Many of you who are regular readers know that we host polls on the Inside BlackBerry Blog from time to time, asking readers how they are using their devices. After all, we’re all getting great feedback and learning better ways to get the most out of our BlackBerry devices.

This time around, the BlackBerry community management team wants to know which BlackBerry smartphone shortcut is most useful. We began this poll on the BlackBerry Facebook page, and the response has been huge – now we want to hear the voice of our blog readership. So which BlackBerry keyboard shortcut is your favorite? There are some classics and some new BlackBerry 10 ones to choose from like Type and Go on the BlackBerry Q10 or any of the innovative shortcuts on the BlackBerry Z10 keyboard in the video below.

[Youtube link for mobile viewing]

Be Bold and Vote!

Being a BlackBerry Z10 user, myself I definitely love how fast I can move around the software QWERTY keyboard. Thank you for casting your vote, and if you’d like to share a favorite shortcut not included in the voting, feel free to post in the comments below!

Whether or not you’ve gotten your hands on the BlackBerry Z10, you’ve no doubt seen the video of Vivek showing off the predictive keyboard feature of the device. When I showed a few friends how it worked, they were impressed by its functionality. I do have one friend who’s both tech-savvy and sometimes hard to impress, and he challenged my demonstration by saying, “Most people expect typos in texts; I don’t see how that can help me”. Challenge accepted.

I explained a scenario to him in which he and I were going to meet at a coffee shop, and I have a smartphone without predictive text. While I’m walking to meet him, I remember I need something from the grocery store and begin to text him that I’ll be late. In my hurry, I accidentally type: “Quick stop to shop, I’ll be latte”. Confused, he orders me a latte and assumes I’ll still be on time. I end up with a cold latte and an upset friend who thinks I’ve ditched him.

Now let’s consider this scenario with a predictive keyboard on the BlackBerry Z10. As soon as I begin to type the letters “L-A-T“ I see the word “late” appear within the keyboard. A quick swipe, and the word “late” is populated into the text. No angry friend, no cold latte.

Has the predictive text feature on the BlackBerry Z10 helped make your texting easier and more accurate? Tell us about it in the comments!

We know there’s growing belief and excitement in BlackBerry ® 10. More than anything, we know it because you’ve told us. But in the spirit of us banding together and sharing our excitement, I’d like to ask what features of BlackBerry 10 excite you most. Have you heard enough about the new BlackBerry devices to find one defining reason to believe, or are you still waiting for the surprises we still have in store? The countdown is on: 10 weeks until the BlackBerry 10 launch event. This calls for a vote!

We know our fans love to be heard, so give yourself the chance to be heard again in our latest “Be Bold and Vote” poll:

As an added bonus for voting, we’ve created some custom BlackBerry 10 countdown BBM™ Avatars for you to mark off the days. Let us know which one you’re rocking in the comments below.

10 to 10	10 Weeks – Spin	10 Weeks – Radial	Flip Clock

To change your BBM Display Picture:

1. Right-click on the avatar of your choice and select “Save picture as” to save it to your computer.
2. Email the file to the email address associated with your BlackBerry smartphone.
3. Open the image on your BlackBerry smartphone.
4. Press the menu button to “Download Attachment”.
5. In BBM, set the new file as your profile picture.

Send in your vote and chime in with your own thoughts in the comments section. It’s time to get excited!

One of my favorite things about working as a community and blog manager for BlackBerry ® is getting to talk to you and provide updates on our products. Each day on our social channels fans, followers and readers ask, when will BlackBerry ® 10 launch? It is clear you’re excited to get your hands on it, and we definitely can’t wait to get it to you.

Today, I’m happy to report that Thorsten Heins, in a press release, announced that the BlackBerry 10 Launch event is to be held on January 30, 2013. The event will happen simultaneously in multiple countries around the world, where details of the smartphones and their availability will be announced. Here’s the message that Thorsten passed along in the release.

“In building BlackBerry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities. All of this will be integrated into a user experience – the BlackBerry Flow – that is unlike any smartphone on the market today,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research In Motion. “Thanks to our strong partnerships with global carriers and a growing ecosystem of developers, we believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10. We are looking forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world.”

As we’ve covered at events like BlackBerry World ™ and BlackBerry Jam Americas, BlackBerry 10 promises to offer exciting features like BlackBerry Flow, BlackBerry ® Hub, BlackBerry ® Balance ™, and the iconic and innovative BlackBerry Keyboard. Thanks to the diligent work from the dedicated BlackBerry developer community, it also will feature a large catalog of the leading applications from across the globe.

So what do you say, Team BlackBerry? Are you excited for BlackBerry 10? Keep it locked to the Inside BlackBerry blogs for the latest BlackBerry 10 updates and let us know what you’re most excited about in the comments below.

The BlackBerry® Mini Keyboard with convertible case is here! This is an accessory that can add a huge amount of value to your work and productivity. By leveraging the keyboard along with the convertible case, you get the additional screen space (rather than using the on-screen keyboard), and a stylish case that doubles as a stand for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Check out the video below for an in-depth demo of the BlackBerry Mini Keyboard as well as multiple use cases via the Citrix® Receiver for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

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!

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