Rogers LTE hits 18 new regions, delivers speedy data in Saskatoon

Rogers LTE hits 18 new regions, delivers speedy data in Saskatoon

Rogers promised that October 1st would be a grand day for its LTE expansion plans, and we're now learning that it might have been underpromising to overdeliver later. The carrier just flicked the 4G switch for 18 cities and regions, or eight more territories than it had promised just two weeks ago. Most of the coverage still focuses on the southern tip of Ontario, including London, the Oshawa area and RIM's hometown of Waterloo, but there's a much more trans-Canada bent to the official deployment. Western cities like Saskatoon and Victoria now fit into Rogers' LTE map beyond a previously announced Edmonton, while the Quebec rollout is going past Quebec City to include Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières. All told, the one day of growth is enough to supply Rogers LTE to almost 60 percent of Canada's population -- a convenient figure when one of the year's more important LTE smartphones just became available less than two weeks prior.

[Thanks, Jon]

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Rogers LTE hits 18 new regions, delivers speedy data in Saskatoon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 02:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry 10 L-series tutorial videos surface online, give a literal peek at the future (video)

BlackBerry 10 Lseries tutorial videos surface online, give a literal peek at the future video

Those of us who've used a BlackBerry PlayBook will be familiar with the inevitable first-boot tutorials showing how to navigate the swipe-driven interface before we're let loose. Thanks to a series of demonstration videos leaked by BlackBerryItalia, it's apparent that we won't escape that educational process on BlackBerry 10 devices, either. The four clips show the basics of what we know the gesture experience will be like on full-touch L-series phones, including the signature BlackBerry Peek to check notifications and the unified inbox. Anyone looking for a direct clue as to what production BlackBerry 10 hardware will entail might be frustrated, mind you -- the rendered phone appears to be a placeholder rather than the L-series or a Dev Alpha B, and the device name is censored in an attempt to protect the source. That said, the clips provide a very straightforward explanation of the new interface concept and give us one more indication that RIM is closer to launch.

Continue reading BlackBerry 10 L-series tutorial videos surface online, give a literal peek at the future (video)

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BlackBerry 10 L-series tutorial videos surface online, give a literal peek at the future (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM: first BlackBerry 10 devices to focus on mid-range and up, entry-level may be ready in 2013

BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha B

RIM's Q2 earnings details have had a common theme of a silver lining to darker clouds, and that edge may have grown a bit brighter with hints of the company's longer-term BlackBerry 10 roadmap. When asked about the release strategy, CEO Thorsten Heins said that the first BB10 devices would focus on both the mid-range and high-end of the market, a bit wider than the chiefly high-end approach that has been rumored so far. While shy on details, he confirmed that the full-touch smartphone would have a screen with an HD resolution -- that's higher than on the iPhone 5, the executive was eager to point out. More intriguingly, Heins teased the prospect of an entry-level BB10 device arriving as soon as 2013. Although development was in the early stages, the new starter phone just might be ready next year if all goes well. There's a lot of questions left to answer about RIM's strategy, so we won't get too excited yet; even so, the statements are signs that the BlackBerry designer doesn't want to leave any product gaps open for very long.

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RIM: first BlackBerry 10 devices to focus on mid-range and up, entry-level may be ready in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM posts Q2 earnings: $2.87 billion in revenue, softer $235 million loss

Research in Motion headquarters

RIM may have given us hope that its transition to BlackBerry 10 has turned a corner, but that doesn't mean the dark clouds have entirely broken just yet. The company's second fiscal quarter saw it generate $2.9 billion in revenue, a slight gain over last quarter, while it posted a net loss of $235 million -- again better than expected, but not the best news it could deliver. Waterloo's main challenge was holding on to its smartphone base. While RIM did expand the total BlackBerry user base to 80 million, its phone shipments dropped from 7.8 million to 7.4 million and were braced by shipments of just 130,000 PlayBooks, or half as many tablets as were delivered in the spring.

The sunshine is mostly found in the total picture. RIM says it's still on track to deliver the first BlackBerry 10 phones in early 2013; while the smartphone maker is bracing for an operating loss in its ongoing third quarter, the higher revenue and reduced losses suggest to CEO Thorsten Heins that RIM is getting its fiscal house in order before BlackBerry 10 (hopefully) renews interest. Full details of the company's financial performance are available after the break.

Continue reading RIM posts Q2 earnings: $2.87 billion in revenue, softer $235 million loss

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RIM posts Q2 earnings: $2.87 billion in revenue, softer $235 million loss originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Interview: RIM’s T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social

The Engadget Interview RIM's TA McCann on how BB10 is going social

In case you missed Thorsten Heins keynote yesterday, RIM's betting on BB10 becoming the next big thing in mobile computing. Part of Thorsten's plan to put BB10 on top involves deep integration of third party social apps like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare into the new OS. BlackBerry has always been a productivity platform first and foremost, but with RIM touting BB10's abilities as a social platform, we wanted to know more about the plan to make it happen. So, we sat down with T.A. McCann, RIM's VP of BBM and Social Communities, to find out how he's going to reach his CEO's goal of a flowing, social OS and the challenges of getting there.

Continue reading The Engadget Interview: RIM's T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social

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The Engadget Interview: RIM's T.A. McCann on how BB10 is going social originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM pledges ongoing support for BlackBerry devs by serenading them (video)

BlackBerry pledges ongoing support for devs by serenading them

They're gonna keep on lovin' yoooouuuu.

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RIM pledges ongoing support for BlackBerry devs by serenading them (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry App World to sell music and movies, open to BB 10 app submissions on October 10th

In addition to sharing new details about its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS, RIM used today's BlackBerry Jam keynote to make an announcement about App World. The company just revealed that in addition to applications and games, the store will sell music, movies and TV shows -- a move that brings it more in line with rival stores like Google Play and Apple's App Store. That should please App World's 80 million subscribers (a nice little figure RIM dropped in its keynote just now). Another stat: there are currently 105,000 apps in the store, with 3 billion downloads logged since the store's opening. And, RIM says, BB 10 applications will join the herd soon: the company will begin accepting submissions on October 10th. Get it? BB 10 on 10/10? Clever, Thorsten.

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BlackBerry App World to sell music and movies, open to BB 10 app submissions on October 10th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry’s new Dev Alpha B handset runs BB10, we go hands-on

BlackBerry's new Dev Alpha B handset runs BB10, we go hands-on

BlackBerry's Dev Alpha handset proved to be quite the popular item when it was revealed earlier this year. It was so popular, in fact, that the company ran through the 5,000 it constructed in short order. So, it had to build a whole new batch of developer handsets to meet the demand, and thus was the Dev Alpha B born. We got our mitts on this new bit of kit and had a chance to see how it handled RIM's latest incarnation of BB10, so join us after the break for our impressions.

Continue reading BlackBerry's new Dev Alpha B handset runs BB10, we go hands-on

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BlackBerry's new Dev Alpha B handset runs BB10, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM reveals more details about Blackberry 10

Well, it's finally here. Sort of. It's been a long and winding road for BlackBerry 10, and as has been RIM's way, the company continues to out new BB10 details just a bit at a time. As you may recall, we got a good look at RIM's original Dev Alpha hardware back in May, and were able to swipe our way through a good bit of BB10 a month later. It's BlackBerry Jam time now, though, and RIM gave us a more thorough look at the OS than ever before, and we got to see it running on a new Dev Alpha B handset. We couldn't pry loose any details about the hardware inside the new dev phone (other than it's got a BB10-standard 1280x768 screen), but we did get a few fresh facts about the software running on it. Once again, RIM reminded us that the software we saw was not the final version, but that shouldn't deter you from reading on past the break and seeing a video of BB10 in action.

Continue reading RIM reveals more details about Blackberry 10

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RIM reveals more details about Blackberry 10 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM: BlackBerry 10 carrier testing starts in October, OS remains on schedule

RIM BlackBerry 10 carrier testing starts in October, the OS itself is on track

Worried that RIM might face any further delays of BlackBerry 10? Don't be. CEO Thorsten Heins just confirmed at his BlackBerry Jam presentation that carrier testing for the new OS should begin this October, and that the platform launch is still slated for early 2013, as we were told this spring. As he's mentioned in the past, Heins believes carriers are "excited" about the BlackBerry update, implying that this is what's driving the certification process months in advance. Whether or not optimism is alive and well among providers, the news could be a relief for carriers and BlackBerry developers alike, either of which is likely keen to minimize the shift towards an Android-and-iPhone duopoly in the smartphone space.

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RIM: BlackBerry 10 carrier testing starts in October, OS remains on schedule originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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