BlackBerry has launched the BlackBerry Passport, the company’s latest high-end smartphone in India. It was unveiled last week and packs a 4.5” diagonal (1440 x 1440 pixels) display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, quad-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974-AA) processor and runs on BlackBerry OS 10.3 with new BlackBerry Assistant, BlackBerry own personal assistant.
Blackberry keyboard also gets an update, with touch enabled keys right above, on-screen. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, 2-megapixel front-facing camera and has 4G LTE connectivity. It has 3GB RAM, 32GB of internal memory with expandable memory up to 64GB. It comes pre-loaded with the Amazon appstore for all the Android app needs while the Blackberry world app store will focus on enterprise apps. We unboxed the BlackBerry Passport recently, check out the unboxing.

BlackBerry Passport Specifications :

• 4.5-inch diagonal (1440 x 1440 pixels) 453 PPI 10-point multi-touch display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974-AA) processor with 450MHz Adreno 330 GPU
• 13MP Auto-Focus rear camera with 6DOF OIS, BSI sensor, 5-element f2.0 lens, LED Flash 1080p HD video recording at 60fps
• 2MP Fixed-Focus front-facing camera with Image & video stabilization, 720p HD video recording
• Dimensions: 128 x 90.3 x 9.3mm; Weight: 196g
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 3GB LPDDR3 800MHz RAM, 32GB internal memory, Expandable memory up to 64GB with microSD
• 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 LE, SlimPort, NFC, GPS + GLONASS
• 3450mAh integrated non-removable battery

The BlackBerry Passport comes in Black and White colors and is priced in India at Rs. 49,990. It is available for pre-booking at Amazon.in and BlackBerry exclusive stores starting today, 29th September till October 10th and goes on sale on October 10th. Those who are pre-booking the smartphone on Amazon would get Rs. 5000 worth Amazon gift card and 5000 complimentary miles from Jet airways.

BlackBerry has joined hands with Idea Cellular to launch a special 1GB data plan for Idea postpaid customers. This BIS plan for BlackBerry OS 7 customers offer 1GB of 2G data at Rs. 83 per month, and Rs. 999 annually (taxes extra). To activate the plan, postpaid Idea users on BB OS 7 can SMS ACT999ARP to 12345. This confirms the company’s commitment to BlackBerry OS 7 customers, even though it has moved to OS 10.



Commenting on the new partnership, Ashish Gupta, Director – Carrier Sales, BlackBerry, India said,

BlackBerry currently has some of the strongest and most robust enterprise services and solutions in the market having transitioned from the ‘push mail’ image. BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), BES Express, BES 10, BlackBerry Balance and Enterprise Instant Messaging are some of our key services/solutions specifically designed for the enterprise segment. This offer is specially designed to deliver these benefits not only to consumer but also enterprise users.

Commenting on the offer, Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular said,

With increasing adoption of smartphones amongst the Idea user base, we are constantly innovating to offer affordable, customised and relevant data plans for our mobile internet users. The new 1GB annual data plan will offer more value and convenience to BlackBerry OS7 users on the Idea network.

IRCTC has launched an application for BlackBerry smartphone to enable users to book train tickets. “The official IRCTC App can now be downloaded from BlackBerry Store on BlackBerry 10 smartphones and book train tickets using the app,” said a senior IRCTC official.

The number of tickets booked through e-ticketing system on IRCTC website has gone up many times since capacity enhancement of the portal recently. It cost about Rs 100 crore to the Railway PSU for strengthening the ticketing site.

On an average 7000 tickets are booked on the IRCTC website per minute and about 5 lakh tickets are booked daily. CRIS, the technical arm of railways, was involved in the upgrading of the IRCTC website. There are about 31 crore reserve tickets being booked in a year out of which 55 per cent tickets are sold through windows. While 37 per cent tickets are booked online, eight per cent are being booked by ticketing agents.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched a native BlackBerry 10 app and fortunately it’s very well built. IRCTC already had it’s app in Google Play Store, Windows Store and App Market. The app has lots of useful features for those who are planning to travel by rail
Features:

• Plan my travel
• Check PNR Status
• Cancellation
• Booking History
• Frequent Passenger Info
• Quick Booking
• Preferences
• Favorites
• Recent History
• Roaming Profile
• BBM Share

A study by InMobi has revealed that Indians are willing to pay between Rs 71 and Rs 129 for in-app purchases. This comes as a relief to developers who were doubtful whether it's possible to monetise their creations in the market.

21% of the respondents who participated in the InMobi survey said they had paid for in-app purchases for messaging software, while 18% said they would not mind spending some spare change for extras.

Line claimed to have earned $27.4 million from emoticons and stickers bought by its Japanese users in 2013. As Indian users are not keen on such features, the developers of WhatsApp and similar services will have to find other means of making money from their creations if they offeri in-app purchases in the future.

BlackBerry introduced BBM in private beta earlier this month for Windows Phone users. Soon, the company started taking registration for the beta program. Now the app is available for download on the Windows Phone Store for those who have applied for beta testing.

This beta app feature all basic BBM features such as Feeds, Contacts and Chat. BlackBerry announced that features such as stickers, BBM Voice, Channels, and Location Sharing will soon be added to the Windows app in the coming months.

It must be noted that the app can be downloaded only by those who successfully registered for the Beta Program. BBM for Windows Phone will have a similar user interface as its counterparts from iOS and Android along with some elements from the Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.
You can download BBM beta from the Windows Phone Store here.

The confine of app downloads in India is prospective to discolor from 1.56 billion per annum in 2012 to 9 billion by 2015, says a new musing.

The joint-study by the Associated Architect of Doc and Business of India (Assocham) and Deloitte said it gift be a bilobate yearbook growing assess (CAGR) of nearly 75 proportionality, the cavum said Tues announcing the results of the acquire. The ruminate revealed that most of the apps are downloaded by grouping in the age unit of 16 and 30 life. The associated reflect - Digitisation and Mobility - said the class shift was brought by ethnical media crusade during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, where 29 cardinal grouping prefabricated 227 1000000 interactions on Facebook. It said most 60 million tweets were posted from the day the polls were declared to the day balloting ended.

A tracheophyte of mechanised apps are ready in app stores: Apple's devices are transistorised with iMessage, BlackBerry devices with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and Windows Phone devices with a Windows Elastic client. Humanoid devices somebody a chain of traveler apps options, including WhatsApp and SnapChat. "Mobile TV qualified a 400 proportionality ontogenesis evaluate in viewership for the country's largest medium companies as much Indians watched TV on the go. YouTube, the most common recording app is accessed by 35 proportion of smartphone users who drop nigh 1.5 hours a period on it," Assocham supporter generalised D.S. Rawat said.

The deal of video in net collection interchange is supposed to origin from 41 proportion in 2011-12 to 64 percent in 2016-17. The ontogeny adoption of mobility devices is persuasion pay-TV and cyberspace TV providers to provide a wider select of content via smartphones, tablets and phablets. Nevertheless, the speculate said Bharat being a damage delicate order, fill are console reluctant to pay for floating games and downloading sizable file-sized games or apps despite chintzy play rates and metropolis perambulating job developers travel the Soldier marketplace.

BlackBerry has lowered down its entry and mid-range qwerty smartphones starting today. This includes the amazing Android apps compatible BlackBerry Q5 as well which will now be available for just Rs. 13,990! Not to forget, BlackBerry Q5 is future proof and will get the future 10.3 OS update and beyond.


Here's the official announcement from BlackBerry:

    Reiterating its commitment to the QWERTY keyboard loyalists, BlackBerry today announced a special offer on its range of QWERTY devices. Customers can now purchase BlackBerry 9320, BlackBerry 9720 and BlackBerry Q5 at special price of Rs. 9900, Rs. 11990 and Rs. 13990 respectively. Additionally, BlackBerry is also introducing BlackBerry 9320 as their first 3G enabled device, under the sub Rs.10, 000 range. Sameer Bhatia, Director, Distribution, BlackBerry, India, said, “The classic BlackBerry® Keyboard, re-engineered for the fast efficient navigation and one-handed use, has huge fan base who swear by the distinct typing experience that BlackBerry offers. These compelling price-points will enable QWERTY fans to experience the latest technology and ease of use in one device.” The offer will run across all BlackBerry retail networks.

Other two BBOS phones – BlackBerry 9720 and BlackBerry 9320 is now available for Rs. 11,990 and 9,900 respectively. So what’s holding you back keyboard lovers? It’s time & we highly recommend you to jump on BlackBerry 10 wagon with BlackBerry Q5!

BlackBerry's popular cross-platform messaging application – BBM – is set to launch on the Windows Phone platform. A beta version of the messaging app has been spotted on Windows Phone store.

BBM is listed as a free app on the store without any user reviews. The listing on the store says: “BBM for Windows beta. We're getting ready to welcome Windows Phone users to the BBM community. BBM brings you together in the moment with friends and family through instant chats, voice calls, picture sharing, voice notes and more.” According to the listing, BBM will work with Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.

The release for Windows Phone comes after launch on the iOS and Android platforms. However, BBM was launched on the latter platforms almost a half a year later. The iOS and Android apps have already received a few updates that bring some interesting features. BBM for Windows Phone will benefit BlackBerry as well as Microsoft. While BlackBerry will be able to further expand its BBM and compete with rival messaging apps, Microsoft will have another popular application to its Windows Phone eco-system, which is competing against Google's Android.

BlackBerry has launched the BlackBerry Z3, the company’s latest budget smartphone in the Z series, as we reported last week. It was announced earlier this year at the MWC and is one of the first BlackBerry smartphones made by Foxconn. It packs a 5-inch qHD screen, powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 1.5GB RAM. It runs on the latest BlackBerry 10 OS, comes with a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 1.1-megapixel front-facing camera.
It has 1.5GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage with microSD expansion slot and packs a 2500 mAh battery that promises up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days standby.
At the launch, Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director BlackBerry India said,

"The new BlackBerry Z3 offers consumer engaging user experience with all the features of BlackBerry 10 combined in one powerful smartphone. The BlackBerry Z3 is also the first smartphone to be introduced from our strategic partnership with Foxconn and it further strengthens our commitment to enhance our devices portfolio. BlackBerry Z3 is the ultimate smartphone that gives users more ways to connect, share and communicate, providing the best tool for secure, reliable communications and collaboration with friends, family and co-workers".

BlackBerry Z3 Specifications

• 5-inch (960 × 540 pixels) qHD touch screen display
• BlackBerry OS 10.2.1
• 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) processor with Adreno 305 GPU
• 5MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording
• 1.1MP front-facing camera, 720p HD video recording
• 3.5mm audio jack, LED Indicator
• 9.26mm thick and weighs 164 grams
• 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE with aptX codec and GPS
• 1.5 GB RAM, 8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
• 2500 mAh non-removable battery

The BlackBerry Z3 comes in Black color and is priced at Rs. 15,990 (MRP). It would go on sale across India starting from July  2nd. It would be available for pre-book with The MobileStore, Flipkart and BlackBerry exclusive stores starting from today, 25th June to July 2nd. Flipkart offers Rs. 1000 voucher for all pre-bookings. TheMobileStore is offering Rs. 1000 voucher that can be used on Z3. It is also offering 7.5% discount for ICICI debit card holders between July 1st and 10th.

BlackBerry has confirmed the recently-leaked handset codenamed 'Windermere' will officially be announced under the name Passport. It will debut at an event in London this September.
Following its quarterly earnings report, during which it announced a return to profit of sorts, BlackBerry CEO John Chen confirmed that the short and wide-set device currently doing the rounds is the real deal.

Naturally, as CrackBerry reports, the device will be named after its passport-like dimensions. According to the presentation, the Blackberry Passport will feature a 4.5-inch 1440 x 1440 display that's as square as an Instagram photo.

The Passport will be a wide 3.18-inches, which is even wider than the pocket-busting 3.12-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3. An accompanying photo shows the handset will have BlackBerry's stoutest keyboard yet featuring only three rows of physical buttons. The Passport also appeared along two other handsets named the Z3 and Classic.

Internally, the Passport is said to be packing a quad-core Snapdragon MSM8974 processor backed by an Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The phone will also supposedly be powered by a 3,450mAh battery.

The Passport is among the three devices which Foxconn is producing for BlackBerry, the other two being BlackBerry Z3 and BlackBerry Classic. BlackBerry Classic or Q20 is slated for a November release. The Classic is a QWERTY device that also features Menu', 'Back', 'Send' and 'End' buttons and trackpad unlike the previously released BlackBerry 10 QWERTY devices. It comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen.

The Z3, on the other hand, is a budget segment, full touch device, which is coming to India next week. BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch qHD(540x960p) display. It is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. The phone runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS.

The phone sports a 5MP rear camera and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. The smartphone comes with 8GB storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. It has a 2500mAh battery, which the company claims, offers up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days of standby time. In terms of connectivity options, the phone offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, and GPS. 

BlackBerry on Wednesday published software development kit BlackBerry 10.3 beta for developers to test applications on the OS ahead of its launch. The update is targeted only for new device hardware being introduced later this year. The SDK is available to download via BlackBerry's developer site.

While inviting developers for testing, the company noted that it has delivered 'a variety of new features and tooling improvements' in the BlackBerry 10.3 SDK beta. Developers will see some visual changes and new functionality been introduced. Also, the SDK simulator (download) will show a square screen. BlackBerry says that it is for 'a new device with a 1440x1440 resolution and pixel density of 453 DPI,' which if one calculates, would indicate a display with a diagonal length of 4.5 inches.

If you dig through the details of the 10.3 SDK, you’ll notice that there is support for the screen resolutions we’re all used to: 1:1 and 16:9, with a dpi of 720×720 and 1280×720, respectively. In addition to that, there’s a simulator for a 1:1 ratio device with a resolution of 1440×1440. Naturally, BlackBerry gave no other details on what that device might be. In a blog post this afternoon, the folks over at BlackBerry DevBlog let developers know that the SDK for OS 10.3  is now available. The blog post has some pretty interesting information in it, including a pretty nice little confirmation about the anticipated BlackBerry Classic, as well as our first bit of news on OS 10.3.1. 

BlackBerry launched a low-cost touchscreen device in Jakarta, the Z3, as the embattled smartphone maker looks to revive sales in emerging markets like Indonesia where its once-fervent following has withered.

The handset, to be presented at a glitzy launch event in the Indonesian capital on Tuesday, is the first in a line of devices being made with FIH Mobile, a unit of Foxconn, best known for producing Apple iPhones and iPads. The success of the handset retailing for less than $200 could well decide the outcome of both BlackBerry’s tie-up with the contract manufacturing giant and its own future in smartphones. The Z3 Jakarta Edition will hit store shelves on May 15.

The Z3 is the first phone to be launched by BlackBerry since new Chief Executive John Chen took the helm late last year. It’s initially being launched in Indonesia, but will be gradually introduced in other markets as well. Tech2 has learnt that India is one of the countries where the BlackBerry Z3 will be launched following the Indonesia debut. If so, the device could well retail for under Rs 13,000, competing against the likes of the Nokia Lumia 630 and Moto G.

Chen hopes that the Z3 and other devices to follow spark a change in the company’s fortunes. The Z3 is being launched at a price point below $200 to address one of the big turnoffs for consumers in emerging markets – BlackBerry 10 devices being too pricey. “From conception to delivery, the BlackBerry Z3 Jakarta Edition was designed specifically with out Indonesian customers in mind,” Chen said in a statement before the launch. The device will allow users to type in Bahasa and come with a special set of BlackBerry Messenger, or BBM Stickers featuring local characters.

The BlackBerry Z3 has a 5" qHD (540 x 960) display, 8 GB of expandable on-board storage, 1.5 GB of RAM to accompany the dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 processor. The cameras are a 5 MP unit on the back along with a 1.1 MP 720p unit on the front. There are no physical QWERTY keyboards here, this is a full touch device. The BlackBerry Z3 will carry BlackBerry OS version 10.2.1 and be powered by a 2,500 mAh battery.

Every smartphone user loves new updates, and here is some good news for BlackBerry device owners. The latest BB OS 10.2.1 update has started rolling out and is bringing in some new features to the Z10, Z30, Q10, Q5 and the Porsche Design P'9982 smartphones.

Pinch gestures for BlackBerry Hub – The new pinch feature lets you filter your message list in the Hub. You can customize the Hub to show only Unread Messages, Flagged Messages, Draft Messages, Meeting Invites, Sent Messages or Level 1 Alerts. Once you have set it, you can activate it with a pinch gesture on the Hub’s message list.

Updated call UI features - The phone includes a new incoming call screen that lets you swipe to the left to answer or swipe right to ignore a call. New intuitive icons allow you to instantly silence the call, or send a Reply Now response through BBM, SMS or email that you can’t answer the phone right away.

SMS and email groups - You can now create SMS and email groups to send messages to multiple contacts.

Improved lockscreen notifications - You can now open a message that appears on the lock screen and respond to messages much quicker.

Picture password for unlocking – A new unlocking feature has been added which uses a combination of a picture and a number (0-9) of your choice, which you place at a particular point on the image. When you try to unlock the phone, the picture will appear along with a grid of random numbers. To unlock you need to drag the grid so the number you selected overlays the particular point on the image.

Customizable quick settings menu - You can now customize what appears on the settings menu, which looks very similar to the Android notification bar toggles. These include screen brightness, data connections, torch, sound profiles, etc.

Offline browser reading mode – One can save the current web page that they are on for later viewing, even if they are offline or without an internet connection.

Better contact synching – Synching the contacts is now improved as you can now choose the sync source for your contacts. When adding a new contact you can select which sources you want the contact info to sync with, such as the corporate address book, Gmail, or your phone contact list.

Support for Android APK – The new update will allow users to easily install Android apps by just side-loading an APK onto the device, just like an Android smartphone.

Device and battery monitor - A new monitor app has been added which provides details on battery usage, impact of installed apps on battery life and memory usage and storage and also CPU stats. This again, reminded us of Android.

Hindi keyboard – The Z10 and the Z30 will be getting a native Hindi keyboard which will allow you to type in Hindi.

Automatic software updates – The device can automatically check for updates over a Wi-Fi connection and provide you with the latest software.

Enterprise features - Enterprise customers using BES10 version 10.2, will get additional security features and IT policies which will be crucial for regulated industries and for organizations that work with sensitive data.

FM Radio - The new software update finally unlocks the built-in FM radio.

A new update of Blackberry Messenger will introduce voice calls for Android and iOS. ccording to reports, BlackBerry is also planning to introduce a video calling facility for its users soon. The company is launching these new features in an effort to revive its market share in India. It's market share has dropped significantly from 5 percent in 2012 to 0.5 percent in 2013.

BlackBerry's new CEO John Chen says that upcoming BlackBerry phones will 'predominantly' have physical keyboards. Ron Louks, former exec at Sony Ericsson and HTC, will run the device business. In an interview with Bloomberg Chen said, “Ron’s a very creative guy. I think he’s more in touch with not only the technology and design to make a phone great but how people like the phone.”

Finally, Chen announced a five month deal with Foxconn Technology to help produce phones for developing and emerging markets.

Blackberry announced a New Year Bonanza offer for its popular BlackBerry Q5 smartphone. Under this offering, customers can now purchase BlackBerry Q5 smartphone at just Rs. 19,990. The BlackBerry Q5 is available in three colors, red, white and black. The attractive offering on BlackBerry Q5 is in line with BlackBerry’s commitment towards the Indian market and will help the brand to reach out to more potential customers.

Sameer Bhatia, Director – Distribution for BlackBerry India said, “The New Year Bonanza aims at providing a powerful mobile device, with cutting edge BlackBerry 10 OS at an affordable price point to the consumers.”

We did mention in our BlackBerry Q5 review that the Q5 is a tad more expensive than what the sweet spot would have been - somewhere around the Rs. 20,000 mark, it seems BlackBerry has finally done some sensible pricing. It's a must buy for those who desperately want a BlackBerry 10 device, but for whom the Q10 is out of budget.