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All posts tagged "rim"


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Twice the Tablet, Twice the Failure

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Laptop Thoughts News" @ 04:00 PM

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/bl...-failures/17683

"Someday, not very far in the future, in business school, the tales of both the BlackBerry PlayBook and the HP TouchPad will both be told. It will be recounted that when it finally came time for both of these companies to execute in their attempts to adequately compete with Apple’s iPad and Google Android Tablets, they both failed miserably."

Two hot tablets have come to market, and both are being panned by many writers are pale comparisons to the iPad 2, Android tablets, and even the original iPad. While the PlayBook and TouchPad can hardly be considered great successes, it should be noted that they both are operating off of relatively new operating systems. The hardware buried inside these babies seems to be pretty comparable to other tablets on the market, but what they have in hardware, they seem to lack in software. They do not have the wonderful polish that Apple puts on its products, and they haven't had the experience and numerous releases that Android has gone through to adapt to the tablet. If either BlackBerry or HP are committed to the market, we might see these tablets given a chance to mature, and possibly, act as serious contenders for your tablet dollars.


Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Blackberry Playbook Review, Joshua Topolsky Style

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Other Slates & Tablets" @ 12:00 PM

http://thisismynextpodcast.com/2011...laybook-review/

"To say that the BlackBerry PlayBook - and a review of the PlayBook - is something of an anticipated event would be an understatement. From the first moment the tech community caught wind (and sight) of Research In Motion's first foray into the tablet world, everyone seems to be on pins and needles. It's not just that another company is making a charge at Apple's iPad - it's also that RIM has been in something of a bind lately. The once-unassailable company has watched marketshare slinking away in the direction of iOS and Android, due at least in part to a current crop of devices and new OS which leave much to be desired. But RIM hasn't been sitting still, either; the Canadian phone-maker has been snapping up software companies like QNX and the impressive UI team of TAT, all in service of supercharging the next lifecycle of BlackBerry products. And the PlayBook is the... ahem, fruits of those labors."

If anyone was wondering if Joshua Topolsky's excellent reviews would still be coming after he left Engadget, wonder no more: his review of the Blackberry Playbook is insightful and very detailed. Reading it, I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised: I frankly didn't hold very high hopes for the Playbook, if only because historically RIM has proven they're reluctant to change and modernize; every time I use a Blackberry, underneath the thin veneer of shiny graphics and icons, I see a UI that looks like it came from a paper in the '90s. RIM has always seem stuck in the past to me, but no more: the Playbook has a lot of impressive UI chops going for it.

Unfortunately, the impressive UI and performance can't make up for the lack of apps - and we're not just talking a lack of third party apps, because the Playbook ships without a calendar, contact, or email app of it's own. You can only get access to your PIM data - including email - by synching it with a Blackberry phone. How insane is that? Very insane. RIM has shipped the Playbook in an even more unfinished state than Motorola did with the XOOM...and that's saying a lot!


Saturday, March 26, 2011

The RIM Playbook Will Run Android Apps

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android Software" @ 10:00 AM

http://www.mediabistro.com/thinkmob..._medium=twitter

"After some speculation, RIM has formally announced that their tablet, the Blackberry Playbook, will run Android apps. The inclusion of support for Android apps is huge because it means RIM’s new tablet will ship with the ability to run hundreds of thousands of apps."

Now if you follow the "read" link for all the info you'll see that what it actually will do is run RIM approved apps within an Android "app player" of some kind. This also means you will not have direct access to the Android Market. Android developers that want their app to be available for the Playbook will need to do some work to repackage their app, submit it to the BlackBerry App World, and wait for approval. I think it's smart for RIM to do this but only time will tell if developers will do the work needed to make their app available for the Playbook. I think a lot of eyes will be on the Playbook as well as the HP Touchpad (running WebOS) as so many people have been disappointed by current Android offerings. Also, I know I'm not the only one who thinks iOS is terrible on a phone and even worse on a tablet. The Playbook has some great hardware with 1GB of RAM, dual core processor, 3MP front camera, and 5MP rear camera. It does have a 7" screen which some people may think it too small, for me I think the 10" would be too big. The question is will it work well and will people buy it? What do you think?


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Are Pigs Flying? BlackBerry PlayBook and Smartphones May Run Android Apps!

Posted by Craig Horlacher in "Android News" @ 03:00 PM

http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/26/exclu...n-android-apps/

"Here is the big news: we have been told RIM is very much considering the Dalvik virtual machine, and we ultimately expect the company to chose Dalvik. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s the same VM that the Android OS uses, and it would allow RIM’s PlayBook and other QNX devices to run just about any application built for the Android platform."

This sounds great to me! I don't see any way it would hurt Android and it could save RIM. I'm all for more competition and I love when software can work on devices it wasn't intended for. Would this make you consider the PlayBook, Torch 2, or Storm 3?


Monday, September 27, 2010

BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Announced

Posted by Michael Knutson in "Other Slates & Tablets" @ 10:00 PM

http://www.slashgear.com/blackberry...ablet-27104575/

"It looks like we might have spoken too soon. At this year's BlackBerry DEVCON, the possibilities are endless for Research In Motion. They have plenty of pent-up rumors and speculation being thrown around. Most of that around the BlackPad, the first tablet from the house that built BlackBerry. And, sure enough, RIM is working on a tablet device."

Pretty interesting announcement! For those of you not familiar with QNX (Que-nix), the basis for the PlayBook OS, it's a realtime POSIX OS (RTOS) developed in Canada in the early 1980s that was designed to be small, modular, symmetrical multi-processor capable, fast, and utterly reliable. In fact, back in the day it was used in all sorts of process control applications, and has evolved into controller software for many industrial applications. I even remember reading somewhere that it is (or was) used for controller software for nuclear reactors and is even used in Cisco IOS-XR Routers (BFRs). So, reliability? Oh yes. Can we expect the PlayBook to be fast? Oh yes. Am I eagerly awaiting this tablet? Oh yes!

Technical details: 9.7mm thick and weighing about 400g (less than 1-pound), the PlayBook will feature a dual-core Cortex A9 1GHz CPU, dual HD cameras, have 1GB of RAM, and a 7-inch display at 1024x600 resolution. It'll play hardware accelerated 1080p video (with Flash support), and has non-proprietary HDMI and USB connectors. It is a Wi-fi only device, but should support tethering to a BlackBerry. Additional details (like 3G and 4G support) to be announced by RIM, and availability is said to be early 2011.


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