A little known fact about the BlackBerry PlayBook is that the company that led the User Experience design is an Ottawa firm called Teknision. The company worked closely with RIM’s executive team and provided creative direction, conceptualization and lead design execution for the Tablet OS.
While we all know that the QNX operating system will come to smartphones, what isn’t clear is how it will actually look on the device. From Teknision’s site, they drop the hint that the UX will be similar. The company writes: “The BlackBerry Tablet OS is a completely new user experience direction for BlackBerry, which will eventually extend to all RIM devices.” From the small handling we’ve done of the PlayBook, the UX has been great and it will be interesting to see how it works on a small screen. Touchscreen and QWERTY hybrids are probably going to play a role in all this. Continue reading ‘Teknision: The Company Behind the PlayBook UX Design’
There are a couple devices hitting the market this summer and possibly to be announced at BlackBerry World that will feature a full QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen. The Bold Touch will be the old Bold 9000 form factor with a touchscreen and what we’re seeing now looks like a Curve with a touchscreen. Regardless of what the haters are saying, these devices are going to be incredible. The trackpad is great for actions like selecting text quickly, but you can’t beat a finger swipe for navigating icons and using apps. Not only that, but you’ll be able to bang out emails with ease and switch to a fun game like Finger Trap (albeit it might be a little harder to play on a smaller screen). It’s the best of both worlds.
It’s funny that someone titles their post “hands-on” and yet you never a) see their hands b) see any video proof the device was in their hands or c) write any information about the device you couldn’t get from an email of someone who sent you the pics. Anyways, cool pics bro! Continue reading ‘Pictures of the BlackBerry Bold Touch Emerge’
In previous videos of the PlayBook we never really got a good walkthrough of App World and it wasn’t really clear why. In discussions around the office we thought it might be because there were apps in there that weren’t announced, and RIM didn’t want people poking around and knowing about them. There’s also the possibility that App World on the PlayBook simply isn’t ready for public demos. In the above video we get a nice walkthrough of App World on the PlayBook, and while it looks great, it seems there’s still a few bugs. It’s not clear what version of the PlayBook the person in the video is running, and it could be an old version of App World as well. Nonetheless, this video gives you a good idea of what to expect.
Based on 45,000+ downloads for FileScout, it looks like OS 4.3 was really only around 40 users and 60% of users were on OS 5. There are also 2 users downloading with OS 6.1. Click through to see the rates based on actual purchases. Continue reading ‘FileScout Releases Data on Downloads and Purchases by OS’
