Usually, smartphones from most brands get about 2 years of software support, but that doesn’t apply to BlackBerry. About two and a half years from its official release,despite its less than impressive sales, the Canadian giant hasn’t forgotten the Priv. As CrackBerry reports, the former flagship has just received a new update which made the firmware version number jump to AAW068. The update weighs about 100 MB but it does not contain any new security patch as the date of the patch installed remains exactly the same as the previous version of the firmware.

Instead, the new update for BlackBerry Priv should contain a critical vulnerability fix. Further, the BlackBerry Password Keeper app has been updated with the support to the autofill feature which we can usually find on smartphones with Android Oreo installed. In order to use the feature, you need to enable it in the Settings menu. The update for BlackBerry Priv comes via OTA but according to some reports, it may cause issues with verification. In case you own a Priv and you have this issue, head to the source link below to discover how to fix it.

It is nice to see that BlackBerry is bringing security updates even to very old devices and it confirms this company is one of the best smartphones manufacturers in terms of security, even after its acquisition by TCL. BlackBerry Priv was announced in October 2015 and it hit the shelves in the following month. The handset features a QWERTY physical keyboard and a 5.4-inch display with a Quad HD resolution. The operating system installed was Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, but it has been updated to Marshmallow. Under the hood, it sports an hexa-core Snapdragon 808 SoC and 3 GB RAM.

(Source, Via)

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A patent for a new camera design has been granted to BlackBerry by the World Intellectual Patent Organization. The patent is titled “Electronic device and method of controlling same for capturing digital images,” and images provided show that it may be limited to devices with a slide mechanism.

The patent photos are of a phone that looks like the BlackBerry Priv with a slide out keyboard. Beneath the slide out keyboard is a front facing speaker.

Unlike the Priv which has its rear camera on the back of the part that houses the keyboard, the diagram in the patent has the camera (504) on the display part. What appears to be another camera (520) is referred to as an auxiliary lens.

The patent description explains that the auxiliary lens “may be any suitable lens to provide further digital camera functionality”. It may be a wide-angle lens for capturing more area in a photo, a fish-eye lens, a zoom lens, or a macro lens. Just imagine the various lenses of a DSLR camera but on a much smaller scale. However, in this case, you will most likely be left with one type of lens.

When you want to use the additional functionality of the auxiliary lens, you slide the phone down. For normal photos, you slide the device up. The hole labelled 522 is actually an optically clear cap to let the LED flash pass through when the phone is contracted. Since this is just like the Priv which has dual flash, the second hole serves the same function as 522.

Apart from the patent, TCL who is one of the current licensees of the BlackBerry brand also registered to trademark the name “Uni”. Last year, TCL trademarked the word “KEYone” before MWC and that became the name of the device which was initially referred to as BlackBerry Mercury.

While one may think the new name may be related to an upcoming BlackBerry phone, the Trademark Electronic Search System reveals it is related to a VR device. If you also remember, the VR glasses that can be purchased with the Idol 5 is called the UNI360 VR Goggles.

READ MORE: BlackBerry DTEK50 And DTEK60 Updated With The February Security Patch For Spectre And Meltdown

BlackBerry Mobile is reported to have two phones scheduled for release this year. Both will have QWERTY keyboards but the design is not yet known. There is a possibility one may be the device shown in the patent above while the other will be a successor to the KEYone.

(Sources: 1, 2 | Via)

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BlackBerry released the Priv as its first Android smartphone in 2015. It had a slide out physical keyboard and a touch display unlike the KEYone which has the keyboard and screen fused together.

The BlackBerry Priv launched with Android Lollipop and was updated to Marshmallow later even though the phone came after the announcement of Marshmallow.

For a flagship such as the Priv, you would expect it to get at least two major updates but that isn’t be the case. According to BlackBerry’s GM, Alex Thurber, the Priv won’t get updated to Android Nougat.

Speaking on a podcast, he explained that the reason for the decision is because it was difficult to get all the vendors on board for the update. However, security updates will still be pushed out.

READ MORE: BlackBerry to Launch New All-Touch Phone with Durable Body and Larger Battery in October

Mr. Thurber also said that the DTEK50 and DTEK60 may also suffer the same fate as they were reference products made by TCL to test the waters. The KEYone on the other hand will get updated to Android Oreo.

(Source)

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