Interesting Notes On BlackBerry 10

Nailed notifications? Not quite.

You can’t have nailed notifications when you don’t give any visible sign of what the notification was except for a blinking LED and a vibrate. I’m sure the vast majority of consumers would prefer to see what came in not just an icon update that contains only a numerical update. Sure the alert is real-time but try figuring out what the notification says and you’ll find yourself back to the in & out interaction model we’ve all come to love and see no real reason to change from.

Android Apps Are A Go On BlackBerry 10

Sure the apps run an emulator and look like crap but you have frickin’ Android on BlackBerry! Take that all you self-respecting competing platforms.

Netflix is a no go

In what I can only surmise as a first in modern mobile platform history (5 years since iPhone launch) Netflix is not present at launch on a debuting platform. Okay with Apple I’m counting the introduction of the App store but you get my gist.

Google Maps MIA

So what’s the deal? BlackBerry signed a deal with Microsoft to use Bing Maps to power their mapping solution. Unfortunately it seems they have the worst possible version of Bing Maps. I’m talking about launch of Windows Phone 7 in 2010 version of Bing Maps. In a world where Apple, Google and Nokia are displaying their mapping prowess how one ends up with an out of date, limping mapping solution is just damning.

BlackBerry Messenger Gains Video Chat & Screen Sharing

Now the video chat feature brings the platform on par with all the other platforms and is limited to only video chatting other BB10 device owners. Naturally, its hard to sell that as a selling point seeing as how everyone would just tell you to use Skype, FaceTime or Google+ like the rest of us. The star here is the Screen Sharing feature. Boy oh boy that thing is what I drooled over for the latter half of the launch presentation. So many times it is simply easier to show someone what you mean instead of telling them. Downside? It only works between BB10 devices. I know what you’re thinking..desire meet bucket of cold water.

Is that an iPhone?

Sure enough as one could expect there were numerous comments from the press about how the Z10 resembles the iPhone 5 when it is turned off. Especially so from a distance.Even the fact that the Z10 comes in black & white options only adds to that illusion. I don’t know if its happy coincidence or strategic marketing but hey making phones look like the iPhone worked for Samsung to the tune of being the biggest power player in the industry at the moment so I wouldn’t blame BlackBerry at all.

Peek But Don’t Linger

If you’ve seen even one demo of the BlackBerry 10 operating system you undoubtedly have come across the highlighted feature of BlackBerry Peek. Peek allows you to glance at notifications before fully committing to interact with them. What’s cool about Peek is that the active app you’re using at the moment doesn’t pause at all. So if you’re watching a video you can expect to not have any wait to resume watching the video when you snap back to the app. Downside? If you’re watching a movie you’re going to miss some action if you linger too long. So the time you saved peeking at your notifications and trying to figure out which counters were updated could be lost to the rewinding of the video to see what you missed. Think of it as glancing over your should while watching TV to see what’s that burning smell coming from the kitchen.