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Playbook OS 2.0 Released
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.
No, that was the power button. They wanted to remove it because turning the device might expose users to a security risk.
"Native email" means BlackBerry Messenger...
You could *always*run, gmail, yahoo mail, or any of the web mail clients on day one. The browser is/was powerful enough and flash compliant enough to "just work". No need for some stooge to write a custom app just to access your standard websites (and charge you $0.99 or more)... unlike another fruity vendor. In fact, several websites need to remove the PlayBook browser from their "mobile device" list and allow it to access the standard desktop-targetted site. This tablet is capable of rendering it without customization.
The various iPad app devs don't want you to know that. Their income is predicated on Apple continuing to fail to deliver a device capable of accessing the entire web. While Apple continues to deliver crippled hardware, they tie their users ever more tightly to cash-cow called the iStore. It's time for consumers to break free. Buy Android or other devices that DON'T lock you into the closed marketing machine.