Mobile

BlackBerry Q10 lands at Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint this summer

Keyboard fans looking for their BlackBerry Q10 this summer will have their pick of three carriers: Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

Verizon will kick off Q10 sales with a preorder in the coming weeks, and will sell the Q10 in June.

T-Mobile has also committed to a June time frame, adding that business customers can get the smartphone for a wholesale price of $119.99 "with qualifying plans." T-Mobile's regular customers will be able to pick up the device for $99.99 down, topped by $20 a month for the next two years. That's a total of $… Read more

BlackBerry Messenger expands to Android, iOS

ORLANDO, Fla. -- More news rolled out of BlackBerry Live 2013 today, including the company's plans to offer BlackBerry Messenger to Android and iOS devices.

The BBM platform will hit these products by summer, but best of all, the service will be offered as a free download. The BlackBerry CEO sounded very excited about the move, a first for the service. He said, "It's a statement of confidence. We are confident time is right for BBM to be independent."

Those are bold words indeed and certainly a great tactic to lure users back to BBM. The … Read more

Nokia is 'very interested' in tablets, exec explains

Nokia stated that it's "very interested" in tablets, at the launch of its flagship Lumia 925 phone.

While Nokia wouldn't offer specific details on any upcoming products, Jo Harlow, executive vice president of smart devices for Nokia, explained, "We're very interested in tablets and that's an area we're looking at."

Exciting stuff but Nokia is playing its cards very close to the chest. Harlow went on to state, "I don't have any product news I can share."

Nokia is the only major phone manufacturer that hasn't also … Read more

BlackBerry takes on Twitter with BBM Channels

ORLANDO, Fla. -- BlackBerry wants to take on Twitter by creating its own social network through its BlackBerry Messenger service.

The company on Tuesday unveiled BBM Channel, which allows users and brands to create a BBM profile that other users can follow, similar to how people can follow brands and users on Twitter.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking at the BlackBerry Live conference here today, touted the strength of the BBM network, which has 60 million users, and 10 billion messages sent and received each day.

More importantly, Heins said that half of the messages received are read within 20 … Read more

Dish to sell $2.5B in debt to fund Sprint bid

Dish Network plans to sell about $2.5 billion in debt to help fund its proposed takeover of Sprint Nextel, the company said Tuesday.

The proceeds from the offering will be placed in escrow and will then be released to finance part of the funds needed for the $25.5 billion Sprint acquisition. If the proposed merger falls through or doesn't take place before a certain date, Dish plans to redeem the notes.

Dish and Japanese carrier SoftBank have been battling for Sprint for the past couple months. SoftBank in October offered to pay shareholders $12.1 billion and … Read more

Apple wants you to scratch and claw your iPad

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple nearly three dozen patents, including one that covers how a device responds to acoustic signals such as scratching and tapping.

Patent No. 8,441,790, or "Electronic Device Housing as Acoustic Input Device," focuses on tech that would allow a device to detect and react to sound resulting from an impact with the housing, such as dragging a finger along the surface of the device. The sensors send information to a microprocessor, which can distinguish between different types of input as well as interpret what each input … Read more

BlackBerry Live by the numbers: 120,000 apps available

ORLANDO, Fla. -- BlackBerry needs to convince developers that they aren't wasting their time working on its platform.

So what better way to state its case than by throwing out a few impressive statistics? BlackBerry spent the better part of Tuesday morning during its BlackBerry Live conference attempting to drum up support and enthusiasm for its platform.

Oh, and the venerable handset maker also used the occasion to unveil its BlackBerry Q5 phone, a device intended for emerging markets that will arrive sometime this summer.

Here are the highlights from BlackBerry on how well it's doing:

Number of … Read more

BB 10.1 and Skype come to BlackBerry Z10

ORLANDO, Fla.--At BlackBerry Live 2013, the phone maker announced that it would roll out BB10.1 software to its Z10 handset. The upgrade will also include access to the Skype video chat application.

BlackBerry also handed out the Z10 device to attendees here at the BlackBerry Live show so many folks no doubt will be able to enjoy the fresh infusion of software. Stay tuned as he get hands on with our upgraded Z10.

BlackBerry Q5 debuts with budget buyers in mind

ORLANDO, Fla. -- BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins on Tuesday unveiled the BlackBerry Q5, a budget phone designed for emerging markets.

The phone will launch in the summer around the world, Heins said during its BlackBerry Live conference here today. The company said in a blog post that the Q5 would launch as early as July in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. There's no word on pricing yet.

Taking a cue from other handset vendors, BlackBerry will offer the device in multiple colors, including black, white, red, and pink.

BlackBerry was widely expected to unveil a … Read more