Wireless News
10-16-2015, 04:40 PM
http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CmK7QR1jhaopGiZuhW3TdQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9ODY7cT03NTt3PT EzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/digital_trends_973/cb4ac97770ecf72b440ea676f9cd259c (http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-priv-android-phone-news-200451948.html)Android fans who still desire a physical keyboard will have something to celebrate later this year, because after many rumors, BlackBerry has confirmed it’s-working on an Android phone. It’s called the Priv, and here’s everything we know so far. Updated on 10-16-2015 by Robert Nazarian: Added in hands on video and specs from Carphone Warehouse.- Pre-registration opens ahead of official release date Although BlackBerry has yet to reveal a price for the Priv, it is certainly ready to sell the phone in the near future. BlackBerry set up a pre-registration page where would-be buyers can add their names and email addresses, so as to find out as soon as the phone is available for purchase. There’s even a box where businesses can say that they’re interested in buying more than 10 BlackBerry Priv phones for employees. We’ll keep you updated on pricing and the official availability for the BlackBerry Priv here. In the meantime, here’s the pre-registration page. Official images and early specs Carphone Warehouse announced in mid-October that it will not only carry the BlackBerry Priv, but it will also be an exclusive in the U.K. More importantly, the carrier posted a hands on video of the phone on its YouTube channel. This video is by far the best look of the Priv we have seen yet. Carphone Warehouse does a great job showing off the physical keyboard and sliding mechanism, as well as the dual curved edges and software. The carrier also confirmed the display to be 5.4-inches with a resolution of Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440), and also revealed that the battery will be 3,410mAh and the rear camera will be Schneider-Kreuznach certified. After officially announcing the BlackBerry Priv, the company acknowledged-an outpouring of interest on its blog-in late September. It’s obvious that fans want more information, and while BlackBerry isn’t ready to divulge all the details of the Priv, the company did post three images of the phone to whet our appetites. The images look very similar to previous leaked images, but we now know for sure what the Priv will look like. One thing to note that wasn’t always obvious in prior images is the button placement on the right side. The power button is placed between the volume up and down keys. This will likely add some confusion to current Android users. It appears that BlackBerry is poised to take advantage of this newfound attention. The company plans to-release more pictures, videos, and hardware specs in drips and drabs leading up to the official unveiling. This came true at the Recode Mobile 2015 conference in October, at which CEO John Chen was interviewed on stage. One of the first questions asked was related to the Priv, and Chen replied by pulling one of the new phones out of his pocket. He went on to state the device has a 5-inch touchscreen, and a capacitive keyboard like the Passport, which slides out from the base of the phone. Rather than talk about the remaining specs, Chen emphasised the importance of security, saying that by integrating Android with BlackBerry’s secure stack, it’s, “probably on the same level as Samsung’s Knox.” The Knox system has seen wide approval for use in the Enterprise world, and by the NSA and U.S. government. Chen reiterated the Priv will launch later this year, and said the company’s in talks with carriers to offer the phone with a contract. Although he didn’t give an exact cost, he said the Priv will have a “high-end price,” so expect it to be equal or similar to the $600 Passport. BlackBerry Priv quietly announced In late September,-inside the company’s second quarter financial results, BlackBerry confirmed it was making an Android smartphone called the BlackBerry Priv, and it’ll be on sale before the end of the year. The news-came after a stream of rumors surrounding the device, and news that sales of its BlackBerry phones reached just 800,000, a third of that seen a year ago, and overall sales dropped by half at the same time. CEO John Chen wrote in a statement that the company is “focused on making faster progress to achieve profitability in our handset business,” and this has resulted in the Priv, an Android smartphone. According to Chen, it will “combine the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform.” The Priv will have a slider design, and support both Android for Work and BlackBerry’s BES12 platform, showing the firm is aiming it more towards business and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) users. It’s not abandoning BlackBerry 10, and will release version 10.3.3 in March next year. Rumors started several months ago A Blackberry phone with a codename of Venice leaked back in June, and was believed to be running Android. It was-slated to arrive in November with the following specs: a 5.4-inch Quad-HD screen, a 1.8GHz 64-bit hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB RAM, as well as an 18-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Related: Is BlackBerry making an Android phone? The Venice was shown to have-a slide-out physical keyboard, suggesting it was-the mysterious slider device CEO John Chen teased at Mobile World Congress. Rumors said the-display supposedly has dual-curved edges just like the Galaxy S6 Edge. Reddit user /u/imsorandom managed to get a close look at the BlackBerry Priv at the CISO Conference in Toronto in early October, posting three photos of the device and commenting on his first impressions. The photos show the front, back, and side of the phone with the keyboard. In the thread, the poster claims that the BlackBerry Priv is thinner than Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5. That is impressive if true, considering the Note 5 is only 7.6mm thick, and the Priv has to compensate for the attached keyboard. The glass on the display is curved on the edges, similar to the Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6S. The slider mechanism is apparently very solid as well, and it weighs more than the Note 5. Speaking to an official representative who let him try the device, the phone will apparently run “the latest and fastest from Qualcomm.” He also said it would be available on all carriers in Canada by the end of October, but gave no information on international launch dates. Software on the BlackBerry Priv runs a lot like a Motorola device, near stock Android with additional programs. The Reddit user claims it’s as snappy as the Nexus 5 running Android Marshmallow, though it currently runs Lollipop. When the physical keyboard is pushed back, an on-screen keyboard is available for users. The poster remarked that the camera app was very slow to focus, but that may have been due to the low-light conditions at the event. In mid-September, Baka Mobile released a hands on video with an alleged BlackBerry Venice evaluation unit. This video revealed a quick launcher to the BlackBerry Hub, Google services, and global searching for both the Web and phone data. The default Web search appears to be Google since the Google Search bar is active on the main screen. Unfortunately the video was pulled shortly thereafter. The main interface looks very close to stock Android, but there is no question BlackBerry will add it’s own services into the mix. We also get a fantastic look at the physical keyboard and the sliding mechanism. The keyboard itself is capacitive, meaning that you will be able to swipe it to scroll content on the main display. It looks really slick. Content freaks will also be happy to know that a MicroSD slot is onboard as well. Unfortunately, we don’t know how large-a card it will accept. On top of the video, Android Authority released a few more pictures of the BlackBerry Venice. The pictures don’t reveal anything new other than they continue to confirm the existence of Android. However, we now know the model number, which is STV100-6. Apparently more than a few people were sporting the BlackBerry Venice at the Toronto Film Festival in mid-September. This isn’t a surprise since the company’s headquarters is only 70 miles away. One fan was able to sneak up behind someone using the said device and capture it on camera. Although not the greatest photo, it showed-the Venice running Android. The app appearing on the display looks awfully similar-to Google’s Messenger app. Take a look at the second image below, which shows the Messenger app side-by-side with the phone. The first high-quality images of what could be the BlackBerry Venice slider appeared online in late August. They give further confirmation to what the keyboard looks like and the presence of Google apps. However, this is the first time we get to see the sliding mechanism from the back of the device. You will also notice that the rear camera will likely sport dual LED flash. Famous leaker Evan Blass posted two GIFs in mid- to late August of what could be the BlackBerry Venice.-The first animation is a closeup of the physical keyboard and the rear 18-megapixel camera. This second animation shows the keyboard sliding down. You will also see that many Google apps appear on the device indicating that it will be Google certified. Following a variety of shadowy leaked images, a clear press-style image of what may be the BlackBerry Venice was posted on Twitter by Evan Blass-in mid-August. The picture shows the phone with its slider section extended, revealing a physical keyboard. Above it, on the display, is what looks like Android. In mid-August, Crackberry forum member-Mikey_NNG posted an alleged image of the on-screen keyboard from the BlackBerry Venice. He claims to have played with the device for a few minutes and-it was running Android Lollipop. The back button is more spaced out than-on existing BlackBerry keyboards, indicating that it is indeed an-Android.-A curved edge display is also clearly visible. Alleged renders of the BlackBerry Venice were posted in early August by Crackberry, and they reveal an Android interface, a curved edge display, and an 18-megapixel camera.-The first render shows what appears to be the BlackBerry Hub running on Android. The circular action button (pen icon) at the bottom center of the display complies with Android’s material design principles. Android and Google Play? A GIF posted by leaker Even Blass in late August reveals the BlackBerry Productivity Suite, which includes the BlackBerry Hub, contacts, and unified calendar apps. These apps are not presently available on Android, but the Material Design elements are a clear sign they were-developed with Android in mind. They are likely to debut on the BlackBerry Venice. Leaked photos of the Venice and possible marketing materials suggest the phone will have complete access to Google’s apps. Early on, the Chromecast icon appeared in the renders, for example. The latest picture of the phone shows a wide variety of Android apps that aren’t available for BlackBerry phones, including Google Maps, Hangouts, Google Calendar, and most importantly, Google Play. In addition to the presentation slides posted by Crackberry — which also showed an image of the previously leaked-18-megapixel rear camera — another two slides were added to the collection by Evan Blass on his Twitter account, this time showing the phone with Google Play on the screen, and one referencing a content transfer app. In this slide, reference is made to an “Android BlackBerry device.” In early August, a-tweet-stated-that T-Mobile will offer the BlackBerry Venice slider, which followed the news that AT&T would also offer the phone. BlackBerry Venice slated for T-Mobile lineup, as well. — Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 8, 2015 The Android-powered BlackBerry Venice slider is AT&T-bound. — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 2, 2015 BlackBerry’s second Android phone could be codenamed ‘Prague’ and based on the Passport In late August, images of black and silver BlackBerry Passports running Android 5.1 were leaked by Evan Blass and Dudu Rocha. The first couple of images are press renders from Evan Blass, but the other three are actual hands on pictures courtesy of Dudu Rocha. According to Dudu Rocha, this Passport Android device will have a 4.5-inch square display, a 2.26GHz quad-core-Snapdragon 801 processor, an Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM, 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 3,450mAh battery. The images were lifted from a video, and shortly after they were posted online, the entire video was discovered. The silver Passport is identified under the codename Oslo, and appears to run Android Lollipop with a variety of BlackBerry tools installed, along with access to Google Play. The origin of the phone is unknown, so we don’t know whether it’s a homebrew device, or something more official. Take a look at the video below. This same phone was-tweeted-about in early July as a second BlackBerry phone running Android. The text of the tweet stated, “Also, /this/,” which refers to a second BlackBerry phone headed to AT&T, the other one being the Venice. The above image cannot be the Venice since it doesn’t appear to be a slider. We can only assume it’s the Prague, but the codename wasn’t specified.-Earlier reports said the Prague would resemble the BlackBerry Z3, but this image looks more like a Passport (pictured below). While the Venice is expected to be a-premium handset, sources say that BlackBerry is thinking about emerging markets for another Android phone — and that could be where the Prague fits in. However, as of late September, BlackBerry has only announced one Android phone — the Priv. We’ll keep you updated with more news as it emerges. ————— Previous Updates: Updated on 10-14-2015 by Malarie Gokey: Added news that you can pre-register to get a BlackBerry Priv online. Updated on 10-09-2015 by David Curry: Added new photos of the BlackBerry Priv and hands-on impressions from a Reddit user.- Updated on 10-08-2015 by Andy Boxall:- Added in-further information on the Priv, revealed by BlackBerry CEO John Chen. Updated on 10-01-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added in official images of the Priv released by BlackBerry Updated on 09-25-2015 by Andy Boxall:- Added in official-news that the BlackBerry Priv is real, and coming in the near future. Updated on 09-14-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added in a hands on video and more pictures of the BlackBerry Venice. Updated on 09-14-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added in image of BlackBerry Venice at Toronto Film Festival. Updated on 08-30-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added in hands on images of the BlackBerry Venice slider. Updated on 08-25-2015 by Andy Boxall:- Added in a video showing a silver BlackBerry Passport running Android. Updated on 08-23-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added in new animated GIF images of the BlackBerry Venice running Android along with images and specs of a BlackBerry Passport running Android.- Updated on 08-19-2015 by Andy Boxall:- Added in new images of the BlackBerry phone, plus information it may have access to Google Play. Updated on 08-16-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added-in renders of the Venice, along with a photo of its on-screen keyboard. Updated on 08-10-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added-in news of the “Venice” possibly headed to T-Mobile. Updated on 07-02-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added-in news of the “Venice” headed to AT&T and an image of what could be another BlackBerry Android phone. Updated on 06-19-2015 by Robert Nazarian:- Added-in news of another rumored Android phone called the “Prague” and that the “Venice” might not be running Android after all.
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