A lot of media have been reporting RIM and BlackBerry like as though its a roller-coaster ride – fluctuating. For a while it was all doom and gloom and now, the general consensus is beginning to shift and look more positive. Not a bad sign, its nice to see them rooting for the battered company now. During CES 2013 last week, RIM was there to demonstrate the BlackBerry 10 and Forbes editors were able to capture the action and give 10 reasons to hope for BlackBerry 10.

1. Firstly a crucial factoid: Carriers apparently like it. So far 150 of them from around the world are testing BlackBerry 10 in their labs, according to CMO Frank Boulben, which means they’ll almost certainly carry the phone. He expects 200 carriers to offer BB 10 by the summer of 2013.
2. The phone is launching with more than 70,000 available apps, along with new features to BlackBerry Messenger that RIM will disclose at launch.
3. The phone takes away a physical “home” button – a bit like Nokia’s Lumia phones. It relies on lots of swiping gestures and shortcuts for one-handed use by on-the-go business types.
   (Unfortunately, I really hate that on the windows phone as their shortcuts are really, messed up)
4. The mobile platform, based on software by QNX, allows users to have two persona’s on the device– one for work and one for private life, with separate background images and a password that can stop kids from accidentally calling someone’s boss. Users can swap between the two with a single gesture, and decide what content is deemed personal and accessible, or private and professional on the same device.
5. The new feature called BlackBerry Hub. This is a neat amalgamation of all notifications that users access by swiping in an “L” shape, up and to the left. When writing an email and a new one comes in, users can also swipe slightly to “peek” at the content, before continuing with their email. No need to press a button or delete any draft of the email.
6. BlackBerry Hub’s integration with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and LinkedIn — with potential for other developers to allow their apps to integrate with the Hub too. Users don’t have to go into any of these applications to update their profiles or comment on these networks, but do it all in the Hub.
7. Quick context and aggregation. BlackBerry has created an apparently seamless system that allows you to get relevant information on people in your calendar. Swipe down to see the next appointment, then tap to see previous meetings you’ve had with the person, or what they last said to you in an email, or what a Google search on them brings up, or their LinkedIn profile — all within a couple of windows and without opening a browser. “It follows your train of thought,” says Boulben, who described this experience as “BlackBerry Flow.”
8. A keyboard that learns. This applies to the touch-screen version of BlackBerry 10, since RIM is bringing out a second BB 10 device with a physical keyboard. The application scans every email or instant message you’ve sent and builds an algorithm to better predict what words you’ll type — rumor has it RIM partnered with A.I. startup SwiftKey on this. Predicted words hover on the “frets” between the key rows, and you select them by flicking up with your thumb (see video below). Swipe down on the keyboard to get punctuation symbols; swipe backwards across the keyboard to erase a word. If you tend to type between the O and P, the keyboard will learn this and shift the touch actuator to lie between the two keys.
9. Language. Start typing the word “je” and the BlackBerry 10 keyboard automatically suggests French words. “There is nothing more frustrating than writing in one language and being corrected in another,” says Boulben, who is French.
10. A few other things we don’t know about. Boulben said RIM would unveil a couple of extra features at its Jan. 30 announcement, and the handset he showcased was not the finished product.

These BlackBerry 10 “factoids” seem pretty spot on. It’s great seeing a renowned publication like Forbes educate its readers on BlackBerry 10. Do you agree with Forbes’ 10 reasons to hope for BlackBerry 10?

Mobile View

Via Forbes