Gadgetory

it's BlackBerry's last stand I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update it's the start of a new chapter for blackberry as the company rebranded itself and unveiled to sleek looking smart phones that run the innovative blackberry 10 operating system first off the company is no longer called research in motion or rim its name is blackberry now which is just a marketing move since most people called it blackberry anyway as for the new phones here's what you need to know there's an all touch screen phone called the z10 it kind of looks like an iPhone but there are no navigation buttons you navigate entirely with a swipe of a thumb spec-wise it could stand alongside the latest handsets with an 8 megapixel back camera hdmi port memory card slot and NFC technology there's also a version with a physical keyboard because you can't ignore the crackberry addicts that want that tactile feeling it's called the q10 but let's get to the software and what makes it different from Apple and Android gestures are key to navigating around blackberry one swipe of a thumb can switch between tasks like viewing email on the calendar blackberry is pushing the idea that it's very easy to multitask there's no need to jump in and out of a nap menu to get things done a text chat can instantly change to a video call and that video caller can share their screen in contacts users can see real-time updates of a person's latest social activity and the most recent conversations typing is another major focus for blackberry the autocorrect is advanced plus it also tries to predict the next word you might type and you can flick that word up onto the screen also swiping left on the clear key deletes entire words blackberry wants to balance your personal and business life by putting work approved apps in their own secure profile which can coexist with your personal apps and games winning back the love of business IT departments will be a challenge since most employees just use their personal iPhones and androids for work apps or another challenge there are 70,000 apps including a few big-name ones like Skype and angry birds but it still doesn't have every popular app for example there's no Pandora the z10 will be sold by verizon ATT and tmobile but only verizon has announced a price $200 with a two-year contract and it's the only carrier that will get it in white it won't be in the u.s. until March but it's on sale this week in the UK and next week in Canada the q10 with the keyboard is coming out even later in April in the US and will be sold by verizon AT&T and Sprint if there was any group that was holding out for a new blackberry its people who like physical keyboards and they now have to wait the longest so do you think blackberry can stay alive email me at update at cnet com or post a comment on the blog sina com / update from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey