I sent the article to [email protected], but they didn't think it necessary to cover the story, anyways BlackBerry OS 10.2 is now available for download on BB10 smartphones.
Here are some of the features:
Lock screen notification previews
BlackBerry 10.2 lock screen
One of the most visible updates in BlackBerry 10.2 are lock screen notification previews. In 10.1, you could see the notification count on a per-app basis, but now you can tap each of those icons for a sneak peek at what exactly those notifications are. Though this is most handy for e-mail, you’ll also get previews from other Hub-enabled apps, like Twitter and Google Talk. It’s worth noting that if you’re on a corporate server and using Balance to separate personal and work info, your work correspondence won’t show up here unless the work side is unlocked. Lock screen notification previews are a really sensible way to see what’s happening at a glance without having to unlock your device.
Priority Hub
BlackBerry 10.2 priority hub
Priority Hub is the next biggest addition to BlackBerry 10.2. Not only is this a new section of the Hub, but it also adds visibility to other notifications throughout the Hub with a little red stripe. (You can get another little stripe on the left side to color code your different e-mail accounts, too.) By default, conversations you start, messages sent from people with the same last name as you, and e-mails flagged as high importance show up in the Priority Hub, but you can also manually designate contacts and conversations to show up. If there are messages being marked as priority that aren’t, you can also unflag them to set future filtering. This is a solid way to quickly see what’s important without having to dig through a long list of unread messages.
Attachment view
BlackBerry 10.2 Attachment view
Attachment view is an updated section of the Hub which lets you view all of the files sent your way recently, filtered and organized by sender, date, file name, or type. View can be toggled to a large finger-friendly tile view or a more compact list view. There’s a search bar here too in order to find exactly what you’re looking for and download it without having to crack open any individual messages. If you sling a lot of documents back and forth over e-mail, you’re bound to end up using the attachment view a bunch.
Instant preview and reply
BlackBerry Z30 instant reply
Instant previews and replies are an awesome addition to BlackBerry 10. These toast notifications pop up at the top of the screen as banners no matter which app you have open. You can either tap the banner to launch into the notification, or the little X to dismiss. These can be toggled on a per-app basis, including e-mail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Of course, you don’t necessarily want a banner for every new e-mail, so the option is there for only priority contacts and messages to pop up. SMS and BBM notifications are a little more awesome in that they also have a reply button, so you can shoot back messages without having to launch into the respective app.
I Will be Late
BlackBerry 10.2 Calendar
The native calendar app has a new option for upcoming meetings. When your appointment reminder pops up, you’ll have the option to send out an I Will be Late message to all meeting attendees - just tap the icon, move the slider depending on how late you’re going to be, and hit send. Everyone will get an e-mail letting them know what’s up. I’d really like to have the option to send location at the same time so folks can see exactly how far away you are from getting to the meeting location, but maybe in the next patch. Aside from that, the calendar also lets you subscribe to web iCal calendars now, and the UI for creating new meetings has been simplified dramatically. That new UI include a great new time picker which shows a short view of your schedule’s timeline.
Reply Now
BlackBerry 10.2 priority calling
Sometimes you have to ignore a call from a friend, but that’s no reason to leave them high and dry. The new Reply Now feature lets you send an automated SMS or BBM message when you decline or ignore a call from them. There are three messages already filled out for you to use, but you can change them to whatever you like. I’ll be honest - I haven’t been able to get this to work so far, but the feature’s apparently in there, tucked away in the settings.
New copy/paste buttons
Copy and paste was a little bit of a hassle on BlackBerry 10.1, but they’ve significantly improved it. Now instead of having to double-tap selected text and chose your action from a side menu, buttons now appear in-line with text so you’ve got cut, copy, and paste actions ready to go immediately. If you're wondering what they each do, you can always hold down a press on the button to get a label to pop up, just like other menu items throughout BB10. This paradigm extends beyond that too - you can also share selected text to any app that plugs into the system-wide menu, and in the browser, you can launch directly into web searches for a selected term thanks to a dedicated in-line icon. Tack this on top of the refined cursor selector in 10.1, and handling text in any way has become a lot easier.
New typing audio feedback
So long as we’re talking about text, the typing experience on BlackBerry 10.2 has added fresh audio feedback. Though this amounts to little more than a couple of new sound effects when you use shift, symbols, or backspace (which has a new animation for the swipe gesture, by the way), it adds a significant amount of confidence when typing on a touchscreen.
Here are some of the features:
Lock screen notification previews
BlackBerry 10.2 lock screen
One of the most visible updates in BlackBerry 10.2 are lock screen notification previews. In 10.1, you could see the notification count on a per-app basis, but now you can tap each of those icons for a sneak peek at what exactly those notifications are. Though this is most handy for e-mail, you’ll also get previews from other Hub-enabled apps, like Twitter and Google Talk. It’s worth noting that if you’re on a corporate server and using Balance to separate personal and work info, your work correspondence won’t show up here unless the work side is unlocked. Lock screen notification previews are a really sensible way to see what’s happening at a glance without having to unlock your device.
Priority Hub
BlackBerry 10.2 priority hub
Priority Hub is the next biggest addition to BlackBerry 10.2. Not only is this a new section of the Hub, but it also adds visibility to other notifications throughout the Hub with a little red stripe. (You can get another little stripe on the left side to color code your different e-mail accounts, too.) By default, conversations you start, messages sent from people with the same last name as you, and e-mails flagged as high importance show up in the Priority Hub, but you can also manually designate contacts and conversations to show up. If there are messages being marked as priority that aren’t, you can also unflag them to set future filtering. This is a solid way to quickly see what’s important without having to dig through a long list of unread messages.
Attachment view
BlackBerry 10.2 Attachment view
Attachment view is an updated section of the Hub which lets you view all of the files sent your way recently, filtered and organized by sender, date, file name, or type. View can be toggled to a large finger-friendly tile view or a more compact list view. There’s a search bar here too in order to find exactly what you’re looking for and download it without having to crack open any individual messages. If you sling a lot of documents back and forth over e-mail, you’re bound to end up using the attachment view a bunch.
Instant preview and reply
BlackBerry Z30 instant reply
Instant previews and replies are an awesome addition to BlackBerry 10. These toast notifications pop up at the top of the screen as banners no matter which app you have open. You can either tap the banner to launch into the notification, or the little X to dismiss. These can be toggled on a per-app basis, including e-mail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Of course, you don’t necessarily want a banner for every new e-mail, so the option is there for only priority contacts and messages to pop up. SMS and BBM notifications are a little more awesome in that they also have a reply button, so you can shoot back messages without having to launch into the respective app.
I Will be Late
BlackBerry 10.2 Calendar
The native calendar app has a new option for upcoming meetings. When your appointment reminder pops up, you’ll have the option to send out an I Will be Late message to all meeting attendees - just tap the icon, move the slider depending on how late you’re going to be, and hit send. Everyone will get an e-mail letting them know what’s up. I’d really like to have the option to send location at the same time so folks can see exactly how far away you are from getting to the meeting location, but maybe in the next patch. Aside from that, the calendar also lets you subscribe to web iCal calendars now, and the UI for creating new meetings has been simplified dramatically. That new UI include a great new time picker which shows a short view of your schedule’s timeline.
Reply Now
BlackBerry 10.2 priority calling
Sometimes you have to ignore a call from a friend, but that’s no reason to leave them high and dry. The new Reply Now feature lets you send an automated SMS or BBM message when you decline or ignore a call from them. There are three messages already filled out for you to use, but you can change them to whatever you like. I’ll be honest - I haven’t been able to get this to work so far, but the feature’s apparently in there, tucked away in the settings.
New copy/paste buttons
Copy and paste was a little bit of a hassle on BlackBerry 10.1, but they’ve significantly improved it. Now instead of having to double-tap selected text and chose your action from a side menu, buttons now appear in-line with text so you’ve got cut, copy, and paste actions ready to go immediately. If you're wondering what they each do, you can always hold down a press on the button to get a label to pop up, just like other menu items throughout BB10. This paradigm extends beyond that too - you can also share selected text to any app that plugs into the system-wide menu, and in the browser, you can launch directly into web searches for a selected term thanks to a dedicated in-line icon. Tack this on top of the refined cursor selector in 10.1, and handling text in any way has become a lot easier.
New typing audio feedback
So long as we’re talking about text, the typing experience on BlackBerry 10.2 has added fresh audio feedback. Though this amounts to little more than a couple of new sound effects when you use shift, symbols, or backspace (which has a new animation for the swipe gesture, by the way), it adds a significant amount of confidence when typing on a touchscreen.
