Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 15th Jan 2013 23:28 UTC
The smartphone world is, at this point, a two-horse race. Android has the numbers, Apple's iOS has the figures. Everything else - Symbian, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, etc. - are also-rans. Irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Even though, say, Windows Phone not making any serious headway into the market, despite boatloads of money poured into the platform, RIM still thinks it can do better with BB10. Austrian website Telekom-Presse has a pretty detailed video hands-on with a BB10 device - the Z10 - and it left me with one burning question: what is BB10's identity?
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
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2005-07-06
You are harping on a supposed lack of brand identity (which is in any case really country-dependent and not universal) while seemingly completely missing the interaction plus points...
-Real multitasking(!) with actually live previews of the apps (not like Android's pretending to multitask with fake previews)
-Integration of social networks directly into the OS (not available on iOS, on Android only via third-party hacks)
-Well-organized, comprehensive notifications center that's always a swipe away
-Keyboard *other than Swype* that actually innovates
-Indeed, very soon a hardware keyboard...
Things appearing from different sides have very clear functions. I might point out that a similar approach was taken with MeeGo on the N9 and everyone (including you, if I recall) had only praise for that. As for no single anchor point to go back to, there is the task manager and app drawers, which you can easily swipe between--how is that not a "home screen"??
As far as the icons go, they look like, well, modernized BlackBerry icons. If you had every used a BlackBerry before you would recognize this. Android took a cue from them, not the other way around....
For me the identity of BB10 is extremely clear: a modern OS that focuses on communication and business use cases first and foremost. iOS is *far* far from this, Android is almost there but for the lack of services integration and inconsistencies/slowdowns that still make the user experience herky-jerky at times. The only OS that even tried to do this in recent memory is webOS.
I can understand that you let your dislike of certain aesthetics ruin any joy you might get out of such a purely functional approach to a mobile OS. But no need to ruin it for the rest of us.
Edited 2013-01-16 00:22 UTC