BlackBerry Classic is now available in Cobalt Blue

Stark black too businesslike for you?  White, too pristine? Consider the Cobalt Blue version of their BlackBerry Classic smartphone. Available online for $499.99, it is otherwise identical to the Black version we reviewed here last year.

Is this BlackBerry's attempt at an Android smartphone?

BlackBerry is in the news for reportedly getting ready to release a device that's not powered by its own super secure and messaging focused BlackBerry but with rival Google's Android OS. Yes, BlackBerry can already run some sideloaded Android apps on its devices which helps fill the huge app gap the platform has been suffering from but if reports are to be trusted, John Chen and Co. are becoming just another OEM player for Google's OS, at least for this one model.

The new device, codenamed 'Venice,' is said to feature a 5.4-inch screen, 18MP rear camera and 1.8GHz Hexa-core CPU. It is reportedly coming first to AT&T customers in the US. BlackBerry has been collaborating with Samsung on various technologies and there's currently now QWERTY-enabled Androi handset. Since BBM is now cross platform, maybe BlackBerry sees an opening in the Android market. Stay tuned.

Source: Evan Blass (Twitter)

The Apple Beat: Taking a first spin at Apple Music

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple’s collected a vast amount of data through the years (as has Beats) on what music lovers like, there are powerful curation algorithms that ensure that there’s always something new or something surprising for each user each time they fire up the service.

Apple’s new Music Service ‘Apple Music’ kicked off yesterday and was made available to millions of iOS and Mac OS users via respective updates to iOS (8.4) and iTunes on OS X Yosemite. Apple Music is available now in 115 countries.

The service is Apple’s biggest play in music since it created the iPod a decade ago. Since then, iTunes has become the largest music seller in the world and practically changed the game for music distribution and the digital age.

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iOS 8.4 now available in Canada with trial of Apple Music

It's a very exciting day for music lovers as Apple's latest update for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, iOS 8.4 brings the anticipated Apple Music service which blends live streaming radio, music collection and curation plus access to artists via the Connect feature.

It wasn't announced is Canada would be getting the three-month trial period of Apple Music but the service seems to be available and we've been checking it out. So far, it does offer an intuitive and easy to navigate interface that makes it easy to select specific genres and artists as well as access music you already bought on iTunes.  To enable Apple Music, go to Software Update feature on your iOS device, download and install the update and the trial of Apple Music should be available to you.