 Hey, this is Josh with The Verge and we're taking a look at the Blackberry Z10, the first ever Blackberry 10 device. The phone might look a little bit familiar because it shares a lot with the iPhone 5 in terms of design language, though the Z10 is a bit larger. It's got a 4.2 inch display. It feels good in your hand. The back is made from a soft touch, kind of rubbery dimpled material, which is really nice to hold. As I said, it's got a 4.2 inch display and the resolution is 1280 by 768 and it looks quite nice. Inside there's a 1.5 gigahertz dual core processor, two gigs of RAM and 16 gigabytes of onboard storage, though that is expandable through the use of a micro SD card. The Z10 has Wi-Fi, GPS and all of the other sensors that you would expect in a modern smartphone. It also has two cameras, an eight megapixel shooter on the back and a two megapixel camera on the front of the device. The cameras on the phone are decent, but the software is interesting. RIM is touting a function called time shift, which allows you to snap a picture kind of in burst mode and then select through the different frames of the photo that was taken to find the perfect moment. Overall the phone is nicely designed and I liked using it. I was a little disappointed with the battery life, however. There were a few days during testing when I took it off the charger around 9 a.m. and ended up with a dead phone at about six or seven p.m. But the story here is not really about the Z10, it's about BlackBerry 10, the new operating system from RIM. It has nothing to do with BlackBerry 7 or any previous versions, though there are some similar design traits exhibited. The basic concept of the BlackBerry 10 interface is that there are really four states you can be in. There's in an application, that's pretty straightforward, on your home screen, which does double duty as your multitasker, in your app drawer where you can open up an app just like on any other device or in BlackBerry hub, which encompasses all of your messages that you get on the phone and that could be email, MMS, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc. You get into those various states with a couple of gestures. The main gesture on the phone is to swipe up from the bottom of the display, which unlocks it and takes you to your home screen. If you're inside an app, you can swipe up, you'll go out to your home screen. The other main gesture that you use is kind of a continuation of the home screen gesture. You swipe up and then continue holding and swipe to the right, which gives you a view of what notifications have come in and eventually if you swipe all the way over, you get into your unified inbox. Your home screen is limited only to eight items and those items can only be arranged by what you've most recently opened. So if you've got Twitter open and it's your ninth app and you open another one, Twitter is gone and you've got to reopen it. The second problem with the concept is that some of those apps turn into widgets when you minimize them, which is great. For instance, the weather widget works really well and updates in the background right on the home screen. The problem is you can't keep the weather widget on the home screen, so you have to keep reopening the app every eight applications you open. But the bigger issue with the OS is the way it handles notifications. So instead of having a notification bar like Android or iOS, you're actually just looking at the very message that you were notified about. The biggest problem with notifications is that when you go into your hub and you check a message, it saves that state, which means that when you get another notification and you go to check that notification, you actually end up in the notification you were checking before that. What happens is you've got to start backtracking into your hub to figure out where that message actually is located. But in terms of general speed and capability, I would put BlackBerry 10 on par with Android or iOS. It doesn't seem to be lacking any or many of the features that those operating systems have. It's got a different idea about how you should navigate it, but the question is whether or not it's a better idea. And in my opinion, it's not. On the app front, RIM has done a pretty good job with its first party offerings. The browser is very good and certainly as capable as any other modern mobile browser that's out there. The email experience, which RIM of course has been known for historically, is good even with my Gmail accounts, but I would not say great. Multiple message management proved to be a little bit tricky in particular. You have to long press on a message, then select another item from a popover menu and then start selecting your messages and then tap on the trash to get rid of those messages. It seems like there could be a much quicker way to get at multiple message management. One of the great things that RIM has done is integrate a lot of third party services into its core apps. They've got an app here which is a note taking, a reminder app called Remember that integrates Evernote so you can sync your account and folders right into that application. There's also a surprisingly clever app called StoryMaker which allows you to combine video clips with music and a variety of effects and titles. I thought it was pretty fun to play around with and was impressed at the typography and the effects used in the application itself. The device comes pre-installed with a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare app. In my case however, I thought the way it handles Twitter was a little bit clunky. Much like Windows Phone, it will show you a list of your latest messages on Twitter but in order to fully read those messages you have to click into each one individually. And speaking of the Twitter app, it's actually kind of bad in the version that I tested. It looks and feels very much like Android or iOS Twitter except that it doesn't auto update in the background and when you pull to refresh it takes you from wherever you were the last time you checked the app to the top of your timeline. RIM has improved BBM for BlackBerry 10 adding some really interesting functions like BBM video calls which worked well most of the time when I was testing the device and a novel function which allows you to share the screen of your phone with somebody else over BBM video. RIM claims that BlackBerry 10 will launch with about 70,000 third-party apps in its BlackBerry World app store and that may be true but it kind of feels like 69,000 of those apps are bad. A lot of them are rehashed playbook titles and some of the ones that I tested which are made for BlackBerry 10 just didn't really seem up to snuff. It is clear however that making great apps for BlackBerry 10 is possible. The USA Today app for instance is very good as are a handful of the games. Angry Birds Star Wars for instance plays as good if not better than it does on other platforms and RIM says there's a lot more coming including some fairly significant app contributions from EA games as well as Gameloft. RIM has added a content marketplace to BlackBerry World so you can now buy music, TV or movies pretty easily through the same interface that you get your apps in. One spot that I think RIM has executed fairly poorly in is the inclusion of Android apps in BlackBerry World. The device is capable of running Android apps in a runtime environment which is essentially like software emulation of Android and the apps definitely run like they're being emulated. They don't really run that well and as soon as you're inside an Android app you're literally inside an Android environment. And just a reminder this isn't this year's Android or last year's Android. This is Android 2.3. It's not really an addition to the OS and in some ways kind of detracts from what RIM is doing with BlackBerry 10. The Z10 is going to be available for $199 on contract. Overall the Z10 is a fine device. It's even a very good device and BlackBerry 10 is a very good mobile operating system. I think it's extremely capable and I'm excited about what it's going to develop into. The bottom line is that it's a good phone but it's lacking a killer app or killer piece of functionality that's going to sway most buyers from Android, iOS or Windows Phone.
 Hey, this is Josh with The Verge and we're taking a look at the Blackberry Z10, the first
 ever Blackberry 10 device.
 The phone might look a little bit familiar because it shares a lot with the iPhone 5
 in terms of design language, though the Z10 is a bit larger.
 It's got a 4.2 inch display.
 It feels good in your hand.
 The back is made from a soft touch, kind of rubbery dimpled material, which is really
 nice to hold.
 As I said, it's got a 4.2 inch display and the resolution is 1280 by 768 and it looks
 quite nice.
 Inside there's a 1.5 gigahertz dual core processor, two gigs of RAM and 16 gigabytes of onboard
 storage, though that is expandable through the use of a micro SD card.
 The Z10 has Wi-Fi, GPS and all of the other sensors that you would expect in a modern
 smartphone.
 It also has two cameras, an eight megapixel shooter on the back and a two megapixel camera
 on the front of the device.
 The cameras on the phone are decent, but the software is interesting.
 RIM is touting a function called time shift, which allows you to snap a picture kind of
 in burst mode and then select through the different frames of the photo that was taken
 to find the perfect moment.
 Overall the phone is nicely designed and I liked using it.
 I was a little disappointed with the battery life, however.
 There were a few days during testing when I took it off the charger around 9 a.m. and
 ended up with a dead phone at about six or seven p.m.
 But the story here is not really about the Z10, it's about BlackBerry 10, the new operating
 system from RIM.
 It has nothing to do with BlackBerry 7 or any previous versions, though there are some
 similar design traits exhibited.
 The basic concept of the BlackBerry 10 interface is that there are really four states you can
 be in.
 There's in an application, that's pretty straightforward, on your home screen, which does double duty
 as your multitasker, in your app drawer where you can open up an app just like on any other
 device or in BlackBerry hub, which encompasses all of your messages that you get on the phone
 and that could be email, MMS, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
 You get into those various states with a couple of gestures.
 The main gesture on the phone is to swipe up from the bottom of the display, which unlocks
 it and takes you to your home screen.
 If you're inside an app, you can swipe up, you'll go out to your home screen.
 The other main gesture that you use is kind of a continuation of the home screen gesture.
 You swipe up and then continue holding and swipe to the right, which gives you a view
 of what notifications have come in and eventually if you swipe all the way over, you get into
 your unified inbox.
 Your home screen is limited only to eight items and those items can only be arranged
 by what you've most recently opened.
 So if you've got Twitter open and it's your ninth app and you open another one, Twitter
 is gone and you've got to reopen it.
 The second problem with the concept is that some of those apps turn into widgets when
 you minimize them, which is great.
 For instance, the weather widget works really well and updates in the background right on
 the home screen.
 The problem is you can't keep the weather widget on the home screen, so you have to
 keep reopening the app every eight applications you open.
 But the bigger issue with the OS is the way it handles notifications.
 So instead of having a notification bar like Android or iOS, you're actually just looking
 at the very message that you were notified about.
 The biggest problem with notifications is that when you go into your hub and you check
 a message, it saves that state, which means that when you get another notification and
 you go to check that notification, you actually end up in the notification you were checking
 before that.
 What happens is you've got to start backtracking into your hub to figure out where that message
 actually is located.
 But in terms of general speed and capability, I would put BlackBerry 10 on par with Android
 or iOS.
 It doesn't seem to be lacking any or many of the features that those operating systems
 have.
 It's got a different idea about how you should navigate it, but the question is whether or
 not it's a better idea.
 And in my opinion, it's not.
 On the app front, RIM has done a pretty good job with its first party offerings.
 The browser is very good and certainly as capable as any other modern mobile browser
 that's out there.
 The email experience, which RIM of course has been known for historically, is good even
 with my Gmail accounts, but I would not say great.
 Multiple message management proved to be a little bit tricky in particular.
 You have to long press on a message, then select another item from a popover menu and
 then start selecting your messages and then tap on the trash to get rid of those messages.
 It seems like there could be a much quicker way to get at multiple message management.
 One of the great things that RIM has done is integrate a lot of third party services
 into its core apps.
 They've got an app here which is a note taking, a reminder app called Remember that integrates
 Evernote so you can sync your account and folders right into that application.
 There's also a surprisingly clever app called StoryMaker which allows you to combine video
 clips with music and a variety of effects and titles.
 I thought it was pretty fun to play around with and was impressed at the typography and
 the effects used in the application itself.
 The device comes pre-installed with a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare app.
 In my case however, I thought the way it handles Twitter was a little bit clunky.
 Much like Windows Phone, it will show you a list of your latest messages on Twitter
 but in order to fully read those messages you have to click into each one individually.
 And speaking of the Twitter app, it's actually kind of bad in the version that I tested.
 It looks and feels very much like Android or iOS Twitter except that it doesn't auto
 update in the background and when you pull to refresh it takes you from wherever you
 were the last time you checked the app to the top of your timeline.
 RIM has improved BBM for BlackBerry 10 adding some really interesting functions like BBM
 video calls which worked well most of the time when I was testing the device and a novel
 function which allows you to share the screen of your phone with somebody else over BBM
 video.
 RIM claims that BlackBerry 10 will launch with about 70,000 third-party apps in its
 BlackBerry World app store and that may be true but it kind of feels like 69,000 of those
 apps are bad.
 A lot of them are rehashed playbook titles and some of the ones that I tested which are
 made for BlackBerry 10 just didn't really seem up to snuff.
 It is clear however that making great apps for BlackBerry 10 is possible.
 The USA Today app for instance is very good as are a handful of the games.
 Angry Birds Star Wars for instance plays as good if not better than it does on other platforms
 and RIM says there's a lot more coming including some fairly significant app contributions
 from EA games as well as Gameloft.
 RIM has added a content marketplace to BlackBerry World so you can now buy music, TV or movies
 pretty easily through the same interface that you get your apps in.
 One spot that I think RIM has executed fairly poorly in is the inclusion of Android apps
 in BlackBerry World.
 The device is capable of running Android apps in a runtime environment which is essentially
 like software emulation of Android and the apps definitely run like they're being emulated.
 They don't really run that well and as soon as you're inside an Android app you're literally
 inside an Android environment.
 And just a reminder this isn't this year's Android or last year's Android.
 This is Android 2.3.
 It's not really an addition to the OS and in some ways kind of detracts from what RIM
 is doing with BlackBerry 10.
 The Z10 is going to be available for $199 on contract.
 Overall the Z10 is a fine device.
 It's even a very good device and BlackBerry 10 is a very good mobile operating system.
 I think it's extremely capable and I'm excited about what it's going to develop into.
 The bottom line is that it's a good phone but it's lacking a killer app or killer piece
 of functionality that's going to sway most buyers from Android, iOS or Windows Phone.