BlackBerry 10.1 update coming soon for the Z10, will be pre-installed on the BlackBerry Q10

Check our full review of the BlackBerry Q10 phone.

When a developer edition of BlackBerry 10.1 was seeded to Dev Alpha phones last month, we knew a public release wouldn’t be far behind, and sure enough at today’s BlackBerry Live event in Orlando, it was made official. The update will be available for the BlackBerry Z10 very soon, but those who purchase the BlackBerry Q10 will find it pre-installed on their new phones.

While we’d already had a sneak peak of BlackBerry 10.1’s features, the company has released a complete list of the major changes. As expected, PIN to PIN messaging has been added to the BlackBerry Hub, and an issue with opening attachments sent as part of another message has been cured.

Notifications have been given a quick makeover, and you can now customize the ringtone, notification light and vibrations for each one of your contacts. The light can also be set to show a different color to correspond to the type of notification; for example, you could set blue for Facebook.

One new feature is Click to Call, where numbers sent in an email or as a BBM message can be pasted into the dialer with a simple tap. Along with this, the cursor has an easier control method, as it has been given a larger point to click and drag around the screen, just like Android and iOS. Cleverly, a tap either side of the cursor in this mode, moves it one character to the left or the right. The camera now sports an HDR mode for improved shots in difficult lighting, plus the red eye reduction tweak has been given an upgrade. Finally, a host of other small adjustments, such as landscape mode for the calendar, are waiting to be found inside.

BlackBerry hasn’t provided an exact release date for BlackBerry 10.1, saying only that it’ll be out, “in the coming weeks.” The press release says we should, “Check with your local carrier for availability.” We’re sure they’ll all be happy to take your calls. If that sounds like a futile exercise, and you’d prefer to wait for the update to arrive, then a notification will show up on your phone as soon as it’s available, or you can check to see if it’s ready using BlackBerry Link software or through the Settings menu on your phone.