After many months of leaks, BlackBerry has finally made the Android-powered “Venice” slider smartphone official. The phone is officially coming to market as the Priv (as was leaked yesterday), a suitable name considering its privacy and security focus, and it’s going to be available later this year…
Expand
Expanding
Close
According to a couple reports out this morning, the long-rumored Android-powered “Venice” smartphone on the way from BlackBerry is going to be called the “Priv” when it actually launches…
.@evleaks Confirmed by N4BB: http://t.co/xhZ8PxEwXa
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 24, 2015
We’ve seen photos of the phone leak from multiple sources over the last month or two, and a couple of weeks ago a full gallery of shots surfaced showing the phone from all angles. We also recently saw a blurry cam picture taken by someone attending the Toronto Film Festival, showing the same Venice phone we’ve seen elsewhere, but with what looks to be case attached. Along the right side of the device in that image (and the others leaked in the full gallery), you can see two volume buttons aligned just like the ones of the Venice images that just surfaced last month.
If you want to see the phone in action, someone managed to post an entire hands-on video with the phone last week. Additionally, PhoneArena has revealed several specifications of the device, including a 1440 x 2560 QHD resolution display, 3 GB of RAM, an 18-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization, and a battery somewhere in the range of 3,000 mAh. The software is clearly Android Lollipop, and BlackBerry will probably include security-related features and pre-packaged apps.
As the leaks continue to get more and more common, we’re definitely nearing its official announcement…
The BlackBerry “Venice” is no secret; we’ve been seeing leaks left and right for a few weeks now. Even just three days ago, we got yet another look at the phone thanks to someone’s crafty spy shot skills at the Toronto Film Festival. Now, thanks to sources for Android Authority, we have what is perhaps our most comprehensive look yet…
Expand
Expanding
Close
Evleaks’ <a href="http://9to5google.com/2015/08/19/android-blackberry-venice-leak-keyboard/">renders</a> of the BlackBerry Venice slider
More evidence that an Android slider from BlackBerry in on the way — probably the “Venice” device that we’ve been telling you about for quite a while — has now surfaced . As seen in a new spy shot originally shared by BerryFlow, BlackBerry looks to be pushing the “Venice” slider running some build of Lollipop out into the field for testing. This time, we’ve caught the phone running what looks to be the stock Messenger app…
The above blurry cam picture taken at the Toronto Film Festival, which assumably was snapped very quickly as to not make its photographer seem too stalk-ish, shows the Venice phone we’ve seen before, but with what looks to be case attached. Along the right side of the device, you can see two buttons aligned just like the ones of the Venice images that just surfaced two weeks ago.
And while the most recent imagery has shown the device running a full-fledged Android OS (meaning there’s not any real reason to doubt that this is the real deal), this is the first image we’ve seen of the phone in public. It’s not perfectly clear, but the app that’s running on-screen looks just like Android Lollipop’s stock Messenger app — with its blue navigation bar and all.
With the leaks continuing to stream in, it’s probably not going to be long before we see the announcement of what might be BlackBerry’s last ditch effort to catch at least a tiny part of the consumer smartphone market.
![Speck_DFI_Ad_CS-Stacked-Cube_728x90_v1[2]](https://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/speck_dfi_ad_cs-clear_rev_728x90_v1.jpg?quality=82&strip=all)
After sharing this morning a render of the slide-out keyboard on what is ostensibly an Android-powered BlackBerry Venice, a device which the Ontario-based company has teased but made no mention of what OS its powered by, respected leaker Evan Blass is back with more goodies for the BB faithful. This time he has tweeted out a short video that shows off a render of the smartphone from all angles, with dramatic transitions and animations in tow.
We’ve been hearing a lot about BlackBerry’s long-rumored Android smartphone over the past few months. In fact, almost as soon as BlackBerry teased the ‘Venice’ slider back at MWC in Barcelona, it was rumored that the upcoming device would ship with Google’s OS onboard. A previous render showed a pretty clear image of Android running on the BlackBerry slider, and now some more official-looking images appear via CrackBerry to hint at a Google-powered system.
Evan came out last night to post an image of what looks to be a BlackBerry Passport running Android, and many were confused thinking it was the rumored slider phone coming to AT&T. Well, that picture was “just a Passport” according to Blass, and now he has posted a press render he says is indeed Venice, the phone that Reuters told us about in a report early last month…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi-ljpuEGnA]
The latest area to be added to Google Street View is the test track from the original British version of Top Gear, with the imagery featuring The Stig challenging the Google car to a race in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Shortly after a Street View tour of London’s Gatwick Airport, Google has expanded its transit program to encompass 15 other airports, more than 50 train & metro stations – and even allows your virtual trips to take you right onto an airliner at Dubhai.
Google’s blog shows off a small selection of the new locations, including check-in at Madrid airport, arrivals at Tokyo airport, a walk though London’s Waterloo train station and locating your seat on board an Emirates A380 airliner.
The split view, showing both terminal map and Street View walk-thru, is particularly helpful for familiarising yourself with a transit airport in advance of a tight connection …
Expand
Expanding
Close
I sometimes wonder whether future generations will do most of their travel sat at their PCs, as Google’s Trekker backpack takes us to more and more interesting places. Latest on the list is the romantic Italian city Venice, built on a set of more than 100 small islands, connected by a network of canals and bridges …
Expand
Expanding
Close
According to a report by Jason Stern at MuscleWeek, the iconic Gold’s Gym in Venice, Los Angeles is set to close in 2014 after 45 years of operation. This would normally not be reported; however, Stern confirmed with the gym’s former owner, Ed Connors, that “Google has bought the building and the surrounding real estate and Los Angeles DUI attorney businesses with grand designs on walling off the streets and creating a SoCal campus to rival its Mountain View ‘university’.”
The worst-kept secret at Gold’s Gym in Venice is that the gym is closing its doors for good when its lease expires on June 30, 2014… Publicly, the gym management continues to emphasize (perhaps ‘misrepresent’ is a better word choice) that Gold’s Gym isn’t going anywhere, but for those in the know, it has become painfully clear that the clock is ticking down to zero…The result: Google Plus. Gold’s Minus.
Google has not confirmed its plans, but there were rumors last year that the company purchased the building home to the landmark Gold’s Gym location.
Expand
Expanding
Close