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BlackBerry rolls out Amazon app store partnership

BlackBerry rolls out Amazon app store partnership - image
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

WATERLOO, Ont. – BlackBerry users whose smartphones wouldn’t let them book a date on Tinder or play Candy Crush will finally have a chance to join the crowd through a new software update.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based company has released the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.

BlackBerry announced the update last fall, but it was only made available to brand new BlackBerry models, the Classic and Passport.

READ MORE: BlackBerry busted for tweeting with an iPhone

For the first time, other BlackBerry users with the company’s latest generation of phones will have access to the Amazon Appstore, which offers thousands of apps built for the Android operating system.

Devices have already begun to receive the update in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the company said.

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Canadians will have to wait a little bit longer, as the update rolls out across the country’s wireless carriers over the next week. All of them are expected to have it available by early March.

READ MORE: BlackBerry launches Classic smartphone in hopes to win back die-hard users

Aside from the Amazon store, there are a number of other updates, including extra features for the phone’s camera and BlackBerry Assistant, a voice-activated program that’s comparable to Apple’s Siri.

The update also gives users access to BlackBerry Blend, a new feature that makes email, BlackBerry Messenger, text messages and other data from their BlackBerry smartphones accessible on other platforms like Apple’s Mac OS and Windows.

BlackBerry has been criticized for the lack of popular applications available for its BlackBerry 10 smartphones, which some suggested has only given customers more reason to buy other devices like Apple’s iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy models.

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