BlackBerry Playbook

BlackBerry executive contradicts CEO Heins, says Playbook sequel already in the works

March 19th, 2013

Dan Graziano

A day after BlackBerry (BBRY) CEO Thorsten Heins said that the company wasn’t going to produce another tablet until it had figured out how to make it more than “just another tablet,” a senior executive said that a sequel to BlackBerry’s Playbook tablet is already in the works. Mike Al Mefleh, a BlackBerry director of product management, claimed in an …

BlackBerry promises to update its Android emulator to run Jelly Bean apps

February 5th, 2013

Dan Graziano

One of the unique features of the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 operating system is the ability to run Android apps. This is achieved through the company’s “Runtime for Android apps” program, however it isn’t perfect. For one, the runtime environment is based on the two-year old Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and not a …

4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook will cost $450 with a two-year agreement, $550 off-contract

August 3rd, 2012

Brad Reed

When RIM (RIMM) on Thursday unveiled its 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook, there was one piece of information that was noticeably absent: pricing. But now MobileSyrup has seemingly discovered that the LTE PlayBook will cost Canadian residents $550 off-contract, $500 with a one-year service agreement, $450 with a two-year service agreement and $350 with a three-year service …

4G BlackBerry PlayBook to launch this month despite RIM’s torrid tablet past

July 24th, 2012

Zach Epstein

Research In Motion (RIMM) has not found success in the tablet market quite yet. The struggling smartphone vendor crossed over to the tablet space last year with its debut slate, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and it was met with mixed early reviews. There was nothing mixed about the half-billion dollar charge RIM had to take in …

RIM axes 16GB PlayBook

June 7th, 2012

Brad Reed

We hardly knew ye, 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook. The demise of the 16GB PlayBook, first reported by N4BB and later confirmed by Engadget, means that RIM is only offering the more expensive 32GB and 64GB versions of its tablet. A RIM spokesperson told Engadget that the company is still “committed to the tablet space” but simply …

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 beta available for download for developers

June 1st, 2012

Dan Graziano

As promised, Research in Motion on Friday released the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 beta for developers. The latest software update delivers three major enhancement to the Android Runtime, allowing access to the Camera hardware, sorting each individual Android app to run in its own window, and enabling in-app payments through the BlackBerry Payment SDK. The …

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 beta coming today or tomorrow

May 30th, 2012

Dan Graziano

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook product manager, Michael Clewley, has confirmed through his Twitter page that the company is planning to release a beta version of its 2.1 Playbook OS by the “end of May.” After signing up as a BlackBerry developer, the update will be pushed to eligible devices once it is released. The …

A match made in heaven: BlackBerry PlayBook and… Windows Phone? [video]

May 17th, 2012

Zach Epstein

What do you get when you cross a struggling vendor’s debut tablet with a mobile operating system that has spent the past 18 months running into the brick wall that is Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS? One Dutch developer seemingly needed to find out, so he ported Microsoft’s perpetually-emerging Windows Phone OS onto …

RIM CEO confirms 4G LTE-equipped PlayBook coming in 2012

May 2nd, 2012

Dan Graziano

Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins at a press event on Wednesday confirmed that a 4G LTE PlayBook will launch by the end of this year. According to The Canadian Reviewer, the tablet will be equipped with an updated dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHZ, will include NFC technology and look similar to the current BlackBerry …

BlackBerry PlayBooks with HSPA+ and LTE radios pass through the FCC

March 14th, 2012

Dan Graziano

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook may be down, but it’s definitely not out. Over a year ago, the company revealed plans to release an LTE-compatible PlayBook as well as a 3G model that will work on HSPA+ networks. Details surrounding these variants have been few and far between, with some assuming they were simply canceled. As …