BlackBerry 6 is being teased more often than a ginger kid at playtime, but we’ll play along with RIM’s PR game as long as they keep throwing us tidbits like this: the new BlackBerry 6 OS will pack in a ton of media upgrades, including new music management, a refined camera with Face Detection and improved scene modes, as well as improved sync and a brand new Podcast app.
Revealing all in a blog post (and accompanying press release) RIM says the BlackBerry 6 OS will offer “an intuitive multimedia experience right out of the box” with new additions in almost every media category.
The BlackBerry 6 music player now auto-detects album art and shows it wherever possible. If you’re listening to a track, are also shortcuts to find more music in your library from the same album or artist. In the photo browser, you’ll see pictures are grouped together by event too, as BlackBerry 6 uses time and date stamps to figure out which snaps go together.
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BlackBerry 6′s built-in YouTube abilities have been upgraded too. There’s a built-in video uploader, and YouTube searches are now included in BlackBerry 6 universal search. If your BlackBerry is hooked up to the web using Wi-Fi, RIM says you’ll see better quality YouTube clips too.
Most impressive is RIM’s new BlackBerry 6 camera control. There’s Face Detection which, from what we can see, locks on to at least three fizzogs at once, as well as new shooting modes to automatically choose the right settings for a scene. Tap to focus also looks present and correct, along with geotagging and clearer on-screen controls.
Podcast fans will be glad BlackBerry 6 comes with a new podcast app too, dubbed BlackBerry podcasts service, letting you subscribe to your favourite audio and video shows. RIM says it’ll be be preloaded with BlackBerry 6 when it ships in North America and is “completely mobile (so no PC required)” – we’re just hoping there are no nasty 20MB download limits over 3G, as is the case with the iPhone. Other details are scarce, however, with RIM promising to let slip more information soon.
Lastly, RIM promisses BlackBerry 6 will sync media to handsets in smarter ways, with the ability to copy your music or videos by individual artists or genres. It’s an important update, but we’ll wait until we see it in action before passing judgement. In the meantime, check out RIM’s latest BlackBerry 6 screenshots in our gallery above, or see its latest BlackBerry 6 video.
TBC | £TBC | BlackBerry
