Mark Bridge writes:
There was great news for some BlackBerry owners this week. The new 10.2.1 update to the BlackBerry 10 OS was released, offering a new incoming call screen, SMS and email groups, more options for locking and unlocking, extra battery usage information, enterprise features and - for customers with a BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry Q10 or BlackBerry Q5 smartphone - an FM radio.
To quote BlackBerry’s announcement: “the new software update unlocks the built-in FM radio in those handsets. You can listen to local FM stations, which does not require any network connection.”
Hang on a moment. Am I missing something?
The BlackBerry Q10 went on sale in the UK last April. £579.99-worth of technology. Lovely. Touch-sensitive display and a QWERTY keyboard.
And if you bought one, you’ve been carrying it around WITH A USELESS FM RADIO FOR THE PAST NINE MONTHS.
As far as I can tell, BlackBerry deliberately put it in there - unless some rogue hardware developer sneaked an extra radio in when no-one was looking - and then decided to hide it away for half of your 18-month contract. We need to believe the hardware had been developed but no-one had worked out how to get the software part operational.
I really don’t understand.
Still, as Albert Brumley wrote - and Ray Stevens sung almost 35 years later:
“Everybody has a radio receiver
All you got to do is listen for the call”