BlackBerry maker RIM has proudly shown off its native email app for the previously hobbled BlackBerry PlayBook at the stupendously boring BlackBerry World conference.
PlayBook users can expect to see email, calendar, contacts, tasks and memopad run natively on the tablet after an update this summer. Right now, if you want to check your email you have to rely on either a Web-based app or use the BlackBerry Bridge software to connect the tablet with a BlackBerry smart phone. Rubbish.
There are only 3,000 PlayBook apps available at present and native email was undoubtedly one of the major missing pieces for the tablet when the first wave of reviews poured scorn on the machine last month.
To be fair, the new email app is pretty classy, with a slick two-pane interface that shows a list of messages on the left and the full email on the right. You can see it in action in the video below.
RIM also gave the audience a first look at Android apps running on the PlayBook, including music apps, IMDb and a videogame info app. The 7-inch tablet will be able to run apps as if they were developed natively, via a Dalvik Java virtual machine and a fairly clunky app player that replicates Android's buttons for the buttonless PlayBook.
The UK is yet to get its collective national hands on the PlayBook. Although a June launch is anticipated, there has been no official word from RIM on the UK release date yet -- at least that means it should have this basic functionality added by the time it arrives here. Learn more about the BlackBerry PlayBook in our full preview.
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Comments 5
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Matt Mach 33 6 May, 2011 08:52
Is it just me, or did that look /really/ choppy?
Naryan 6 May, 2011 09:17
Yeah the scrolling through the e-mail on the right-hand side looked far from smooth.
Naryan 6 May, 2011 09:17
Or scrolling through anything for that matter.
Anonymous 7 May, 2011 14:07
Once this thing has BlackBerry email, it will be the finest tablet on the market. You overlook the fact that just about everything non-app related on this tablet has been executed almost flawlessly. 'Only 3000 apps' two weeks after launch is really not that bad, and its certainly not going to stop me buying one when its released in the UK.
When will this kind of bizarre RIM-bashing stop? Its difficult to respect so-called techies who shamelessly display this kind of bias.
Anonymous 14 May, 2011 21:24
When this finally lands in the uk I for sure will be picking one of these up! And that's coming from sn iPhone user/lover!! Also I have been reading that blackberry decivices are on some sort of a decline in popularity? I find his hard to believe as here in the UK the blackberry hype is till very much in motion!