Blackberry announce the Q5: Want to bring youthfulness and fun to BB10!

   Blackberry are keen to make sure that Nokia's new Lumia 925 doesn't steal the limelight today and so they've announced a new budget BB10 device and that will be known as the Q5!

   This device won't be as high-end or as expensive as the Q10 and Z10, but it will be bright colourful and is aimed squarely at the youth and budget markets! Blackberry's Thorsten Heins said that:

 “BlackBerry is excited to bring a new BlackBerry QWERTY smartphone, the BlackBerry Q5, to our customers in selected markets around world... The BlackBerry Q5 gives you the best of everything with its cutting-edge BlackBerry 10 functionality and a physical QWERTY keyboard. It is for youthful fans that are passionate, confident and bold, and it makes it easy for them to have fun, create, share and stay connected.”

   With this phone you get the best of 'touch and type' with a physical qwerty keyboard, as well as the option to use the 3.1" touchscreen for all your other needs. That screen is an LCD panel with a 720 x 720p resolution which will be powered by 1.2 GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, which should make this thing plenty fast enough for the average user. Aside from that there's a non-removable 2000 mAh battery, 8GB of internal storage which is expandable via MicroSD, 5 and 2 MP front and rear cameras respectively and just for good measure there's a micro USB port for charging, but we're not sure if can act as a USB OTG port.

   On the software front there's things like Blackberry's Story Maker, BBM with the new Video and Screen Share features and the Blackberry Hub which compliment the now relatively expansive set of apps which is on the higher side of 100,000.

   If you're interested in picking up this device then it is set to land in 'selected markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa,  Asia (including the Asia Pacific region), and Latin America' around the start of July! Oh and don't forget there's red, pink, black or white to choose from in the colour department too, the latter pairing are matte.

The full press release is available here.
Specs Via PocketLint.

[Update] Here's some pictures from the official product page for the Q5!

Read More

Nokia tease a qwerty smartphone with their iconic bright colours!

   Official teasers are always interesting. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're frustrating and sometimes they tease you just about the right amount. It seems Nokia's latest device will keep up their iconic bold design, but it also looks like there's going to be a qwerty keyboard here too!

   Judging from the picture it seems as though Nokia have created a device with a physical qwerty here and if our hunch is right this phone will probably be like those old touch and type devices and it'll probably be a candy bar device running Symbian so there won't be too many bells and whistles, but it should be great for emerging markets!

   The device was meant to have been released this morning, but we can't track down anything on Nokia's press sites at the moment, but if and when we spot anything we'll let you know the full details!

Via Engadget.

Read More

10/07/2012

RIM claim to own the qwerty market and make interesting comments about Chinese production.

   “We own the QWERTY market" is the claim today from RIM CEO Torsten Heins. It is this confidence that helps explains the company's plans to produce a full-touch BB10 device before unleashing the qwerty's. Heins' exact words were "That’s why we’re targeting the full-touch market first.”

   RIM see this as a good opportunity to diversify and in a way this is a fresh start for the company and hopefully they will be able to produce modern and stylish phones which will change the company's fortunes. 

   As always the company is relying on their comprehensive messaging services to win through and we can expect to see both qwerty and touchscreen devices in short succession in early 2013!

   There was one other interesting tidbit from today's shareholder Q&A in Waterloo. Heins was asked why the company doesn't produce phones in China to save money and his response was that he doesn't want to risk software leaks and industrial espionage. We don't know if this is a genuine concern or not really. Noone else seems to have this sort of problem, well not since Nortel cleaned up their act.

In other news:

• Microsoft's Steve Ballmer has promised to leave no space in the market where Apple is unchallenged. They have pledged to fight Apple on the software and hardware front in a head to head battle. This could get interesting!
• Kickstarter is coming to the UK in the fall!
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has had it's source code released to he AOSP, so expect custom ROMS in the very near future!
• It's been reported today that Nokia had given Jolla patents surrounding Meego but Nokia has denied this has happened today.
• AMD has suggested there will be an 11% drop in revenue in Q2 2012, as Intel wrestles more marketshare off of the company.
• Microsoft have proudly boasted that they are collecting royalties from 70% of Android devices today.

Read More