No more BlackBerry Priv monthly updates, BB10 and BBOS support carries on

As weird as it sounds, we have bad news to report on the software support front for BlackBerry Priv owners, and good news for BB10 and BBOS users.

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BlackBerry 10 OS still not dead, eyed by ‘some companies’ for handset licensing

The always candid and vocal BlackBerry executive team has hit hyperdrive mode recently as far as public communication goes, insisting they clarify every little aspect of the Canadian company’s virtual hardware market retirement.While internal smartphone development is permanently halted effective immediately, a number of partners, starting with TCL, aka Alcatel, will be granted licenses going forward to blend ...

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BBM premium features go free – but will they be enough to keep users?

BlackBerry’s just not a company that can count on selling a ton of smartphones anymore, and staying relevant has meant making efforts to draw in users with its services. Back in the fall of 2013, well before we saw the manufacturer expand its smartphone line to Android, BlackBerry was already experimenting with just that kind of cross-platform draw, inviting Android and iOS users to ...

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WhatsApp gets ready to drop unpopular platforms – including BlackBerry

Smartphone software development is a numbers game, and coders want to be sure that the effort they put in to making apps is going to pay off. That’s exactly why we talk about the “app gap” between platforms, as devs preferentially prepare software for the most popular operating systems – at the expense of those that don’t have quite as large user bases. It turns out this practice is just as important for software maintenance as it is for initial development, and while an app may have once been available for a certain platform, the migration of users to its peers can cause ...

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3 great BlackBerry 10 features (that might die with it)

In 2016, most chatter that includes the word “BlackBerry” is focused on the company’s Priv handset, and for good reason. As BlackBerry’s first Android phone, the Priv is a dramatic shift in strategy (and a tacit admission that the company’s previous one wasn’t working). As one of the few Androids with a physical keyboard, it’s also a sorely-needed bit of novelty in a landscape otherwise dominated by ever-homogenizing slabs. Despite its flaws I quite like the ...

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BlackBerry World app store offers big holiday discounts for BB 10 users

Who said non-Android BlackBerries lack access to popular, fun, useful or affordable apps? Now, granted, the BlackBerry World library pales in comparison to Google Play or the iOS App Store. But if you’re one of the (very) few holding on to a Passport, Classic, Leap, Z30, Z10, Q5 or Q10, you can still crank up the out-the-box security, productivity and entertainment.At pretty great prices too, as part of a “Happy Holidays Sale” featuring close to 40 titles stateside. Unfortunately, none of those are available for free, instead requiring between $0.99 and $6.99 payments apiece.The ...

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BlackBerry Black Friday deals don’t include Priv

The plague of recently-released devices means that those devices will most likely skip out on the whole “dealdom” of Black Friday. Hey, these companies have blessed us consumers with new wares and we’re apparently going to like them ...

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BlackBerry reaches out to devs with reassuring message that BB10 support isn’t about to dry up

Are you getting a BlackBerry Priv? The Android-running smartphone opened for pre-orders late last week, with shipments set to start going out by the end of the first week of November. While we’re pretty darn excited to see the Priv finally becoming reality (after all, who didn’t raise a doubting eyebrow when those BlackBerry Android rumors first started circulating?), maybe not everybody is feeling so ...

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CEO John Chen on recovering BlackBerry’s “sexiness”

We’ve heard BlackBerry CEO John Chen give his perspective before on the state of his company’s migratory platform and the concept of “app neutrality.” Even with the niche it has been relegated to, BlackBerry’s slice of the market’s pie has had to fight off shrinkage. It may be to the point where the collaboration with Android and the

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BlackBerry keeps the Passport going with new Silver Edition hardware

With all the gossip this summer about BlackBerry testing the waters and thinking about releasing an Android-powered smartphone, it can be easy to forget that BlackBerry’s still very much interested in coming out with BlackBerry 10 phones. One of the most resilient such models we’ve seen over the course of the past year has been the BlackBerry Passport, and after the launch of the original edition last fall,

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CES 2015: Everything we got to see at this year’s show

Another year, another International Consumer Electronics Show behind us. Was 2015’s one that will go down as a banner year in the annals of history? We didn’t see any huge show-stopping announcements, nor surprise reveals of everyone’s-talking-about-it hardware, but the show we did see unfold over the course of last week was still a totally solid offering, packed with lots of great phones, tablets, wearables, and accessories that all came together to place us on some solid footing as we get ready for the rest of this quarter’s launches. As we start thinking about

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BlackBerry Passport gets a new design for AT&T

This past fall, Blackberry introduced the Passport, its Snapdragon 801-powered flagship. With a hardware keyboard, square display, and harshly-angled exterior, it wasn’t a smartphone for everyone – though to BlackBerry’s credit, the company’s not afraid to do things differently from the rest of the smartphone pack. But with the new year upon us, we’re also getting a slightly tweaked new edition of the Passport, as BlackBerry smooths-out those corners and prepares to bring a slightly softer-looking Passport to AT&T.Inside, it’s the same Passport that ...

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BlackBerry Classic launches with a very familiar look

It has been entirely too long since we’ve talked BlackBerry with you. There’s a good reason for that, as the platform’s downward slide has continued unabated throughout 2014, with the latest global figures showing BlackBerry sales dipping to below one percent of the total market. But the company isn’t giving up without a fight, and today we once again turn our attention to Waterloo as BlackBerry formally launches its latest smartphone, the BlackBerry Classic.If the look of the ...

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BlackBerry’s got (a little) good news in its latest financial report

Lately, it’s felt hard to find a way to justify spending a lot of time talking about BlackBerry. While the company appears to have staved off its demise, it’s not making a lot of forward progress, either, and even what little news we’ve brought you (like yesterday’s deal with Amazon to feature the company’s Appstore) often  to just assert that the old glory days of a ...

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BlackBerry taps Amazon to bring Appstore to BB10

BlackBerry 10 already has a lot going for it with its Android app compatibility layer, allowing devs to package Android apps for BB10 without having to recode them for the platform. At least, it’s a fine idea, if not slightly hampered by hit-and-miss interest on the part of developers. But today we learn of a new arrangement that should bring a ton of new Android apps to BlackBerry en masse, connecting the platform with the growing selection of software available through the Amazon ...

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