Despite what everyone thought and what some hoped, Research in Motion (RIM) is not yet ready to abandon the smartphone game that brought the company so many reasons of joy in the (not so distant) past.
Furthermore, RIM is ready to go all in with a new mobile OS, BlackBerry 10, and two handhelds, which will get a gala presentation on January 30, 2013. There’s still a long way to go until we can know for sure if BB can get back on top, but for now we’ll enjoy the hints we can gather from “sources”.
The latest such source is about as official as it gets – RIM’s Regional Senior Product Manager Claudio Roselli. The official has been so kind as to show off many of the features of the BlackBerry 10 OS on camera, for the lucky guys over at Muy Computer.
The result is a pretty enjoyable 10-minute video clip that got pulled off soon after its uploading. Oops, it seems that señor Roselli wasn’t exactly allowed to perform the demonstration. Fortunately, the video got reposted and, for the time being at least, it’s again available in all its splendor.
Among the most interesting features demoed in the clip, there’s the predictive keyboard we’ve already heard so much about, but also an “adaptive” lockscreen, the BB Hub and a screen dedicated to “efficient multitasking”. You’ll also get a tour of the BlackBerry App World, but unfortunately you’ll need to know a bit of Spanish to understand more than just what transpires directly via the images.
Though the demo is performed on a Dev Alpha B device with unfinished software, there aren’t many glitches and bugs and the OS’s fluency is actually impressive. I’m not going to spoil the pleasure of watching the video anymore, so check it out and then come back to us with the answer to the question of all questions – is BB10 a threat to Android?