Research In Motion (RIM) recently announced BlackBerry® 6, a new operating system for BlackBerry® smartphones that retains the trusted connectivity features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that is both powerful and easy to use.
BlackBerry 6 features a redesigned interface that seamlessly works with a touch screen and trackpad, expanded messaging capabilities that simplify managing social media and RSS feeds, an advanced multimedia experience that rivals the best in the industry, a convenient new Universal Search tool, and a new and efficient WebKit-based browser that renders web pages quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience.
“BlackBerry 6 is the outcome of RIM’s ongoing passion to deliver a powerful, simplified and optimised user experience for both touch screen and keyboard fans,” said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-ceo, Research In Motion. “Following extensive research and development to address consumer needs and wants, we are delivering a communications, browsing and multimedia experience that we think users will love, and we are thrilled to debut BlackBerry 6 on the amazing new BlackBerry Torch smartphone.”
Visual, Fluid Interface
BlackBerry 6 has been redesigned making it easier and more intuitive, with clean, sleek visuals and natural, fluid navigation. Designed to be both fresh and familiar, the new interface enables a productive, fun and highly satisfying user experience whether using a touch screen or trackpad and keyboard.
Fast Rich Web Browsing
BlackBerry 6 integrates a new and efficient WebKit-based browser that renders web pages (as well as email) quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience. It features tabs for accessing multiple sites simultaneously, a double-tap to zoom feature that can intelligently wrap text in a column while maintaining the placement of a page's key elements, and pinch to zoom.
Social Feeds and Text Messaging
The new Social Feeds application simplifies the management of social networking and RSS feeds and provides integrated access to the native BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace™, AOL® Instant Messenger™, Google Talk™, Windows Live™ Messenger and Yahoo!® Messenger applications for BlackBerry smartphones. Social Feeds streamlines the user experience, provides an integrated view of friends’ activities across multiple social networks, and let's users post updates across multiple networks simultaneously. Users can also easily add their favorite RSS Feeds from the Social Feeds application or directly from a website while browsing.
Engaging Multimedia Experience
The multimedia experience in BlackBerry 6 is designed to give users a more engaging and streamlined experience with album art everywhere in the new music and video players. The new BlackBerry® Desktop Software 6 integrates media sync for easily syncing photos and videos as well as iTunes® and Windows Media® Player music with the smartphone*.
Compatibility with Existing BlackBerry Smartphones
BlackBerry 6 will debut on the new BlackBerry® Torch™ smartphone (announced recently) available from AT&T on August 12 and it is also designed to run on select BlackBerry smartphones already in market. Subject to carrier certifications in the months ahead, the new OS is expected to be available for the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9700, BlackBerry® Bold™ 9650 and BlackBerry® Pearl™ 3G, as well as future BlackBerry smartphones.