The iPad’s finally got some competition; in the past few weeks, the HP Slate made a brief appearance, the Samsung Galaxy Tabdebuted, and just BlackBerry unveiled its business-minded PlayBook today. Here’s how they all measure up: More »
Okay, we’ve got a long way to go before we can do a fair, apples-to-berries comparison between these two titans of industry, but consider this your first sneak preview of the deathmatch to come. As we mentioned in the previous post, the PlayBook is hopelessly locked away in insanely thick Plexiglas — and the iPad is unactivated, though that doesn’t much matter for getting a sense of the size comparison between ’em. Needless to say, the PlayBook looks way easier to lug around… but we just won’t know by how much until we’ve got one resting in our sweaty, eager palms. Hit up the gallery!
So RIM’s got these PlayBooks locked in thick Plexiglas that seems specifically designed to prevent you from seeing the side, though we don’t know why they’d want to do that considering it’s a sexy 9.7mm thin. Anyhow, the screen seems pretty great — we’re not sure if it’s IPS, but it’s definitely high-res and should function really well for video and gaming. All told, it looks like it’ll be about as easy to lug around as the Galaxy Tab, which makes sense considering we’re looking at the same size display and roughly the same form factor. Peep the gallery!
One of the great original fears when Amazon built the Kindle was that they were after some iTunes / iPod-style walled garden ecosystem. And while, sure, Kindle is a walled garden ecosystem, those walls sure are extensive! Amazon just announced that it will be supporting the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, in addition to the BlackBerry mobile app they’ve already got. There aren’t any specific details about this app, but Amazon is all about the consistent user experience, with features like WhisperSync keeping your copy of Neal Stephenson perfectly synced across a myriad of devices, so there’s nothing much to say we suppose. We are sure, however, that page turns will be blazing with that dual core processor.
The BlackPad is dead. Long live the PlayBook. As expected, Research in Motion today unveiled a new seven inch tablet built around its BlackBerry OS. The word “BlackPad” was nowhere to be seen at RIM’s annual developer event, however. Nope, the company’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis unveiled the PlayBook.
The tablet runs a special tablet version of the BlackBerry OS. It features a 1GHz Cortex A9 dual-core CPU, a gig of RAM, document editing, and pairing with BlackBerry devices. There’s are two cameras built-in–front- and rear-facing–for video conferencing.
There’s also 1080p HDMI video on this thing, but, as expected, this is really RIM’s business-minded version of the iPad. The company wants you to do some serious work on the PlayBook. As Lazaridis call it “the first professional tablet.”
There is some truth to the “play” part of the name, however. RIM will be working with developers on the creation of games for the device.
The PlayBook is set for a US release early next year. An international release will follow the second quarter of 2011.
SAN FRANCISCO — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is jumping into the tablet arena with the PlayBook. It will have a 7-inch screen and is designed for both personal and business users.
“This is an ultramobile, always on, ultrathin device,” Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research In Motion told attendees at the ongoing BlackBerry developer conference. “The first time you hold it, it just feels right and you want to take it everywhere you go.”
The BlackBerry PlayBook is 0.4 inches (9.7 mm) thick, making it thinner than the iPad’s 0.5 inches.
It will include Wi-Fi but no 3G connectivity, making it a tablet that will have to be paired with BlackBerry phones for 3G internet access. RIM did not comment on whether the wireless tethering option will be available with other smartphones, too. But it is promising 3G and 4G models in the future.
The device will have a high-resolution 1024 x 600 pixels widescreen display and will be lightweight at just 0.9 lbs, compared to the iPad’s 1.5 lbs.
The PlayBook will run on a 1-GHz dual-core processor and come with 1 GB RAM. It will also include two cameras: a 5-megapixel camera at the back, and a 3-megapixel front-facing camera. The PlayBook also has videorecording capability.
The tablet will run QNX, an operating system from a company that Research In Motion bought last year. It will include an HDMI video output and a USB port.
RIM did not announce pricing or exact availability for the PlayBook. The device is expected to hit retail stores early next year.
BlackBerry’s PlayBook the latest challenger to Apple’s iPad, which launched in April. Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads so far, while rivals have been slow to meet the challenge. Dell and Samsung have announced their own tablets, though Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet has yet to hit the market. Meanwhile, Microsoft and HP have both canceled planned tablet projects.
RIM has one advantage: The BlackBerry platform is still the No. 1 smartphone operating system because of the company’s strength with business users. Because the PlayBook is tied to the BlackBerry, that may give it a leg up in the market.
BlackBerry’s tablet also hopes to beat rivals by offering a rich web experience, multitasking and a speedy processor, and by attracting developers and publishers to the device.
The PlayBook will support full Flash 10.1, have hardware-accelerated video and 1080p HD video.
Lazaridis hopes the PlayBook will become a favorite among business users.
“The BlackBerry PlayBook, just like the BlackBerry smartphones, will become the enterprise standard,” he told developers.
The PlayBook will support multitasking and a native SDK, or software developers kit, will be available for the device.
“The PlayBook will be an incredible gaming platform for game designers and a great platform for publishers,” says Dan Dodge, the founder of QNX who is also being billed as the inventor of the PlayBook tablet. “We are giving everyone the full web experience on a very powerful platform.”
RIM didn’t offer any hands-on demos with the PlayBook, keeping the device firmly behind a glass box. But we have a few photos of the PlayBook from the show. Also check out the company’s preview video for the BlackBerry PlayBook.
The BlackBerry tablet is here, and it looks astoundingly nice. Nicer than anybody expected it to be. Here’s what you need to know about the PlayBook, in 10 easy steps. More »
Today at Research In Motion’s annual BlackBerry Developer Conference, CEO Mike Lazaridis announced the company’s new tablet — the PlayBook. The tablet will utilize an OS created by the recently acquiredQNX (just as we’d heard previous to the announcement) called the BlackBerry Tablet OS which will offer full OpenGL and POSIX support alongside web standards such as HTML5 (which is all tied into RIM’s new WebWorks SDK). Lazaridis was joined on stage by the company’s founder, Dan Dodge, who said that “QNX is going to enable things that you have never seen before,” and added that the PlayBook would be “an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players.” RIM also touted the PlayBook’s ability to handle Flash content via Flash 10.1, as well as Adobe AIR apps. The new slate — which Lazaridis described as “the first professional tablet” — will sport a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU (the company calls it the “fastest tablet ever”), 1GB of RAM, and a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5 megapixel rear lens (and yes, there will be video conferencing). There was no mention of onboard storage capacity during the keynote, though the devices we just spied in our eyes-on post are labeled 16GB and 32GB on their back panels. The PlayBook will be capable of 1080p HD video, and comes equipped with an HDMI port as well as a microUSB jack, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. The device clocks in at a svelte 5.1- by 7.6-inches, is only 0.4-inches thick, and weighs just 400g (or about 0.9 pounds).
In terms of interface, the OS looks like a mashup of webOS and the BlackBerry OS, even allowing for multitasking via what amounts to a “card” view. Interestingly, RIM and QNX boasted of the PlayBook’s multimedia and gaming functions, but Mike Lazaridis also described the tablet as “an amplified view of what’s already on your BlackBerry.” That’s due largely in part to a function of the tablet which allows you to siphon data off of your BlackBerry handset via Bluetooth tethering and display it on your PlayBook (a la the ill-fated Palm Foleo). While the PlayBook doesn’t seem to rely on phone content alone, the press release from the company says that users can “use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data.” RIM didn’t hand out any solid launch dates beyond “early 2011,” and of course, there was no mention of retail price. We’ve got a slew of content after the break, including the PlayBook spec rundown, the company’s press release, and a full video of the device (and UI) in action — so take a look!
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