There have been rumors that Android-powered laptops and laptop/tablet hybrids are in the works, but there has never been all that much as far as concrete information on what to expect. Now, Intel is pulling back the curtain a bit to talk about how much the first round of Android-powered laptops could cost you when they are released.
Last week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini had said that there would be $200 touchscreen laptops on the way over the next couple months, and just a couple days ago Dadi Perlmutter, Intel executive vice president and chief product office, surprised some by saying that the majority of those devices would be Android laptops running on Intel's Atom processors. And, for the power users out there Perlmutter said that there would be Android laptops and hybrids running on Intel's Core series processors starting at just $399 to $499.
Android won't be replacing Windows 8, but it sounds like the Android devices will definitely undercut the Windows 8 devices on price. Now, it's just a matter of seeing how Android goes over with laptop users after its steady success in phones and tablets.
So now we are going to Announce Something Big..
That due to high pressure of news it is very hard to handle a big website for a single person now we don't have anyone else except me it is very stressful job to write posts for a single person.
For this reason i can't update our website at the time of news
Due to this big reason i decided to shutdown the Entertainment News Section
Just Entertainment News nothing else
the Entertainment Tab will be removed from our website in several days
but i will keep updating the other things like songs,movies,apps,Tech News,Gadgets,Hacks and mods,how-tos etc
and also the Movies and Songs Tab will also be removed and it will be placed in the Downloads Section
but if you wants to participate in our website you are most welcome
just email us at : afnan.ali32@gmail.com
if we got anyone for our website to do Entertainment News Posts then the Entertainment Tab will come back
and we will inform you all..
We are Gonna Change our name Soon in Several weeks but we are not gonna tell you what's the name?
it's a surprise for you all.. Thanks Everyone Keep Supporting Us..
Jason Mackenzie, HTC's global president of sales, sat down for an interview, in which he revealed some pretty interesting tidbits from the kitchen of smartphone making.
The big story here is that he is convinced Samsung borrowed the Burst Shot mode of its phone cameras, which debuted with the HTC One X and One S. It is not only Samsung, though, as soon each and every manufacturer, like LG or Sony, also introduced some sort of burst shot regimes in their camera apps, while Sony even borrowed HTC's idea to place the stills and video shutter keys on one and the same screen, instead of switching back and forth, which you can see in the Xperia Z.
We're changing the culture within HTC. Our culture has always embraced this "quietly brilliant" mentality, which meant the good things about being humble. But we've been too quiet. We're embracing that we need to be a challenger. HTC is a company fighting against two of the biggest companies in the world, Apple and Samsung, who have a lot of resources. So we're embracing that.
What that means is we will be a lot more aggressive in our communication. We need to take ownership of our innovations. So if I think about last year, the HTC One X; great product. We had this "amazing camera, authentic sound" message, but it was too vague. We didn't communicate well why it was an a amazing camera. We essentially worked for our competitors in some cases, where we launched these great things like burst mode, and then we let Samsung come in and suck in our innovation and own it in the consumer's mind.
So the first thing we're doing with those big innovations I took you through--BlinkFeed, BoomSound and the UltraPixel camera--we're actually trademarking these terms, we're going to own them and we're going to be very aggressive about how we communicate those. The second thing is we're going to be a lot more strategic in how we're marketing. We'll have an "always on" approach. Before we've come out in these four- or five- or maybe eight-week bursts around a product. Now you will see HTC aggressively market throughout the year.
On the question why the innovative BlinkFeed news board that gives you curated always-on snippets of info on topics of your choosing from more than 140 content providers HTC has struck a deal with, looks like Microsoft Windows Phone's Live Tiles concept, he answered:
If what you mean is that there are squares on it, you're right. But Live Tiles on Windows is static information. They're widgets, essentially. What this is, is a newsfeed that's constantly updating. So every time I turn on my phone I can feed through it and I can get to the latest information. The phone is alive from that perspective. That's a big innovation that we think fits consumers. And then it's also a fantastic differentiator where, when you see this in ads and things, this is going to say HTC BlinkFeed.
If you have been worried about the sealed battery into the HTC One, fret not, as it seems to power the phone for a long time, an improvised 3rd party test indicates.
The One sports a 2300 mAh juicer, with which the phone managed the very respectable 8 hours and 32 minutes of video playback, and more than 16 hours of talk time in 3G mode. Given that any score above six hours in continuous video playback is already above the average mark, this is a pretty good achievement on HTC's part, and with a high-res Full HD screen at that.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just unveiled a new look for the News Feed – that center column of photos, status updates, and news you first see when you go to Facebook.com or open a Facebook app.
Zuckerberg said one goal for the redesign was to "give everyone the best personalized newspaper in the world."
The biggest change is that the feed is now split into multiple channels, such as "music," "photos," "videos," "events," and "news."
The new feed will also include more and bigger photos and videos. (Users should expect more and bigger photo and video ads soon.)
The changes will roll out today for the web, with mobile device support coming in the next few weeks.
The new News Feed makes Facebook.com look a lot more like it already looks in Facebook apps.
Here's a before-and-after shot of the old feed with the new feed:
This is what the music feed will look like:
Facebook will now look the same on desktop, tablet and mobile phones:
Users can see which of their friends has shared the same article:
PointMaza
Facebook says that its users want more choice and more control over the things they see in their News Feed. So they put a menu on the right hand side of the screen, which users can use to switch between different feeds:
The GSM Association awarded HTC the award for best new mobile handset, device or tablet at Mobile World Congress 2013.
The award was determined by a panel comprised of industry professionals, members of the media and analyst communities. The new device has a lot going for it, and a lot riding on it as well. HTC has endured a fall from grace over the past couple years. The company needs a hero to save the day. The HTC One may be that device.
As we reported to you in our hands-on from HTC One announcement, this device is easy on the eyes. The build quality is superb and is probably the best build device turned out by this manufacturer. To back up the build quality, HTC also introduced its overhauled UI, Sense 5. HTC Sense has always been pretty snazzy and the personalization enabled by Sense is very useful. Sense 5 brings with it a new component, HTC BlinkFeed, an all-in-one aggregation which can replace the traditional Sense home screen.
Throw in a super-high-resolution display, Beats Audio, and a new take on camera technology which may prove to be a contender, and it is sure to make an impression. So, congratulations to HTC for the award, and keep checking in with us at PointMaza.Blogspot.com for our review of the new HTC One.
Ever get up in the morning only to be asked what the heck you meant to say with that text you sent in the middle of the night? The problem is that you don't recall even getting up and sending a text. It is a phenomenon that has become quite common. Sleep-texting happens often because most of us sleep within close proximity to our cell phones. A recent story on CNN repeated some examples of such messages that were sent in the middle of the night by those who had no idea the next morning that they had sent them. Some examples included: "Wtf did they put in those little bomb things," "No bounces issues with monh..., pillow helps," "I legittt wish veggird were enough to fuelme," and "The bullet holes really look great on my teddy bear."
Sleep-texting is becoming more common
Dr. Jim Fulop, the corporate medical director for OhioHealth Sleep Services, and Dr. Shelby Harris, director of behavioral sleep medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, say that the younger generation texts in their sleep more often because some young professionals need to text and respond to emails late into the night for their jobs. And some teens wake up in the middle of the night confused, and quickly reach for their handset.
Actually, the sleep-texting term might be a misnomer as the person sending the message isn't exactly sleeping, but is half awake. While some people might get up and open the refrigerator and make a sandwich, others unlock their phones and send out a text message. Dr. Harris calls it a form of sleepwalking. But there are some easy solutions. You can make sure your handset is turned off, put in a different room from the one where you're sleeping, or protect it by using a passcode (unless you have an Apple iPhone running iOS 6.1).
"It's like your brain is on autopilot. Think about the rate at which people are texting nowadays, and most people sleep right next to (their phones), so if they wake up it's another automatic behavior. ... This is sort of a form of sleepwalking, that's kind of the way that I look at it."-Dr. Shelby Harris, director of behavioral sleep medicine, Montefiore Medical Center in New York
Did you ever get up in the morning and find that you've sent out some texts that sounded like gibberish? And worse, did you not remember sending them in the first place? Drop us a comment and tell us all about it in the box below. But please make sure you're awake before you comment.
Ah, Barcelona – we missed you! Last time you welcomed us was exactly one year ago, when the previous edition of Mobile World Congress was held. And now, the time has come to once again dive into the fascinating world of things that go beep and boop, click and clack.
For those who don’t know, Mobile World Congress is like Disneyland for geeks. All the major (and many of the not-so-major) companies that manufacture phones, tablets, or anything in between are present in one form or another, showing off their latest and greatest creations. And boy are we excited to get our hands on them!
There will be literally dozens and dozens of things to see – gadgets, accessories, you name it! However, you aren’t expecting us to have all the fun without sharing a generous dose of it with you, guys, are you? Over the following days, we’ll be doing hands-ons, taking pictures, and posting articles about every device or software product we get to check out. Pro tip: an easy way of keeping track of our coverage is to use the “MWC 2013” tag on our home page. Or just come back and check us out every few minutes – that works too.
Now we’ll unpack our gear and have a short break after the lengthy trip. But don’t go too far because before you know it, we’ll be already covering the event as it unfolds. MWC 2013 starts officially on February 25th and runs through February 28th, but a massive amount of exciting news is coming on the 24th. Stay tuned, folks, for one of the year’s biggest spectacles in the mobile industry is about to begin!
Introduction Just a couple of days ago, Google released a brand new video showing real-life footage from its Project Glass, a futuristic wearable heads-up display with a mounted camera and cellular connectivity. We’ve seen Glass in action before, but now is the first time we actually get to see the user interface of the platform powering Glass as it is (this is clearly not Android, not in a recognizable form). Not just that, we get a deeper look at what Google thinks would be the practical uses for the futuristic wearable display.
We’ve watched this video over and over again, imagining the possibilities offered by Glass. We believe Glass has the potential to be more than just a heads-up display. With cellular connectivity on board, it could well be the next big disruption since the iPhone. And with a deeply engraved social DNA, Glass could finally give Google Plus a much needed push, turn the market dynamics against Facebook, and change telephony along the way. Here is how.
Stacking up the cards: it’s all about voice
In order to understand the prospects for Google Glass, we need to look at Google’s recent history. The company has grown tremendously since Larry Page took over as a chief executive officer replacing now chairman Eric Schmidt in April 2011. More importantly, it has started changing extremely rapidly, evolving in a very clear vertically integrated vector.
Right after Page stepped in as CEO, he ordered a massive holistic redesign of Google’s entire product lineup. It had to be done in extremely tight deadlines - months not years. By now you can already see the fruits of it - unified modern and simplistic looks of everything starting from the traditional search engine, through Google Drive and ending with Google Plus. It is a good looking unified ecosystem with virtually no fragmentation.
Google’s strong cloud presence however is just a part of the foundation that has been laid to make Google Glass possible. Arguably the most important new piece of technology behind the ambitious heads-up Glass display that is designed to be used with no hands is voice interaction. We’ve really only recently started seeing the brilliant work done on voice recognition in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the first Android version that leverages Google’s “brain,” a cloud-based artificial intelligence system that creates more patterns as you feed it more data, and thus only gets better over time.
The end result is an extremely snappy and accurate voice recognition engine that is right now working for English, and will soon be deployed to recognize other languages as well.
The menu: surprising depth
After such a long introduction, it is time to finally jump back into that exciting new overview of Glass. For the first time, we get to see Glass in action with a live view of what is displayed to the user. Glass has a few possible passive states where it displays general information like the time, date and weather.
It seems like Google has managed to get Glass to listen to you at all times. You just say a pre-defined voice command like “ok glass” at any point at time to wake it up. Supposedly, this does not require a push of a button. That alone could be huge. Other systems like Siri and Google Voice in contrast do require to be first turned off before they start listening. That is mostly because of battery life concerns, and sidestepping that manual switch on process is actually a huge deal. We’re yet to hear whether Google has indeed found a way to get Glass to actively listen to you at all times for a wake-up command, and how it has done so while keeping a reasonable battery life for the device.
What is really interesting is next - the actual user interface and menu.
The “ok glass” voice command wakes up the display and brings up the main menu. The Google Glass main menu is navigated mostly by voice. There are five commands which might seem limited, but some of them have quite a depth to them. Here is what you can do with the Glass right now:
Google Glass menu overview:1. Google...
- images of tigers
- Jellyfish
- say something in Thai
2. take a picture
3. record a video
4. hang out with...
5. get directions to...
1. Google...Google is the first and most diverse voice command. The ellipses (“...”) after the command indicate that you can follow it up with sub-commands.
What’s particularly exciting is how Google shows the results. You can of course look up information, but instead of the usual results page, you get a card-like view. It is somewhat similar to Google Now (more on that later), with a very brief and concise information designed to fit the small Glass display. Searching for Images is also very straightforward with pictures showing up directly on the screen.
Translating via Google Glass
The “Google...” command is not just about simple search, though. It taps into Google hidden superpowers like translations so you can have Glass translate things for you on the go and also speak them to you.
We also expect that all the standard Google functions will be supported - calculator, weather, time, sports scores, unit and currency conversions, people profiles, local searches, movie showtimes, health conditions, medications info, trip planning, and others.
2. take a pictureSnapping images with Glass should be an extremely rewarding and spontaneous experience - after all you can snap images everywhere almost instantly. Most importantly of course, you can shoot images while doing something with your hands. Then, even with a smartphone it takes a couple of seconds to take the device out of the pocket and fire up the camera, Glass has the potential to cut that time drastically.
So far, we are only seeing single images taken with Glass but we see no reason why a deeper menu cannot be implemented by the time of launch with standard camera options like burst shots, live filters and so on.
Receiving messegas on Glass
3. record a videoRecording a video is another great examples where the hands-free nature of Google Glass shines. What makes Glass different from most head-mounted cameras though is its cellular connectivity and ability to instantly share the captured footage.
5. get directions to...With Google Maps in the corner of your eye at all times you can easily navigate yourself while driving, cycling, walking. Again, having your display head-mounted and your hands free is the greatest advantage to Glass.
Could it replace traditional voice calls and texts?
Those Google SIM cards were fake, but the possibility of using Plus for voice calls seems real
You’ve probably noticed we missed number four in the previous chapter. That was intentional. The Google Glass supports hangouts which are live video chats via Google Plus, and that is hugely important. It is so important we think it can replace traditional voice calls and become the next big mobile disruption after the iPhone.
In the video, you can see a ton of fascinating special moments shared via hangouts. The things Google’s team captured are pretty amazing - live hangouts while skydiving, skating, running, playing with your kids, the priceless moments in life that become the best memories... Hangouts are voice calls on steroids.
Voice calls on Google Plus are completely free and messages sent through Google’s social network are free as well. Why would you need to pay for minutes when you can have all your communication with free hangouts and messages?
Let us make this clear - the carriers should be afraid of Google Glass. It has the potential to disrupt phones (we are not saying it is going to necessarily happen) and kill a golden source of income for mobile operators. After all, all those minutes you buy are an extremely profitable business. Not so much with data.
All of this technology however is not new. Free voice calls have been around since forever, and we’ve had phones supporting those services like Skype in the last two or three years (carriers viciously opposed it at first).
Google Glass’ role in this is to be the enabler. A unified platform bringing voice, social, search and the cloud, everything together.
Google Glass Plus, Facebook minus
Could Glass enable a future threat to Facebook?
Next, in our imaginary journey, we start looking at the immense consequences. Google Glass is an enabler not just for free voice calls via hangouts, it is a huge push for the Google Plus ghost town of a social network that Google has been supporting in the last year and a half.
Glass has the potential to justify its existence and give it a much needed push. It could be a disruption for social networking as well if Facebook does not react.
Google Now
Another piece of the puzzle that could fit well in the Google Glass paradigm is Google Now, the smart card based system that automatically pops up information relative to your location and the time.
Google Now on Glass
While it doesn’t make all that much sense on a smartphone, a device that you are not seeing at all times, it doubles in value when used with a heads-up display that is at the corner of your eyesight anytime, anywhere.
Google’s video indeed shows cards automatically popping up on Glass at an airport helping a user find his gate, and we have no reason to doubt Now will arrive in its full glory on Glass.
Conclusion: release date and availability
What we like about Google is the fact that is has opened up the Glass project to a wide audience: from developers to fashion models, and everyone with ideas on other possible uses of Glass can join in the discussion.
There is tremendous potential and opportunity in wearable devices. As smartphones reach 1080p displays and lag free performance with the latest chips, it seems users will start looking at them as a commodity item, much like we look at desktop and laptop computers nowadays. The hype around them after the touchscreen revolution in 2007 will start to slowly dissipate in the coming years.
The biggest minds in the industry like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates have both repeated over and over their belief in voice as the technology they are most excited for. We wholeheartedly agree.
Google’s Project Glass is expected to come in 2014, but it will surely evolve a lot along the way. As every new technology, it carries many risks. Not everyone wants to start walking around like a cyborg and Google will have to put huge efforts into making Glass really stylish and/or concealed. That we believe is the biggest hurdle for Glass.
Google will also have to figure out a way to monetize this eventually and serving ads definitely does not seem like a viable option on that tiny screen.
Still, we are confident in the company’s efforts and it’s motto of skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. Google Glass does exactly that.
Just a reminder, folks, that we'll be covering live HTC's awaited February 19 event in New York City. We are expecting to see the long-rumored HTC One announced, and an Ultrapixel or three should be making a cameo, so tune in at 10am Eastern/7am Pacific for the festivities.
The HTC One is expected to sport the highest pixel density in its class, with a 4.7" Full HD screen, clocking in at the eye-watering 468ppi.
The other speculations are for a quad-core Snapdragon processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 13 MP camera on the back with pixel-binning technology.
The handset is also likely to be the first one carrying the streamlined, minimalistic new Sense 5.0 interface, and we'll be sure to let you know firsthand how everything looks and feels come Tuesday.
Whoa! What’s this? A totally brand spanking new BlackBerry in town, something that has the BlackBerry name on it, but doesn’t seem to running the usual BlackBerry OS we’re so familiar with. After hibernating for the better part of the last year, the company formerly known as Research In Motion, known as simply BlackBerry now, has finally unleashed its long awaited smartphone running its new QNX-based BlackBerry 10 platform. For a company attempting to establish its prominence once again in the business, a lot is hinging on this gamble of sorts – especially taking into factor the exorbitant amount of time they’ve spent on it.
Naturally, it’s going to be an uphill battle for BlackBerry, as they attempt to contend in an already crowded space filled with top notch Android smartphones, stylish Windows Phone 8 devices, and of course, the tried and true iPhone. Despite the odds that might seem to be against them, BlackBerry still commands a loyal following under its belt – and hopefully, they’re willing to give this new platform a chance. As we all know too well, it’s a matter of bringing something extremely compelling to the table that will intrigue the hearts and minds of consumers all around.
So what device has the prestigious honor of launching BlackBerry’s new mobile platform? Well, it’s none other than the all-touch smartphone in the BlackBerry Z10 – a device that’s not armed with some gimmicky feature, much like what we’ve seen with the Storm series. Looking through its specs sheet, it’s not something that’s going to instill fear into some of the top-tiered smartphones on the market now, but instead, the spotlight is all on the mobile operating system that’s running the show. This is it people, it’s do or die time for BlackBerry, right? Quite frankly, this needs to be something grand in order to steer people away from other platforms.
The package contains:
microUSB cable
Wall charger
Sleeve case
Stereo headphones
micro fabric cloth
Start Guide
Safety & Product Information Guide
Design:
You’d think there would be a huge emphasis on design with the BlackBerry Z10, since it’s the device meant to showcase the new platform for the first time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with it, as its understated design language kind of falls flat when compared to some of the eye-catching designs we’ve seen with other handsets. In fact, the more we think about it, the Z10 is nothing more than an enhanced version of the BlackBerry Dev Alpha units that were given out to developers – though, it also resembles the iPhone 5, and to the extent, the LG Revolution from a while back.
The BlackBerry Z10 is donning an all-plastic minimalistic construction
Donning an all-plastic minimalistic construction, it obviously lacks any premium elements to make it a prized looker amongst other things. Fairly solid with its construction, the rear of the handset has a clean finish to it – thanks primarily to its dotted rubbery rear casing, which also provides for a grippy feel in the hand. Needless to say, it’s form fitting in the hand with its streamlined body (0.35” thin) and balanced weight (4.9 oz), but in contrast to something similar like the iPhone 5, it’s moderately larger in footprint. In this day and age, physical appearance has a lot to do with being unique and different amongst the heap of masses out there. Sad to say, the BlackBerry Z10 doesn’t embody the qualities we’d expect to find on a smartphone that’s the quintessential ingredient required for revolution.
Ditching the familiar styling of past BlackBerries, the Z10 doesn’t boast any of the physical buttons shared by its elder sibling – instead, they’re all incorporated into the UI. Therefore, the only thing that’s found below the display is the discrete microphone that’s hidden along the bottom edge of the display. On the opposite side, however, we’re greeted to the familiar things – like the earpiece, light & proximity sensors, LED notification light, and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera that can shoot videos in 720p.
BlackBerry buttons
Front camera
Along the left edge, we find a microUSB port for charging/data connectivity and an always-useful microHDMI port for quick and easy video-out functionality. Conversely, the black plastic trim of the right side is broken up by the aluminum volume control, which is a little flat to the touch, but offers a pleasing springy response when pressed. In between the volume up and down buttons, there’s a middle multi-function one that accesses the handset’s voice control service when it’s long pressed. Additionally, it acts as a media playback button as well to pause/play music tracks.
Left edge
microUSB and microHDMI ports
Volume and multi-function buttons (right)
Even though we like that the physical power button is positioned squarely in the middle along the top edge, we’re not fans of its very flush appearance. Next to it, we have the 3.5mm headset jack and noise-cancelling microphone. Finally, the only item that’s found on the bottom side is a notch that allows us to remove the back cover, and acts as the speaker grill as well.
Speaker grill (bottom)
Power button and 3.5 mm jack (top)
In the rear of the Z10, it’s outfitted with an ample 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, which has the ability to shoot videos in 1080p. Yanking off the flexible rear casing, we notice that the NFC chip is incorporated into it, but more importantly, we gain access to its 1,800 mAh battery, microSD, and microSIM slots. With the latter, though, the battery needs to be removed first before gaining access to it.
Back
Rear camera
Battery compartment
Display:
Similar to the underwhelming design of the Z10, we can say something identical about its display too. Previous to this, the BlackBerry Torch 9850 had the honor of sporting the largest display on a BlackBerry smartphone, but the Z10 makes a marginal increase – albeit, we’re thankful that the resolution has been amped up. Specifically, it’s a4.2-inch 768 x 1280 LCD screen on the Z10, which produces a very sharp looking pixel density of 356 ppi. As our eyes tell us, it’s filled with plenty of detail and clarity to give nearly everything the sharpness that our eyes crave. And on top of that, since it’s relying on good old LCD technology, colors remain on the neutral side, as opposed to the unrealistic and saturated tones of AMOLED. Combining its strong brightness output with its decent viewing angles, we didn’t have any problems viewing the display in outdoor conditions – with the sun present.
The 4.2-inch 768 x 1280 LCD screen on the BlackBerry Z10
Interestingly enough, the Z10’s display doesn’t feature Corning’s Gorilla Glass, but instead, it’s some other type of material that has a plasticy feel to it. Opting for this, we’re not thrilled to find that the display is notoriously difficult to clean as well, even with the included cleaning cloth. In addition, it’s simply too much of a magnet for smudges and fingerprints, which quickly gets caked on there. Overall, the display isn’t anything spectacular, which is a shame in a way, knowing that visual appeal, much like the design, is something that get people interested and attracted to a handset from afar. Maybe it could’ve been larger, or maybe it could’ve been something neato like edge-to-edge? Indeed, there are a lot of maybes…
Viewing angles
Color production
Interface:
So what’s the hoopla surrounding this smartphone? Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that it’s all about the new experience with BlackBerry OS 10. Just imagining the time it took RIM, errr BlackBerry, to develop this new platform from the ground up really gave us high hopes in the fact that they finally have a modern touch-friendly interface at hand! Obviously, they took a gamble on this one, which is evident by the lack of BlackBerries released in the past year. In a world where it’s trying to achieve stardom over Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, the folks over at BlackBerry decided to put in some serious time developing and tweaking its new platform.
Visually, they’ve paid a great deal of attention in almost every aspect of the platform. So much so, that it boasts some neat looking transitions effects that sprinkle some love to the new UI – such as the cool fading effect when unlocking the device. At the same time, there’s just this consistent fluid performance seen throughout the interface that easily rivals its adversaries. Unfortunately, its personalization is pretty much on the same level as iOS, since we’re only given the ability to changes the wallpaper and the layout of the app panel. Compared to Android and Windows Phone, it lacks those personalizing elements to make the look and feel of the UI different between handsets.
The new UI of BlackBerry OS 10
Above all, there’s a steep learning curve seen with the new operating system, which might detract some people – even those who are currently using the last-gen BlackBerry experience. Specifically, the learning curve is mainly due to the new gestures in play, and the way they lay out the homescreen. So let’s take a quick look at some of these new gestures.
Gestures:
Looking at the phone, there isn’t a home button or icon that many are familiar with pressing that returns them to the homescreen. Rather, the homescreen is comprised of three distinct panels – the apps panel, active frames panel, and the Blackberry Hub. Swiping left/right at the homescreen will get you into any of them, but when you’re in an actual app, executing a swipe up gesture from the bottom bezel and then releasing your finger “minimizes” the app and places it as an Active Frame in the homescreen. Indeed, it’s BlackBerry’s take on the whole multi-tasking thing, which might not seem as intuitive as what’s seen on other platforms, but it nonetheless gets the job done.
Following on the same premise, you can get into “Peek View” at any time by simply doing the same gesture (swipe up from the bottom bezel), but this time making sure to hold your finger on the screen and not letting go. In this view, we’re given a quick look at the amount of notifications we have – though technically, you’ll need to traverse over to the BlackBerry Hub to actually see what they are. Honestly, the way BlackBerry 10 handles notifications isn’t as quick or practical, but instead, it seems like there’s more work involved.
Gestures on the BlackBerry Z10
Well, that leads us to the hardest gesture to master – the one that gets you into the BlackBerry Hub, which aggregates all notifications, emails, text messages, and missed calls. Essentially, it’s a swipe up from the bottom bezel, then while your finger is still touching the screen, you swipe right to uncover the BlackBerry Hub. As we’ve mentioned already, it seems like a lot of work is involved in just getting access to those notifications, but hey, that’s the way they decided to go. And finally, the last gesture involves swiping down from the top bezel, which will bring up different settings depending on what app you’re running. From the looks of it, the gesture basically replaces the familiar “menu” button function seen with last-gen BlackBerry.
Functionality:
We’re not going to go into great detail about the core organizer apps with BlackBerry 10 because their functions and layouts aren’t different from anything else. When setting up accounts, like Gmail, we’re given the option of also syncing our calendar and contacts, which is of course an appreciated feature to find. As for the core organizer apps, they include the following apps – Calendar, Clock, Compass, Docs To Go, File Manager, Print To Go, Weather, and BBM. With the latter, BBM now features video chatting, where users can also send content to one another with a presentation quality to it. Of course, it’ll please business and enterprise users more than anyone else, but at least it’s nice to know that video chatting is now enabled with BBM.
Organizer apps
BlackBerry smartphones are typically known for their messaging prowess, especially when many of them employ some killer physical keyboards. Obviously, the Z10 is an all-touch device and relies on a new keyboard layout. No folks, there aren’t any gimmicky novelties this time around, but we’re pleasantly impressed that the on-screen keyboard works well. Not only is the layout ample, but it’s super responsive as well in keeping up with our rate.
Furthermore, we also appreciate the useful gestures in play with the keyboard – like doing a swipe down gesture on the keyboard to get access to its different layouts. Still, we would’ve liked to see some numbers and punctuations integrated into the main layout. In addition to its great auto-correct feature, BlackBerry has an interesting way of going about predictive text. Based on context clues in what you’re typing, different words will begin to appear over certain letters on the keyboard – so all you need to do is a swipe up on the specific letter to automatically throw the word into what you’re typing. As much as we appreciate this, we find out pace to be a little bit on the slow side, and quite frankly, we’re faster just typing the old fashion way. Alternatively, there’s also the voice control feature that allows us to speak our words. In our testing, it seems pretty accurate and somewhat faster than relying on the predictive text feature.
On-screen keyboard of the BlackBerry Z10
Emailing hasn’t changed much with the BlackBerry 10 experience, though, accessing them is still a process on its own. Instead of seeing an email icon or something in the app panel, you’ll need to once again get into the BlackBerry Hub to access them. When it comes to the layout and functionality of the email experience with BlackBerry 10, we don’t find it as comprehensive as Android’s Gmail experience – but hey, it still gets the job done.
Email
Processor and Memory:
From what we’ve seen in the past, BlackBerry’s set of smartphones were never sporting hardware that were deemed as cutting edge, but at least this time around, they’re able to bring to the table something respectable. Running behind the scenes, there’s a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor coupled with 2GB of RAM that’s calling the shots – so it’s the same chipset used by many of today’s flagship devices. Far from being as intimidating as a quad-core processor, it’s effective enough in giving the handset one consistent performance in everything. From basic tasks to more complex things like gaming, we rarely find the BlackBerry Z10 exhibiting any signs of sluggishness.
Sure, it’s tagged as offering 16GB of internal storage, but that translates to 9.9GB of free storage space out of the box. Luckily, its microSD card slot is ready to accepts cards up to 32GB in size to supplement its internal tally.
Internet and Connectivity:
Many might forget that the BlackBerry Z10 is the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature 4G LTE connectivity, so it’s something worth noting. With our unit running off of AT&T’s LTE network, it’s able to load complex pages in a jiffy. Even better, the BlackBerry 10 web browser delivers a phenomenal experience, since it’s able to handle even the most multimedia intensive sites with little effort. Not only does it offer instant page rendering on the fly, but that same lovable and consistent fluid performance is also witnessed with its navigational controls – both pinch zooming and page scrolling. Heck, even sites with heavy Flash content are handled fairly well. Displaying a great amount of finesse, the only thing lacking are secondary features. For example, there’s a button to switch between opened tabs, but it would’ve been nice to see some other gestures that would accomplish tab-switching as well.
The BlackBerry 10 web browser
In the US, carriers that will be offering the BlackBerry Z10 will have their own specific variant – with 4G LTE connectivity in tow as well. Similar to its contemporaries, the Z10 is armed with all of the connectivity arsenal we’d expect to find nowadays – such as aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, mobile hotspot functionality, and NFC.
Camera:
When it comes to snapping photos, BlackBerry makes it very easy to get access to the camera app. First, you can launch it from the lock screen by pressing and holding down your finger on the camera icon in the bottom right corner. Secondly, there’s another icon in the homescreen that’s also placed in the bottom right corner. And finally, you can simply launch it by clicking on the “camera” icon in the app panel.
Sporting a clean layout that’s predominately covered by the viewfinder, there are few icons or buttons littering its interface. Towards the right edge, there’s an icon in the upper right corner that enables us to switch between photos, videos, and its new Time Shift feature. Meanwhile, there’s another icon in the bottom right corner to get into some additional settings and shooting modes – such as burst and stabilization modes. It’s lacking some of the manual modes and comprehensive set of shooting options that other camera UIs offer.
Furthermore, there’s also some confusion at first when it comes to snapping photos. Since it lacks a physical or on-screen shutter key, you just need to tap anywhere in the viewfinder area to take a snap shot, which is instantaneous. However, there’s a small square box that acts as the UI’s exposure and focus level adjustment. Basically, you have to press and hold down on it to move the box around to a specific area – so yeah, the execution is a bit strange from what we’re typically exposed to. Finally, with the Time Shift feature, it buffers images prior you to snapping a shot, so that you can “travel back in time” to select the best faces from each individual in the shot – ultimately stitching together the perfect one.
Tacking along a very modern sized 8-megapixel auto-focus camera, its quality isn’t more spectacular than some of its esteemed colleagues in this category, but rather, it boils down as being average. Well, shots taken outdoors with plenty of lighting are decent enough to accept with their average details and subtle saturation with its color reproduction, which sprinkles a bit of vibrancy to its shots. However, depending on where you position its focus box, images can appear over/under exposed. Under low lighting, though, it’s noticeably more speckled looking with its fine details – while an overall graininess is more prevalent throughout the shot. Luckily, its LED flash seems to be potent enough to light up the scenery up to 7 feet away, though, colors appear more washed out in tone.
Likewise, we can say the same thing about its 1080p video recording quality – with nothing that really jumps at us. Needless to say, we like the average details it’s putting out, gradual exposure, and steady frame rate that it delivers. Despite those charming items, there are two specific distracting elements that pop up. First of all, artifacting elements appear and soften it details whenever the camera is transitioning from light to dark areas and vice versa. And secondly, the microphone doesn’t seem to handle the wind too well, as it picks up that and other noisy tones in the background. BlackBerry Z10 Sample Video:
Multimedia:
Taking a quick peek at the Picture gallery, we’re adept to notice the conventional layout it’s sporting, as images are presented in an all too predictable grid like view. Thankfully though, we’re given some expected functionality with it – such as being able to share them via BBM, email, text message, and even NFC. Moreover, we also appreciate the editing functions that are at our disposal. From cropping to selecting specific artistic filters, it seems considerably extensive than your ordinary picture editor.
Picture gallery of the BlackBerry Z10
Moving onward to the music player, we’re disappointed to see that its presentation doesn’t get the kind of love it needs to appear modern and spiffy looking. Instead, it’s boasting a boring looking style that doesn’t rival some of the cooler looking UIs seen with other Android smartphones – and even the iPhone’s cover flow mode. As usual, we’re presented with the album cover, track information, and on-screen playback controls. Even worse, when it’s minimized and placed in the Active Frames area, we’re not even given playback controls. For that, the mini player is only accessible in the lock screen after the volume buttons are pressed. Setting its volume to the loudest setting, its output is average at best – albeit, there’s a hint of strain coming out of it.
Music player
Hardly a shocker to us, the BlackBerry Z10 is equipped to play high definition videos with no problems. Aside from the swift and steady playback, it’s worth mentioning that it supports a wide array of video codecs out of the box – these include H.264, MPEG-4, DivX and Xvid. Sure, the sharp looking display aids the experience, but it doesn’t have the same wow factor as some other handsets. Also, it’s somewhat disappointing to know that there is no mini player feature that many other devices provide – like being able to play a video in the background while doing something else.
Video playback
Noticing that there’s a microHDMI out port on this guy, we gain quick and easy video out functionality with it – so when it’s connected to a high-def television, we’re given a mirrored experience. Totally a bummer, the homescreen isn’t optimized for landscape, so when it’s connected to a TV, you can only navigate in portrait. Then again, many of the apps offer landscape support, like the web browser. Software:
Survival hinges on app support, right? Well, if you’re wondering about that, it’s worth mentioning that BlackBerry 10 currently has about 70,000 apps in BlackBerry World. Out of the box, the handset is preloaded with popular ones such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare, so it seems poised to have a healthy selection. However, when we compare those apps with the same ones on other platforms, they’re not at complete in terms of feature set. For example, we can’t delete a Facebook post that we accidentally published, which is something you can do with the iOS and Android versions.
As for some of the other third party apps, we weren’t too convinced by them either – such as the third party Pandora client in “Apollo,” which has some significant layout issues. Strangely, there’s a YouTube icon in the app panel, but pressing it doesn’t do anything else except to launch the browser and point us to the mobile friendly version of the site. Speaking truthfully, if these are the kinds of apps that users are going to be exposed to, BlackBerry 10 is going to have a difficult time trying to lure people on other platforms.
Foursquare
Twitter
We bet you didn’t think that BlackBerry has its own maps application, right? Well, they do! And boy is it dreadful! When it boils down to it, the app is superficial and lacks the depth of features that Google Maps offers – and to an extent, it’s lagging behind Apple’s home brewed maps app too. Sure, we appreciate that BlackBerry maps provides voice guided turn-by-turn directions, but it’s missing other much-needed features like transit directions, satellite/aerial view, and even walking directions.
BlackBerry has its own maps application
Becoming an integral part of any mobile operating system, voice control services are undoubtedly being used by many more people. Sadly though, BlackBerry fails to brings a reasonable competitor with its offering. So what can you do with it? Well, you can send a text, email, or BBM message. Additionally, you can call a contact, schedule an appointment, make a note, and even search things on the internet. Regrettably, it’s not “smart” as Siri or Google Now, such as giving detailed answers to general questions like “who is Michael Jordan?”
Call Quality:
Again relying on AT&T’s network, we’re pleased by the smartphone’s call quality, as voices on both ends of the line are clear and distinctive – the earpiece produces an average volume output. Switching to the speakerphone, however, it exhibits some strain at the loudest setting. Thankfully, the noise cancellation feature of the phone works rather well, but it does take a few seconds to kick in initially.
In our time testing out the Z10, we didn’t experience any dropped calls or significant fluctuation with signal strength.
Battery:
Thinking long and hard about its removable 1,800 mAh battery, we’re frightened right from the onset to know what it’ll deliver, since it’s not quite a beefy compared to some other top-tiered smartphones. And rightfully so, our suspicions are confirmed, as a fully charged battery provides us approximately 10 hours of normal usage – and that’s using the handset strictly with HSPA+ connectivity! Knowing that it’s sporting LTE connectivity as well, we can’t imagine the terrible battery life it’ll get with that connection.
Conclusion:
Oh BlackBerry! We had some serious high hopes with this smartphone, well, more with the new platform of course. In the US, it isn’t going to arrive until March, where it’ll be sporting that golden price of $200 with a 2-year contract. First impressions are key, right? Well, we can’t say that the BlackBerry 10 is a darling of a gem with its design, which is a shame to tell you the truth, since solid industrial designs can really be the first line of defense to garner some attention. Instead, the BlackBerry Z10 has a stale appearance that’s already overshadows by many stylish smartphones. Quite frankly, if this were walking down on the same fashion runway as some other notable handsets, it would quickly be forgotten afterwards due to its bland and boring design.
Naturally, it’s the new BlackBerry 10 platform that’s the true headliner here. After taking their time developing this QNX based platform, we have to give BlackBerry credit for finally hitting the bull’s-eye with this touch friendly platform. Indeed, they tried desperately in the past with other notable BlackBerry smartphones, but for once, they have something that has the balance to greet our fingers with open arms. No doubt there’s a steep learning curve with BlackBerry 10 and its various gestures, but once mastered, it becomes second nature. However, as much as they’ve placed a huge emphasis on the touch experience, they neglected to give the same attention to detail with other aspects of the platform.
The more we look at it, BlackBerry 10 is going to have a difficult time sweeping people that are heavily invested in other mobile platforms. To tell you the truth, people that are comfortably invested in a rival platform’s ecosystem will find little reason to make the switch to BlackBerry 10 at the moment – mainly because it’s doesn’t offer the same level of functionality that we’re so accustomed to experiencing nowadays. Therefore, if you’re an existing iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone user, there are going to be huge compromises if you decide on bailing and making the switch to BlackBerry 10. However, if you’re still a BlackBerry user, the transition over to the new platform will be a bit more justified, since many of the features haven’t been established by last-gen BlackBerry devices. Ultimately though, it’s going to hinge on BlackBerry’s commitment to expedite the platform’s development to meet the standards set forth by its rivals. If not, we can see a timely demise in the near future – much like webOS.
Software of the review unit: 10.0.9.2372 BlackBerry Z10 Video Review:
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