UPDATE: BlackBerry have corrected that the FM Radio support will not be available for Z10 devices due to hardware compatibility but will be available for all other BB10 devices

BlackBerry in a media event at Kuala Lumpur today have shown us some features that we can expect that will come to BlackBerry 10 phones thru the OS 10.2.1 update that will most likely will be rolling out by end of this month.

Mr Koay Seng Tian the Country Product Manager of South East Asia have demoed some of the features to the media. Some of the OS 10.2.1 new features are as below:-

Picture Password Login

• This will be an added level of security to the existing device password where user can choose a picture they like and set a number as their password, where to login the user will match his/her prefer number to the section of the image that they have set.
• A small cosmetic improvement where the charging thunderbolt is now located next to the battery icon instead of inside it for easier viewing.

Option to answer messages in the lock screen

• This feature allows user to not just preview the incoming message but to also answer or respond to it by tapping on the message to response.

Customizable message ring tone

• OS10.2.1 allows user to set custom ring tones for their emails, BBM, SMS, Whatsapp etc. With this function user can preset certain ring tones for personal or for company use or for that special someone with a special ring tone.

Changes to emails

• Do you always feel that reading your email message is difficult even thought you have a big phone because those message seems kind of small? well with 10.2.1 you are now able to pinch to zoom to read your email messages.
• In the previous version of BB10 OS some users have complain the difficulty in highlighting a text for copy and paste purpose, this have been solved in 10.2.1 where users can press the Shift key on the keyboard and select the text they want by using the circle target to select the desired text.
• Pinch to sort allows user to sort they emails in the Hub by pinch and sort your emails as you want it.
• OS 10.2.1 also allows user to move from one email to the next without leaving the reading screen or go back to the hub/email to select the next email by pressing the next key icon.
• BlackBerry have improve the deletion of the emails where now you can select to delete emails in your phones the default or delete the email from your server as well.
• Also built in the 10.2.1 is the ability to allow user to download message while roaming and can readit later and can help to save on roaming cost.

Contacts

• A new feature is found in contacts where user can now create a contact group.

Browser

• With current on the go mobile browsing and the increase of information sometimes bookmarking or remembering the website that we have not finish reading is becoming a hassle, BlackBerry have now allow you the option to download your website and view it offline on the go.

Radio Function

•  OS10.2.1 also brings some good news on the FM portion where according to Mr Koay, all BlackBerry 10 devices (except for Z10) will get FM support and user can listen to their favourite FM radios using their handsfree.

New Call Screen

• BlackBerry have release a new call screen that allows user to swipe to left to answer and swipe right to reject call instead of the old way where user swipe down to answer and swipe up to reject. During the demo it was also shown during incoming all user can use the special function call “Reply Now” to send a predefine message o the caller. That is great if I am in a meeting and a not so urgent call come in, instead of ignoring it or reject it straight i can now choose to send a message to the caller to let him know im busy and will call him back.

Quick Settings

• Ever wanted to customize your drop down quick settings? well now in OS 10.2.1 you are able to customize it to your liking and it even come with a default flast light app that turns on your camera flash to act as a flash light.

Settings About

• There is improvement where now you can go to the device management/ app monitor and view the battery graph and charts of usage by your device and apps, that will allow you to close off apps that consume alot of battery.

New Langguage support

• BB10 now support Japanese langguage

Auto OS update

• Perhaps the most needed feature for BB10 devices is the ability of auto update your phone OS. This feature allows your phone to prompt you when there is an update available and allows you to update it thru wifi connections, it will also paused if the
  wifi connection is unavailale and continue when it detects wifi again.

Support of Android applications

• Well this is the much awaited feature for BB10 users, now instead of the BlackBerry world apps that you can download you can also now install Android apps via APK files where you can download from many android apps website. We will be sharing the list later on. This is great news as with this update BlackBerry have greatly improved the apps gap that it is facing.
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