BlackBerry has struggled more than most smartphone makers over the past few years, but the Canadian manufacturer is determined to make a go of things, with the next-gen BlackBerry Passport set to boast a Siri, Google Now and Cortana-like personal digital assistant. “BlackBerry, clear my schedule.”
With the introduction of digital assistants on all other major smartphone operating systems – Android, iOS and Windows Phone – it’s almost difficult to imagine a time where we didn’t bark into our handsets to demand they show us the way home, find the nearest cashpoint or even just ask silly questions whenever we get bored.
And now BlackBerry is looking to join in the fun, with its very own BlackBerry Assistant, which will launch alongside the BlackBerry Passport, which is set to make an appearance later this year.
The BlackBerry Passport already looks like nothing else we’ve seen in recent times, cramming in a massive (square) 4.5-inch 1440×1440 display, but with an integrated personal assistant as well could BlackBerry finally be catching up with rivals?
The BlackBerry Assistant will be able to search information specific to you, including email and calendar events, along with searching the internet and social networks, and as with Siri, Cortana and Google Now, you’ll also be able to instruct the assistant to carry out different functions, like composing emails. Whether or not you’ll be able to instruct the phone to have your people call their people or arrange for the secretary to buy some flowers for the other half still remains to be seen.
The physical keyboard on the BlackBerry Passport will also prove handy when it comes to the BlackBerry Assistant, letting you start typing directly from the home screen when you want to perform silent searches, without having to opt for voice control.
Whether that will be enough to bring the Passport in line with other cutting-edge smartphones like the HTC One (M8) and Samsung Galaxy S5 is still unclear, but it’s great to see BlackBerry making a real effort!
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