BB10 Interview With the QNX Boss of BlackBerry OS

[Marcus Yam]

We talk with one of the key architects behind QNX and BlackBerry 10's operating system software.

BB10 Interview With the QNX Boss of BlackBerry OS : Read more

 

[edlivian]

Not trying to troll, but this would have been great 2 years ago. it is a little too late to get people to switch when they are already entrenched in other platforms. For example, I will not repurchase apps that I already bought for myself on android, and for my wife on iOS.

Why was RIM soo stubborn, they could have gotten the same look and function by skinning android and adding a hardware encryption and it would have been released 2 years ago. it boggles my mind how long it took to get this out. And then have the audacity to ask all the android devs to just do a straight port of their apps. If you wanted android apps, you should skinned android and be done with it.

 

[dthx]

It looks like a sweet system and many enterprises have waited for that. Even so late, many of the enterprises who waited will probably find that this is a better fit than any iOS or Android system (management tools, etc...).
Still, what a waste of time... imagine if this had come one year earlier ! Now they've lost so many customers already, I hope they can recover quickly, this product is their last chance !

 

[AndrewMD]

[citation][nom]edlivian[/nom]Not trying to troll, but this would have been great 2 years ago. it is a little too late to get people to switch when they are already entrenched in other platforms. For example, I will not repurchase apps that I already bought for myself on android, and for my wife on iOS.Why was RIM soo stubborn, they could have gotten the same look and function by skinning android and adding a hardware encryption and it would have been released 2 years ago. it boggles my mind how long it took to get this out. And then have the audacity to ask all the android devs to just do a straight port of their apps. If you wanted android apps, you should skinned android and be done with it.[/citation]

Yes, it should have been released 2 years ago, heck, it should have been released a year ago, but reality is, it has finally been released.

As far as using Android with a skin, no thank you. In most cases they probably thought about it but found it was too much of a mess and liability to modify it. Considering Amazon was able to modify Android to their needs, the time it took would have resulted in a similar timeline release.

Now, how does the unit function? From online demo videos compared to the latest and greatest Androids, it is solid and quick!

Here is hoping Google makes some major changes to Android, otherwise people will start leaving it for three other good platforms.

 

[edlivian]

[citation][nom]AndrewMD[/nom]Yes, it should have been released 2 years ago, heck, it should have been released a year ago, but reality is, it has finally been released.As far as using Android with a skin, no thank you. In most cases they probably thought about it but found it was too much of a mess and liability to modify it. Considering Amazon was able to modify Android to their needs, the time it took would have resulted in a similar timeline release. Now, how does the unit function? From online demo videos compared to the latest and greatest Androids, it is solid and quick!Here is hoping Google makes some major changes to Android, otherwise people will start leaving it for three other good platforms.[/citation]

I am sorry, there is nothing I saw in the demo that could not be done by using android as its underlying platform. For example, playbook and Kindle fire shared the same guts, and they felt similar in UI speed.

I will give BB10 props for its speed and looks like a much more evolved version of webos, gestures are fantastic, so are the quick peeks. But nonetheless could have been on android.

You may not like the skinning that many vendors are doing these days, either do I, but the fact remains that every hardware vendor that switched to android has been successful. And the skinning that these vendors are doing can hardly be called skinning or a theme. The Samsung and HTC are adding a ridiculous amount of features upon the underlying platform. Instead of worrying about the underlying platform, hardware vendors have much more time to program useful features. It could have been a win-win for Rim, but they have decided on their own path, and it going to be very difficult. Just saying it could have been much easier road, and they would have been in a much better position today.

 

[meltbox360]

[citation][nom]edlivian[/nom]I am sorry, there is nothing I saw in the demo that could not be done by using android as its underlying platform. For example, playbook and Kindle fire shared the same guts, and they felt similar in UI speed. I will give BB10 props for its speed and looks like a much more evolved version of webos, gestures are fantastic, so are the quick peeks. But nonetheless could have been on android. You may not like the skinning that many vendors are doing these days, either do I, but the fact remains that every hardware vendor that switched to android has been successful. And the skinning that these vendors are doing can hardly be called skinning or a theme. The Samsung and HTC are adding a ridiculous amount of features upon the underlying platform. Instead of worrying about the underlying platform, hardware vendors have much more time to program useful features. It could have been a win-win for Rim, but they have decided on their own path, and it going to be very difficult. Just saying it could have been much easier road, and they would have been in a much better position today.[/citation]

So android can run multiple apps at the same time. BB10 I believe allows you to run up to 8 in the background at any one time. The limit is likely because even 2gb of ram is not enough to run more in a lot of cases. The keyboard was of course doable but the security and the level of customization is impossible as an android skin. I don't understand Dalvik (the java jvm that runs android apps) but I know that it is NOT as secure as a virtual machine should be likely thanks to the native code afterthought. There are a lot of reasons not to skin android and android CANNOT do this without a core rewrite which would have also taken a LONG time and then every other handset manufacturer could just take that code as large parts would have to be open source and after a month they would no longer be unique. I'm getting one and I hope others will at least give it a look even if they don't buy it.

 

[edlivian]

[citation][nom]meltbox360[/nom]So android can run multiple apps at the same time. BB10 I believe allows you to run up to 8 in the background at any one time. The limit is likely because even 2gb of ram is not enough to run more in a lot of cases. The keyboard was of course doable but the security and the level of customization is impossible as an android skin. I don't understand Dalvik (the java jvm that runs android apps) but I know that it is NOT as secure as a virtual machine should be likely thanks to the native code afterthought. There are a lot of reasons not to skin android and android CANNOT do this without a core rewrite which would have also taken a LONG time and then every other handset manufacturer could just take that code as large parts would have to be open source and after a month they would no longer be unique. I'm getting one and I hope others will at least give it a look even if they don't buy it.[/citation]

whats there to know, android is based on linux, and you could do whatever you want with it, and if you are going to try to explain that blackberry can ever be as secure as linux than you lost me. You can put the secure stuff in the linux space, and other stuff in dalvik

 

[meltbox360]

[citation][nom]edlivian[/nom]whats there to know, android is based on linux, and you could do whatever you want with it, and if you are going to try to explain that blackberry can ever be as secure as linux than you lost me. You can put the secure stuff in the linux space, and other stuff in dalvik[/citation]

Yes but the only reason to switch to android is for the apps. For the apps you need Dalvik. The security problem lies in Dalvik. They already rewrote all of Dalvik that can be secure to the playbook and BB10 as the android runtime. Secure linux server distro != android.