Posted by Mariella Moon

You’ve probably noticed that most smartphones news and updates recently are all about iPhones, Androids, and even Windows Phone devices. The last time BlackBerrys made a splash in the media was during the great BlackBerry outage of 2011 wherein most of its services, including BlackBerry Messenger, went down and couldn’t be used. Today, at the BlackBerry World 2012 conference in Orlando, Florida, RIM CEO and President Thorsten Heins went on stage to present the future of BlackBerry, and to assert that the platform can still compete against its toughest rivals.

Heins showcased the company’s newest operating system, BlackBerry 10, installed on a new touchscreen device. The system’s suite of new features include an advanced onscreen keyboard that can guess what word you’re most likely to type next and can even adjust itself based on your typing pattern. While it sounds like RIM is completely shifting toward touchscreen devices, the company told PhoneScoop that it will not stop making phones with physical keyboards.

Another notable feature of BlackBerry 10 is its camera app. You may be able to take great pictures with your iPhone 4S or your HTC One S, but BlackBerry 10 can give you something Android and iOS can’t: The ability to decide what goes into a picture after you click the shutter. The camera app caches everything it sees as soon as you launch it; in case you miss the perfect moment, you can simply move the frame backward or forward in time to capture it.

The device RIM showcased during the event were given to app developers, in hopes of having a healthy number of apps available for download by the time the initial batch of BlackBerry 10 phones are ready for release this fall. Reports indicate that the first BlackBerry 10 device will have a full touchscreen display, but subsequent devices will feature both touchscreens and physical keyboards. Check out the video above to see what RIM’s newest operating system has to offer.

source: tecca