Onstage at the BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando, Thorsten Heins, President and CEO, BlackBerry just announced that all of you BlackBerry Z10 customers are in for a treat. An update to BlackBerry 10 software has been released with new features designed to keep you moving. BlackBerry 10.1 is a free update that will be rolling out with carrier partners over the coming weeks.

I’ve chatted with the product development team about what you can expect in the update and there are definitely some exciting changes and features to highlight, and best of all updating is free and easy to do over a WiFi® network.

New BlackBerry 10.1 Features:

• BlackBerry Hub: The BlackBerry Hub lets you access all your messages and notifications in one place. With BlackBerry 10.1 support for PIN to PIN messages for direct communication between BlackBerry smartphones has been added to the BlackBerry Hub. Plus, improved attachment support in the BlackBerry Hub makes it easier to view emails which have been sent as attachments to other messages.
• Notifications: With BlackBerry 10.1 you can personalize the notifications for your accounts and contacts so you always know what is happening around you. Customize ringtones, vibration and the LED light by contact or by account for more personalized notifications.
• Fine Cursor Control: BlackBerry 10.1 makes it easier and more accurate to pinpoint exactly where you want to type. Tap once to bring up the cursor. Grab the blue circle and drag it around to place it exactly where you need it. Tap either side of the circle to move left or right by just one character. It’s easy to move around with speed and precision.
• Camera: BlackBerry 10 lets you create the perfect shot by moving parts of your picture backwards and forwards in time with Time Shift mode. BlackBerry 10.1 adds an HDR shooting mode for beautiful images in tricky lighting conditions. A standard image takes a picture at one exposure level. Where you have high contrast between light and dark areas of the photo, fine details can be lost. High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode takes multiple pictures at different exposure levels and layers them automatically to produce a single photo that combines the best of the dark and light areas.
• Lots more to discover: You’ll find lots of new improvements across the BlackBerry 10 OS like landscape support for the calendar, easier international dialing, improved red eye reduction in the picture editor and much more. The first step to discovering these new features is to update your BlackBerry 10 software.

How to update to BlackBerry 10.1:

Updating to BlackBerry 10.1 is free and easy to do. To update your BlackBerry Z10 smartphone to BlackBerry 10.1 look for the alert in the notifications section of the BlackBerry Hub. You can also check for software updates through the settings menu by visiting the software updates section. The download will happen in the background and the update will be applied without needing to back up your smartphone. All of your information remains safe. As always, we recommend you have a current backup of your BlackBerry Z10 smartphone readily available. For more information on how to update your BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, visit www.BlackBerry.com/update

There you have it – BlackBerry 10.1 will soon be available for your BlackBerry Z10 device. Please let us know what you think of these features and refinements in the comments below.

Today we issued a software update for BlackBerry 10 smartphones that’s focused on your feedback. It’s already available from some carriers and we’re working closely with all our carrier partners to get it to you as soon as possible.

It’s almost been a month since we officially unveiled the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones and many of you already have a BlackBerry Z10 in hand. You’ve been using it for weeks, and we’ve been listening to your feedback, and have been working on an update just for you. Here are just a few of the improvements you can expect after updating your software.

1. 3rd Party App Performance

   We’ve improved performance for 3rd party applications, so developers can build apps that run fast and smooth for you. With this update, you might want to keep an eye out for some fresh new app launches in March, like WhatsApp.
   

   Guess what’s up #TeamBlackBerry? WhatsApp Messenger is coming to #BlackBerry10 in March ^DH

   — BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) February 24, 2013

2. Phone, Calendar, and Contacts

   Among the top improvements and features are fixes for Gmail calendars on BlackBerry 10. You’ll also find improvements in the BlackBerry Hub for logging calls log and how conversations are handled. We’ve also made general improvements to importing contacts from online sources.

3. Camera

   We’ve optimized the camera for better photos in low-light situations. You’ll love the difference this makes for photos where you don’t use a flash – like the Time Shift Camera feature.

4. Browser and Media

   With more and more of you using the gorgeous screen on the BlackBerry Z10 to consume online videos and media, we’ve made a number of improvements to the software in the way the browser handles video playback to provide a fantastic experience.

5. Battery Life

   The software team has included a number of battery life optimizations with over 60 battery saving improvements since launch to keep you moving. These combined improvements are designed so that you see improvements in battery life and heavy users especially should see a longer average usage per charge cycle.

How to update your software on BlackBerry 10

Software is available over the air (OTA). Typically, you’ll get a notification about new updates, but you can manually check to see if it has been made available by your service provider and install it in a few simple steps.
Settings> Software Updates> Check for Updates> — then follow the on screen steps to install.

The download is approximately 150MB in size, so I recommend updating when connected to Wi-Fi.

There you have it – the first OTA update to your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. We’ll be rolling out the update with all of our carrier partners around the globe over the coming weeks. Be sure to check it out when it’s available and let us know what you think in the comments below. Your feedback is always welcomed and we will continue to listen as we update and improve BlackBerry 10.

Great news for all you BlackBerry ® PlayBook ™ tablet fans out there. We have updated the operating system software to version 2.1 and packed some new features and functionality in to the already powerful OS. If you enjoy the multitasking, social integration and strong communications functionality in the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you’ll love what’s new. Here are my three favorite changes:

1. Updated BlackBerry Bridge: Now you can view, respond and compose new SMS messages on their BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet when connected to a BlackBerry smartphone over Bluetooth®. You’ll also enjoy increased performance and speed of other BlackBerry Bridge functions as well. So you can do more, more efficiently. Txt away, my friends.
2. Email and PIM Enhancements: You’ve asked for it and we’ve delivered portrait support for email, calendar and contacts, giving you the option to use your tablet in either orientation to message. This will definitely come in handy for those of you who enjoy thumb typing in portrait mode like I do.
3. Improved Android Application Support: Includes Multi-Window Applications, Camera Support and In-App Payments. We all love a richer app experience, and with the improvements to the Android runtime, that’s just what you’ll get. Running the applications in separate windows allows you to multi-task between Android apps easier, and in-app payments will make it easier for you to enhance your app content. Game on!

There are also a ton new features on the enterprise side so you can separate your work from personal data, check out Luke’s post on the Inside BlackBerry for Business blog for more details. We’ve added more apps and content as well including an update to the Print to Go app and the Canadian video store now comes preloaded into the OS so there’s no need for you to download it from the BlackBerry® App World™ storefront.

The update is available starting today for the WiFi® versions of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and availability for the 4G LTE™ BlackBerry PlayBook is expected within the next month, upon carrier approval of software.

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet:

You will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or you can check for the software update at any time by going to the settings menu under “Software Updates” and tapping “Check for Updates”. Then follow the steps to update.

Learning more and obtaining support:

For those that have some additional questions or need additional support, visit the BlackBerry PlayBook support website. To find the support website for your specific location, visit the following link and select Get Support next to your preferred language & location.

Have a BlackBerry PlayBook? Check out the update and let us know what you think in the comments.

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS v2.0.1.358 contains many updates including:

• Browser enhancements to address performance with some websites
• Improvements to support Android apps
• Optimizations to Video Chat, PIM and BlackBerry Bridge applications
• And much more!

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry® PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time by going to the settings menu under “Software Updates” and tapping “Check for Updates”. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after April, 17 2012 will automatically be updated to v2.0.1 as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

Calendar with social integration

Like the new Messages app that includes a universal Inbox, so you can conveniently manage all your email in one place, the new Calendar app in PlayBook OS 2.0 allows you to manage all your appointments and events in one place – including the ability to manage both work and personal (Gmail®, Hotmail®, Yahoo!®) appointments and Facebook® events (never miss a birthday again!). Of course, the Calendar app offers the common features that you’ve come to know and love, but it now also includes some compelling new features to help you organize your day:

• People View: In addition to the traditional Day, Agenda, Week, Month views, you can now view your day based on the people you’re meeting with. This view provides additional information on your contacts pulled from LinkedIn®, including where you’ve met in the past.

• Visual Cues: You’ll be able to more quickly scan and manage your calendar at a glance. For example, the Calendar app provides visual cues that identify days that have more appointments than those that are relatively light. For example, when you view your calendar at a glance, dates with many appointments will show up in a larger font while the dates in smaller fonts have fewer appointments. If you have a lot of appointment conflicts, a red highlight identifies the conflict so you can’t miss them!

• Zoom in to a detailed view: From the “Week” view, you can go directly to a day’s calendar with ease. Simply tap any day to zoom into the details of that day, including the meetings you have scheduled and the people you will be meeting with.

Contacts: Your social hub

Your contacts are more than just an address and phone number, so why treat it like a rolodex? The new Contacts app acts as a social hub that helps you maintain a complete and current view of your contact’s social status.

• Contact Linking: The majority of people use more than email and phone to stay in touch with their personal and professional contacts — Facebook, Twitter®, and LinkedIn are growing exponentially in their popularity and usability. The Contacts app allows you to automatically bring all these distinct social profiles into a single people-centric view in your address book – meaning you can set up one contact name and integrate all of their contact and social profile information into one profile. You also have the option to reduce duplicate entries, and manually link or de-couple your contacts from social profiles. Watch this demo to learn more.

• Status Updates and People Views: Using information gathered from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the Contacts app lets you see your contact’s recent social status updates and common friends.

• Meetings, Places, and News: Be prepared before walking into that meeting. For each of your contacts, you can view past (and future) meetings with that person, see the places you’ve met previously, and read news about their company.

• Favorites and Video Chat: Mark your top contacts as a “favorite” for quicker access, and sort your address book by those contacts who also use BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat.

	Explore tablet hardware Using the tablet interface BlackBerry Bridge Personalization Docs To Go Print To Go Calendar Contacts Video Player Messages Video Chat Browsing the web

We built the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 email, calendar and contacts experience with the goal of providing the best tools for managing your busy life across all of your networks. I’m so proud of the team for pulling it off, and we’re just getting started! We have a ton of ideas, and look forward to getting your feedback.

Email and the Universal Inbox

The new Messages apps gives a nod to the past by continuing to build on proven experiences. The iconic BlackBerry splat noting the arrival of new messages in the universal inbox remains part of the core messaging experience. But the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 messaging experience goes a step further; it has been extended to include ‘social messaging’, allowing you to directly integrate messages from some of the most common social networks: Facebook®, LinkedIn®, and Twitter®.

And to take it one step beyond just integrated social messaging, you can now see a contact’s social details right from the Messages application.

Once you have an inbox full of messages, the new Messages app delivers a suite of features that help make managing your inbox really easy:

• Tabbed email: You can reference one email while you compose another, or put an email you’re in the middle of composing on hold, while you type out a quick response to another message.

• Rich text editing: You can write and edit email like you would on a computer – including support for fonts, attributes and sizes, as well as formatting. You can even edit or insert your “in-line” comments in an email thread.

• Message Threading and Quick response: Let’s face it – in an era of ubiquitous mobile devices, email is more chat-like than formal. You can choose to view your messages as threaded conversations rather than single messages. Thread messages reduce a conversation to one inbox entry, thus reducing the signal-to-noise ratio in your inbox.

• BlackBerry Keyboard: Longtime users know the keyboard input on BlackBerry smartphones is clever, including auto-entry of periods at the end of sentences and “@” symbols for email addresses. The new PlayBook OS 2.0 keyboard also introduces next word prediction, which helps makes hammering out emails on a virtual keyboard so much easier.

• Search: Sometimes you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for. The search feature allows you to type out a partial string and constrain the search to specific recipient fields or subject, sent, received, and filter by when it was received (today, yesterday, even last week) – all in real time.

As you can see, there are some very cool things in the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet messaging experience. Hold tight for my next post on the Calendar and Contacts experience!

	Explore tablet hardware Using the tablet interface BlackBerry Bridge Personalization Docs To Go Print To Go Calendar Contacts Video Player Messages Video Chat Browsing the web

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.8.6067 contains the following fixes and updates:

• Daylight savings time updates
• Security updates as outlined in the BlackBerry Security Advisory KB29191

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the settings menu under “Software Updates”. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after December 5, 2011 will automatically be updated to v1.0.8.6067 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.8.4985 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.0.8.6067) will include only the updates outlined above and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS v1.0.8.4985 contains the following fixes and updates:

• Updated version of Adobe® Flash® Player version 11.1 and Adobe AIR® 3.1
• Daylight savings time updates for time zones in the regions of Latin America, Australia and Central America
• Updated Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi® software to help to improve connectivity
• Fixed issues some users were experiencing with account payments in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront
• Improved synching when restoring applications with BlackBerry Desktop Software

This update also includes a security update for Adobe Flash Player, as noted in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB-11-28, which addresses issues that can potentially affect any PC, tablet, or other device with an operating system that supports Adobe Flash. While there are no known reports of any BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users being affected by these Adobe Flash Player issues, we (as always) encourage all BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users to update to the newest version of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS.

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the settings menu under “Software Updates”. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Thursday November 24th, 2011 will automatically be updated to v1.0.8.4985 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.7.2942 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.0.8.4985) will include only the Adobe Flash Player update and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

On September 21st, Adobe issued an update for Adobe Flash Player, as noted in Adobe Security Bulletins APSB-11-26, which addresses issues that can potentially affect any PC, tablet, or other device with an operating system that supports Adobe Flash.

While there are no known reports of any BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users being affected by these Adobe Flash issues, we (as always) encourage all BlackBerry PlayBook users to update to the newest version of the BlackBerry Tablet OS. For more information about what these security updates mean to the BlackBerry PlayBook, please see our security advisory.

How to update your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will automatically receive a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the settings menu under Software Updates. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Thursday October 6th will automatically be updated to 1.07.3312 or later as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process.

For users who are already running BlackBerry PlayBook v1.0.7.2942 or higher, the update to this new version (v1.07.3312) will include only the Adobe Flash update and is expected to take only a few minutes to install.

Hi all, Michael here once again to tell you about the latest update available for your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. BlackBerry® Tablet OS v1.0.7.2942 is available today and it introduces one small but very important new feature: differential updates. The differential updates feature allows us to update only the sections of the BlackBerry Tablet OS that require updating. This should result in smaller download file sizes and therefore faster updating for you! Of course, the differential updates feature will also come in handy as we prepare for more feature-packed BlackBerry Tablet OS updates later this year. =D

Note: BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users must already have BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7.2670 installed to experience differential updates. Going forward, all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets running v1.0.7.2942 or higher will experience differential updates.

In addition to adding new features to the BlackBerry Tablet OS, the BlackBerry PlayBook team at Research In Motion® (RIM®) is always looking for ways to improve your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet experience. As such, we’re thrilled to tell you that we’ve also improved the performance of two key features in BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7.2942.

• Improved Wi-Fi® connectivity to WEP networks
• Faster pairing between a BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet via the BlackBerry® Bridge™ app, and faster attachment opening via BlackBerry Bridge.

How to update to BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7.2942

BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.7.2942 can be downloaded over-the-air from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet on or after Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 will be automatically updated to v1.0.7.2942 as part of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet setup process. Existing BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users will be presented with a software update notification on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet status ribbon, or they can check for the software update at any time in the Settings Menu under Software Updates.

There will also be an update to the BlackBerry Bridge application at this time, so make sure to install it on your BlackBerry smartphone for maximum compatibility!