[iRy757]

Does anyone have any solid information on some of the specs for the first BB10 phone released? Let's assume the Dev Alpha device will be the first one mass produced and put on the shelves, are there any basic specs that would be nice to know as of now? Considering the release isn't too far away, there has to be something floating around..

[Laura Knotek]

We do not know what the specs will be; however, RIM has stated that the Dev Alpha device will not be released as an actual product for sale.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[iRy757]

Oh okay. I feel like its safe to assume that the first one released would be similar to that, quite similar. What do you think?

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[Laura Knotek]

I think it will look a heck of a lot nicer.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[iRy757]

Oh I'm sure they will definitely polish it up. But I do indeed like the looks of the Dev Alpha device. I'm just hoping they release something similar to the TK Victory concept!

Sent from my 9930 using Tapatalk

[peter9477]

Some tidbits to answer part of this. (Note that this is the first thread I've checked in this new forum, and almost the first chance I've had to check CrackBerry since the BB10 Jam even started, so I may well have missed some discussion.)

The CPU is the OMAP4460, running at what appears to be 1.5GHz.

The rear camera is an 8MP auto-focus with flash. There are significant other improvements internally, including the "burst mode" that was in a keynote demo. Hot stuff!

Screen is 1280x768, apparently 355DPI according to one API I queried, but I have not measured that myself to confirm. (Another API claimed 602.1DPI but I'm pretty sure we can discount that answer. ;-) )

The sound comes out from the "bottom" when held in portrait mode (the default) but there's also a speaker grille (or what looks like one) on the front near the top beside the front-facing camera, so I'm not clear whether this is potentially stereo (when in landscape mode), or if they had a choice of two speakers but hooked up only one, or whether the "speaker grille" is not that at all. There's supposed to be a proximity sensor so that may be what it is.

There appears to be a microphone hole along the top edge, where there's also the power button and headphone jack, but given that sound comes out the bottom I suspect there's also a microphone down there.

Battery is approximately 5Wh (probably a tad more), and the screen uses roughly 1W when on at minimum brightness (contrast with PlayBook, where Battery Guru reports more like 1.6-1.9W). That means only about 5 hours of "on" time right now... this is clearly not how it would be in a real phone, but that's lots for development purposes.

SIM slot is present, but I'm Canadian and therefore second class, so they didn't give us any SIMs... ;-)

There's NFC as well.

Not sure that's a complete picture of the differences, but it's what I know so far.

Pretty much everything else that's in the PlayBook is here too in the same form, so GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, media buttons, RAM, Flash (16GB), etc...

[jasperlin]

pretty sure it's going to be sporting an OMAP 5 processor. there were many tips out there

NFC, wifi, lte, at least 1 gig of ram, dual core OMAP 5 processor, front and back facing camera, gps, bt for sure.

[_StephenBB81]

I would expect to see the actual device differ a lot from the DevAlpha since RIM wants the DevAlpha's back to give us NEW release devices,

I from he look of the UI an Apps, I would suspect that RIM is looking at increasing the RAM and the Clock beyond that of the PlayBook

[xsacha]

pretty sure it's going to be sporting an OMAP 5 processor. there were many tips out there

NFC, wifi, lte, at least 1 gig of ram, dual core OMAP 5 processor, front and back facing camera, gps, bt for sure.

Huh? It's well-known they are releasing devices with Qualcomm 8660 and 8960 (i.e. Snapdragon S4). They have about 6 devices in the firmware running on these chips right now.
There is currently no OMAP 5 code in the firmwares.

I check every firmware update to see the progress that's happening.

[samab]

Huh? It's well-known they are releasing devices with Qualcomm 8660 and 8960 (i.e. Snapdragon S4). They have about 6 devices in the firmware running on these chips right now.
There is currently no OMAP 5 code in the firmwares.

I check every firmware update to see the progress that's happening.

If you are basing your arguments on just what's on the firmware, that's not really reliable --- they could be abandoned RIM projects. Unless you are at BB10 Jam and was told by RIM executives about the use of Qualcomm chipsets.

As I said in another thread, I always assumed that RIM would make a MSM8960 BB10 phone. But now I am not so sure --- because the dev alpha came with a OMAP4460 chip.

Circumstances change, deadline misses --- RIM could have gone back and resurrect the earlier abandoned colt handset --- just so that developers don't have to be like Android developers who had to make "optimized for Tegra 2" games (that won't work on other chipsets). Developers need time to optimize these games --- and you don't want to give them a Dev Alpha on one chipset and then the final shipping product on a different chipset.

[tarmpung]

any info about Bluetooth connection? 3.0 or more? It's very necessary for Bridge. Some rumors show that it is only 2.1

[samab]

Playbook already has a Bluetooth 4.0 chip, RIM just not written the drivers yet.

Officially both Playbook with OS 2.0 and the mini bluetooth keyboard are Bluetooth 3.1 devices.

https://www.bluetooth.org/tpg/EPL_De...roductID=20291

Bluetooth 3.1 --- means classic Bluetooth high-powered radio with new sleeping technology for power saving.

Broadcom working to enable 10-year battery life for Bluetooth peripherals | The Verge

[Blackberry_boffin]

Huh? It's well-known they are releasing devices with Qualcomm 8660 and 8960 (i.e. Snapdragon S4). They have about 6 devices in the firmware running on these chips right now.
There is currently no OMAP 5 code in the firmwares.

I check every firmware update to see the progress that's happening.

The S4 is in great shortage at the moment and if RIM have decided to run with it one hopes it will not cause problems at some point.

[peter9477]

Two other minor additions on the features: vibrator (apparently...) and a magnetically activated sleep switch (you can test that out by playing with a 9900 holster, for example).

[mphillips828]

These features (vibrator and magnetic sleep switch) where did you see these features posted?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[peter9477]

They're not "posted", I'm describing stuff that I or others have discovered in the device.

@JohnPinkerton demonstrated the magnetic switch feature to me, and I was able to make mine sleep the same way.

The apparent vibrator (I didn't say it's definitely in the Alpha) manifests itself in the form of objects in the PPS (Persistent Publish-Subscribe) subsystem in the filesystem, under the power control area.

Also a proximity sensor, presumably to detect when the device is held near your head.

[kennyliu]

Huh? It's well-known they are releasing devices with Qualcomm 8660 and 8960 (i.e. Snapdragon S4). They have about 6 devices in the firmware running on these chips right now.
There is currently no OMAP 5 code in the firmwares.

I check every firmware update to see the progress that's happening.

I hope you are right about S4 Krait, but that 8660 Scorpion looks a bit outdated. I am just concerned that it will have a significant toll on the battery life.

[Thunderbuck]

Do we know if BT 4.0 is supported on the dev Alpha? I'm going to assume it WILL be supported on the final release, but if it's there now that would be helpful...

[samab]

Playbook has BT 4.0 hardware but no drivers.

Playbook bluetooth keyboard took a year to come out because Playbook has no BT 3.1 drivers.

, TI who makes the Bluetooth chip that is inside the Playbook doesn't have BT 4.0 drivers either.

TI WL1283 chip can't set LE mode - Low Power RF Bluetooth� Low Energy & ANT Forum - Low Power RF & Wireless Connectivity - TI E2E Community

[lnichols]

I remember reading that the OMAP5 is supposed to be able to be a drop in replacement for a platform configured to run the OMAP4 series, i.e. no coding changes required for it to work. So if they are planning to go with the OMAP5, and what if what I remember reading is correct, then the software that will be running on the DevAlpha would work just fine if the OMAP4 processor were replaced with an OMAP5. Personally I would prefer the OMAP 5 because of the two lower power M4 cores to handle remedial functions. Also the OMAP5430 should be available 3rd Quarter of this year. in addition I think that other manufacturers are going to sucking up what Qualcomm S4's hit the market and could hurt RIM's rollout if they went with the S4.

[samab]

QNX doesn't run on Cortex M cores, so they are useless.

It takes 2-3 quarters from the time a chip is available and the actual consumer product is ship. There is no way to ship OMAP 5 stuff by christmas.

Qualcomm's integrated chipset works a lot better for QNX as the OS runs both the baseband and the application processor.

[lnichols]

QNX doesn't run on Cortex M cores, so they are useless.

Really!?!? So when TI mentioned QNX and RIM at Mobile World Conference this year as supporting the OMAP 5430, thats was BS, or they just going to let those cores do nothing?

Fine Oils: TI OMAP5430 Demo at MWC

Also the Cortex-M4 uses the ARMv7-ME instruction set, which QNX should be able to support just fine either now, or with some additional libraries since they support ARMv7 instruction set already. And since RIM own's QNX, I'm pretty sure they could get QNX to support whatever they want to use. Also this blog has buy someone tracking the Semiconductor world has heard:

The BlackBerry 10 ‘London’ superphone is, by all accounts from multiple sources I’ve talked to and not just the rumormonger blogger sites, based on OMAP 5. It’s consistent with several “delays” of the device launch in waiting for OMAP 5 production. If RIM is to survive this spiral they’re in, the QNX operating system running on OMAP 5 will be at the center of their leapfrog attempt which will unfold in the next few months. Either way, things are gonna change drastically as the superphone takes shape.

Link to that article here and was done on April 24th of this year.

SemiWiki - Smart mobile SoCs: Texas Instruments

[samab]

Really!?!? So when TI mentioned QNX and RIM at Mobile World Conference this year as supporting the OMAP 5430, thats was BS, or they just going to let those cores do nothing?

Fine Oils: TI OMAP5430 Demo at MWC

Also the Cortex-M4 uses the ARMv7-ME instruction set, which QNX should be able to support just fine either now, or with some additional libraries since they support ARMv7 instruction set already. And since RIM own's QNX, I'm pretty sure they could get QNX to support whatever they want to use. Also this blog has buy someone tracking the Semiconductor world has heard:

Link to that article here and was done on April 24th of this year.

SemiWiki - Smart mobile SoCs: Texas Instruments

You were talking specifically about the "low power" Cortex M cores --- which runs on Thumb/Thumb2 instruction set. QNX have NEVER supported Thumb/Thumb2 instruction sets.

Cortex-M4 Processor - ARM

foundry27 : View Wiki Page: ARMv7_support

QNX will run OMAP5 CPU perfectly fine --- but QNX will NEVER run the low power Cortex M cores that reside inside the OMAP5 chip.

[anon(4018671)]

samab or anyone else ... the Foundry27 article samab linked to is from 2009 so "may" not be up to date.

[samab]

QNX has NEVER supported Thumb/Thumb2 instruction sets.

So what does that mean?

It means that QNX will run on the main OMAP5 processor perfectly fine, but it will not run natively on the little supplementary Cortex M4 cores.

It doesn't mean that RIM can't use these Cortex M4 cores --- TI does provide binary drivers for these Cortex M4 cores. Theoretically QNX can treat these Cortex M4 cores like a DSP --- because they are used as a glorified DSP anyway.