When you look at the Z10 you can’t but wonder whether that way-too-thick bezel was needed in the first place. Sure enough, the BlackBerry 10′s gesture based user interface requires some space around the screen, but I’m sure the bezel could’ve been thinner. Check out the image below to see what I mean. Let’s hope BlackBerry is thinking between the same lines… cause having a bigger screen on the same-sized device would be awesome. What do you think?

Microsoft Interactive Entertainment head, Don Mattrick gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal today where he dismissed the idea of backwards compatibility outright.

“If you’re backwards compatible, you’re really backwards,” he said.

Mr. Mattrick, them’s fightin’ words!

One of the most disappointing things about both the Xbox One and the PS4 is their lack of backwards compatibility. Gamers who’ve spent this generation amassing huge libraries of games are getting the shaft, and it they’ll be much less likely to be early adopters of the new hardware.

However, both consoles will be powered by x86 chips, a completely different architecture than the Power PC based consoles of the current generation. So backwards compatibility isn’t really an option.

But Don Mattrick’s comments don’t reflect this. According to the WSJ, he “says he doesn’t think compatibility is really a problem. He said only 5% of customers play older games on a new video game system anyway, so spending time and money to develop technology to allow them to play older games isn’t worth it.”

It’s one thing to say, “Ok guys, we appreciate all the money you’ve spent on our hardware and games this past generation. We can’t offer backwards compatibility but we’ll be working on an emulation solution.” Or even, “sorry”.

But Mattrick’s flippant comments show little concern for the hardcore gamers that made the 360 such a colossal success. That attitude was echoed in yesterday’s reveal, with its focus on everything but the games.

[Via: Wall Street Journal]

Things are now different at the Canadian company and I see a lot of new people bursting with enthusiasm when talking about the platform’s prospects. And while I agree they’re onto something, I do notice one thing’s missing – some of them have no clue what their competitors are doing.

Some of the things I’ve heard:

• We have the fastest web browser out there – to which I reply: and you’re sure it will work better with Google’s web services than Chrome?
• You can connect your BlackBerry to a TV via HDMI cable and use your phone as remote. I said: Cool, I can do that with my Android phone without a single wire (Miracast or Wi-Di on some Intel-based Android devices).
• We have the best conversation (not just email) client in the Hub. It’s true that Hub is awesome, but it doesn’t give GMail users “proper” support. For instance, you can’t Archive an email. Some BlackBerry folks even wanted to convince me that I shouldn’t manage my email the way I was doing it for the last 5 (or so) years? Yeah, sure…
• You can easily share stuff with BlackBerry. Really? Can I manage multiple Facebook pages from the Z10? Can I add stuff to my Buffer queue?

Please note that all these things are fixable and that I believe BlackBerry did great job with BlackBerry 10. There are some obstacles ahead, though:

• BYOD – with employees being able to use their own devices at work, BlackBerry sales will suffer. While Z10 and Q10 are selling well, their figures don’t come even close to those of iOS and Android devices.
• Enterprise competition is getting stronger – just recently United States has approved Samsung Knox and iOS devices (in addition to BlackBerry 10) as “safe enough” for the military. BlackBerry used to be the sole contender in this market.

So what should BlackBerry be doing?

The way I see it, they must hire new kind of people – Android users (willing to switch). This is the group of people where BlackBerry should look for, as previous BlackBerry users will likely upgrade (but is that enough?). While Android has many flaws, it also attracts more developers.

The point I want to make is that BlackBerry shouldn’t make a feature-for-feature comparison with other platforms; cause it will lose it, big time. For instance, its camera software is only good (and still not on par with that of Samsung, HTC and Nokia) because they’ve licensed many elements from Scalado (now part of Nokia). Overall, I would say that BlackBerry isn’t too appealing to the younger audience since they can’t find their favorite apps for the platform. Think official apps for Pinterest, Fancy, Tumblr, Quora as well as a number of games (Rovio still doesn’t support BlackBerry 10).

But this doesn’t mean the Z10 and Q10 are bad devices; quite the contrary, I find them well balanced, positioned in their own category. As soon as old-school BlackBerry folks start explaining their features and compare them with what’s else on the market, the hell unleashes and I keep waiting to hear something I don’t already have on my Android phone. And instead of me praising the platform (my original intention) I end up “attacking” it. Kinda weird…

Finally, we would love to see that tablet shell I’ve talked about yesterday. Such a product could make a big difference, or so I think. What do you say?

P.S. I’ll continue to rant about BlackBerry in the coming days and weeks. Next time I’ll be looking at the Z10′s design and how it can be improved. Stay tuned…

1. BlackBerry CEO Thosten Heins’ words

First he predicted the demise of tablets and then said they should be easier to use. While these two comments may sound contradicting they don’t need to be – if we’re talking about a device like the ASUS Padfone, everything makes sense. Perhaps he just hinted us what BlackBerry is working on?

2. BlackBerry ports

When we look at the both Z10 and Q10 they have similarly places microUSB and HDMI out ports. It’s not hard to imagine a tablet shell which can house either of the two devices. MicroUSB port is there for charging, while HDMI out would be used to beam the image from the BlackBerry Z10 or Q10 to the bigger screen.

I was one of those predicting the demise of BlackBerry when the company was ruling the day (and some arguments like the lack of patents still apply); today with the new management, however, I believe they can return to the game, big time. I just hope if BlackBerry does launch a tablet shell that it will make it available in few different screen sizes, ranging from 7 to 10 inches, and that there will also be a keyboard dock.

The question is – would you be willing to switch boats if BlackBerry launches a tablet shell? Cause I’m sure existing Z10 and Q10 users would instantly buy this product.

[Image from ComputerActive]

At the moment, Canonical doesn’t allow users to download Ubuntu for Android (or perhaps it’s still not ready for prime time), and the company is rather looking for OEMs to license the software. I believe that the “perfect vendor” to take advantage of this software is ASUS, which should offer it pre-installed on its Padfone series. This way Padfone users would get an added benefit when they dock their smartphone to the tablet shell, with the ability to use real desktop apps.

ASUS on its end would finally be able to justify the steep pricing of its Padfone devices which [prices] at present are really hard to swallow. You see, the money that gets you the Padfone 2 could buy you both a comparable smartphone and tablet — and the idea of the combo device is to be cheaper than buying the two devices separately. If, on the other hand, the Padfone 2 (and Padfone Infinity for that matter) came with Ubuntu for Android, the Taiwanese company should be able to entice more users to grab their expensive gadget. With such software, potential Padfone customers would not only buy a smartphone and tablet, but also a full-blown PC that can run many of the apps they’re used to running on their existing computers.

Sounds like a plan and I’m just hoping ASUS’ folks are reading this. What do you think about Ubuntu for Android-powered Padfone? Would you pay a premium for such a device?

So we thought Canonical will make its software available for download. For some reason, that’s not happening and I can’t but wonder why? Are they waiting for their own mobile platform to launch or the software is “still not there.” We can only speculate at this stage and hope that someone from Canonical is reading this.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who would pay for the benefit of having just one computer – my smartphone. And with the stack of Ubuntu apps I would be able to accomplish 90% of tasks. Yeah, I’ll miss few Windows apps but that means I’ll use my Windows PC only in special circumstances.

So Canonical – why don’t you release Ubuntu for Android? Sell it for $50 (or more) if you have to – just give us the goodies. I’m getting impatient…

What about you – do you want Ubuntu for Android? And would you be willing to dump your “regular” computer to have just one device, the one you carry around in your pocket?

One would think they will leave it as a separate (and profitable) company while using its brand to bring more users to the service. That, apparently, won’t be the case. I would have to guess they’ll re-launch it under some new name — like Yahoo! Tasks or Yahoo! Lists — and offer it free of charge. Heck, I imagine they’ll turn it into a Google-like service that offers a ton of features for free, while making some things available for premium users, only.

Then again, Yahoo isn’t Google despite having a former Google exec at the top. So it’s inevitable to ask – will Yahoo ruin Astrid?

I do realize Yahoo is more of a media company than service provider but that doesn’t mean they don’t offer premium services. The way I see it, the ad business is more prone to cyclic moves in the economy whereas selling services is more constant source of revenue. To that end, I want to believe that Astrid (or whatever Yahoo! ends up calling it) will remain a freemium app/service that will keep its easy-to-use feature set.

What do you think Yahoo will do with Astrid? Does existing Astrid users have something good to look forward to?

I instantly fell in love with the ClamBook as it promised to make mobile computing, well, even more mobile. Modern smartphones have a ton of horse-power under the hood and for a vast majority of tasks, we don’t even need a PC. In that sense, a device like ClamBook, would satisfy modern mobile warriors among us.

I did mind that cable that was used for connecting a smartphone to the laptop shell, as I thought that the better way would be to somehow fix it to the ClamBook, either behind the screen or below keyboard. Still, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy the ClamBook the second it’s out. Guess I’ll have to wait a little longer… How about you – would you be interested in grabbing a ClamBook-like device?

• aCalendar – probably the best calendar app I’ve seen. It’s easy to use and looks pretty darn fancy.
• SwiftKey – the best virtual keyboard software. Samsung is already bundling it with the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S4. There’s a reason why they’re taking this route.
• Evernote – and make it a Premium service if possible. This is the best note-taking app out there. There’s also room to install other Evernote apps like Skitch, Evernote Hello, Evernote Food and Evernote Widget, which could come visible on one of the homescreens by default.
• ezPDF – the best PDF reader I’ve used. Much better than Adobe’s app.
• Chrome or some other browser like Dolphin.
• Contacts + as well as other apps from this company. Just make messages searchable.
• Social networking apps like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
• A VoIP app perhaps? Viber and/or Skype.
• Great calendar widget – there are a few that are pretty darn awesome.

Those are the essential apps I install as soon as I get a new phone to try out. Simply put – they make my life much easier. Now, do you think I’ve missed some other app you would consider essential? Comments form is all yours.

There are many tweaks I would like to see, like better GMail support, but overall I like the BlackBerry Hub. That said, I would love even more to see something similar made for Android devices. Sure enough, there are push notifications, but they don’t give you the same versatility as the Hub does. Plus, in most cases notifications will require you to open an app to accomplish some task — for instance, you can’t Delete an email from notifications, and you’ll rather have to fire-up the GMail app to do that.

Now that I’m thinking, a dedicated app may not be the perfect solution. We may need a whole new launcher that works like the BlackBerry Hub, making all your messages easily accessible from pretty much everywhere. That’s how BlackBerry did it, and that rocks.

What is essential is the proper GMail support, as well as the ability to sing along with third-party services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and so on. Please don’t make me use “Flag” instead of “Star,” and I really need that “Archive” button. Just an idea I had… Any takers?

Samsung initially released this feature in the Galaxy S III, but LG claims it was first to file for eye-tracking technology patents and may sue Samsung as a result. Personally, I believe this is one of those gimmicks that should come as standard on all smartphones, whether they run Android or not. If LG has patents, other vendors should license the technology from them and bring the capability to their products. Or if they can develop a new technology that does the same thing – they should do it. Cause once you start using a phone with Wise Screen / Smart Stay, you don’t want to go back to the phone that doesn’t have it.

At the end of the day, it’s the small tweaks like these that make customers prefer one phone over the other. That said, I have high hopes for eye scrolling feature which should be introduced in the Galaxy S4. Love how that sounds and I just hope it works as advertised. Can’t wait to try it out.

What about you? Have you tried using a phone with eye-tracking capabilities? And how you like thus far?