Research in Motion has renamed its BlackBerry App World store, launched a new development phone named the Dev Alpha C, and promised to produce one last music video for the grand BB 10 launch in January.
With little more than two months to go until BlackBerry 10 and its hardware are set to be revealed, Research in Motion is continuing to revamp its services and encourage developers to build apps for the new platform. RIM recently added a Skype-style call system to its popular BlackBerry Messenger service, which has been given the name of BBM Voice, and at this week’s BlackBerry Jam Asia conference, it has revealed a small change to its application store’s name too.
Previously known as the BlackBerry App World, a name introduced at its launch back in April 2009, from this point forward it will drop the word “app” and simply be known as BlackBerry World. The reason appears to be simple, the store now contains music, movies and television shows to download, rather than simply mobile applications. There will be some other alterations to go with the new name, but they won’t be revealed until the January 30 event.
Dev Alpha C and a musical reprise
In addition to the store name change, RIM has also launched a new development phone, named the Dev Alpha C, and this time rather than a facsimile of its touchscreen BB10 phone, it has a QWERTY keyboard. That’s right, it’s to help developers adapt their apps for use on the N Series QWERTY BlackBerry 10 phone, which will be released alongside the L Series full-touchscreen handset next year.
While us mere mortals have no chance of getting one, even developers are going to find it difficult, as RIM says it will be giving just 1,500 out. Interested developers will have to submit an application to be in with a chance, and need to meet a certain criteria too. Research in Motion will pay special attention to BlackBerry Elite Members, plus those who already have the Dev Alpha A or B phones, along with any developers who have converted an Android app over to BlackBerry 10.
Finally, you may remember RIM pledged to Keep on Lovin’ its developers in a cheesy but highly enjoyable music video released during BlackBerry Jam Americas. Well, the team is planning a follow-up for the big BlackBerry 10 launch event, but is unsure of what song to cover. It’s therefore asking your help to decide, for what it says will be the very last BlackBerry Jam music video. You can let them know through Twitter using the #BB10Song hashtag. Go on, you know you want too.
BlackBerry 10 will launch on January 30 2013, and less than a month afterwards, the new hardware will go on sale.
Source : digitaltrends[dot]com
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