Playbook OS 2.0 Released

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday February 22, 2012 @03:54AM from the all-playbook-makes-jack-unproductive dept.

Alt-kun writes "On February 21st, The Blackberry Playbook finally received its long-promised overhaul. Called Playbook OS 2.0, this major upgrade provides native email and calendaring apps, limited support for Android applications (the developer has to repackage the app for the Playbook), and a bunch of other features. There are some fairly positive initial reviews, although one can no doubt expect a lot of too-little-too-late naysaying from various quarters as well. The Globe and Mail article also contains this somewhat interesting note: '...until RIM began deep discounting ... the device languished way behind rivals such as the iPad in terms of market share. One recent report by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, however, pegs RIM's share of the tablet market at around 15 per cent, a big jump after discounting over the holiday buying season.'" ZDNet has some screenshots of the new features, and El Reg has a piece on an interesting bit of the new software.

3 of 90 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

market share by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:35 · Score: 5, Informative

One recent report by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, however, pegs RIM's share of the tablet market at around 15 per cent, a big jump after discounting over the holiday buying season.

That's 15 per cent of the Canadian tablet market. One would figure they're doing much worse outside Canada.
Re:Good app recommendations? by Dzimas · 2012-02-22 05:02 · Score: 5, Informative

First off, try Evernote (cloud note service) and Poynt (location based search). Taptu is probably the best blog/news aggregator for PlayBook. It's actually an Android app that runs within the new Android Player. Magellan Compass is a nice GPS navigation tool that uses Google Maps and integrates Yelp and Flickr. Box is a nice cloud storage solution for sharing files between the PB and other devices and your desktop. I think they offer something like 15GB free storage. GeeReader bring Google Reader to the platform. The free version has a banner ad on the bottom of the reading pane, but it's easy enough to ignore.
As far as free games go, PewPew is a quite attractive vector graphic shoot-em-up that's a great stress relief at the end of the day. Celestial Slingshot is another free game that's quite addictive if you don't mind accidentally launching dozens of ships into the sun.
Release of the Zinio reader is imminient, and I'm sure we'll see a flock of Android apps in the AppWorld in coming months. Ignore the wisecracks from the iPadistas - the Playbook is good value for $200.
Re:Good app recommendations? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 05:10 · Score: 5, Informative

Spent mod points so have to post as AC, check out "GeeReader" if you use Google Reader for RSS, "Remote Desktop" if you want to RDP to your desktop using native MSTSC TCP 3389 with no additional software clients, there is "Telnet/SSH" which is basically PutTY compiled for Playbook OS, "ProInsights" is a very nice eye candy for your LinkedIn account (not very functional, but very cool to show off), "Book Reader" lets you open any ebook, including Kindle... for games - just look at the top rated tab in the new App World. Ok, I think that's it.