Classic BlackBerries are finally losing suppport as company shuts down services

By Sahas Mehra Published January 5, 2022

After kickstarting the smartphone era, BlackBerry’s classic devices and services are finally shutting down. No, not the Android-powered modern BlackBerries such as the KeyOne, Key2, and Key2 LE, but anything that ran a BlackBerry-branded operating system. Whether this is a classic QWERTY keyboard powered by BlackBerry 7, or the iPhone-inspired BlackBerry 10, or even the forgotten BlackBerry PlayBook OS — it’s all shutting down this month.

“As another milestone in the BlackBerry journey, we will be taking steps to decommission the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, and earlier versions, with an end of life or termination date of January 4, 2022,” the company announced. “As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS, and 911 functionality. We have chosen to extend our service until then as an expression of thanks to our loyal partners and customers.”

BlackBerry Key2. Credits: BlackBerry official. — BlackBerry bids farewell to its longtime customers. Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

It’s the end of an era for what was once a distinguished product that defined the market a decade ago. Even predating iMessage, the BlackBerry instant messaging service — BBM — was a great selling point for the product line. As iOS, Android, and WhatsApp began to dominate, BlackBerry devices began to fall by the wayside.

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The company tried to rejuvenate its smartphone business by launching its own touchscreen phones and later its own operating system in 2013, but had little success. Unable to keep up,ity stopped the creation of smartphones in 2016 and licensed services to TCL Ltd. between 2016 to 2020. BlackBerry promised to launch a smartphone by the end of 2021 in partnership with OnwardMobility, but that hasn’t panned out.

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The company has now shifted its focus to selling software. It briefly had a nostalgia-fueled increase in its share price this year, which later nearly returned to its original price. While the market has been saturated with multiple companies claiming a stake in the smartphone pie, hopefully, BlackBerry manages to return to some form of relevance with its current partnership.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Sahas is a freelance writer who specializes in writing on Tech, Health & Wellness, and Gaming. He covers the Mobile…

Mobile

Samsung confirms One UI 7 release date for first wave of Galaxy owners

Samsung phone running One UI 7 software experience.

The wait for Android 15 on Samsung smartphones will finally be over early next month. Samsung has announced that the highly-anticipated One UI 7 update will be released widely via the stable channel starting April 7 for Galaxy smartphone users.
In the first wave of rollout, the Galaxy S24 series phones, alongside Samsung’s current generation foldable — Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 — will be covered. It will eventually expand to older flagships, alongside a bunch of mid-range phones in the Galaxy A-series, as well.
In the coming weeks, One UI 7 will also land on the Galaxy S24 FE, Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 5, and Galaxy Z Flip 5 phones. On the tablet side, the Galaxy Tab S10 will be the early recipient, followed by the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
A Guided Demo of Galaxy AI | Galaxy S25 Series | Samsung
Samsung kicked off the beta-testing program in December last year, and in the past few weeks, the pool of devices has steadily expanded. One UI 7 brings a fresh design language to the phone, with a cleaner Home Screen, improved widgets, and more intuitive lock screen.
Leading the list of new features is the new Now Bar, which tracks important events and keeps users updated via a dedicated widget, right on the Lock Screen. AI is a huge part of the One UI 7 experience, riding under the Galaxy AI banner. Among them is a feature called AI Select, which is aware of the on-screen content, and based on what users highlight, it will offer actionable buttons.
Galaxy AI | Now Brief | Galaxy S25 Ultra | Samsung
For example, if there’s a ticket in the camera view, AI select can automatically surface one-tap controls such as adding it to the Calendar or showing the venue on Google Maps. Then there’s Writing Assist, which offers a handful of AI-powered facilities such as rewriting, summarization, and proofreading, working in the same vein as Writing Tools on Apple devices.
However, do keep in mind that not all One UI 7 features will be available across every compatible device. For example, the audio eraser feature, which can selectively erase noise from videos, will not go beyond phones older than the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Tab S10 duo, or the sixth-generation Samsung foldable phones. Similar is the situation with natural language search in the Settings app.

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Apple might serve a massive front camera upgrade on iPhone 17

An iPhone 16 laying on a shelf with its screen on.

The domain of Apple leaks is currently obsessed with the controversial iPhone 17 Pro design refresh, which could stir some heated debate with its massive camera hump. A lot of chatter is also focused on the svelte iPhone 17 Air. Yet, it seems there are a few other internal upgrades worth getting excited about.
According to analyst Jeff Pu, Apple will equip all four iPhone 17 series models with an upgraded 24-megapixel front camera. So far, Apple has stuck with a 12-megapixel selfie snapper on its mainline iPhones. Moreover, the company hasn’t ever deployed a 24-megapixel camera sensor, keeping its experiments limited to 12-megapixel and 48-megapixel units in the past few years.
The research note by Pu, which was seen by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, doesn’t go into details about the specifications or feature details of the new 24-megapixel front snapper on the iPhone 17 series. However, we can take an educated guess, based on what Apple accomplished when it switched from 12-megapixel to 48-megapixel rear cameras.

A 24-megapixel sensor will most likely default to pixel-binning for delivering pictures and videos at a lower resolution than the native pixel count. Pixel-binning essentially combines the light data collected by adjacent pixels, creating what is colloquially known as a super-pixel.
The sum total of these efforts are pictures that are more detailed and with more realistic color rendering, especially in low-light scenarios. Depending on how the pixels are combined, the final image is usually a lower-resolution shot, but more pleasing to look at.
For example, the iPhone 16 Pro’s 48-megapixel main camera does 4-in-1 pixel binning to produce 12-megapixel pictures, but you can still stick full-res 48-megapixel shots, too. There’s also an intermediary option to to get the best of both worlds with 24-megapixel clicks.
With a 24-megapixel selfie camera coming into the picture, iPhone 17 buyers can expect improved selfies and better-quality video calls. Moreover, since there are more pixels to collect light data, Apple might leverage it to offer more advanced camera features, too.

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Circular Ring 2 puts blood pressure sensing on your finger

Circular Ring 2 in Rose Gold.

Circular is a relatively small player in the smart ring segment, which is currently led by the likes of Oura, Samsung, and RingConn. Yet, following a not-so-good start,the company’s second-gen smart ring is setting some high benchmarks.
The Circular Ring 2, which recently smashed past its $1 million crowdfunding goal, has landed support for blood pressure sensing. The feature will be enabled via an OTA update later this year. In 2026, the company will also enable sensor-driven blood glucose trend analysis for its smart ring

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