Thomas and Tashanna pointed out this interesting writeup by PCMag (via OSBB I think) that has some great tidbits in it. They talked with Marty Mallick, a senior director of business development at RIM, about the PlayBook and a few other updates and some interesting details and confirmations came out. Here is a quick summary:
- "…there will be touch BB10 devices as well as QWERTY BB10 devices. Both of those will exist." They may not have the same resolution but they will have the same aspect ratio.
- PlayBook 2.0 “can be looked at as a stepping stone towards BB10. It starts to introduce the new UI elements”
- PlayBook 2.0 features the ability to use your BlackBerry smartphone as a “remote control” for the PlayBook. Malik says this means you can use your BlackBerry keyboard to type on your PlayBook or use your BlackBerry as a mouse.
- You will also be able to choose the option to open a website on your PlayBook from the BlackBerry smartphone browser.
- PlayBook OS 2.0 will bring email, calendar, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as we have seen in previous leaks.
Malik also told PCMag that more BlackBerry 10 details will show up at the BlackBerry Europe DevCon in mid-February and more details at Mobile World Congress in late February. They did not specify when PlayBook OS 2.0 will launch…
Daniel ( View Profile) - Posts: 577
Posted: January 10, 2012 at 11:08 AM EST
Glad to hear that there will be QWERTY BB10 devices, another site had an article that wondered whether RIM might cut their lineup to one device only, similar to the iPhone, now that the London is supposedly the only device we know of now but I couldn’t imagine that to be the case. RIM has always offered the market device options (among other things) so that would be a pretty big switch in business strategy.
BarracudaBob ( View Profile) - Posts: 1020
Posted: January 10, 2012 at 12:15 PM EST
It’s to bad we have to wait until DevCon Europe to hear more about OS2. I was really hoping that they would end CES by announcing an early release or maybe a new beta.
captainbdsc ( View Profile) - Posts: 177
Posted: January 10, 2012 at 12:31 PM EST from my BlackBerry 9700 | OS 6.0.0.706
So I guess this means that OS2 won’t see the official light of day for general users until Feb 29 at 11:59:59, then it’ll come out around the 20th of April… Hahaha… Anyway… I am excited for it despite the disappointment and disheartened comment… I’ll wait for it to be done and work correctly…
Daniel ( View Profile) - Posts: 577
Posted: January 10, 2012 at 1:07 PM EST
They said February 2012, they reiterated that it was on track for February…needless to say, a full version needs to be released in February 2012.
Diego Nei, MBA ( View Profile) - Posts: 266
Posted: January 10, 2012 at 8:27 PM EST from my BlackBerry PlayBook | OS 1.0.0
I for one am not a bit disapointed. OS2 looks awesome! The new features make the PB the mest tablet available (apps aside, of course).