RIM Demos BlackBerry 10, Offers Look Into Developer Hardware

Between BlackBerry World 2012 and the BlackBerry 10 Jam, RIM has its hands full at the moment. With all these BlackBerry fans together, what better place, though, to show-off the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform? Just like we heard, RIM hasn't been showcasing any of the retail hardware that will launch with the OS, but that's not stopping it from demonstrating some of the software features of the platform, as well as give us a closer look at that developer's handset we recently saw leaked.

RIM's Thorsten Heins took the stage at BlackBerry World to show the audience some of what BlackBerry 10 will have to offer. He highlighted a new virtual keyboard, which considering the relative absence of hardware keyboards on rumored BB10 devices, is going to be hugely important to the system's acceptance. The company's design is all about gestures, using finger-swipes to choose predicted words and shift between keyboard layouts. Other highlights of the operating system include a graphical multitasking interface, again looking to gestures to let you swipe aside the current app and peek at what's running underneath.

As for the BB10 developer hardware, some details continue to remain elusive, but the bigger picture is coming together. RIM's confirmed the handset has a 4.2-inch 720p display. Supposedly, there's also a gigabyte of RAM and 16GB of internal flash storage. We're still wondering just what processor RIM chose to employ.