BlackBerry PlayBook

PlayBook is the first product constructed on the platform which is based on the QNX operating system. This tablet sets new standards of energy consumption and performance in the market of tablet computers.

Characteristics

Characteristics for January, 2011

The producer put the main emphasis in PlayBook on speeds of work and existence of full-fledged multitasking environment - and it already brought the first results. Among all tablets (and them at the beginning of 2011 more than eighty were provided) PlayBook drew the greatest attention of visitors - and exactly thanks to the performance.

The device is equipped with the capacity LCD display with the diagonal of 7 inches and with a resolution of 1024x600 points, the OMAP 4430 dual-core processor with a frequency of 1 GHz (the newest chip of Texas Instruments based on reference design of ARM Cortex-A9 capable to process Full of HD video), 1 GB of the RAM, support of Wi-fi and Bluetooth and two cameras for video calls and conferences (one in front and one behind) with an opportunity to see the interlocutor in complete permission of high definition and to broadcast it the same signal.

Characteristics for October, 2011

• The LCD screen of high resolution with the diagonal of 7 inches. Weight is only 425 grams.
• True multitasking
• The multithreaded QNX operating system ensures simultaneous operation of several applications, providing true multitasking in real time
• Ample multimedia opportunities
• Two video cameras of the HD format with the view-finder of 7 inches and a full support of HDMI.
• Browser
• Full support of Adobe Flash and HTML 5
• BlackBerry PlayBook is the first tablet certified by FIPS for use in federal government managements of the USA and government structures of Australia

Citrix Receiver для BlackBerry PlayBook

• For October, 2011 is in a beta testing stage

• Citrix Receiver uses multitasking of PlayBook, and it means that users will be able to work at the same time with several applications on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet just as they got used to do it on the notebook or the desktop computer

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 operating system

According to October, 2011 2 versions of PlayBook OS will be a part the following innovations.

• The built-in applications for work with mail, the calendar and the contact list
• Corporate applications, including the BlackBerry Balance application allowing to manage the devices which are owned by the staff of the companies
• Earlier announced player for Android of applications
• Additional functions of the browser
• New applications, including BlackBerry Video Store library in which will be available to purchase or lease of 10.000 movies and TV programs at the same time new movies will be added to library along with an exit to DVD. Thanks to the built-in HDMI to an exit, users will be able to enjoy watching video on the TV without acquisition of additional devices

The BlackBerry Tablet operating system based on QNX QNX is a purse, the safe and standardized platform based on which we are going to build the future of our products.

• We are going to build in QNX technologies the BlackBerry smartphones, opening the amplest opportunities for future development of our company
• The architecture of QNX is one of the most reliable, safe and steady architecture of the world for operating systems
• QNX provides the powerful program base thanks to which PlayBook (and future models of our superbackgrounds) will allow to look in a new way at opportunities of mobile devices, allocating them with the outstanding capacity, scalability and support of the standard industry tools well familiar to hundreds of thousands of developers

History

2011: Device presentation

In January, 2011 the Canadian company Research In Motion within the exhibition of consumer Consumer Electronics Show electronics, largest in the USA, carried out preliminary demonstration of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet which release in sale is planned for March, 2011. The cost of the gadget is expected at the level of $500^[1].

"We received outstanding first responses about BlackBerry PlayBook, - Mike Lazaridis, the president and the chief executive of Research In Motion said. - Our strategic decision about an investment of resources in performance, a full-fledged work with the Internet and the open platform for application development based on web technologies received positive assessment from clients and developers".

Criticism

Despite outstanding technical characteristics which - and in RIM in every possible way emphasize it - do this professional tool of the device, it was not also without some nuances. So, at the end of 2010 the company denied information from one of analysts who said that because of an emphasis on performance the battery life of PlayBook became so small that does not come within miles neither of iPad, nor of tablets based on Android.

According to Business Insider, in addition to a problem with battery life (which in RIM is denied), PlayBook is based on the operating system of the QNX family under which it is not so easy to program. Moreover, according to the former employee of the company to whom the edition refers, in the Wi-Fi-version of the tablet there will be no direct support of corporate services - key feature of all BlackBerry smartphones. According to him, the lack of the present possibility is connected with "security issues".

According to the American media, the tablet will contact BlackBerry services via the smartphone to which will connect via an encrypted channel of Bluetooth. Thus, the vendor considerably narrows a circle of potential buyers of the device and limits its purpose (entertainments, consumption of content and already then the auxiliary business device, besides only in a sheaf with the BlackBerry smartphone).

Development plans

The company is not going to stop on one model and is going to release a line. According to representatives of RIM, in the summer of the 2011th they intend to display model which will support technology of mobile communication of fourth generation. This version will be developed together with Sprint company and to work in its mobile networks.

Notes