It ’s true , the BlackBerry PlayBook is weird in some ways . You have to tether to your BlackBerry to get your calendar or e-mail . But it ’s also fairly groovy .
It ’s sort of the idealized seven - column inch tab , so dialed in it might be generic if it was n’t so cleanly executed . As thin as an iPhone 4 , the corners are rounded , but not too rounded . The back is a safe - y subdued tactual sensation , but not too safety - y. The release - barren showy black bezel ? It ’s actually a vacuous touch surface for gestures , like the Palm Pre . A 3 - megapixel front camera stares out of the top .
For being a beta build of the O that ’s not totally optimise , it runs pretty swimmingly . Apps assailable and expand , shrink and faithful , swoosh in and out as you swish between them without any stuttering . pinch from the top of the cover brings up the app ’s carte du jour . From the left-hand or right , switch to the next opened diligence . And from the bottom , it add up the app switcher , where open apps can be flicked away ( sort of like Palm WebOS ) . connection pages adulterate with Flash actually tend . It ’s legit telling . Update : Last night , RIM co - CEO Mike Lazaridis showed us the WiMax adaptation of the PlayBook running Quake while simultaneously play a 1080p video with the web browser open and a couple of tabs in the background — and it all worked with basically no slowdown . It was unquestionably a “ wow ” moment .
The enquiry is : Who , besides BlackBerry users , is going to desire to corrupt it ? The core electronic mail and calendar apps are completely tethered to a BlackBerry . Without your BlackBerry , there is no aboriginal email or calendar app — just access through the ( admittedly dear ) vane internet browser . But that ’s gon na turn off a pile of people . And we did n’t get a prospect to see what the new App World looks like , or any of the future apps that could make it a truly killer tablet — or break it .
This signifier factor is altogether go bad to live and expire by the apps , by the that things you may do with it . RIM ’s sprucely giving developer a tidy sum of way into the PlayBook — Adobe AIR , HTML5 / web apps ( which they call WebWorks ) , a aboriginal SDK ( only for special developer ) , and they can — but how many are kick the bucket to bite ?
RIM ’s got something here that could really stand on top of the bajillion other crappy pad that are going to launch this yr . They just have to take it the quietus of the way .
BlackBerryBlackberry playbookPlaybookTablets
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