BlackBerry Priv Gets Camera, Keyboard, and Launcher App Updates

BlackBerry last week started rolling out several app updates for the BlackBerry Launcher, BlackBerry Keyboard, and BlackBerry Camera via Google Play. It is worth mentioning that all these updates are only for the company's latest Android smartphone - the BlackBerry Priv.

In the camera department,

BlackBerry Priv as a part of the camera update v1.0.0.3803 gets the ability to record videos in slow motion (120 frames per second) function, which can play back at 30fps. The option is placed under the camera's "Mode" section. Audio however, is not enabled for slow motion for now. The app also receives improved selfie stick compatibility along with some general stability and performance improvements.

The BlackBerry Keyboard

v1.2.0.5147 for the Priv smartphone now includes better predictive typing with more accuracy and control, adds Michael C. from BlackBerry Research In Motion (RIM) team in a blog post. In addition, the predictive typing can now also learn words with numbers. The Priv's prediction engine has also received a boost in the update. The technology can now better understand the user's typing style by processing a user's emails and social messages.

The keyboard will be able to suggest names from the smartphone's contact list during composing an email. An improved cursor locator along with on-screen arrows now feature in Fine Cursor Control mode on the physical keyboard for easy control. In addition, now when a user holds the delete button for more than two seconds, the handset will delete the sentence or a phrase on a word-by-word basis. Tapping on a physical button will place the cursor on the display more accurately.

As for the BlackBerry Launcher v1.0.0.4490 for the Priv, the update brings "an enhanced user experience" with separate view for personal and work apps. Also, the default view of the app have now been separated in to Recent, Work, and Personal.

In the Overview mode, users can now set any panel as the 'Home' panel and delete them by pressing down for several seconds. Removing application from the Home Screen can be done with a flick gesture. The update enables pop-up widgets by default.

Besides an improved overlay to provide more information on app locations, launcher settings and more, the update will now grey out the app installed on microSD card letting users know that they are inaccessible.

Virtual reality set to transform filmmaking

Chris Milk stepped onto a TED Conference stage and took the audience on an awe-inducing trip into the future of movies. While much of the early attention on virtual reality has focused on use of the immersive technology in video games, Milk and his US startup Vrse are using it to transform storytelling and filmgoing. "We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," Milk said. "It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way... I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world." He had everyone in the Vancouver audience at TED , which ended Friday, hold Google Cardboard viewers to their eyes for what was billed as the world's collective virtual reality experience. Google Cardboard gear is literally that -- cardboard

Explained: Camera Improvements in the New HTC 10

With the HTC 10, the Taiwanese company is promising to undo the past wrongs in the cameras of its previous flagship phones. The camera has long a weak point in HTC devices. At first, HTC sacrificed image resolution in the M8 and made the size of individual pixels larger to capture more light (what HTC called Ultrapixel). But the resulting 4 megapixel images were often fuzzy, especially when cropped or enlarged. To fix the issue, in its next flagship - the M9 - HTC went with smaller individual pixels in a 20-megapixel camera last year, but it still underperformed in extreme situations, such as indoors and close-ups. In the HTC 10, the company attempts to strike a balance with larger individual pixels (1.55µm), but not as large as before and a 12 megapixel sensor in its camera coupled with a ƒ/1.8 lens. HTC accepts that in the imaging performance in the M9 was not up to the kind of spec of what they really like to see in a flagship. HTC is giving a slight boost to the selfi...

Freedom 251: 30,000 Units Sold, Components for Up to 2.5 Million Will Be Imported

Ringing Bells, the makers of the Rs. 251 smartphone - the Freedom 251 - confirmed to Gadgets 360 on Tuesday that it has still only accepted payments for 30,000 units of the phone. It also added that the components for these phones will be imported, and only assembled in India, not made here. Ringing Bells stopped accepting orders on February 19, and claims to have received over 70 million registrations. The company President and Director both repeatedly stated that the price of the phone would be made possible through economies of scale, and making the phone in India to cut out import costs. Economies of scale? However, in a discussion with Gadgets 360 the company revealed that it had only sold 30,000 units of the phone on day one. The company has now confirmed that it has not sent out the payment emails to anyone else who registered - "we were working out details of cash on delivery, which we are announcing now, so we will be sending emails to the first 2.5...

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