RIM teases the BlackBerry PlayBook with a video that actually shows a real BlackBerry PlayBook.
Tag Archives | RIM
The BlackBerry PlayBook Will Apparently Start Under $500
I’m still not sure if RIM’s PlayBook Tablet will be any good. But it’s ambitious, and the specs are top-notch–and it will apparently sell for less than five hundred bucks.
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Help Us Pick the Hottest Smartphones
Seriously, folks–these days, you can barely move your contact list to your new phone before coveting the next one.
I queried a few of our Last Gadget Standing judges and they’ve got no shortage of opinion on which phones should be in the running for the award we’ll hand out at CES next January.
Some voiced concern about the Nokia N8 being an oddity. Yeah, well, it’s an oddity with a 12 MP camera (with Zeiss lens) and HD video recording. Those video watchers amongst us will be intrigued by the form factor; those who are dubious about Symbian less so.
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T-Grid: BlackBerry PlayBook vs. the iPad
Hey, it’s been a long time since we’ve done a T-Grid–a very simple comparison chart comparing two at least vaguely comparable products spec-by-spec. Let’s do one on RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook and the iPad, shall we?
The point of a T-Grid is never to determine which product is better; it’s just to see how the specs stack up. From what we know so far, the PlayBook’s specs stack up rather well–it’s powerful, thin, and light, and has a robust OS in the venerable (if low-profile) QNX. But there are a few speeds and feeds that RIM hasn’t disclosed yet, and one particularly crucial fact remains unknown: How’s the battery life?
After the jump, the details we know so far.
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Amazon to Offer Kindle App for BlackBerry PlayBook
Okay, the BlackBerry PlayBook will have at least one third-party app: Amazon’s already announced Kindle for it.
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RIM Reveals the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet. It Looks Spectacular–So Far
It’s always dangerous to judge a new tech product from a demo. It’s even more dangerous to judge one from a canned video and a features list. But here at BlackBerry DevCon in San Francisco, RIM just showed a video of its BlackPad tablet–which turns out to be called the BlackBerry PlayBook, and which the company is calling “the first professional tablet”–and revealed some of the key specs. And from what we know so far, it looks mighty cool–like “this is the most interesting-sounding iPad rival so far” cool.
Here’s the video we just saw:
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BlackBerry Tablet Imminent?
Interesting scuttlebutt from the Wall Street Journal: RIM may announce the BlackBerry tablet next week at its developer conference in San Francisco. And both it and future BlackBerry phones will be based on the QNX operating system which RIM bought last year, say the WSJ’s sources.
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RIM Wants to Play in the Mobile Ad Sandbox, Too
RIM is looking to stay on even footing with its competitors, so it is reportedly shopping around for an acquisition target in the mobile space, the Wall Street Journal claims. Mobile ad provider Millenial Media has been named as a possible target, although the paper says that talks have stalled over disagreements on a purchase price.
The company believes that competitors Apple and Google overpaid for their own mobile ad acquisitions, so they are not willing to go that same route. Google paid about $750 million for AdMob, while Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless was for an undisclosed sum — although likely in that same neighborhood.
I’m not so sure that buying a mobile ad company is in the best interest of RIM at this point. The company really doesn’t have the money to be playing cat and mouse in the acquisition market with its obviously bigger rivals. And it’s own install base is shrinking as consumers increasingly turn to the Android and iOS platforms.
Shouldn’t RIM be focused on turning the BlackBerry around rather than selling ads on your phone? I think the answer there is pretty easy.
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RIM's Torch Not Burning So Bright
If RIM was hoping its BlackBerry Torch would give it a much-needed boost in competing with Android and Apple, they better look somewhere else. Analysts are pegging debut weekend sales at around 150,000 — while a substantial number, its far below that of its competitors. Take for example the iPhone 4: it sold 1.7 million devices in it first weekend out.
While the phone is currently only available through AT&T for $199 with a two year contract, Amazon was noted to have taken the unusual step of slashing the price on a new phone to $99. Not a good sign for a device RIM once hailed as “the best BlackBerry ever.”
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RIM Facing Government Pressure to Open Up
Press reports indicate that 
BlackBerry maker RIM seems to be under increasing pressure to open up its encrypted communications from customers to governments, who are increasingly concerned about security. It seems that officials are worried that criminals — and terrorists too — are using the encryption to their advantage since there is no way to monitor transmissions.
The United Arab Emirates were the first to ban the devices, saying it would shut down service in October. The ban would not extend to other devices, since their digital communications pass over the open Internet. Saudi Arabia was next, who is threatening to shut off service this Friday.
Since then the list of countries with similar concerns has grown to include Kuwait, India, Indonesia, and today extended to Lebanon. While none of the countries are yet moving to ban the BlackBerry, all are asking RIM to open up.