February 22, 2012

Despite rather persistent death rumors, Research-In-Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is still alive and kicking. Now, RIM has delivered a software update to the PlayBook that could give it a little extra life.

RIM has outed PlayBook OS 2.0, the long-awaited update to its operating system for the PlayBook. PlayBook OS 2.0 comes with some much-requested new features, including native support for email, integration of social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook in the Contacts and Calendar apps, and a new remote control feature for BlackBerry Bridge that allows a BlackBerry smartphone to be used over BlueTooth as a keyboard for the PlayBook.

It is available now for download.

The update addresses several of what were widely viewed as the largest problems with the PlayBook tablet when it was initially released in April. Once lampooned for its lack of real email and calendar support, the PlayBook now boasts both a unified inbox that can combine work and personal emails, as well as a calendar that can thread together information from multiple social networks; once limited to only a small selection of apps in the BlackBerry App World market, PlayBook OS 2.0 opens up the tablet to thousands of apps from the Android Market; once hamstrung by its lack of options for movies to download, store and watch, OS 2.0 adds the BlackBerry Video Store (announced in September) for renting or buying up to 10,000 movies.

RIM has also introduced a functionality in BlackBerry Bridge which allows owners to use the physical keyboard and trackball on their BlackBerry phone as a keyboard and mouse to control their PlayBooks. PlayBook owners were already able to sync apps between their smartphones and tablets over BlueTooth with BlackBerry Bridge and to view email, contacts and other apps from their smartphone on the larger PlayBook screen.

The update is being trumpeted by many tech pundits as having filled out a once sparse operating system for the BlackBerry PlayBook. “A Year Later, The BlackBerry PlayBook Is Finally Fully Baked,” wrote Dan Rowinski of ReadWriteWeb. “RIM’s PlayBook Starts Its Second Life Today,”announced GigaOM. “PlayBook OS 2 Plugs Some Gaps,” wrote John Paczkowski of AllThingsD, in an article that detailed the features that were “inexplicably absent from [the] first iteration” of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Though RIM has indeed added several badly-needed features to its iPad competitor, there is a question of whether this update is too little, too late. PlayBook owners have been expecting an OS update for over 5 months now, and many of those customers may be justifiably frustrated with RIM at this point; PlayBook sales have also been tremendously slow from the beginning, with RIM forced to slash prices on the PlayBook several times since its April release. When it first went on sale the 7-inch PlayBook started at $499, the same price as the iPad; now, a 16GB PlayBook can be yoursfor $199. Part of that may have been due to incredibly harsh, dismissive reviews, with “half-baked” and “unfinished” being two of the buzzwords surrounding the PlayBook at launch.

Eight months later, RIM hopes it has a fully-baked, finished product with its PlayBook OS 2.0. Check out a review of the PlayBook’s new 2.0 operating system, shown off to the folks at TechCrunch at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2012

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Related posts:

1. BlackBerry PlayBook Price Slashed Again
2. BlackBerry PlayBook Killed? Analyst Says Signs Point To Yes
3. BlackBerry PlayBook Price Drops To $299 In The US
4. Best Buy cuts price of RIM PlayBook for weekend
5. New BlackBerry Torch 9850, 9860 and 9810 officially announced

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