Specifications of the yet-to-launched BlackBerry L-Series smartphone, the Z10, have been revealed via an official RIM document, reports Tech Radar.

The slides that have been circling the net in the past few months have been like literature for sales representatives but a slide in the document titled “Specifications of the BlackBerry 10 L-Series” isn’t like the older ones. It lives up to its name as it reveals that the new device will have a 4.2- inch, 1280×768 HD display, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and a 1,800 mAh battery.

The device which is likely to be named the BlackBerry Z10 will have two cameras, a front facing camera with a 2-megapixel resolution that will offer 2x digital zoom and 720p video recording and the camera at the back of the device will be sport an 8-megapixel sensor with a single LED flash, auto focus, 1080p video recording and 5x digital zoom.

When it comes to connectivity, RIM devices have done their share and the “Z10” will too with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 4G and NFC.

These specifications all match the many leaks and the alleged first hands-on video that came up yesterday.

The device will also in four guises to match the different frequencies and work efficiently all over the world.

The BlackBerry London will be the only non-4G variant with support for 21Mbps HSPA+, while the BlackBerry Laguna, BlackBerry Lisbon and BlackBerry Liverpool will all feature LTE technology.

The document also says that the specifications are subject to change so a few altercations can be expected before the big January 30 launch of BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry X10 smartphones.

Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

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As we predicted earlier in the day RIM CEO Thorsten Heins took the stage and gave us a sneak preview of BlackBerry OS 10 at BlackBerry World in Orlando. The device itself looks like shrunk version of the BlackBerry PlayBook, and it features a 4.2-inch display with a resolution of 1280×768 pixels, NFC, and a micro-SIM tray. The company also showed some features of the new OS.

The main focus around the OS is on glance and go information much like Windows Phone and Android. A new home screen menu was showed which basically had four widgets offering information at a glance. Besides this, the UI included a new feeds system and incorporation of gestures which enable the user to quickly move in and out of apps. RIM calls it the Cascading UI.

RIM also emphasized the fact that the new OS was build for a touch only device from the ground up and the idea was to provide a BlackBerry like typing experience in an all touch environment. Looks wise, the keyboard was reminiscent of a hardware keyboard which included even the frets separating rows that one has come accustomed with in the higher-end Bold series of BlackBerry smartphones.

RIM says that it has immensely reduced the latency between a touch interaction for a flawless typing experience. In the keyboard demo the company showed off intelligent features like word prediction, gestures and input mapping. All these features are very similar to the third party SwiftKey keyboard available for Android. For instance, the input mapping feature basically detects where the user normally hits the key and then the keyboard adapts to the user. The same can be achieved on a BB 10 keyboard.  Gestures in the keyboard include swipe to delete text, swipe to unveil symbols and numbers and word prediction would help eliminate keystrokes and predict words in a sentence stream.

Perhaps the most unique feature was the camera app. The new BlackBerry camera app allows the user to just tap on the screen to take a snap. But the cool stuff is hidden in a timeline tool which allows the user to select the moment before or after the snapshot, to get a perfect shot. This will be particularly handy for getting rid of closed eyes and missed moments. In all likelihood, the camera would take a shot as soon as the user has focused on the subject but before hitting the shutter and another shot after pressing the trigger.

RIM has not given any specific timeline for the launch of the first BB 10 smartphone but it is expected towards the end of this year. In the meanwhile checkout the sneak preview video that RIM has just posted.

First leaked a few months ago, the London is reported to be RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, which is scheduled to launch towards the end of the year but might be delayed. Today, however, a new photograph of the London has emerged, which looks completely different from the one we had seen earlier from what seems to be a slide from an internal presentation. The London (final commercial name will be different) is expected to run on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, have a 8.0 MP camera and will run the smartphone edition of the OS that one currently finds on the PlayBook. It looks downright hot in the picture though we are not sure whether the exaggerated bezel on the top should be bothering us as much as it does. What do you think?

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We’ve been gathering info on what exactly Research In Motion is planning to release over the next year and even into early 2013, and we now have a solid picture to share with you. While BlackBerry smartphones and devices will run on BlackBerry 10 starting in the fall, the company is still planning to launch BlackBerry 7 legacy devices in emerging and global markets leading up to the first BlackBerry 10 handset launch later this year. Let’s go through what we’re looking at from RIM over the next 15 months:

• RIM plans to introduce two new Curve smartphones within the next few months: the BlackBerry Curve 9230 and the BlackBerry Curve 9320. The 9230 will be an EDGE smartphone and the Curve 9320 will be an HSPA device.
• While we don’t have confirmation on the size, we have heard that RIM will introduce a new PlayBook tablet with 1.5GHz processor, built-in HSPA+ 42Mbps cellular data support and NFC around May or June.
• RIM’s BlackBerry London is still on track for a September launch.
• There is now another BlackBerry 10 smartphone in the works that will launch as part of RIM’s Bold series. The phone features a touchscreen display and QWERTY keyboard, and it is planned for a December release.
• A QWERTY slider running BlackBerry 10 has been talked about for the first quarter of 2013.

There could obviously be some minor updates to existing products like the Curve series down the road, for instance, but this looks should be a pretty complete view of what the company is working on right now. And for once, there aren’t 18 different product SKUs to worry about.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

Bad products, horrible software and no cohesive vision have seemingly turned Research In Motion into a company without motion at this point. Throw in a huge delay before BlackBerry 10 smartphones start shipping, and it’s clear why people are losing, or have lost, faith in a company that played a tremendous role in making the smartphone industry what it is today. Thanks to one of our most trusted sources, BGR now has new information on what’s going on inside Research In Motion, and the picture it paints isn’t a pretty one.

Our source has communicated to us in no uncertain terms that the PlayBook 2.0 OS developers have been testing is a crystal clear window into the current state of BlackBerry 10 on smartphones. No email, no BlackBerry Messenger — it’s almost identical. “Email and PIM [is better] on an 8700 than it is on BlackBerry 10,” our contact said while talking to us about RIM’s failure to make the company’s new OS work with the network infrastructure RIM is known for.

We also have some more background on why RIM’s BlackBerry 10 smartphones are delayed, and it has nothing to do with a new LTE chipset that RIM is waiting on. In what is something of a serious allegation, our source told us that Mike Lazaridis was lying when he said the company’s new lineup was delayed for that reason. ”RIM is simply pushing this out as long as they can for one reason, they don’t have a working product yet,” we were told.

At the end of our conversation, our source communicated something shocking for a high-level RIM employee to say. He told us that RIM is betting its business on a platform and ecosystem that isn’t even as good as iPhone OS 1.0 or Android 2.0. “There’s no room for a fourth ecosystem,” he stated, “and DingleBerry also works on BlackBerry 10.”

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

We’ve just heard from a trusted source that the dummy device The Verge posted an image of earlier today is indeed a real BlackBerry, and it should in fact launch as the company’s first BBX-based smartphone. Our source told us that the BlackBerry Colt, the first QNX-based handset RIM had been working on that looked just like a smaller PlayBook, was scrapped in favor of the BlackBerry London. In terms of release timing, it’s looking like the London is slated to launch some time in the third quarter next year, possibly late in the quarter. Remember, RIM still has not been able to get BES or BBM working on BBX devices — probably the only two features BlackBerry phones are still known for these days — so launch details are anything but firm right now.

This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com

One of RIM’s first BBX BlackBerry devices could be the BlackBerry London, pictured above. The London is purportedly equipped with a dual-core TI OMAP processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 16GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat and 1GB of RAM. The Verge said that the London, which could make its debut next year, is about the same thickness as a Samsung Galaxy S II and thinner than the iPhone 4. RIM is also reportedly working on a thinner BlackBerry Torch with a 3.7-inch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Verge says that the authenticity of the above image and reported specs is questionable, so this could just be a hoax. In either case, we like that someone is designing a sexy new smartphone for RIM.

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This post originally appeared on BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech.com