BlackBerry 10 is launching in less than 24 hours and we couldn’t be more excited. The official launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple cities around the world including New York City, Toronto, London, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. Tomorrow we will unveil the BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. To keep you connected to all of tomorrow’s action, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of all of the BlackBerry social channels where you can get the most up to date information in real time.

How to Stay Connected to the Action

Twitter is a great first stop for real-time information and updates. @BlackBerry will be live-tweeting from the global launch event providing news and updates as they happen. @BlackBerry4Biz will be a great resource for business related announcements and updates, and @BlackBerryDev will provide up-to-date information for developers.

We will also be posting updates throughout the day on our LinkedIn Company Page, and the BlackBerry for Business LinkedIn Group will be a great forum to join in on conversation.

You can also check out our blogs regularly for more in depth updates and information about the newest BlackBerry 10 features:

• Inside BlackBerry
• Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog
• Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog

The Inside BlackBerry Help Blog will also be providing tips, how-tos and walkthroughs.

How to join the conversation

We also want to hear from you. Leave us your initial thoughts on BlackBerry 10 in the comments below. If you’re tweeting, be sure to include the #BlackBerry10 hashtag. We’ll be back tomorrow with updates. Until then, let the countdown continue!

I’m E-Ming, a Product Manager at Research In Motion® (RIM®), and I wanted to tell you about the recent update to BlackBerry® News application for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! Before I get into the details of what’s new in BlackBerry News 1.1, I wanted to take a minute to thank #TeamBlackBerry for all the feedback that’s been provided so far! Be sure to keep it coming* – we love hearing about what you think of our app.

For those of you new to the app, BlackBerry News is a news aggregator that works with the RSS feeds provided by many different content providers. It enables you to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and then have them delivered to a single location to get the latest news, right on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Pretty convenient, huh? If you want to get further caught up, be sure to read our original post about BlackBerry News for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Now, let’s walk through the new functionality in BlackBerry News 1.1.

Portrait Orientation Support

We’ve optimized support for portrait mode by providing an article list view to help you view more headlines at a single time. We’ve also optimized the article list view, so instead of getting your magazine layout in landscape mode, you’ll get a portrait-mode list view of all the articles for quicker headline browsing. Whether you’re looking to enjoy a casual browse of your news or you’re a journalism junkie looking to stay on top of all the headlines, we’ve got you covered.

New Visual Indicators – “new” and articles marked read

We’ve added two new visual indicators – one that provides more context regarding which channels have new articles added since the app’s last content update, and another that displays which articles have already been read, so you’ll never have to read the same article twice (unless you want to!).

Go to Next/Previous Article

New navigational buttons mean you can easily move to the next or previous article. (I find these buttons make it much easier to read through my RSS feeds when I’m on the go.)

Channel Switcher From Magazine View

Using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s top-down swipe gesture, you can access the new channel switcher functionality to quickly switch to another category. Perfect for all you news addicts with quick attention spans!

Go to Feed After Subscribing

After subscribing to a feed in our content library, you now have the ability to go directly to that feed, so you can start reading your news right away.

Update News Through Data Tethering

With this update, you can take advantage of a paired BlackBerry® smartphone, so you can connect and update your feeds wherever you are and stay on top of what’s happening. Just make sure you have your BlackBerry smartphone paired up and a valid data tethering plan with your carrier.

Download Today!

Just as a reminder, your BlackBerry News subscriptions will be synced with your BlackBerry® ID, which means your news is available via BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or BlackBerry smartphone. So if you happen to be on the go without your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can still catch up on your favorite news by using your BlackBerry smartphone and the BlackBerry News Feeds application that’s available on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

I hope this update is helpful. And I hope you decide to download the updated BlackBerry News for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet today, and come back and share your feedback!

* By posting a comment below you acknowledge that you have read and accept these terms and conditions and that any ideas you post will be the property of RIM in accordance with the terms and conditions.

Every morning I can be found with a cup of coffee and my BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, catching up on the latest news using the BlackBerry® News for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app. It’s available for free in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, and it’s the perfect app to gather all your news in one place!

Let’s take a look at how to subscribe to a RSS feed – those that are offered by the News Library built into BlackBerry News, as well asthose that are not. You can also add RSS feeds for your personal website or another website that isn’t listed in the News Library.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog »