Developers can start submitting apps for RIM's BlackBerry 10 OS beginning Oct. 10, the company announced Tuesday. The day just happens to be 10/10, in case developers forget which OS they're writing apps for.
While that's exciting news for those looking to add to the 100,000 apps currently occupying App World, users might be more enthused to know that apps for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare will come with the operating system at launch.
When that date is no one knows yet, but RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said carrier testing kicks off next month.
His company demonstrated what appears to be a native Facebook app, one purportedly developed by RIM and not Facebook itself.
Reports point to it being quite similar to the app for Apple's iOS.
Integrated messaging
The operating system's "main page," so to speak, is the BlackBerry Hub, where users can access their most time-sensitive material.
Here, messages from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are accessible.
All this plays into RIM's "BlackBerry Flow" user interface, a design the company hopes will create a seamless experience on all fronts.
Even the BlackBerry Balance feature, which allows for a delineation between work and personal parts of the phone, seems to strive for a practical yet polished user experience.
A new version of App World will also come with BlackBerry 10's launch. The update will reportedly allow users to purchase music, movie, and television shows, though just which media partners are teaming up with RIM isn't clear yet.
Developers with the latest Dev Alpha B version of BlackBerry 10 have access to the new App World immediately, but when the rest of us get ahold of what it's got in store RIM didn't say.
Here's hoping, for RIM's sake, that BB 10 is enough to woo back users and win some new ones.
