BlackBerry 10 Announcement: Live Blog

11:23AM EST - The announcement is coming to a close, thank you all for following, we'll have more on the announced devices later today

11:19AM EST - BB Keep Moving project: challenged several of the world's top athletes, film makers, etc... to create content with the new platform

11:18AM EST - Alicia will work closely with retailers, designers, carriers, developers, folks in the entertainment and music business

11:17AM EST - I feel like with all of these celebrity endorsements the companies involved need to be more transparent in the exact terms of the agreement with said celebrity

11:16AM EST - Alicia Keys talking about how she used to be a BlackBerry user but left for something that "had a little more bling"

11:16AM EST - Intel has will.i.am, RIM has Alicia Keys, who's going to scoop up 50 Cent?

11:14AM EST - Alicia Keys is BB's new global creative director

11:14AM EST - Looking to reach out to artists and working moms

11:14AM EST - We wanted someone at the top of her field, immensely creative and very talented

11:14AM EST - Creating a new position at BB: Global Creative Director

11:13AM EST - Another big announcement

11:12AM EST - Most partners will be launching preorder websites today

11:12AM EST - In the UK, the Z10 will be available tomorrow

11:12AM EST - in the UAE the Z10 will be on the February 10th

11:12AM EST - Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but the Z10 will retail for around $149.99 with a 3 year contract

11:11AM EST - In Canada the Z10 will be available on February 5th

11:11AM EST - Availability for most US carriers of the Z10 to be in March

11:11AM EST - In the US market: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will begin announcing price plans today

11:11AM EST - By the end of February lab testing with 110 carriers globally will be completed

11:08AM EST - Can install multiple apps simultaneously, no reboots required

11:07AM EST - All major record labels and independents represented in the BB World music section

11:07AM EST - BlackBerry World is now the one stop shop for BB apps, games, movies, TV shows and music

11:04AM EST - Over 1K top apps committed to BB10 today

11:04AM EST - and Angry Birds

11:04AM EST - SAP committed to BB10

11:04AM EST - WhatsApp as well

11:04AM EST - Amazon Kindle committed to BB10

11:04AM EST - Skype committed to BB10

11:03AM EST - Over 70K apps today

11:03AM EST - BB10 launches with more apps by far than any first gen OS

11:01AM EST - All major labels and networks to supply content to BlackBerry World

11:01AM EST - "We will launch with an amazing collection of music, TV shows and movies"

10:59AM EST - Sounds a lot like desktop iMovie but on BB10

10:59AM EST - Select videos, choose music, add titles and credit, Story Maker automatically stitches it all together

10:58AM EST - Now talking about BB10 Story Maker

10:58AM EST - BB Flow - avoiding constantly having to go back to a grid of applications

10:57AM EST - Real time photo effects

10:57AM EST - Built in photo editor

10:56AM EST - Showing off the pictures app

10:56AM EST - BB timeshift - let's you select a face from a different capture than the rest of the scene

10:56AM EST - Tap anywhere to take a photo, drag the focus box around to move focus

10:55AM EST - BB10 Camera demo

10:55AM EST - It's one location to save everything you want to remember, organized in folders

10:55AM EST - Remember allows you to save evernote notes, emails, tasks, etc...

10:53AM EST - You can add attachments, photos, videos, URLs to reminders

10:53AM EST - BlackBerry Remember demo on the Q10

10:53AM EST - I really wish all of these real time communications protocols weren't closed

10:52AM EST - real time share of information while in a voice or video call

10:52AM EST - "great collaboration tool for small enterprises"

10:52AM EST - official name: BBM Video Chat with Screen Share

10:51AM EST - Great for flipping through photos, presentations, etc... remotely

10:51AM EST - You control the experience, the other end of the line just sees whatever you see on your screen

10:51AM EST - You can remotely share your smartphone screen with another BB10 user

10:50AM EST - BBM Screen Share: not only shares your camera, but also share your entire screen

10:50AM EST - BlackBerry Messenger now supports video calling

10:49AM EST - BlackBerry Messenger: 60M subscribers globally

10:48AM EST - Briefcase icon denotes a work app, only allowed to use a certain portion of storage

10:48AM EST - BB10 gestures seem very fast and smooth, this can definitely work for enterprise users

10:47AM EST - Single unified user experience but can multitask and quickly switch between work and home environments on a single device

10:47AM EST - In work mode you get access to a different app store, everything your enterprise server wants you to have access to

10:46AM EST - Swipe down from the home screen to switch between home and work profiles

10:46AM EST - BlackBerry Balance

10:46AM EST - Now talking about users who have to carry two devices: work and personal

10:46AM EST - Very big focus on international usage in this launch, BlackBerry knows its audience

10:45AM EST - No toggling between languages, just dynamically move between them

10:44AM EST - Prediction quickly works and spans multiple languages

10:44AM EST - Swipe down anywhere on the keyboard to switch to numeric entry

10:44AM EST - Predictive text lets you flip words right to the screen with one thumb, just swipe words up from the keyboard

10:43AM EST - "We have the aspiration to be the best keyboard experience period"

10:42AM EST - Conceptually I'm interested in the idea of something like the BB Hub that lets me do everything in one application, in practice I've never seen something like this work well - will have to spend some time with it

10:41AM EST - UI seems very smooth and fluid

10:41AM EST - Contacts aggregate as much available information as possible using Linkedin, fB, etc...

10:41AM EST - BB10 automatically pulls down photos from Linkedin when you look at meeting details, so you can see who you're meeting with

10:39AM EST - All activity/engagement in one single place...assuming there are no new major services you want to interact with

10:39AM EST - You can tweet straight from the BB Hub

10:38AM EST - One thumb operation to get in and out of the hub and navigate around

10:38AM EST - BB Hub aggregates content from email, FB, LinkedIn, BBM

10:38AM EST - Red notification LED tips you to peak at the BB Hub

10:37AM EST - Swipe to peak at the BlackBerry Hub even while watching a video or playing a game, nothing gets paused

10:36AM EST - Switching between apps looks very smooth and fast

10:36AM EST - BlackBerry Flow: quick task switching, real time true multitasking

10:34AM EST - Q10 has a 3.1-inch screen

10:33AM EST - The Q10 is the first BB10 smartphone with a physical keyboard

10:33AM EST - (the earlier specs were for the Z10)

10:33AM EST - Big focus on content aggregation within BlackBerry 10

10:33AM EST - Textured back

10:32AM EST - 4.2-inch screen, 356 PPI

10:32AM EST - BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10

10:29AM EST - "We have reinvented this company and want to reflect this in our brand"

10:29AM EST - One consistent brand, ditching the RIM name makes sense

10:29AM EST - One brand, one promise

10:28AM EST - From this point forward RIM becomes BlackBerry

10:28AM EST - "we have defined our vision"

10:28AM EST - "we have transformed ourselves inside and out"

10:28AM EST - "Took heartfelt and...brutal honesty"

10:28AM EST - "We absolutely knew it was risky"

10:28AM EST - Bringing an entirely new platform to the market...took careful planning

10:26AM EST - Thanking the RIM and QNX teams for building the foundation of BB10

10:25AM EST - Having a good camera, apps, web browser, etc... is expected, how does BB10 go beyond those expectations?

10:23AM EST - "BlackBerry 10 - Built to keep you moving"

10:22AM EST - Thorsten is thanking the RIM employees and congratulating them on launching BB10

10:21AM EST - "Innovation is at the heart of RIM"

10:20AM EST - (Sorry for the super considerate videographer that decided to setup right in front of us)

10:19AM EST - Here we go, I think the launch is now starting - Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of RIM is taking the stage

10:16AM EST - Now Lil E is on video rapping about BlackBerry 10, this is bizarre

10:15AM EST - Now showing a video of some BB fans

10:15AM EST - "the largest catalog of applications ever for a first generation launch in mobile"

10:15AM EST - Big focus on developers and a global audience with BB10

10:14AM EST - "We've seen all types of developers we haven't seen before: young people"

10:14AM EST - The official presentation hasn't really started yet, this is sort of the pre-game show at this point it seems

10:13AM EST - VP of dev rel, Alec Saunders is speaking about getting BB10 developers on board

10:10AM EST - Playing a video of user reactions to BlackBerry 10 now

10:09AM EST - and we're starting!

10:06AM EST - Should be starting soon...

09:59AM EST - Luckily 5GHz WiFi and wired ethernet are both available at the venue

09:59AM EST - We're being asked to disable any personal wireless hotspots...that request never works

09:53AM EST - We're being asked to take our seats - "the BlackBerry Experience will begin shortly"

09:47AM EST - T-minus 15 minutes until this thing starts...

09:39AM EST - On the plus side for RIM, I feel like we're quickly approaching maturity in the current era of mobile devices. The next era will be mobile/desktop convergence and no one has demonstrated obvious leadership towards that end yet.

09:36AM EST - I suspect winning over the first group won't be all that difficult, it's the second that I'm unsure of.

09:35AM EST - Success will be determined in two phases imho: can RIM retain its faithful user base and then, can RIM begin to win back users who have been lost to Apple/Google

09:35AM EST - The world is a very different place today, but there are still a significant number of BB and BB enterprise users who RIM can still sell to

09:34AM EST - I was a huge BlackBerry user through college, it was the first platform I could really be productive on after my old Palm V

09:30AM EST - So far both NYC and the venue are cooperating - weather isn't horrible and upstream bandwidth is awesome http://www.speedtest.net/result/2473371220.png