BlackBerry OS 6 Demoed
We can’t lose site of the number one OS in America…hi BlackBerry. Let’s take a look at their latest OS in action:
Here’s the story – it’s been improved for touch but it will not require a touchscreen so you can still use a trackball or dpad. There is multi-touch with gestures (like pinching to zoom and flicking). There will be g-sen support. You can also see a lot of social networking – Twitter, FaceBook, Live Messenger, Google Talk, BBM, Myspace, AIM and Yahoo Messenger are all shown. There’s a big multimedia push here. And global search is enabled so a search pulls up your calendar, email and contacts and if you’re in music you can search YouTube, the device and the web. And speaking of Web, the acquisition of Iris is finally paying off with a Webkit (like the iPhone’s) browser with tabbed browsing being featured.
And of course the three parts of the video emphasize the fact that they’re going after all lifestyles- teens, business users and hot chicks.By the way, if you put a dancing woman behind a transparent background don’t expect us to look at the UI…just saying. Oh and take a look at the background at the 1:30 mark (and a few other times). It’s not exactly the same image, but don’t we all agree that it’s Bing’s background?
None of this is a change in their core. There’s still backwards compatibility, etc. So this is still just a Java engine but I think it’s a good start for them. Anyone under 50 has a hard time waling around with a BB because it’s just a business device. This aims to keep the younger markets and it’s a good effort and likely enough to help some defectors. I keep hearing BB users tell me that they’re getting the new (anything) because they can’t walk around with such a limited device any longer…is this enough? Sound off
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I don’t understand why none of the current phones do not link contacts to appts and tasks. STUPID! It would also be nice to attach files to contacts. I saw a glimpse of the possibilities in there but the video does not show much. It is so frustrating that a few I/O s are keeping my phones from being so useful.
@Brock – I’ve got just the thing for you. Check out http://www.firstelse.com. No one else on the team seems to think it’s awesome but it does do exactly that. Link reminders and appts to contacts so that when they call it reminds you to do something or to talk about a certain subject with them. Known as contextual reminders, they can also remind you to do stuff based on your location… like if you have a grocery list and you’re near the store, it tells you to pick up the milk. I’m still on the fence but it just looks so sexy.
@ Brock: WP7 does: http://www.youtube.com/user/MobilityDigest#p/u/2/JHN0vNHyDlw
Thank you both, I will check out the links. Before I do though I failed to mention that I want it done natively. That is Why I am hoping and praying for the new phones to get it done. It sux to have a program on top of a program to get something as simple as managing contacts accomplished. I tried agenda fusion 8 But I can hardly think of a program that is less finger friendly, well maybe the hacked Pandora app. It is the little things like what I am hoping for that can make a phone powerful not just what screen resolution or processor after all those things don’t make a smart phone smart. I will go check out the links now, Thanks again!
I really like the Else videos in fact I had described the exact same UI to my wife once upon a time. Else still seems like a unicorn though. I have watched many of the 7 vids and It looks promising but the videos are still quite vague aren’t they? Maybe I need to pause my videos more often so I can sleuth better. Either way it’s all neither here or there until I am standing in the store and get the salesguy to shut his mouth long enough for me to discover the truth for myself ; _. I love how they will agree to anything I’m sure I could go shopping today and find ten phones that do everything that I want (until I get home)