Of course with the language used by the company, it’s just as likely they’ve got no large-screened BlackBerry devices in the works as it is that they do. With the original BlackBerry PlayBook having stayed in the technology news ranks for far, far longer than it’s been a commercial success. As Heins suggested in the article released earlier today:

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.” – Heins

In an update sent across the wire by BlackBerry this afternoon, it’s being clarified what the company wants Heins to have meant. As he said previously, they make clear, never say never!

“The comments that Thorsten made yesterday are in line with previous comments he has made about the future of mobile computing overall, and the possibilities that come with a platform like BlackBerry 10. We continue to evaluate our tablet strategy, but we are not making any shifts in that strategy in the short term. When we do have information about our PlayBook strategy, we will share it.” – BlackBerry

So do we expect BlackBerry 10 to be coming to the market in a large-screened tablet in the immediate future? It wouldn’t be a very good bet, that’s for sure. Will there be BlackBerry 10 devices appearing outside the BlackBerry Z10 and keyboard-toting Q10 out on the market today? That you can expect with a bit more confidence.

Speaking at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles this week, Bloomberg reports, Heins vaguely outlined his reasoning behind the dark prediction. “Maybe [you'll have] a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such” the CEO suggested. “Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

You certainly can’t blame Heins for being pessimistic about slates, given the failure of the BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM – as it was known back when the PlayBook was released – launched its 7-inch iPad rival back in 2011 as a companion device to BlackBerry 7 handsets, but the tablet’s limited standalone functionality left consumers non-plussed, and by the time the OS – a precursor of the BlackBerry 10 platform on the Q10 and Z10 – was reworked, the company had already resorted to slashing prices in order to clear shelves.

Heins has since suggested that, while a tablet isn’t necessarily off the table, BlackBerry will need to see the opportunity to do something uniquely special before it’s tempted back into that particular market. “I want to gain as much market share as I can,” he said in an interview back in January 2013, “but not by being a copycat.”

The negativity around slates has led to suggestions that BlackBerry is in no hurry to – and may in fact never – replace the PlayBook, despite originally arguing that one of the strengths of the QNX-based BlackBerry 10 OS is its cross-platform flexibility across phone and tablet-scale devices. One possibility, meanwhile, is that increasingly powerful phones could be used to drive the “big screen in your workplace” Heins mentioned; the Z10 and Q10 already support HDMI output to a separate display.

Unfortunately for RIM, without the one-time tax windfall here, they’d be reporting a loss of $114 million USD (aka 22 cents per share lost). This fiscal quarter showed RIM losing 1 million customers, this bringing them down to 79 million subscribers. This quarter had the company shipping 255,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets as well as 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones (of all kinds).

The RIM team warned investors today that over the next quarter they’d likely have to take some odd measures they’re not used to due to the oncoming wave of BlackBerry 10 devices. These moves include considering “pricing incentives” for BlackBerry 7 devices so they can sell them off the shelves and replace them with new models. They also noted that they’ll be thinking about lowering service fees to keep customers involved in BlackBerry as the move to BlackBerry 10 is made.

Market investment and promotional activity surrounding BlackBerry 10 will have RIM coming up with another operating loss, more than likely, so they say. Meanwhile the BlackBerry 10 devices running the operating system early next year have been leaking bit by bit to the media. We had a peek at one of the touch-only models this morning and expect to see no lack of leaks up until the big BlackBerry 10 event on January 30th. Stick around with SlashGear for all the big news up to, surrounding, and forward marching past the bit BlackBerry 10th launch event in 2013!

[via RIM]

The numbers make for an interesting comparison, even after one gets over the fact that 17 million iPads in a quarter is in an absolutely different universe than the PlayBook’s 130k of their own unit. It’s not the same market, on the other hand, as the iPad continues to market their device as the dominant device in the field – it’s not a tablet, it’s an iPad – while the PlayBook is still aimed very much at the hobby user – and businesses. RIM just released an update to the PlayBook’s software this week bringing up to a newly business-friendly level of compliance, mind you.

It’s not as if RIM isn’t marketing the PlayBook, on the other hand. They’ve not yet given a hint as to how or even if they’ll ever release another tablet again, and do indeed continue to manufacture this unit from not months, but years ago. Have a peek back at our full review of the BlackBerry PlayBook to see how things were back in the old times. Now we’re here in 2012 with not just software superiority from both iOS and Android, we’ve got hardware from all companies coming in and leaving the PlayBook very much in the past – even the Kindle Fire, a device that was originally modeled after the PlayBook, no longer takes cues from BlackBerry’s designers.

The iPad is also preparing to receive a baby brother – or so the rumors say – with the iPad mini legend finally coming to a place where it might become reality. With a size that’s just about as close to the PlayBook as it could be and features that place the hammer down on the heart of the BlackBerry tablet, Apple will – possibly – finally cut the life cord from that device.

[via WSJ]

The new SMS feature uses a new version of BlackBerry Bridge that can be downloaded and installed from the BlackBerry App World store now. Additional features on the new OS update include the ability to use the Messages, Contacts, and Calendar apps in portrait mode, and you can now print documents from a BlackBerry PlayBook using their Print To Go app. This feature works even if the printer and tablet are connected to different networks.

PlayBook OS 2.1 also offers new features that make the tablet easier to use in enterprise settings thanks to BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. You’ll be able to connect to the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion server over-the-air, get support for ActiveSync authentication, as well as have access to other IT Policy controls.

The 2.1 update is now available as a free download and it will arrive to your PlayBook tablet over-the-air. Users should automatically receive a notification of the update, but if not, you can tap the settings icon in the top-right corner and check for a new update under “Software Updates”.

RIM has done a lot with this update, including adding a software update for the BlackBerry 10 simulator and BlackBerry 10 Alpha. Both can now boast support for BlackBerry 10′s core apps, which include contacts, calendar, BlackBerry 10 message center, and BlackBerry 10 messenger. As an added bonus, BlackBerry 10 developers can now begin making apps with BBM integration.

To make things easy for game developers, RIM has supplied a native C/C++ plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio, which will allow devs to quickly port their games to BlackBerry 10 devices and the BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM is also pushing an update to the Ripple Simulator this time around, which now features additional support for BlackBerry 10 device and API emulation and comes with Adobe Cordova in tow.

RIM may suffered a lot of setbacks with the rise of Android and iOS, but there’s something to be said for how seriously the company is taking its relationship with BlackBerry 10 developers. Getting consumers to choose a BlackBerry device over the competition will definitely be important when BlackBerry 10 eventually launches, but having developer support is critical as well. In that respect at least, it seems that RIM is on the right track. Check out our story timeline below for more information on RIM and BlackBerry 10!

Initially it seems only one version of the PlayBook will be offered with 4G LTE, packing 32GB of storage. It will drop on Bell, Rogers and TELUS, though other “high speed” variants will follow on; that’s presumably going to include LTE for Verizon and/or AT&T in the US, and whatever HSPA+ or LTE carriers are on offer in the other launch countries.

Aside from the LTE support, the new PlayBook is functionally identical to the existing model we reviewed last year. That means HDMI output, a dual-core TI processor, front and rear cameras and stereo speakers. The PlayBook OS 2.0 update also addressed some of the early criticisms, such as the tablet’s reliance on a tethered BlackBerry phone for email and other data.

Pricing for the 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook is yet to be confirmed, and will likely depend in no small part on what carrier subsidies are on offer. Meanwhile we’re also expecting a 10-inch version, though that’s yet to be officially announced.

Exact specifications for the 10-inch PlayBook have not been confirmed, so it’s hard to know what’s going on inside the black slab. The current PlayBook uses a Texas Instruments dual-core chipset, so it’s possible RIM has stuck with the OMAP46xx range with this larger model.

Externally, it’s more of the same: black bezel, matte-finish black casing and a front facing camera, while there’s a second camera on the back. Narrow cut-outs on the left and right edges of the fascia reveal the speakers, and there are pogo pins on the bottom edge for a docking station.

When the 10-inch model might hit shelves is a matter of contention. RIM was originally expected to launch a larger PlayBook sometime this year, but delays around BlackBerry 10 have apparently changed all of that; now, according to a more recent roadmap leak, the target date for a larger “Blackforest” PlayBook is Q3 2013.

Meanwhile, there’s a 4G PlayBook 7-inch still to come, which according to that same leaked roadmap is headed to retail in Q4 2012. That means it will presumably run the same PlayBook OS as we’ve already seen so far, rather than launching with BlackBerry 10.

[via Engadget]

The 7-inch slate will come with 32GB of storage, so it looks like RIM was serious when it said it would no longer 16GB as an option. Better yet, the processor will also see a bump to a 1.5Ghz dual-core model, although it’s not clear if it’s the same TI OMAP processor or perhaps one of Qualcomm’s offerings with an integrated LTE modem. The other specs remain the same, including 1GB of RAM, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 3-megapixel front-facing camera, plus PlayBook OS 2.0.

If you want a LTE connected PlayBook, you’ll be paying $549.99 unsubsidized. If that sounds fair, then you only have to wait a week or so, and you can take comfort in the fact that RIM will upgrade the tablet to BlackBerry 10 when the operating system launches early next year, assuming the company can overcome its financial and market troubles.

[via Engadget]

Meanwhile, two BlackBerry 10 devices will be released in the first quarter of next year, the London and the Nevada. We’ve seen hints of both devices previously, with the London being an all touchscreen device and the Nevada sporting a portrait QWERTY keyboard. Interestingly, those devices will launch in Europe before heading to the United States.

After that, the BlackBerry PlayBook will see an update to BlackBerry 10, with three new devices planned. The first is a device codenamed “Nashville”, coming in Q2/Q3 2013; then, a 10-inch PlayBook codenamed “Blackforest” will make an appearance in Q3; finally, another BlackBerry device called “Naples” will land in Q3/Q4. The exact details surrounding Nashville and Naples aren’t clear.

It’s good to see RIM is thinking ahead, but the company will be facing strong competition from every direction. RIM recent financials showed a $518 million loss, with the company announcing a delay of BlackBerry 10 to the first quarter of next year and an additional 5,000 jobs needing to be cut. Year on year, the company saw a 43% drop in revenue.

[via Electronista]

[Image credit: miggslives]

The sad fact is that all of this could have been avoided. The company was slow to act in the wake of Apple’s smartphone bombshell back in 2007, believing that consumers would always want a hardware keyboard. Steve Ballmer famously criticized Cupertino’s phone at the time, but even the Windows giant saw the writing on the wall and quickly moved to revamp its own mobile operating system. It’s fair to say that Microsoft has had an uphill struggle itself, still clinging to single digit market share numbers despite the recent launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 in the United States.

Now look back at RIM, a company with nowhere near the same resources that started developing its own answer to iOS and Android even later than Microsoft. Not only that, but the latest news from RIM marks the second time the OS has been delayed. Back in December 2011, RIM claimed it made a strategic decision to delay the platform until late 2012 to wait for a dual-core chip with LTE compatibility, yet a few short months later a wealth of smartphones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and LTE solutions hit the market. Perhaps the real reason is that RIM is simply struggling with the development of BlackBerry 10.

Sure, the company tried to dip its toe into the next-generation OS waters with the introduction of the Blackberry PlayBook, but it was met with mixed reviews and poor sales. The app ecosystem on the PlayBook is also looking quite dire, despite the company’s insistence that the majority of what’s available will be able to run on BlackBerry 10 when it does eventually launch.

The additional delay might as well be the final nail in the coffin for the company. Phones like the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S III, and iPhone 4S are all vying for customers’ attention, and RIM’s competitors aren’t standing still. By the time BlackBerry 10 and associated handsets finally make it to market, RIM will have to compete with the next iPhone, the next Nexus device(s?) from Google, and Windows Phone 8.

But wait! BBM and the enterprise market are what’s keeping the company afloat, right? Even those areas are slowly being eroded. BBM used to be a strong selling point for the company, but once again the world has moved on while RIM has stood still. Apple introduced iMessage with iOS 5, taking a direct shot at RIM and bundled carrier text messages in the process. Even if you’re not an iOS user or don’t dig closed messaging standards, there are a wealth of alternatives that are cross-platform compatible: Google Talk, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Kik Messenger, even Samsung’s ChatOn. The fact of the matter is that BBM isn’t anywhere near as relevant as it once now that everyone has their own cross-platform solutions.

The enterprise and business markets will be the next to slip through RIM’s grasp. Make no mistake: Apple and Google are eyeing up both territories, with BYOD schemes already seeing employees swapping out their antiqued BlackBerry handsets for iOS and Android devices. It’ll take awhile for the tech giants to fully grasp the security needs of the business world, but you can bet that RIM’s competitors are busy working behind the scenes to make their devices business friendly.

Even in the face of financial turmoil, job cuts, and the BlackBerry 10 delay, RIM believes it can somehow license out the new operating system. Let’s just think about that for a second: it wants to license out an operating system that won’t even be released for at least another six months. Who would even consider jumping aboard BlackBerry 10? HTC and Samsung are quite content with Android right now, with both companies also occasionally flirting with Windows Phone. It’s hard to imagine Chinese OEMs like ZTE or Huawei touching BlackBerry 10 either.

And yet, despite all of this, RIM is a company that knows the jig is up. On yesterday’s earnings conference call, the company announced that it had hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital to explore options and find a way to leverage the company’s assets. The first port of call may be to try and license BlackBerry 10 – a move that most likely is going to fail spectacularly – but it’s clear that RIM is considering every scenario, including the possibility of an acquisition. And why not? The company has a healthy patent portfolio, networking infrastructure, and strong relationships with carriers across the world.

In which case the only remaining question is: who’s going to buy RIM?

The creator of the environment running on the BlackBerry PlayBook that you’re seeing in the video below is known as businesscat2000 – not unbecoming of a developer in his position. What he’s got running is a bunch of code wizardry the commoners of planet earth will have no idea how to make heads or tails of. In the CrackBerry forums, it’s a different story entirely. See what you make of it:

“The CPU isn’t emulated on Playbook (though it is on Windows). It works very similarly to how WINE works to run Windows applications on Linux. The app binary is mapped into memory and imports are resolved to point to my own implementation of the various APIs needed. iOS actually uses a few open APIs already, which Playbook supports just as well (GL ES, and OpenAL). The bulk of the work has been in implementing all of the objective C classes that are required. The ARM code of the applications run as-is – the armv6/v7 support on PB/iDevices are pretty much identical, and the code is designed to run in USR mode. No SWIs, GPIO accesses or any of that kind of shenanigans. ” – businesscat2000

Then have a peek at a video of some applications being run on the PlayBook without any “magic tricks” being played whatsoever:

You’ll see Monkey Ball, Tiny Tower, TomTom navigator, and Sushi Cat (our favorite!) Take note: this fellow has been tested several times in the forums from whens he came and, by our reckoning, does appear to be legit. Think about the possibilities, take a peek at the BlackBerry PlayBook timeline below, and think of what could have been – or what will be now that this new door has been opened!

Here’s the full statement from RIM:

RIM will no longer be making the 16 GB model of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The 16 GB PlayBook will continue to be available for distributors and retailers while quantities last. We continue to remain committed to the tablet space and the 32 GB and 64 GB models of the BlackBerry PlayBook continue to be available from our distributors and retailers around the world.
There is more value for our customers in the higher capacity models (32 GB, 64 GB), and as such we have decided to focus our efforts here.

There you have it. RIM say that the 32 and 64GB models represent better value for customers and will focus efforts on those two models instead. Still, the speculation machine was in full swing before the statement, with some believing that RIM was ditching the 16GB model due to a lower profit margin.

RIM doesn’t seem to be abandoning the tablet entirely either. The company has previously said that the PlayBook will receive an update to BlackBerry 10 when it’s made available later this year, and that the adoption rate for OS 2.0 has been high.

They did demo an early version of the app running on the BB10 Dev Alpha device. The interface seemed simple enough, with “Featured” and “New Arrival” magazines to choose from, along with the different categories such as Lifestyle, Entertainment, Women, etc. The interface otherwise looks similar to what you’ve seen on reading apps with other smartphone platforms, scrollable interface and all. Not surprising, considering PixelMags has worked with iOS and Android in the past.

A pull down panel reveals how much free reading time you have left, but fear not: there’s an option for unlimited reading if you really like to scour the magazines. There will also be an offline mode available for those long flights without internet access. It seems then that RIM wants to hit all the right notes with its new platform, leaving no stone unturned in the bid to bring developers onboard.

First, Gameloft took to the stage to talk about the success they’ve seen on the PlayBook so far, and to reveal that N.O.V.A. 3 would be coming to BlackBerry 10., featuring impressive graphics that will surely look great on the 4.2-inch Dev Alpha device. Ten other games will also be coming to BB10, including Shark Dash, Ice Age Village, and Oregon Trail.

Michael Schade from Fish Labs then made an appearance to talk about another game, Galaxy on Fire. The team was able to port the game to the PlayBook in a single day, saying how they want to bring the console experience to mobile devices, and praising the BlackBerry platform for its effectiveness against piracy, saying that it’s not easy to pirate PlayBook apps.

It’s an important move for RIM to try and gain key gaming developers for its platform. Part of the reason for iOS and Android’s large success is due to the diversity of apps, with games often taking the lion’s share of sales.

Naturally, you’ll need to serve up your own legally obtained ROMs before you can start getting your game on, and the graphics won’t be up to par with the latest games coming out on smartphones. A YouTube video demos the emulator, and we have to say, everything looks nice and smooth. If you could tolerate the touch controls, Tekken is totally playable, and Rayman runs without any issues.

The full details for PCSX-ReARMed-PB are available on the Crackberry forums, so if you want to breathe some new life into your PlayBook (before that BlackBerry 10 update, anyway) then head on over and get downloading. In the meantime, check the video below courtest of YouTube user RDilus to get an idea of how things run.

[via Ubergizmo]

The BlackBerry PlayBook OS version 2.0.1.358 is an over-the-air update and is available for download today. It improves support for Android apps, offers better browser performance, and optimizes Video Chat, PIM, and BlackBerry Bridge applications. There are several other improvements as well, but no major additional features.

You should be prompted to install the update automatically. If not, you can check for the software update in the Settings menu under “Software Updates” and then tapping “Check for Updates.” If you purchase a BlackBerry PlayBook on or after April 17, 2012, the tablet should automatically be updated to version 2.0.1 during the setup process.

[via Liliputing]

Officially supported Android apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook were introduced with the PlayBook OS 2.0 update back in February, but the selection is still limited. Users wanting apps not yet available through the BlackBerry App World have been able to sideload the apps to their PlayBook through software on their computer.

Although the number of apps on BlackBerry App World doesn’t come close to the volume of apps on the Android Market, or now called Google Play, it apparently is more profitable, according to Saunders. He claims that developers are refusing to work with RIM until sideloading has been blocked to avoid piracy. The change is likely to arrive with the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 update.

[via MobileBurn]

“Native will always be a couple of steps further [technically], but the web is absolutely competitive for the large majority of applications” BlackBerry Web Platform technical director Laurent Hasson told developers earlier this week at a London event, The Guardian reports. “An HTML5 application doesn’t mean you don’t have access to an app store, and it doesn’t mean you don’t have access to native APIs.”

If RIM can succeed in convincing app producers that there are signifiant advantages to HTML5 rather than native code, it could potentially stem the flow away from BlackBerry to iOS and Android. While Rovio’s snub of Windows Phone with Angry Birds Space has garnered more attention, BlackBerry users have also been left out of the new game. A web version would likely be platform-agnostic, however.

It’s an argument that may gain some traction, though the extent to which RIM is a motivator is unclear. Research by Appcelerator and IDC found 79-percent of developers questioned plan to use HTML5 in their apps this year, PC World reports, either dedicated HTML5 titles or hybrids using both native and HTML5 code.

RIM needs to work fast, though. The research found that developers “very interested” in creating BlackBerry apps have dipped from 38-percent to 16-percent in the course of a year, while those keen to code for the PlayBook tablet have more than halved, from 28-percent to 11-percent.

It’s understandable that RIM isn’t going to take a flexible stance on jailbreaking as say Android would, since it’s targeting enterprise and business users. Plus, the image of having an especially high standard in security may be one of RIM’s last advantages over competing smartphone platforms and manufacturers. It has already quickly squashed the DingleBerry rooting tool since it was made available last year and its PlayBook is so far the only device in the BlackBerry lineup to be rootable.

But in the detailed post today, RIM outlined the different ways in which it will handle two basic types of root access exploits. The priority in patching goes to exploits that require little interaction from the user. These include jailbreaking methods that only require users to visit a web page to download a software to the device. Since this type poses a much greater security risk, it will be patched immediately following discovery.

The second type of root access exploit involves connecting the PlayBook to a computer and voluntarily making changes that may require putting the device into developer mode, a method that requires much more interaction from the user and generally cannot be performed by remote attackers. With these exploits, patches will be distributed through a future software update instead of through a more immediate security update.

BlackBerry 10 will be based upon QNX, which the PlayBook already runs, but RIM are hoping to modify the OS to support their future smartphones, as well as making it competitive with other mobile operating systems. Speaking to TechRadar, Rob Orr, Vice President of product management said:

We’ve said publicly a number of times that our first BB10 handset will be available towards the end of 2012, and that’s still firmly the case. At some point after the launch we’ll bring BB10 to our PlayBooks, yes.

As for PlayBook OS 2.0, RIM said the install rate for the new update was very high. On day one, around 50% of users installed 2.0. Orr went on to say that that’s the opposite of a typical BlackBerry smartphone update, saying that users “are a little bit tentative to take software updates.”

There’s no word on exactly when the PlayBook will see BlackBerry 10, or any indication of any new PlayBook hardware either. RIM are expected to ship BlackBerry 10 smartphones in the later part of the year.

[via Engadget]

This device (or both versions of the device, rather), has been leaked previously via a RIM roadmap which noted the device to be scheduled for mid-2012. With the company still promoting this device with such items as trades for Android apps and inclusion in brand new Porsche concept cars, it appears that RIM wont be letting go of this device any time soon. Will RIM bring out the big guns for a re-release or upgrade for the summer season?

We’ve had our own look at the original release of the BlackBerry PlayBook many moons ago, and since then the tablet has had its fair share of mishaps and price reductions. If the PlayBook were re-released for $200 with a dual-core processor and full access to the Android Market, would you purchase one? How about if RIM touted LTE and HSPA+ with a reduced price for data?

[via Engadget]

In second place comes Android, with 44.6-percent market-share in Q4 2011, up from 32.3-percent the previous quarter. Low-cost tablets like the Kindle Fire, NOOK Tablet and slates from Pandigital helped buoy those figures, IDC says, with total Android tablet shipments in 2016 predicted for 100.8m units of a total 198.2m worldwide.

It’s disappointing news for RIM, however, with the sums suggesting that its tablet share with the BlackBerry PlayBook dipped from Q3 2011 to Q4, going from 1.1-percent to just 0.7-percent. webOS, unsurprisingly went from 5-percent in Q3 to zero in Q4.

“As the sole vendor shipping iOS products, Apple will remain dominant in terms of worldwide vendor unit shipments. However, the sheer number of vendors shipping low-priced, Android-based tablets means that Google’s OS will overtake Apple’s in terms of worldwide market share by 2015. We expect iOS to remain the revenue market share leader through the end of our 2016 forecast period and beyond” Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices, IDC

Earlier this week, research suggested that 84-percent of companies intended to buy their employees an iPad next quarter, suggesting that – despite a relative consumer focus – the iOS slate is gaining traction with the enterprise market. IDC’s figures make no reference to Windows 8, as the research firm does not include the OS in with its “media tablet” segment, though it has previously said that it has mixed expectations of the Microsoft platform with it being “largely irrelevant” beyond tablets.

The new iPad, Apple’s third-gen model, is set to hit stores on Friday this week. More details in our Apple Hub.

The case also serves to prop the PlayBook up to a more usable angle while you’re typing, handy for both text entry as well as watching video playback. The rechargeable battery is said to last for up to thirty days on a single charge – rejuicing via microUSB – and PlayBook OS 2.0 is sensible enough to permanently hide the onscreen keyboard while you’re using the physical accessory so as to maximize visible screen space.

As well as regular taps, the touchpad can handle some basic gestures familiar from notebooks, including two-finger taps for right-click and two-finger up/down swipes for vertical scrolling.

The BlackBerry Mini Keyboard is available for pre-order now, priced at $119.99. It’s expected to begin shipping March 23.

There’s a work-in-progress testing report here, which lists around 800 Android apps that have been pitted against the PlayBook having been sideloaded manually. Not all of them work, mind, and even those that do often have some partial issues, often to do with connectivity or general stability.

Still, there’s a fair number of apps that are functioning, and we’re guessing more developers will jump on board now OS 2.0 is in the wild. RIM also made a big show of handing out free PlayBook units to coders willing to submit modified Android apps for inclusion in BlackBerry App World, and the first batch of those showed up earlier today.

So, PlayBook owners, is OS 2.0 proving sufficient to keep you overjoyed with your BlackBerry tablet? Or, if you’re yet to jump on the PlayBook gravy-train, is the new functionality in OS 2.0 – along with RIM’s significant discounted prices - enough to make you consider picking up the upgraded slate? Let us know in the comments.

[via Twitter]

Social Integration:

OS 2.0 adds Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn details into your contacts and calendar, and while we might have preferred to see Google+ there instead of LinkedIn, the business-centric network probably has more relevance to business buyers. In RIM’s video, the PlayBook’s sync support with Facebook events mean confirmed attendees automatically show up in your calendar.

Meanwhile, a second video shows how your BlackBerry smartphone can be used as a remote control for the PlayBook, navigating through the tablet’s menus for instance, or opening up a received image from your phone’s inbox on the slate’s screen. RIM also takes the opportunity to remind would-be buyers about the video output option; that could come in useful, with a phone-remote, if you’re watching a video stored on the PlayBook through on your HDTV.

PlayBook and Smartphone Integration:

Whether either video will prove sufficiently convincing to turn PlayBook sales around remains to be seen, however. The most important aspect of OS 2.0 is likely to be the new native email app, which finally means the tablet is more useful to users other than just BlackBerry adoptees.

[via CrackBerry]

Although the PlayBook was first put on sale in April 2011, RIM opted to release the tablet without its own email abilities. Instead, users who wanted on-device email access had to tether the PlayBook to their BlackBerry smartphone; otherwise the only way to access messages was through the browser. RIM’s motivations were seemingly speed to market and an attempt to spur handset sales as well, but the strategy backfired.

That’s been addressed now with OS 2.0, which also brings a new Print To Go app, a boosted on-screen keyboard with better prediction and auto-correction abilities, and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn integration in the contacts and calendar apps. BlackBerry Bridge also gets a boost, with the ability to use your smartphone to remotely control your PlayBook; however, CrackBerry has discovered that, since the system uses the Bluetooth HID profile, the new Bridge app turns a BlackBerry handset into a remote for seemingly any tablet or other device.

Meanwhile, RIM is also making an initial release of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, its tool for managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and BlackBerry smartphones in an enterprise. The full version – which will add mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices – is scheduled to arrive in March 2012.

Details on how to install PlayBook OS 2.0 here.

According to the leaked documents, PlayBook owners should be able to start downloading the PlayBook OS 2.0 update as soon as next Tuesday. The update is expected to finally bring the long promised native email, contacts, and calendar support that the RIM tablet has been lacking.

The update will also bring an improved BlackBerry Bridge functionality as well as the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps that will allow users to run certain Android apps directly on the PlayBook. A deadline was announced late last month calling on developers to prepare the first Android app ports for the PlayBook, to ensure that there would be PlayBook-compatible Android apps ready once the feature gets introduced.

This update has been tipped before, this update appearing to be the real deal preparing users for the update to be pushed to them sooner than later. This update will hit the tablet as it sits at a staggeringly inexpensive $199.99 at Office Depot. In addition, BlackBerry senior brand manager Jeff Gadway spoke on the possibility of a 4G version of the tablet, saying “we’re still committed to a 4G PlayBook, and 2.0 is a large part of getting 4G right.”

We’ll be at Mobile World Congress 2012 to bring you all the news on the PlayBook you can handle should it indeed be updated to version 2.0, and the rest of the mobile world should be in full play on the date they’re pushing as well: February 29th. The short history of the RIM PlayBook isn’t over yet, folks, with price drop after price drop and stock still full at your local electronics store. Stay tuned!

Update: Looks like RIM has a little extra wiggle room. Apparently Gadway’s comments have been “more precisely framed” in an update, and now PlayBook OS 2.0 is expected “very soon” and “likely” at MWC 2012.

[via PC Mag]

For a company whose tablet was once several hundred dollars, giving these tablets away for free to developers might seem like a move of madness. Of course the truth of the matter is that there’s no better way to get people to love your hardware than to get the greatest creators of software on your side. And there’s no greater way to get a developer to work for your platform than to give them free hardware, right?

Incorrect, ladies and gentlemen, the best way to get a developer to work on a particular bit of hardware is to make that hardware popular on your own. If the user base exists, the developers will come and grab the cash they’ve got burning a hole in their pockets. On the other hand, when you’re in the position that RIM is in right now, the best solution may well be what they’re doing right now. So Android developers, grab yourself a free tablet and play gleefully upon it!

You can get all the tools you need for Runtime for Android apps beta over at Blackberry.com and start tapping away at your future market. Look at how easy it is to get into!

[via Saunders]

The BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps is perhaps the most anticipated feature of the update other than native email, contacts, and calendar support. To ensure that the update launches with PlayBook-ready Android apps in the BlackBerry App World storefront, RIM is setting a deadline of February 6 for developers to submit their Android apps.

RIM has posted a set of guidelines for submitting apps, which include removing the word “Android” from all parts of the app, removing all links to Android Market, selecting BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 as the minimum platform requirement, and ensuring that the app is code signed.

The BlackBerry Plug-in for ADT, BlackBerry Packager for Android apps, and the BlackBerry SDK for Android apps can be used to port apps, which RIM promises is an easy process. Developers are welcome to submit apps after the update launch, but to ensure its presence on launch day, the deadline is February 6.

That will be followed in Q1 2013 by a QWERTY slider, the insiders continue. No information on what, exactly, that device might offer, though it’s worth remembering that RIM was tipped to be readying the Milan, itself a portrait orientation slider, until subsequent leaks claimed the handset had been axed.

As for the new PlayBook, the first model is tipped to drop in May or June this year, with a 1.5GHz processor and HSPA+ connectivity good for up to 42Mbps. That’s presumably the 7-inch version from last week’s leak – also believed to have NFC – and the same model ex-CEO Jim Balsillie mentioned as one of Thorsten Heins first projects at the helm of the Canadian company.

Heins surprised investors and users alike with suggestions yesterday that RIM doe not require any great shake-up in order to be competitive in the smartphone market. Instead, the new chief exec will continue on the same road as Balsillie and Lazaridis before him, only considering licensing BlackBerry 10 if he’s actively approached by competitors.

The new PlayBook won’t pack LTE – like RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphones, there’s said to be a chipset limitation that is preventing the company from including true 4G connectivity – which will instead be saved for another new PlayBook, this time a 10-inch model, expected toward the end of the year. Previous leaks have suggested RIM is preparing PlayBook OS 2.0, the updated software for the tablet that will arrive next month, with 1280 x 800 screen support, indicating one or both of the new slates will have a higher-resolution display.

Nonetheless, although investors had been calling out for new blood in the CEO position at Research In Motion, Heins’ elevation to chief exec was seemingly not quite what they had in mind. The Canadian company ditched almost 9-percent in trading, believed to be a reaction to Heins’ comments that little required changing at RIM.

“It’s going to be continuity, but it’s not going to be a standstill” Heins told the newspaper of his strategy for RIM, refusing to countenance a wholesale turnaround of the integrated ecosystem plans Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis had already put into place. The first BlackBerry 10 smartphone is expected to arrive near the end of the year.

Whether from underestimating quite how demanding the tablet segment would turn out to be – blame, admittedly, that can be shared among most of Apple’s rivals – or rushing a half-baked OS to market, the PlayBook fell embarrassingly flat. What RIM had perceived as a coy ecosystem boost, making email and calendar functionality dependent on a tethered BlackBerry smartphone, was unsurprisingly perceived as a significant failing. The overall polish of the iPad was conspicuous by its absence, and RIM’s app store felt sparsely populated in comparison to Apple’s.

The ensuing price cuts and eventual $485m write-off are common knowledge now. Yet, had RIM kept its head and stuck to its existing strengths, the PlayBook debacle could’ve gone significantly differently.

BlackBerry’s reputation has always been about fantastic text entry. The company’s smartphones may not have been the best-spec’d, or the most attractive, but those who spend their days punching out message after message quickly grew to appreciate the trademark BlackBerry keyboard. RIM itself showed some understanding of that USP, back with its first touchscreen phones, even if the implementation was patchy. The SurePress haptic keyboard technology in the original Storm ended up turning off more typists than finding favor, but it was at least a sign that RIM recognized what made it special in the increasingly crowded smartphone segment.

How, then, might the PlayBook had fared if it was not a tablet, but an ultraportable notebook instead? If you’re thinking Palm Folio then you’re on the right lines, perhaps, or more recently Motorola’s Lapdock range of ultraportable alternatives. Motorola hasn’t detailed sales of its various Lapdock options, so it’s hard to know whether they’ve been a runaway success or a slow-burner, but RIM arguably has more of a reputation for polished text entry than Moto every did.

RIM’s target audience was going to need some serious persuading to ditch its laptop, and the 7-inch PlayBook was never going to do that. The company argued that it offered a more spacious way to triage a bulging inbox and respond to messages, but it could have done better providing a decent-scale physical keyboard paired with all-day battery life and a larger display.

Where the Folio and Lapdock are reliant by design on a smartphone, RIM could have given its PlayBook laptop a brain of its own. In fact, a 360-degree hinge as Lenovo showed on its YOGA concept last week would’ve allowed the company to tick both touchscreen tablet and solid text-entry ability boxes. Even as a regular ultraportable, RIM could have positioned it as a legitimate alternative to a full-sized notebook, rather than a third device to carry alongside your PC and your smartphone.

Unfortunately, it seems RIM is still driving ahead with its tablet ambitions. According to leaked roadmap information earlier today, the company has an eye on two new PlayBook tablets for 2012, initially a 3G-enabled 7-inch model, followed at the tail-end of the year with a 10-inch version toting 4G LTE.

Is the situation unsalvageable? Not necessarily. Lenovo has already borrowed ASUS’ battery-packing keyboard dock idea from the Eee Pad Transformer, so RIM may as well strike out with its own homage too. It’ll undoubtedly be bulkier than a true ultraportable companion device, but likely still smaller than the regular notebook the company could legitimately say it replaces.

RIM needs to stop trying to mimic Apple wholesale and instead focus on adopting the company’s more successful strategies: playing to your strengths, knowing your audience, and launching devices that set out exactly what they can do and deliver on it in a polished manner. The enterprise juggernaut takes a long time to turn around; that gives RIM more time to reposition than, say, a consumer-centric company. On the flip-side, though, should its business clients finally abandon it, RIM may discover it’s all but impossible to coax them back into the fold.

Hardware details on the two new PlayBook models are uncertain. The 3G+ of the new 7-inch version is apparently a chipset limitation, preventing LTE being included. However previous leaks of PlayBook OS 2.0 revealed LTE iconography and support for 1280 x 800 resolution, which could indicate one or both of the new models are stepping up to a more pixel-packed screen.

The first BlackBerry 10 handset isn’t expected until September this year, according to the source, in keeping with RIM’s own public “late-2012″ timescale. Exactly what the device will be is unspecified, though it seems likely to be the BlackBerry “London”, the only phone believed left uncancelled from those we’ve seen leak from the Canadian firm.

Before that point, however, there’ll supposedly be two new BlackBerry Curve handsets, targeting emerging markets; one will be 2G-only. PlayBook OS 2.0 will drop at the end of February 2012, while the PlayBook Admin Service will drop this coming summer. Meanwhile, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion - which will allow remote configuration, locking, secure wiping and connectivity management across BlackBerry phones, the PlayBook, Android smartphones or tablets, or an iPhone or iPad – will arrive in April, a month later than RIM previously expected.

RIM is expected to preview BlackBerry 10 at Mobile World Congress 2012 late next month – a timescale that would fit in with the tipped PlayBook OS 2.0 release, suggesting the two could well coincide – though that’s said to be a behind-glass showcase with no hands-on devices available. In the meantime, RIM is supposedly working with investment bank Goldman Sachs on exploring the potential of selling off the company.

RIM denied the supposed-insider’s comments as “inaccurate and uninformed” and reiterated that the launch later this year was a strategic one around next-gen LTE chipsets rather than being prompted by internal struggles. Nonetheless, analysts remain unconvinced, with Evercore Partners’ Alkesh Shah describing the chipset wait as “a contributing factor in a number of factors that led to the delay,” the NYTimes reports.

“They can’t get the infrastructure and the operating system ready in time” Peter Misek, analyst, Jefferies & Company

In fact, the spreading suspicion is that RIM has simply been unable to bring BlackBerry 10′s power and battery demands down to a level where current-gen chipsets are capable of delivering a competitive experience. Poorly performing prototypes convinced RIM that there was no choice but to delay production until the new frugal and potent chips arrived later in the year.

“One of the problems is the delay in the BB 10 software and that may have led to the selection of chips that caused the most recent delay” Rod Hall, analyst, JPMorgan Chase

QNX, the RIM acquisition at the heart of BlackBerry 10, may not have been as up to the challenge of smartphones as the company believed, ABI Research’s Michael Morgan suggests. Although the OS is widely deployed already, those implementations are often in cars and other situations where power consumption is a minor issue. Even the PlayBook struggled with QNX’s comparative frugality, and now the OS “is being applied now in a place it hasn’t been before” Morgan concludes.

The US isn’t the only territory to get some whopping deals. UK buyers can get the 16GB PlayBook for around £169 ($263) though the 32GB and 64GB models are still more expensive at around £199 ($310) and £329 ($513) respectively.

RIM’s deals in the US are obviously better if you’re looking at the 64GB PlayBook; previously the 16GB version was selling, from RIM’s store direct, for just $199. All stock is expected to ship in 7-14 business days, though we expect supplies may go fast, just as in previous sales.

If you’re wondering what, exactly, you might do with a bargain QNX tablet, there’s always Android apps. Enterprising modders have fettled a release of the Android Market for the PlayBook, for those willing to spend some time tinkering with their new toy.

Is $299 low enough to make you consider the BlackBerry PlayBook? Or are you waiting for the real firesale to come? Let us know in the comments.

[Thanks Carl!]

You new owners of the BlackBerry PlayBook who picked one up for $199 as well as all you old-school owners who blasted your pocketbooks for the chance to own the business-class tablet for yourselves early on will be glad to know that the most popular game in the whole mobile universe is now available for you, too. The only downside here is that each of these games will cost you $4.99 apiece. Luckily though this means you won’t have to mess with advertisements that block your gameplay area.

You’ll have the best time in the world playing the games everyone else has had access to for many months now, and included in your packages you’ll find such bonuses as ties to the Rio movie that was released in the middle of this past summer and all the Seasons you missed in the summer of your discontent. On the plus side, it does appear that Rovio will continue to update these apps through the future just as they do the rest of the platforms, so no need to buy new games, one time’s enough!

You can pick up Angry Birds Rio then head a bit back in time to grab the original Angry Birds and have the continuation of holiday cheer with Angry Birds Seasons. It’s cheer time for BlackBerry PlayBook! Thanks for the tip, Jason!

[via N4BB]

The daring PlayBook getaway took place at the Pilot Travel Center off State Road 67, west of Interstate 69, in Chesterfield, Indiana. The driver had been away for an hour, returning to the lot to discover that the semi was gone, complete with RIM’s tablets and his own belongings.

Our guess is that the thieves didn’t know it was a QNX tablet they were getting  - as far as we know, RIM doesn’t brand its haulage with “BlackBerry On Board” – and the theft was relatively blind. Considering muggers are now refusing to steal anything but Apple hardware in some areas, we can only imagine the disappointment when the PlayBook rustlers opened up their ill-gotten load and discovered RIM’s finest inside.

The $1.7m loss of tablets is a drop in the ocean compared to the $485m hit RIM took over unsold PlayBook tablets earlier this month. Only 150,000 of the tablets were shipped in Q4, with RIM reporting falling profits and depressing its share price even further with the admission that the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones now won’t arrive until the tail-end of 2012.

[via CrackBerry]

BlackBerry devices shipped 14.1 million units worldwide, which is up 33 percent from last quarter, an improvement likely due to the recent introduction of a slew of new BlackBerry 7 devices. Customer reach is now at 75 million, increasing 33 percent from last year, while revenues were up 24 percent from last quarter.

The company is still struggling to move its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which shipped only 150,000 units this quarter. Earlier this month, RIM had announced that it would be taking a $485 million hit for its stockpiled PlayBooks to account for the reduced pricing. The global service outage in October has also attributed a $54 million charge.

RIM insists it will remain committed to its PlayBook tablet and platform transition, saying that “it may take some time to realize the benefits of these efforts and the platform transition that we are undertaking, but we continue to believe that RIM has the right set of strengths and capabilities to maintain a leading role in the mobile communications industry.” Nonetheless, RIM’s stock fell 7 percent in after hours trading.

[via VentureBeat]