Research in Motion today unveiled its first tablet offering called the “PlayBook.”
The device is due early next year in the U.S., with international availability coming in the second quarter of 2011. RIM has not yet announced a price.
The 7-inch, 9.7mm-thick tablet, which was debuted by RIM’s President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis at the company’s Devcon event in San Francisco, features an HTML5-capable browser, both front- and rear-facing HD cameras, and HDMI and USB ports.
On the inside, the PlayBook runs off of a 1GHz dual-core chip and has 1GB of built-in RAM. It will also come with a special version of the BlackBerry software that features multitasking and 1080p video playback. Other specs of note include 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and support for Adobe Flash 10.1.
Nice specs. Terrible name.
Everyone thought it was going to be called the ‘Blackbook’ since RIM bought the blackbook.com URL.
I love how their promotional video is largely populated by technologies that DON’T EXIST. RIM is out of it.
I still think a laptop (recent ones with a good battery) can bring more productivity than any of these tablets. Anyone disagree?
I think the screen size is too small…
Running QNX – that’s good. Available next year which means everyone will wait until the 2nd gen iPad is announced that’s bad. Also they need a contract free price under $500 to compete with a 7 inch device.
A battle of personalities: Jason Schwartzman vs. Mike Lazaridis
1024×600 is NOT 1080p.
1920×1080 is 1080p.
It may be able to play 1080p source video, but the screen will have to compromise image quality.
I can hook up a Blu-Ray player to a standard-def TV with component video cables — and it will still look like crap.
The wordpress theme for dvorak.org does not display properly on the iPad. There is extra white space to the right of the page content: This results in the page scaling and the viewer must rescale the content. A fix would benefit the readership. Best.
It could have worser names:
RIMjob
RIMpad
BlackRIM
And the list goes on and on..
Basically a tablet is two things:
a) a web browser
b) a fancy photo frame that can show illegally duplicated movies.
That is how it is used. You put your stuff on the cloud and access it with a browser. You access stuff with a browser. You watch a ripped movie. Or you watch a movie purchased via the cloud. That’s about it.
Once that reality sets in, people will refuse to pay more than $200 for these things, unless your are an Apple idiot (“Appidiot”) then you will pay $699 and buy every version because it is shinier.
#9 Rick. THAT is your only complaint about this blog? Ha! This blog is so primitive that my 12 year old neighbor’s daughter has a more reliable, featured, better designed blog! Technically this place is a joke, something from 10 years ago, barely functional. You expect it to sense and reformat the screen size automatically???? HA! We are lucky when the mySql database doesn’t crash more than twice a week.
I think the picture speaks for itself. A white haired old man is displaying the technology.
Have we not learned that innovation comes from the young?
Gee, no live demo, no price, and no launch date? And they want us to take this seriously as an iPad killer?
Awake,
You are right (if you add social networking) but you downplay the importance of portable content delivery — it is the current killer app. The market for these gizmos is only in its infancy.
“RIM has not yet announced a price.”
No, but they have announced it is “enterprise Ready” and called it a “Professional Tablet” so expect prices to start at $850.
#11 Asleep – Personally, I LIKE the simplicity of this forum. I know at least one of the Moderators is capable of doing far more sophisticated things but why? As is, it’s easy to use, easy to navigate and clear to read and follow. I visit others that are far more modern and twice as much work. Please, if you think it’s a joke, go hang out with your neighbor’s 12 year old.
“Apps Rocking” HAR!
Blackberry tablet development is either HTML5/CSS/Javascript (yippee!) or Flash (um, gay or what, huh?). HTML5/CSS/Javascript (like in WebOS) as the local development language is a real advantage over iOS and Android.
Looks too small, might as well get an iPod Touch.
My kindle has more ram and it’s just a dedicated ebook reader.
I don’t mind a gig of ram if I can stick a 32 gig flash card in the thing otherwise forget it. It still needs to be able to do something when it isn’t on line.
Anyone else wondering, how different this would have been if Apple has licensed their iOS to RIM? And HTC? And Samsung?
# 20 Anyone else wondering, how different this would have been if Apple has licensed their iOS to RIM? And HTC? And Samsung?
Sure. The RIM, HTC and Samsung would have had crappy gear, too!
ZZZzzz…
Why would I need it if I can get an iPad? I use my iPad to play movies, read books, play games, for my DVD database, and it has a bigger screen.
This is an enterprise device, so think within that box. It’s small enough to fit in a jacket pocket, or purse. To be sure someone else here has had the pain reading long emails and attachments, or using the web browser on a Blackberry. I assume it will come with Blackberry security.
11 Awake,
Do you remember the blog redesign? Let’s not do that again…
#9, Yes please fix the iPad so that it displays web pages properly.
#24 Pedro, how do like this black 7 incher?
#9 & 27, try the Aarde browser on the iPad. Has features that Safari doesn’t and will compensate for web sites that aren’t mobile aware.
I just read an article on another site that sort of pissed me off. I’ve been waiting a long time for a decent, capable, affordable tablet computer. Now, due to the temporary success of the iPad, everybody is throwing something at us. So many of them are going to be complete failures it is likely to make manufacturers sit back and declare the tablet dead. It’s happened before! The one that’s got me PO’ed is HP. They are ‘including’ a free tablet with the purchase of an all in one printer. [ http://bit.ly/cihvFv ] At $400 you’re actually probably buying the tablet not the printer. You’ll be paying for the printer for a long, long time every time you change the proprietary ink cartridges. But the tablet is really low end so will leave a bad taste in people’s mouths and probably help contaminate the field for all manufacturers.
Shame on you HP.
#9 Tap the ipad screen… all fixed.