You’ve got to give it to BlackBerry for sticking to its guns.

Close to 5 months after re-branding itself from Research in Motion to BlackBerry and unleashing the first BlackBerry 10 devices into the world, the Canadian company is still showing no signs of the demise that many have gleefully foretold, even turning a profit of US$94 million in Q4 of 2012.

At its annual BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando earlier today, BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone (pictured above), a QWERTY device (similar to the Q10) aimed at the company’s strongholds in emerging markets such as Indonesia. …

For BlackBerry die-hards who are still firing away e-mails everyday on their phone’s keyboard, the new Q10 is the device they’ve been waiting for.

This is the one with the familiar, easy-to-use keyboard and it is built like a solid and dependable – if rather less sexy – corporate tool that many had first come to know BlackBerry for. …

Ask anyone who just bought a newfangled smartphone in recent weeks, and chances are he might take out a Samsung, HTC or Apple gadget from his pocket.

What’s the future then for the forgotten BlackBerry, once a must-have for corporate workers, but now a laggard in the smartphone wars?

In the last quarter, the company sold just 6 million phones – the lowest in years – but it managed a profit of US$94 million. Even better yet, it managed to sell a million of the new Z10 touch-screen phone, which BlackBerry has pinned much hope on.

Techgoondu got in touch with Hastings Singh, BlackBerry’s vice president and managing director for South Asia (picture above), to look for signs of a turnaround in 2013. …

Come March 7, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry’s attempt to claw back market share from iOS, Android and perhaps even Windows Phone will officially begin on our tiny island, beginning with its Z10 smartphone.

Is it enough to inspire BlackBerry fans who have been waiting with baited breath to upgrade? …

When the folks from BlackBerry brought out Alicia Keys as a global creative director at their big launch on Wednesday, you know they were pulling out all the stops. …

Yet another year filled with surprises and no less interesting technology products and services has passed us by, perhaps too fast for some of 2012′s winners and not too soon for the strugglers.

The past 12 months have seen a great variety of tablets, from the Google Nexus 7 to Apple’s iPad mini, while Microsoft and partners tried their best to jump on the mobile bandwagon by bringing touch screens to everyday PCs with Windows 8.

In many ways, the much-talked about convergence of computers and mobile technologies has brought about some of the keenest competition that hasn’t been seen in years.

That’s not even mentioning the other big headlines of the year, like Facebook going public, Apple and Samsung’s courtroom joust and in Singapore, the arrival of cheap and fast fibre broadband.

Now, just hours away from 2013, users could well be staring at another year of great tech gadgets, sometimes frustrating technologies that fail to live up to expectations, and oh, winners and losers, definitely. Here are eight trends to look out for in the new year. …

Research in Motion (RIM) has opened a new service centre at The Cathay in Singapore to ramp up after-sales support to customers, as the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system looms.

Opened yesterday, it promises minor repairs in just four hours and up to a day for more serious problems. It even features a dealer’s section to help BlackBerry dealers gain the expertise they need to in turn service their customers. …

If you are not into the iPhone, an Android gizmo or a Windows Phone, you might be interested in a rather budget-friendly Blackberry Curve 9320 that’s going for an attractive S$328 as it hits the shelves in Singapore today. …

When Sony unveiled its new XBA balanced armature earphones in February, it made sure to include an iDevice compatible cousin to four of its models, leaving the rest of us who wanted a pair of XBA earphones with a built-in microphone for our mobile phones out in the cold.

Fortunately, that can soon be remedied, as Sony just announced two new additions to the XBA line, the XBA-1VP and XBA-2VP. Sony didn’t specifically say which mobile phones these earphones can work with, but was confident that BlackBerry and Android smartphones in general should work fine. …

Almost a year after it first hit the stores, the Blackberry Playbook may finally be a tablet that is worth considering – if you can still get your hands on one.

In Singapore, electronics retailer Courts is selling the 7-inch tablet from S$498 for a 32GB version and an attractive S$528 for a 64GB model, having slashed prices by S$300 to S$400.

But unlike the fire sale of HP’s doomed tablet last year, price is not the only attraction for the Playbook. Just this week, the tablet got its much-delayed 2.0 software update, which finally gives it e-mail access and other features that, if included at launch, could have given the otherwise attractive iPad alternative a chance. …