Really impressed with blackberry os10

[desura]

blackberry z10

It only has a Qualcomm s4 1.5ghz but it is pretty fast and it dual tasks nicely as well. The OS on a whole has a lot of nice little touches and it feels smoother than android. Multitasking is good, the home selection is natural, the music player has gapless playback, high resolution audio and FLAC support, and the sound output is pretty good. The software keyboard is probably the best out there.

I wonder if anyone can answer: on a software engineering level, how does qnx compare to Linux and Mach kernel? Is qnx inherently more efficient?

 

[3chordcharlie]

Doesn't matter it's a nearly-dead platform.

But yes it is a very nice smooth OS especially compared with Android.

 

[Crono]

QNX is a realtime OS, which is why car manufacturers are still using it for their infotainment systems. It's in other embedded devices, too, but most aren't consumer facing (or at least not with obvious QNX branding or anything). It's a good OS for diagnostics and other cases where speed is a priority. I don't know much about computer/software engineering, though, so I couldn't tell you exactly how a UNIX-based system like QNX compares to the Linux, Mach, or NT kernels.

I've been meaning to get a BlackBerry 10 device for ages - the last BB device I owned was the Storm... needless to say, that left a bad taste in my mouth - but the downward trend had me avoiding BlackBerry. Unfortunately - like 3chordcharlie points out - it's a nearly-dead platform. BlackBerry has already hitched their wagon to Android. I would love to get the Priv if it were less expensive.

 

[desura]

QNX is a realtime OS, which is why car manufacturers are still using it for their infotainment systems. It's in other embedded devices, too, but most aren't consumer facing (or at least not with obvious QNX branding or anything). It's a good OS for diagnostics and other cases where speed is a priority. I don't know much about computer/software engineering, though, so I couldn't tell you exactly how a UNIX-based system like QNX compares to the Linux, Mach, or NT kernels.

I've been meaning to get a BlackBerry 10 device for ages - the last BB device I owned was the Storm... needless to say, that left a bad taste in my mouth - but the downward trend had me avoiding BlackBerry. Unfortunately - like 3chordcharlie points out - it's a nearly-dead platform. BlackBerry has already hitched their wagon to Android. I would love to get the Priv if it were less expensive.

You can pick up a z30 for relatively cheap.

The priv android is meh IMO. Especially since you can side load the blackberry apk 's onto any android device, which I've already done for the keyboard.

 

[smitbret]

You can pick up a z30 for relatively cheap.

The priv android is meh IMO. Especially since you can side load the blackberry apk 's onto any android device, which I've already done for the keyboard.

I've got a Z10 and I would definitely grab the Z30 over the Z10 just for the better battery life. There's a couple of other add'l features that are nice but that is really the big one.

Sideloading the apk's works but it's not perfect. Since updating the OS to v10.3, they run much more smoothly. On v10.2 it sometimes took upward of a minute to run some apps and some wouldn't run at all. Also, apps that use Google Play Services will be problematic. That's why I prefer to grab my apps out of Amazon instead of Google Play. I run Snap when I want or need to use Google Play and that works very well.

 

[sm625]

Blackberry is making smart decisions. It is possible that they could figure out a way to run Linux and QNX side by side in a fashion that is seamless to the user, which will allow them to wall off certain features for enhanced security which simply isnt possible on android or ios. Right now, the average person doesnt seem to care that literally everything on their phone can be looked at by anyone with modest means. But this may change in the future. Blackberry is doing what it needs to do to stay relevant and be properly positioned in case that moment ever arrives.

 

[thilanliyan]

My daily driver is a passport and I can't go without the hub now. BB10 is really nice. ..I really like gesture based interactions.

 

[KeithP]

blackberry z10

It only has a Qualcomm s4 1.5ghz but it is pretty fast and it dual tasks nicely as well. The OS on a whole has a lot of nice little touches and it feels smoother than android. Multitasking is good, the home selection is natural, the music player has gapless playback, high resolution audio and FLAC support, and the sound output is pretty good. The software keyboard is probably the best out there.

I wonder if anyone can answer: on a software engineering level, how does qnx compare to Linux and Mach kernel? Is qnx inherently more efficient?

Cool...sounds like the OS/2 of phones.

-KeithP

 

[Zaap]

I'm really impressed such a thing still actively exists.

Because honestly I had no idea. I thought a fork was stuck in that years ago.

 

[Commodus]

QNX was originally designed as a "real-time" OS (that is, designed to handle requests quickly) for embedded devices, which is part of why BlackBerry 10 runs well. It's sitting at the heart of some car platforms.

Having said this: BB10 is the OS/2 of phones in a manner of speaking: it was supposed to be the big rival to the incumbent, briefly looked like it would take off, but ultimately stood no chance.

 

[desura]

Out of curiosity, does anyone here work in government? Have you seen an uptick in Priv devices for sensitive government functions? Or are governments all about just user choice of iPhone, android, etc?