We're celebrating 10 years of CrackBerry here at AC!

THE RETURN OF CRACKBERRY KEVIN... ON AC?!

It's hard to believe that 10 years ago, Kevin Michaluk laced up his boots, walked to the local internet cafe and wrote Matrix levels of HTML to get CrackBerry.com up and running (that is what happened, right?).

Well, CrackBerry is still very much alive, and while its output has slowed with the changing nature of BlackBerry the company, it still has hundreds of thousands of diehard readers visiting every month.

'Mercury' is the perfect throwback to the halcyon days of QWERTY phones, but running the most powerful mobile OS on the planet.

Many of those readers now also visit Android Central on a regular basis after BlackBerry made the necessary changes to keep itself afloat, first with the Priv then the DTEK50 and DTEK60 — and soon, the 'Mercury'!

We're expecting the BlackBerry 'Mercury' to be fully unleashed at Mobile World Congress, almost 10 years to the day that CrackBerry.com opened its virtual doors, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, CrackBerry Kevin — yes, that Kevin — is coming out of retirement! You can expect him to be very active on CrackBerry, of course, but because 'Mercury' is an Android phone, AC wants to get involved, too. That means tons of coverage on the home page, through social media, and in the forums, going over every aspect of the brand new phone.

If you haven't checked it out already, we have a wicked hands-on review of the BlackBerry Mercury from CES earlier this year, and while we don't know everything about it, we know a few things.

First, that it's the perfect throwback to the halcyon days of QWERTY phones, this time running the most powerful mobile OS on the planet (sorry, BB10 lovers ❤️).

Second, it's getting all the fans excited for the renewed BlackBerry Mobile, which is now separate from BlackBerry the software company. Of course, the 'Mercury' will run BlackBerry's homegrown flavor of Android 7.0 Nougat, and we'll be here to dissect all the subtle changes and improvements over the already-great Marshmallow build.

From CrackBerry:

TEN YEARS is a HUGE milestone, and I want to make sure we celebrate 10 Years of CrackBerry this February in true CrackBerry fashion. To me, and to the many of you that weighed with ideas on how we should celebrate, that means bringing back the same crazy energy we had in our early years, both here on the "blogs" and within the CrackBerry and broader BlackBerry Community. Expect crazy giveaways, crazy podcasts, crazy videos, crazy confessions (untold stories of the years gone by), stories highlighting our amazing community members, and way, way, WAY more.

We're excited to share some of that love, and a few of those giveaways, here on AC! Because even though we operate independently, all the Mobile Nations channels work very closely to ensure that you get a 360-degree view of the mobile ecosystem. With BlackBerry Mobile exclusively releasing Android phones from here on out, look for AC and CB to work even more closely in the months and years ahead. To start, Kevin will be helping us out with some of the 'Mercury' coverage, and the rest of the AC team is looking forward to getting our hands on the phone when it is finally unleashed.

Better start exercising our thumbs again!

The Good 'Ole Days of CrackBerry Are Coming Back for our 10th Anniversary!