Research In Motion (RIM) has announced today that they will release LTE and HSPA+ models of the upcoming PlayBook tablet, joining the WiFi and WiMax 4G models that will go on sale in March.
Each of the models will have Bluetooth tethering, mobile hotspots and BlackBerry Bridge, says PCW, a piece of software that lets BlackBerry owners use BBM (Messenger) on the tablet.
It is unclear what carriers will support the tablet, but it’s speculated that it will be available through Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Price has not been confirmed but has been “leaked” as $500 for a base model, in line with the first generation Apple iPad.
RIM’s PlayBook will have a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024×600 resolution, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP standard camera and a 3MP front-facing camera.
Finally, the company is expanding its BlackBerry World app store to Azerbaijan, Botswana Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, French Guyana, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Iceland, Kenya, La Réunion, Latvia, Macedonia, Malta, Martinique, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Tanzania.
Result for: research in motion
Research In Motion (RIM) has said it will begin selling the BlackBerry Storm via China Telecom, marking the first time the touchscreen device is available in the nation.
The smartphone will be available in 16 of the country’s 31 provinces in the near future, although no date or price was revealed.
The move is seen as a way to compete with China Unicom, which is the current exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone in the nation. The iPhone has seen such strong sales in China that Apple says sales have risen to over $1.3 billion.
The Storm was widely criticized when it launched in the U.S. in 2008 for its awful screen design and software glitches, and RIM rushed to release the Storm 2 in 2009.
RIM has made the older BlackBerry 8700 available to corporate customers in China since 2006.
At least one analyst thinks RIM’s sales in China will be light at first, as it tries to build brand recognition: “Expectations for the BlackBerry should be kept in check, they’re coming from essentially zero market share. RIM is going to have to work very hard with their carrier partners to build the brand,” says Matt Thornton, an analyst with Avian Securities, via BW.
Result for: research in motion
Research In Motion has shown off their upcoming BlackBerry OS 6 today, which improves on most of the past OS features, with much improved touch support.
Th new browser has tab switching, favorites, multi-touch, using WebKit. The tabs have transparent overlay.
There is an updated media player, one that looks much more like the cover-flow used by Apple in the iPhone.
BGR adds: “RIM has finally implemented system-wide kinetic scrolling with rubberbanding. This makes the experience a bit more fluid when scrolling through lists, web pages, emails, and the like. There is also multitouch system-wide, from the web browser to the photos application, and yes, pinch to zoom is in there.”
Overall, the OS looks more modern, with the messaging/email inbox’s looking much cleaner and updated. Thumbnails are larger and clearer so users can see where the messages they are receiving originated from (Twitter, email, text, Facebook, etc)
The Home screen is also now completely customizable, with different homescreens allowing for apps, pages, favorites. There does not appear to be widget support, however.
There is also now Gesture use, which BGR explains after testing the OS: “If you tap and hold (obviously a touchscreen device is required), you’ll get a 9 icon group centered on the screen which is basically a pretty context menu. For instance, you could be composing an email, and instead of pressing Menu + Send, you could tap and hold on the email, see the popup window, and hit the send icon there. Another use would be when emailing photos or videos from your device, just tap and hold on an item there, see the popup, and then just send the item.”
