Ferrari 458 Italia

Photoshoot with Ferrari 458 Italia. I’ve chosen 20 out of the bunch.

BlackBerry Q10

Finally decided to get the Q10, and loving it so far. :D

The Trinity of Communication Bliss

 We have heard time and time again from Thorsten Heins, CEO BlackBerry, about how BlackBerry 10 will provide a new user paradigm that will differ from the ‘in-out’ app paradigm that we have all been so familiar with. Suddenly (while over a cup of coffee this morning) it occurred to me that the pieces are finally starting to fit together, particularly in the aspect of communications.


First let me explain a little about the ‘in-out’ paradigm. Let’s say if you have a bunch of notifications; Facebook messages, Twitter replies, Emails from various accounts, WhatsApp messages, BBM messages, etc. Normally you would have to go into Notification Centre, tap Facebook messages, it launches the Facebook app and lets you reply. Then you open Notification Centre again, tap the Twitter notification, it launches twitter and let you reply to it. Then you open Notification Centre again, then tap on the WhatsApp notification, it launches WhatsApp and lets you reply. Then you open Notification Centre again… you get the idea.

Basically, you have to go in and out of various apps just to get things done. If you are on Windows Phone 8, there isn’t even a Notification Centre to speak of just yet.

So how will BlackBerry 10 change that?

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1. BlackBerry Hub

First piece of the puzzle, and something BlackBerry 10 users should be plenty familiar with is the Hub. An aggregator for all my communications content + Notifications. Call logs, BBM, Text Messages, Voicemail, Email accounts, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. To learn more about the advantages of the Hub, please read my previous post here.

In a nutshell, since BlackBerry Hub combines all my communications into a central location, I have no need to jump in and out of different apps to get things done. I can reply to Facebook messages/comments, reply to Twitter mentions/direct messages, reply all my emails, WhatsApp messages, BBM messages, etc all within the Hub itself.

Hub by itself is great, but still there is a minor problem. Even though there is a simple gesture to get into the Hub no matter where you are, you still have to get in the Hub before you can get to any new messages that you receive. Which is where the next part of the puzzle comes in.

2. Actionable Notifications

Yesterday, Kris Simundson, an awesome member of the CrackBerry community, revealed that there will be Actionable Notifications in BlackBerry’s next major OS update, 10.2. Basically when a new message comes in, you’ll get a Toast Notification. You can then either choose to close that, or reply to that message immediately, even on the lock screen itself. Best of all, they are customisable, and you can choose whether or not you wish to see them.

Kris later revealed in a video preview, that you can go even deeper with the customisation, and only allow messages in your priority inbox to show up as a Toast (you can mark individual messages/contacts/groups as priority). This in my opinion is the best part about it. The ability to show only what you yourself deem as an important notification, rather than just showing you everything, even the ones that aren’t important.

Actionable notifications are not exactly new in the industry. On Android, select items have the ability to be ‘Actionable’, such as Text messages and Emails. Or in the case of WhatsApp, it’s more like a pop-up/toast notification that you can reply to as well if you enabled the settings within the app. However this is an option that is not on iOS and WP at all. (at least not without jailbreaking)

It is still unclear as to what type of notification will be able to make use of this feature. My hope is that whatever I can do within the Hub, it will be able to make use of Actionable Notifications as well (if it makes sense). Emails tend to command a much longer reply, since typically the messages are longer too, so that wouldn’t be feasible. But for things like WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook messages/comments, Twitter replies/direct messages, I don’t see why they can’t make use of Actionable Notifications. Anyway, only time will tell. Better not get our hopes up too high just yet.

Alright, so now I don’t even have to go into the Hub to reply to my messages. But, what about when I want to initiate a new message? I still have to go into the Hub with the quick gesture, tap on compose, select what I want to compose, who I want to send it to, before I can even start typing my message. But, I still need to go into the Hub first before I can compose a new message. Which brings me to the next piece of the puzzle.

3. Instant Actions

With Instant Actions, it allows me to make use of Universal Search to take ‘Actions’ such as posting a Tweet, posting a Facebook/LinkedIn update. Start a conversation with a contact via email, BBM, SMS or a good old fashion call. Create a note, or task. To learn more about the advantages of the Instant Actions, you can read my post on it here.

Since Universal Search can be activated on a Physical Keyboard BB10 device by just typing (or tapping the search icon on full touch devices), it reduces the amount of steps normally required to achieve the same task.

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So what does these 3 features adds up to? A trinity that leads to communication bliss. A faster, and more efficient way to go about communication. But the puzzle is far from complete just yet. There are still pieces of the puzzle that BlackBerry needs to bring out to make it truly unbeatable in my opinion.

- Give developers the APIs to integrate their services into BlackBerry Hub, and make use of Instant Actions. Or at least try to work with more developers to do so if they don’t want to over-crowd things. Prime example of apps that could really benefit from these APIs would be IM clients such as WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, Line, Kik, etc. While WhatsApp and Skype are both in the Hub already, they still don’t make use of Instant Actions. I would love to be able to just type “wa Ty” to create a WhatsApp message to Ty.

- Right now when you use Instant Actions to start a new BBM conversation, or SMS for example, it brings you into the Hub. Wouldn’t it be great if after you tap on the ‘Actions’, it allows you to key in your message directly within Universal Search much like Actionable Notification?

- Perhaps a way to get into Universal Search within any app. Perhaps swipe up and then to the left to get into Universal Search, the opposite of what the Hub gesture is. This gesture would mean that Universal Search could be accessed anywhere on the OS. It will benefit not just Instant Actions, but it will make it faster to launch another app, or search for a file on the OS.

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I have heard some people comment that BBOS 7 is still better at communication features. While that is still largely true, but I think BB10 has far more potential than BBOS 7 will have. Especially with the features mentioned above. If BlackBerry could implement all these new features while at the same time add back features within BBOS 7, BB10 will be a communication powerhouse. It will become the OS that will truly change how people use their devices.

The BlackBerry Hub Advantage

Over the past few days, I stopped using a BlackBerry completely as an experiment. In the past when I tried other platforms, I still always have a BlackBerry with me at all times. People often say that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. So here I am, Day 3, telling you what I miss most from BlackBerry 10.


I started with a Windows Phone 8 device, and then promptly switching to Android 4.2.2. The thing that I miss the most? BlackBerry Hub.

I like how all my feeds are in one location. David Lundblad, Design Director at Mobile Nations, spoke my thoughts exactly in the recent Talk Mobile 2013 Hangouts video.

"I don’t care where the message was from, so stop making me go into all these different places. I just care about the content."

This pretty much sums up what I love most about BlackBerry Hub, an aggregator for all my communication content + Notifications. Call logs, BBM, Text Messages, Voicemail, 3 of my Email accounts, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.

So how is BlackBerry Hub better than a Notification Centre found on Android?

1. No more jumping in and out

Notification Centre only shows you new items you have yet to view yet. Tapping on most notifications still brings you to the respective app to respond. You then have to go back into Notification Centre again to select another item. There still isn’t actionable notification for most of the items.

With BlackBerry Hub, I don’t even need to jump into any other location. I can reply to WhatsApp messages, BBM, Facebook Messages/Comments/Likes/Tag, Twitter Direct Messages/Mentions/Replies, etc, all without ever leaving the Hub or launching the respective apps.

2. Always there when you need it

If you have read the item, it disappears from Notification Centre. So if for example I read a message (WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, etc) that I don’t feel the need to immediately respond, when I want to reply, I have to go into the app to find that item again.

With BlackBerry Hub, the contents are all aggregated into a single easily accessible location. In the scenario described above, all I have to do is go back into the Hub again and the item will be in the same place as it were when it came in. Again, reducing the need to launch an app just to do a quick reply. Launching apps meant loading content, loading the app, which meant use of data and battery

3. More efficient

In the morning I often have new items from various sources (Emails, WhatsApp, BBM messages, Twitter, Facebook, etc). In notification centre, I would need to go through them one by one. Which meant jumping in and out of different applications. And no, if you just swipe it away, it will still be considered an “unread” item. Which meant that for emails, when you get to your desktop, you need to mark it as read. For facebook notifications it will still show up when you go into the app or webpage.

With BlackBerry Hub, I read what I think is important based on the preview, act on them, and just ignore the junk. When I’m done, tap and hold the date, tap “mark prior read”, tap “OK”. Simple as that. Fast, and efficient. The items will be synchronised to the respective apps as “read”, so I have no need to do the same thing twice to keep my inbox/notification uncluttered.

4. Filtering

Well, there isn’t really one on Notification Centre. Items just show up as they come in.

With BlackBerry Hub, I simply swipe right, and then I can filter the content according to its source. Which makes it a lot easier to go through large amount of content.

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While BlackBerry Hub is great, but it still isn’t perfect yet. Right now there are a limited amount of sources that can be in the Hub, like for example the only 3rd party app in the Hub now completely is WhatsApp, and Skype partially. BlackBerry have said back then that the API for integrating into the Hub will be released to developers to make use of. Then there are still a few bugs within the Hub that needs fixing, and features that needs implementing (remote search). But I think it is definitely a step in the right direction.

If apps like Line, Kik, WeChat, Instagram, for example built native apps for BB10, they could be integrated into the Hub. Which means chatting right within the Hub. Replying to comments on an Instagram post, or even posting a new photo right from within the Hub. Lots of possibilities and potential here.

I understand this might not be as much of an issue for others, and a notification centre will be enough for their needs, but for me it isn’t. BlackBerry Hub is a hell of a killer app. One that I seriously miss right now as I use an Android device. One that makes my life so much easier, and saves me loads of time everyday.