Live from BlackBerry World 2012 in Orlando

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Orlando, FL - There's a buzz here at the Marriott Orlando World Center in anticipation of this week's BlackBerry World which is the largest annual gathering for the BlackBerry ecosystem, and the place where the community behind BlackBerry devices, services and solutions gather to learn, share and network. 

This one's a big deal. As Research In Motion prepares to unveil much anticipated new smartphone hardware later this year running on an entirely revamped BlackBerry 10 operating system, many believe can make or break RIM's future prospects for success in the smartphone market it created. This is their chance to rally the troops and create excitement for upcoming hardware and software.

Click to read more ...

BlackBerry 10 Development Device appears, looks a lot like a mini PlayBook

We're just a day away from BlackBerry World 2012 and BlackBerry Jam in Orlando (stay tuned for our live reports starting tomorrow afternoon) and there's already a photo of the BlackBerry 10 development device which RIM is expected to seed to lucky developers. More images of the device can be seen at CrackBerry.com. 

If this is indeed a real device and not a clevery Photoshopped hoax, it looks like a multi-touch slate (no physical keyboard!) that has borrowed freely from the materials and design of the PlayBook. It looks sturdy and reasonably rugged. It also appears to have a front facing camera and a rear camera with an LED flash. Other than that, it is hard to tell what this thing can do or how the QNX OS will look on it. I'm crossing my fingers that we will see a preview in the coming days.