Omio had a one-to-one press briefing at BlackBerry Live with Don Lindsay, Vice President, User Experience at Research in Motion – who heads up the team responsible for the BlackBerry 10 OS.

He said: “One of the challenges I gave to the design team is, what’s the equivalent to a short cut on a touch display”

“Things like peek are allowing us to actually find and discover new ways to deliver the equivalent value of a shortcut, but through an entirely touch interface”

“This is an area that we are going to continue to expand the gesture language to find more short cuts, more ways to actually achieve tasks in a faster and simpler ways – using just touch”

“With physical keyboards, we’ve always supported shortcuts, that has been in place with BlackBerry for many many years”

“In BlackBerry 10.1, on the physical keyboard, in the contextual menu, we now show the keyboard shortcuts”

“Now the challenge is: how do we do the same thing, but with gestures”

We asked if there could be a combination of gestures, which could act as a keyboard shortcut?

“One of our guiding principles in the creation of BlackBerry 10 was one handed operation”

“One handed operation has led to decisions such as the placement of the top most item [in the BlackBerry Hub], by default, is in reach of my thumb”

“That fulfils our principle of one handed operation”

“Our design [rules] goes a little bit further than that, it actually says: we must deliver great one handed operation, but it can be more powerful with two hands”

“This is an acknowledgement of, are there ways in which we can interact with two thumbs or two fingers, that can be faster – than just a single finger [or thumb]”

We asked what short cuts from the Q10 keyboard could be taken across to the full touch screen BlackBerry Z10?

“We’re at the point now where we’re trying to see, first of all, what needs to be recreated”

“One of the request we often get is the ability to scroll a list to the top, quickly”

“With our physical keyboards, we have ‘T’, which is a keyboard shortcut for the top, and ‘B’ for bottom”

“The team is now looking at, is there an equivalent to the command to go to the top of the list”

“They’re looking at, is there an intuitive gesture, to get to the top”

“The common ones on the Q10 are F for forward a mail; R for reply”

“Those are the higher priority candidates for us to see, can we do better in this space”

“If we can deliver that kind of efficiency, BlackBerry users will appreciate it”

That came to light in an interview with Don Lindsay, Vice President, User Experience at Research in Motion.

We asked what are features are people requesting in the OS?

“One of the things we are now hearing is that customers what more control over notifications; they want to be able to control what notifies them; how it notifies them – more flexibility”

“In 10.0 we had a fairly simple notification solution – basically, on/off (for all the individual applications”

“The challenge for us now, based on the feedback, is can we go more granular, than that”

“Can we give users more control; this is an area we are actively looking at now; to see how can we achieve that, at the same time, not add much more complexity”

“One of our guiding principles, is that we don’t want to deliver a thousand check boxes to users”

“If there’s one criticism of BlackBerry in the past: is too many preferences”

“That level of complexity, we are trying to manage very carefully – to ensure that we can still create something simple, and yet powerful”

“What users are looking for are the ability to respond more directly to a notification”

“That [BlackBerry 10 OS] pops up and gives me a messages is useful, I then now have to navigate to that message in order to respond to it”

“Customers are tell us they want a method to directly respond to a notification”

“Customers are saying to us we want to be able to take action, quickly”

“Given that guidance: that’s what the team right now are saying how can we do better”

“That’s the [feature] right now sitting at the top of the list”

This feature is already an aspect of Android and is a useful one at that; we’ll bring you more on this coming to the BlackBerry OS and as when news comes our way.

These are the high-end touch screen BlackBerry Z10, QWERTY keyboard based BlackBerry Q10 and its more affordable version, the BlackBerry Q5.

Don Lindsay Vice President, User Experience at Research in Motion – who runs the design team for the BB10 platform – told Omio:

“There is always a roadmap for software”

“In terms of timing, we have indicated with our window of time between 10.0 and 10.1 that we are committed to rapid updates” – this is where only three months had passed, between those two versions.

“We are not going to make any commitments to a future update”

“We are taking spec from our customers; we’re listening to what might be missing functionality; issues they’re having with the software; any kind of feedback our carrier partner’s customers are willing to provide – we are going to react to, and we are going to get solutions into people’s hands, as quickly as we can”

BlackBerry could replicate its current update process, where a new handset will ship with 10.2. This will then become available to its other range of BlackBerry 10 OS mobile phones; stay tuned for more info.

Omio managed to catch with Jeff Gadway, Senior Manager, BlackBerry Product Marketing, at BlackBerry Live 2013 – for a hands-on video of the new capabilities that is coming to the Z10.

The footage covers PIN to PIN messaging. That allows BlackBerry users to directly message one another, in a feature that is said to be expanding to Android and Apple iOS users – later this year.

There is improved cursor control in 10.1, allowing better text editing on the BlackBerry Z10.

This brings up a round circle, which can be placed where needed, with features such as tapping on the left part of the circle shifts the cursor back a single space. That is mirrored with up, down and to the right.

Landscape calendar support is also covered, along with the HDR camera functionality.

This offers better, high contrast picture capture that is thoroughly explained in the video.

Lastly, is how to download the free update.

It looks as though Samsung’s latest foray into the smartphone space is a hit, as Mobile Magazine reports that the Galaxy S4 is poised to break the 10 millon sales mark worldwide at some point this week.

Despite initial stock constraints and detractors claiming gimmickry over innovation in the latest Android-powered flagship from the Korean manufacturer, a monstrous global marketing push – including draping London’s IMAX in Samsung Galaxy S4 livery and placing ads across cinemas and TVs across the land – has seen increased popularity and a faster sales run than the S3.

In a report to The Korean Times, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun, said: “We are confident that we will pass more than 10 million sales of the S4 next week. It is selling much faster than the previous model.”

Source: Mobile Entertainment

Omio is now publishing hands-on pictures of the new OS, running from the flagship full touch screen handset, in the company’s portfolio.

The first image shows that BlackBerry 10.1 is actually running on the device, with its array of new features.

These two shots are of the new PIN to PIN messaging, offering direct communication between two BlackBerry’s.

This will also be coming this year to Android and Apple is based devices, although basic BBM and group messaging will initially roll out.

Above is the new, more accurate cursor control – where tapping once on the screen brings up the cursor.

From here, you can grab the blue circle and then drag it around to the insertion point.

The next few pics are of the HDR camera functionality of the BlackBerry 10.1 OS, with greater detailed images; the red-eye reduction and lastly, the landscape calendar mode.

We asked if there would be a Z5, as a cut down version of the Z10 – in the same way as the Q5 is a cut down version of the Q10.

Rob Orr responded “You are in that roadmap territory”, indicating he couldn’t really speak about that.

He did add, “We have said six devices, from launch, but no specifics beyond that”

“[There will be] six devices in due course; we’re looking to address all the segments in the market”

“Starting with the high-end, which was delivered in Q1”

That isn’t a categorical denied and logic dictates that if the Q5 is budget version of the Q10, why couldn’t there be a budget version of the Z10.

BlackBerry switched from using a Super AMOLED display in the Q10, to an IPS LCD version in the Q5 – while still keeping the same 3.1-inch screen size, and display resolution of 720 x 720.

There was also a reduction of internal memory, from 16GB to 8GB and the megapixel count was brought down from 8 to 5MP.

This could all be mirrored in the Z5; stay tuned and we’ll bring you more on this.

Rob Orr, the Managing Director of UK & Ireland at BlackBerry said in a meeting with us about the Q5:

“For us, it’s about bringing the BlackBerry 10 and the platform to the existing [BlackBerry] Curve base”

“It will be more expensive than a 9320, that is available to today“, where we have already written about the pricing, as it is set to arrive in the £20 something a month tariffs.

We asked which Curve device will it be replacing -

He replied, “It will be replacing them all”

“We will continue to sell the 9320, but it is an obvious upgrade path for all of the Curves we have sold over the past two to three years”

“And even for devices like the 9790, those customers will be upgraded to the [Q5]”

Rob Orr also said: “There are several groups within my market in the UK that are absolutely desperate for the Q5”

“The first one is that mid-range, mid-tier, twenty odd-pounds per month tariff bracket. [They] require a device that is not priced at the high-end”

“I have a big base of existing Curve users in the market that have bought pre-paid or entry-level tariffs – that the Q5 will play to”

“Secondly, a big focus for is in [BlackBerry Live 2013] is the enterprise”

“I’ve been upgrading customers in the UK to [BlackBerry Enterprise Server] 10, for the last six to seven months – even before we launched the platform in January”

“The reality for those businesses is that not everyone will get the high-end phone; so the Q5 becomes the fleet, deployed device in the enterprise“

This information came from Rob Orr, the Managing Director of UK & Ireland at BlackBerry – in a meeting with Omio.

We asked him: “Will the 4G BlackBerry Q10 be arriving in the UK with NFC, or will the HSPA+ model without NFC, be shipping?”

“We are 4G in the UK; the UK is a 4G market“, he said.

“4G is so important to the mobile computing revolution”

“You probably have six Wi-Fi profiles on your phone”

“The restaurant; your home network; may be a Starbucks; may be a cloud service”

“The reason why you do that is you are conditioned to the limitations of the mobile phone network”

“4G, hopefully, as they upgrade the backhaul, as they upgrade the base stations, as we get into megahertz of coverage, will give us ubiquitous high bandwith coverage”

“You will start to do things differently, because you are no long conditioned to [using Internet of a  phone] when you get into Starbucks; when you get to your gym, when you get to your home network – you can do it anywhere”

“It is going to be an interesting challenge for the networks, to figure out the balance between monetising it per GB verses actually giving users the type of service that allows the mobile computer revolution to happen”

“For me, I’m putting that capability in the [BlackBerry Q5], because I, and we fundamentally believe as a company [4G] is going to power the mobile computing revolution”

Omio believes this is a good move for the company, as it could have easily deployed the HSPA+ version. This will make the BlackBerry Q5 future proof, as it will make use of the faster speeds, when 4G rolls out with every network (besides just EE).

We have had a meeting with the Managing Director UK & Ireland at BlackBerry, Rob Orr where we asked him – what price point will the BlackBerry Q5 be sold in the UK.

He responded:

"What I will say, specific to the UK, is that we will be democratising‎ BlackBerry 10 with the Q5"

“I will expect it to be in the twenties [£20s] per month"

"With very attractive minutes and data bundles"

"The retailers and the carriers will release their pricing in due course"

"You’ll see announcements from partners, in the next two to three weeks – as we start to go towards the pre-registration phase and pre-order phase", he added.

We asked what an attractive data bundle would be for the BlackBerry Q5.

"I think a bundle with 1GB of data is pretty standard now, and that’s where most consumers will end up"

Phones 4u has already listed the Q5 on its website, where we asked if it will be exclusively with that retailer – he responded:

"We will work with all the partners in the UK"