Over the hills and far away.
This morning, as BlackBerry announced the shuttering of its hardware division, which will lead to around 100 job losses at the company, LG began to ramp up the V20 sales machine in its home country of Korea.
Frankly, it’s no surprise that BlackBerry has taken this road given its difficulty selling hardware since the introduction of BlackBerry 10 in 2013. And while the Priv, its first Android phone, was pretty well-received, it’s safe to say it didn’t break sales records. But while it was marketing the Priv and working with TCL on releasing its follow-up, the $299 DTEK50, it was quietly improving its Android software suite with the intention of releasing it widely across the Android ecosystem. The reality is that BlackBerry has always been pretty good at software, and despite its struggles to build a viable app store within BlackBerry 10, its iOS and Android alternative, it was a pretty good OS.
At the same time, after using the V20 in a pre-production state, it’s clear that LG, like many other Android OEMs, still struggles to temper its tendency to overthink Android software. It may launch with Android 7.0 Nougat, but it doesn’t really resemble what you’d find on the Nexus 6P or 5X.
Companies like LG, Huawei, and even Samsung, could learn a thing or two from BlackBerry by focusing on providing an Android experience as well-considered and mature as their hardware.
And if you’re still interested in BlackBerry as a company, and BB10 as an OS, CrackBerry isn’t going anywhere. Go pay them a visit, and tell them Daniel sent you.
Huawei Mate 9 leaks: six colors, up to 6GB RAM and 256GB storage
Looks like Huawei’s upcoming Nougat-powered slab will have three price tiers between $480 and $700, with the top-level Mate 9 being available in six colors, with 6GB of RAM and an enormous quarter-terabyte of internal storage. Look for a mid-November launch with the new EMUI 5 interface. More
BlackBerry is out of the phone business
While not entirely surprising, BlackBerry has confirmed that its future is entirely in the software space. After years of waffling around it, CEO John Chen said during its Q2 2017 earnings that the company would stop designing and building its own phones, choosing to rely on third parties like Foxconn and TCL. More
OnePlus continues move towards creating water
The OnePlus 3 is getting another community build. OxygenOS 3.5.3 adds a few tweaks, including scrolling screenshots and a new default clock widget for the home screen. It’s unclear when OxygenOS 3.5 will move to production, but it shouldn’t be too long now before the merger of OxygenOS and HydrogenOS is complete.
In other OnePlus news, the end-of-the-line OnePlus X is finally getting its Marshmallow update with OxygenOS 3.1.2.
MasterCard offering Brits free London travel and coffee with Android Pay
Each Monday in October, the card provider will cover the cost of travel on TfL, including the tube, London bus services and Emirates Air Line (up to £30.50), as well as offering free hot drinks at Caffe Nero when you use Android Pay. Check out the full details.
Samsung faces new Note 7 battery fire claim in China
A Guangzhou man claims his Note 7 exploded less than day after delivery, but he’s reportedly not handing it over for inspection by Samsung because he doesn’t trust the company. Two similar reports have been explained away by Samsung as being caused by external heat sources. More
LG V20 lands in Korea this week
Other regions (with the exception of Europe) should be getting the phone in the coming weeks. More
Google Play Music now available in India
At long last, it appears Google’s entire music catalog is available to Indian consumers. Singles cost ₹15, with albums between ₹70 and ₹210 (more than Apple Music). Play Music also has most Bollywood albums released in the last 20 years. More
Alcatel brings the Idol 4 to Canada for free on contract
Alcatel told Canadians that the Idol 4 would be coming to Quebec-only Videotron on September 30, and now the company is also bringing the phone, minus the cool VR headset, to Bell and Virgin Mobile. Available for $0 on a 2-year plan, or $299.99 outright, the Idol 4 doesn’t have the greatest spec sheet, but it is a pretty decent little phone for the price. There’s also a new Pop 7 LTE tablet available at both carriers for $150.
Anyone can now create a Twitter Moment
Do you use Twitter Moments? You know that middle tab that gets in the way of your horizontal scrolling between Timeline and Direct Message. I kid, but not really. Now, Twitter is rolling out Moments creation to anyone, allowing users to compile Tweets into a cohesive narrative in order to tell a story. Yay?
That’s a mighty big smartphone
Huh.
