BlackBerry OS 10.3 update for Z10 smartphone comes online

An early version of the BlackBerry 10.3 update for the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone has appeared online. The update brings many minor changes. There don’t seem to be any major changes to the software.

The software still contains bugs and is therefore not recommended for daily use, warns the administrator of the BlackBerry Empire forum where the firmware appeared. The firmware can be downloaded as a batch file and can be installed on the Z10 via a USB cable.

The firmware only shows many minor changes. For example, icons on the home screen are no longer in a square and red is the dominant spot color in the operating system. Buttons in the interface and selected letters on the onscreen keyboard turn red, where they had previously been blue. There are also new functions based on input from sensors. For example, the screen turns on automatically when the user picks up the device from a flat surface, such as a table. There is also a not yet functioning ‘intelligent voice assistant’ in the firmware, according to screenshots from Zona BlackBerry.

It is unclear whether all the changes will make it to the release. For example, test versions of previous updates, like this version, contain changes to the camera interface, which were ultimately not included in the update at release, notes Crackberry.