By Stephen Schenck | November 29, 2012 12:55 PM
We only just got done telling you about a couple of the latest topics in Blackberry news and rumors, and now we’ve already got one more for you. Earlier this week we got to see what appeared to be the hardware keyboard that’s going to go in the upcoming BlackBerry 10 N-series handset. So far, we haven’t had a good look at a BlackBerry 10 phone with a keyboard outside of renders. That may be about to change, with news that RIM has some new development hardware ready for distribution, and this model finally sports a hardware keyboard.
RIM’s calling the phone the Dev Alpha C, and while it may not be exactly the same as the N-series hardware that’s ultimately released, we expect it to be substantially similar. That means an unusual 720 x 720 display, along with the all-important hardware QWERTY keyboard.
The company’s hooking developers up with this hardware on a merit basis; it awards points for certain accomplishments (more for releasing a new native app, less for porting an Android app) and developers who rack up the most will have the best shots at getting one of these Dev Alpha C phones. The offer starts this weekend, so we’re hoping that in just a couple weeks we might get a good look at this new hardware.
