simple keypad model which is in their mind, the system frees the whole screen for output display.”

The interface isn’t a dummy either, you’ve got full letters,  numbers, punctuation marks, the whole nine yards plus it can be positioned anywhere on the screen so that your keyboard isn’t hogging half your screen space. You can play with SnapKeys 2i on all the major OS’s – Android, Windows, Symbian and iOS. And it’s available in most European and Asian languages which is pretty neat too.

If you’re not at CES you’ll want to see the promo YouTube video to get a better look at this in action, otherwise swing by and try it out in person at Booth 26609 in the LVCC South Hall 2.

[SnapKeys]

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