Andre Yoskowitz
27 Apr 2010 12:27
Research In Motion has shown off their upcoming BlackBerry OS 6 today, which improves on most of the past OS features, with much improved touch support.
Th new browser has tab switching, favorites, multi-touch, using WebKit. The tabs have transparent overlay.
There is an updated media player, one that looks much more like the cover-flow used by Apple in the iPhone.
BGR adds: "RIM has finally implemented system-wide kinetic scrolling with rubberbanding. This makes the experience a bit more fluid when scrolling through lists, web pages, emails, and the like. There is also multitouch system-wide, from the web browser to the photos application, and yes, pinch to zoom is in there."
Overall, the OS looks more modern, with the messaging/email inbox's looking much cleaner and updated. Thumbnails are larger and clearer so users can see where the messages they are receiving originated from (Twitter, email, text, Facebook, etc)
The Home screen is also now completely customizable, with different homescreens allowing for apps, pages, favorites. There does not appear to be widget support, however.
There is also now Gesture use, which BGR explains after testing the OS: "If you tap and hold (obviously a touchscreen device is required), you’ll get a 9 icon group centered on the screen which is basically a pretty context menu. For instance, you could be composing an email, and instead of pressing Menu + Send, you could tap and hold on the email, see the popup window, and hit the send icon there. Another use would be when emailing photos or videos from your device, just tap and hold on an item there, see the popup, and then just send the item."