from TAT and industry-leading WebKit browser from Torch
Mobile, BlackBerry has created the most advanced mobile
platform in the market – BlackBerry 10 . In addition,
incorporating an advanced contact management system
from Gist and licensing the SwiftKey keyboard has allowed
BlackBerry to take its traditional strengths to the next level.
After using the running the BB10 for the past 3 months, I have discovered 10 ways in which BB10 has Surpassed iOS
1) Dynamic Lock Screen
BB 10 has a beautiful lock screen that is also informative.
Users can take a look at the lock screen to see if they have
any new emails, BBM messages or messages from social
networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).
At a time when few people wear a watch and instead rely on
their smartphone to provide the time, the dynamic lock
screen is particularly useful. A user can wake the device
(and show the lock screen) with an upward gesture from the
bottom bezel. After looking at the time and notifications, if
there aren’t notifications that requires attention, they can
simply move their finger back down to the bottom bezel to
turn off the screen (and save battery).
With the design experts from TAT putting in their magical
touch, waking the smartphone is slick and enjoyable. The
lock-screen fades beautifully as more of the home-screen is
revealed. The fading effect adjusts to wherever your finger
is on the screen, and allows you to move your finger from
side to side as you also move up. This is in contrast to
Apple’s comparatively boring lock-screen, which requires a
fixed, one-directional movement to unlock the smartphone.
Putting the device to sleep for the night is also intuitive and
slick. You simply move your finger down from the top bezel
to pull down a black screen (like shades for a window). As
soon as the device is put to sleep, an alarm clock appears
for you to set the alarm for the next morning.
2) BlackBerry Hub – A Powerful Communications Center
Continuing with BlackBerry’s strength in messaging, the
Hub allows users to receive and send emails, text messages
and messages from Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn). In addition, users can post status updates to
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn without leaving the Hub.
Continuing with BlackBerry’s specialty in saving users’
time, this removes the need to open a Facebook app, a
Twitter app and a LinkedIn app when a user wants to update
their social networks.
In addition, the Hub also contains several of your upcoming
calendar appointments. When you are in the Hub, you can
simply drag down to reveal the next calendar events. Thus,
it saves you time by removing the need to open the Calendar
app in order to view your upcoming events.
3) Peek and Flow
The Hub is not an ordinary application – it is always
running in the background. Thus, no matter which app an
user is using, they are always one gesture away from the
Hub (and their messages).
To Peek at your notifications, you simply swipe up from the
bottom bezel (no matter which app you are currently in).
Once you see your notifications, you can swipe back down
to continue with what you were doing (if the notifications
are not important) or you can swipe to the right to enter the
Hub, to view the message in detail (or reply).
4) Advanced Touch Gestures
BlackBerry 10 gets rid of the outdated physical home button
on the iPhone 5, and allows uses to use touch gestures to
control the OS. For example, when in an app, the user can
swipe to the right to reveal the context menu. In addition, the
user can swipe down from the top bezel to reveal the action
menu (e.g. to select the Help button). To activate the
keyboard, one simply swipes up from the bottom bezel with
two fingers. The touch gestures are intuitive and powerful.
Getting rid of physical and capacitive buttons also frees out
space for a bigger screen or smaller phone. This UI is
simply the future of smartphones.
5) Industry-Leading Browser
With a HTML5 Test score of 485, BlackBerry 10 has #1
browser in the industry. In contrast, iOS 6 only has a score
of only 386. In addition, the BB 10 browser is ahead of any
desktop browser. For example, its HTML5 Test score of 485
is higher than Chrome Canary’s 453. The QNX Neutrino OS
and RIM’s acquisition of Torch Mobile are the reasons
behind the industry-leading browser on BB 10.
Having the #1 browser in the industry also increases the
number of apps available on BB 10. This is because the
browser can use HTML5 web apps on the internet. Thus,
the number of apps on BB 10 is significantly higher than the
number in the app store (BlackBerry World). Through its
ability to use web HTML5 apps, the number of apps on
BB10 is increased to a nearly infinite number.
6) Active Frames
BB10 (unlike iOS 6) supports real multi-tasking. Thus, an
user can have 8 open apps at the same time. When
minimized, these running apps form a Active Frame, which
provides tidbits of useful information. For example, from the
Active Frame of the Calendar app, you can see the name and
time of your next calendar appointment. Without opening
BBM, you can see a contact’s updated profile picture, and
their latest status updates.
Thus, with BB10, the user can obtain relevant and valuable
information without even opening apps.
7) TimeShift Camera
I have heard “wows” from colleagues and friends every time
I demonstrate the TimeShift feature on the BB10 camera.
The camera has a facial recognition ability, and allows you
to move forward and backward in time to avoid blinking
eyes or change facial expressions. The most incredible use
case is when there are multiple people in the picture. You
can put person A at +2 seconds, person B at 0.5 second and
person C at -1 second. Thus, you have created the perfect
moment that did not actually exist.
8) More Development Languages and Tools
BlackBerry 10 offers 3 ways for developers to develop native
apps – C++/Cascades, Webworks (HTML5) and Adobe Air.
In addition, developers can port their Android apps to BB 10
using RIM’s Android porting tools. Of course, developers
can also use cross-platform tools such as Unity/Union,
Marmalade, PhoneGap and Sencha.
This is in contrast to iOS 6, in which there is only one
method available to developers – iOS SDK. The lack of a
HTML5 SDK means that the many web developers that exist
cannot put their skills to use.
BB10′s ability to run Android apps is a significant
advantage over iOS. In fact, from talking to BlackBerry
employees in the past, BB10 could run iOS apps too (if iOS
was open-sourced). This also applies to any other OS (e.g.
Windows). Thus, by buying a BB10 device, you are virtually
also getting an Android device for free.
9) Support of Open Standards – DLNA, NFC and HDMI
BlackBerry adopts open-standards including DLNA, NFC
and HDMI, which is convenient and results in cost-savings
for consumers. This is in contrast to iOS, which supports
none of these three standards.
With the launch of the Bold 9900 in August 2011, BlackBerry
was the first major smartphone maker to support NFC. In
Canada and the U.S., customers can already use their
BlackBerry to make payments via NFC at thousands of
locations that display the Contactless symbol. The L-series
has a NFC chip, and there are already several NFC sample
apps for the Dev Alpha available for developers to use to
create NFC apps.
BlackBerry 10 , like the PlayBook, has a HDMI output. This
makes it easy for the user to display pictures or videos on a
large-screen TV. In contrast, a lightning-to-HDMI adaptor
is required for the iPhone or iPad, which costs an extra US
$39/CAD$45.
Unlike Apple, BlackBerry is part of the http://
www.dlna.org/. This allows you to wirelessly display
pictures, play videos and music from your BB10 smartphone
on a TV (or any other electronic device with DLNA support).
In order to use a similar feature on the iPhone 5, you would
need to buy the Apple TV for $99 .
10) BBM – Beyond Instant Messaging
BBM currently has 60 million active users around the world.
With the launch of BBM 7 this month, free voice calls over
Wi-Fi is now available. BBM Video Chat on BB10 has been
confirmed by Thorstein Heins . In addition, a collaboration
feature, in which users using BBM Video can share
documents and files instantly, has been leaked in pictures
and videos. This is particularly useful for meetings.
Furthermore, RIM executives have recently said that BBM
Money is “coming soon”, with the interpretation being late
2012 or early 2013. This feature allows BBM users to
transfer money, which is convenient for friends who owe
each other money, or in-person transactions (made through
Kijiji for example).
BBM 6 already had far more functionality than Apple’s
iMessage. With the addition of voice calls, video,
collaboration tools and BBM Money, BBM is set to widen the
lead further.
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