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Buried amongst the announcements of the Motorola Razr, Android 4.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus  at BlackBerry DevCon almost two years ago, the company formely known as RIM (having been renamed to BlackBerry) officially unwrapped its BlackBerry 10 operating system that it hopes will help them compete with iOS, Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile platform.

Set to work on tablets like the BlackBerry PlayBook, and on the new QWERTY keyboard X10 and BlackBerry Z10 smarphone, here's a snapshot look at the features that BlackBerry hopes will save them from another year lagging behind Apple and company.

BlackBerry Hub

The place to unify texts, emails, BBMs and all of your social networking activity, this is the place to jump in and out all of your conversations from one place and then swipe away to go about your business playing Angry Birds Star Wars.

BlackBerry Flow

BlackBerry described this feature as a 'seamless way to move between applications' and is done simply by swiping from the bottom of the device so you can see all applications using fast and fluid reversible gestures. So multi-tasking basically.

BBM

We know that the instant messaging service has been a fixture for BB handsets for some time and now BlackBerry has improved the service adding voice calling and video chat support but perhaps more impressively is the introduction of a new screen sharing feature that let’s you view another BlackBerry 10 users display to view presentations and documents for instance.

BlackBerry Balance

Letting you switch between personal and work modes BlackBerry 10 users will be able to separate business and pleasure providing increased security with the inclusion of BlackBerry Safeguard technology and separate interfaces to distinguish between the two.

Time Shift

One for smartphone snappers, this nifty camera trick will help you sort out those pictures where you have managed to catch someone with their eyes closed by flicking back through the stages of the image to make it a snap that you will actually want to share.

BlackBerry Remember

Working essentially in the same way as an organizer, you can collate and collect information whether its notes, amazing ideas or memos and then create tasks or add dates to make sure they don’t go to waste. Interestingly, Evernote and Outlook support have both been integrated with BlackBerry Remember.

New BlackBerry keyboard

The always on keyboard ‘learns what words you use’ according to BlackBerry which means that you will be able to flick the words to the screen to speed up texting and typing. One of the nicer features which multi linguists will appreciate is the ability to choose up to three languages that the keyboard will support and will be able to work out whether you want to type in Spanish or French and then switch back when you are writing in English.

BlackBerry World

This could very well be the place that decides whether BB 10 sinks or swims, so the good news is that there is healthy 70,000 BlackBerry 10 apps already available to download with the likes of Disney, Rovio, Skype showing support from launch with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare apps already pre-installed and ready for action.

BlackBerry 10 Interface

Showing off a homescreen with four widgets that gives access to the camera and search options, RIM is also introducing a new look interface whch gives users the ability to intuitively move from one application (or menu) to another. Every application that you ‘flow’ through will continue to run as RIM aims to create a more ‘agile and nimble’ user experience.

BlackBerry 10 Keyboard

RIM is abandon its QWERTY keyboard roots, but the new OS will be optimized to work on full touchscreen devices. With gestures set to play a major part in your typing experience, the on-screen keyboard will learn how you type and enable you to swipe together suggested words to create sentences. Predictive texting will also be refined, presentng predictions over the keys that you need to tap next.

BlackBerry 10 Apps

RIM has officially unveiled some of the applications we can expect to see when BlackBerry 10 lands which includes popular social fitness app Endomondo, location-based app Poynt, augmented reality packing Wikitude, and the 360 Panorama app that should compliment the pretty impressive on-board camera feature which we will move onto next...

BlackBerry 10 Camera

Want to 'turn back time' on your snaps? Well, BlackBerry 10 users can expect to play around with the new intergrated camera software that will enable users to to take a picture and then select an aspect of the photo and flick back through the image by moving a slider across the screen. This should come in handy when someone has closed their eyes in a picture for instance.

BlackBerry 10 Games

Mobile gaming outfit Gameloft confirmed that it was set to bring plenty of gaming prowess to the new BlackBerry platform by making 11 titles available for BlackBerry 10 which will include casual titles like Shark Dash and hard-core games like N.O.V.A. 3: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance.

BlackBerry 10 Streaming

Judging from the BlackBerry 10 sneak peek video (which you can see below), RIM has plans for a wireless streaming capabilities similar to Apple AirPlay and Samsung AllShare which will allow BlackBerry 10 smartphone users to send content like video and pictures straight to a TV.

BlackBerry 10 sneak peek video

BlackBerry 10: OS for all

Following in the footsteps of iOS 5 and Android 4.0, BlackBerry 10 will provide a platform that both BlackBerry tablets and smartphones will be able to access and benefit from. Built from the ground up, RIM plans to deliver 'real-time mobile experiences,' and will support BlackBerry cloud services.

BlackBerry 10 Open Source

RIM has made the step to allow developers access to around 100 open source libraries which should entice more potential developers and companies into choosing BlackBerry as their platform of choice.

BlackBerry 10 HTML 5

It's good news for developers that HTML 5 is set to play an important role in BlackBerry 10 ensuring apps created work across all devices, promising a seamless experience which should make future phones and tablets genuine 'pick up and play' business devices.

BlackBerry 10:Cascades

BlackBerry fans can expect a massively overhauled user interface experience courtesy of Cascades which in the hands of developers, should deliver richer, more visually stunning environments with the potential for 3D graphics and more sophisticated animations. You can check out Cascades in action in the video below.

BlackBerry 10: Cascades video

BlackBerry 10:Super App

It sounds exciting and we sincerely hope it lives up to its super billing, RIM claims Super Apps will bring more deeper intergration between BlackBerry 10 apps. So expect always-on Push services and BBM integration.

BlackBerry 10: Release date

When will we see the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone or tablet? Well the OS 10 SDK has now been made available to developers, and rumours point to an October release date for the first BlackBerry 10 phone, so it could be a few months yet before you can get your hands on a handset.

Are you excited about the sound of BlackBerry 10? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.