Heins gives a hat tip to former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, in the NYC audience.
Thorsten Heins thanks former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsille
RIM is dead. It's now officially BlackBerry
Heins says RIM will be renamed BlackBerry.
New tag line is: Re-designed, re-engineered, re-invented
Heins about to start revealing the new platform now, two new phones make their first official appearance
The Z10 and Q10 (touchscreen and keyboard, respectively)
4.2in screen, 356 pixels per inch on the Z10
That's more pixels per inch than Apple's ballyhooed Retina Display
Not sure it'll be the most popular device but lots of applause for the Q10 and its keyboard
Playing up BlackBerry Flow and the ability to quickly multitask and switch between apps
With a swipe you can reveal your inbox without closing down other apps, it's called BlackBerry Peek.
BlackBerry Hub is one place for all incoming messages, email, BBM, social media
Can respond to social media messages (or requests) without having to leave the Hub interface and load another app or website
And yes, BB10 still supports the flashing red notification light we all love (and sometime hate)
Click a profile within BlackBerry Hub and it pulls in social media info for those users, their updates, profiles,etc.
Now showing off keyboard for touchscreens
Perhaps the greatest challenge of marketing the new BlackBerry will be explaining all the (seemingly) complex but useful features to the average smartphone user.
As you type, the OS predicts what word you want and you can swipe to have it auto-
completed
The new phones will feature the famous "sent through my BlackBerry Z10" signature line
The AI also looks for dropped words you may have accidentally skipped over
Now talking about BlackBerry Balance, how to let users use a phone as a work and personal device
Apps have been divided into two sections by tabs at the top of the screen, labelled Personal and Work
It's secure, it's encrypted, it's managed
Now on BlackBerry Messenger
Now allows video chatting similar to Skype or FaceTime, New York and London are connecting live to demo
You can also share your screen, to show colleagues what you're doing on your screen. Not just a screengrab but a live feed of a user's actions
By the way, it's Vivek Bhardwaj, Head of Software Portfolio at Research In Motion, now leading the demos with Heins
Heins calls it a great collaboration tool, or a way to show off to friends while on vacation
New application called BlackBerry Remember being demoed
Example: Vacation emails can be routed into Remember. While browsing the web you can send data to Remember, for example, vacation planning sites like reviews, hotels, rentals, etc. Data is organized in one place.
Moving onto multimedia, showing off the camera
Tap anywhere on screen to take a photo, focus spot can be moved around
Previously released timeshift feature lets you take a photo and find the best frame - the most steady, the best smile, etc
Built-in picture editor to add Instagram-like filters
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