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Today at the BlackBerry World conference in Orlando Florida, RIM’s Senior Project Manager, sneak peaked the latest software addition to their BlackBerry Playbook. The Android App Player. Just as the name suggests this will allow a user to load Android apps and run them on their very own Blackberry Playbook.
We heard about this feature long before the Playbook’s release but didn’t see the tablet offer support on launch day. Looks like all of that could soon change when this feature is finally released this summer. Check out the (slightly uncomfortable) video from BlackBerry below.
I can tell you that I’ve had more than enough time with the Playbook and generally like the ease of use, multitasking and smooth hardware acceleration throughout the OS. As always when new developments like this hit the tech world, I’ve got some tough choices to make. With the addition of Android apps on a Playbook do you think this will sway any future tablet users who were maybe on the fence on which tablet to pick up? Or is it “Honeycomb for life” as usual?
[Via YouTube]
I gotta say that I am definitely enticed by that demo. I wasn’t sure how it would work but, the fluidity of the apps on this tablet could be just slightly better than Honeycomb. I am a die-hard Androiddict to the core but, it just really seemed solid in transitions and rendering . I wouldn’t choose this over a straight android tablet so, lets not get my admiration twisted people ;) Live It, Love It, Android-life……….!
blasfemy!!!!!
Do you mean “blasphemy”?
Is your blasphemy saying his blasfemy is blasphemy?
i need it for work. wouldnt dare use it for personal use. i need my google 100% integrated.
That dudes hands are distracting, made me feel sick.
Slightly misleading demo, given that (I’m sure) the various network contents were already cached before the demo started.
I played with one of these today at Best Buy for about 20 minutes… It took me a few minutes to figure out the bezel is also touch sensitive, but once I got past that I was blown away… The size is just right for me. The performance is dead on, the GUI is superb on all fronts, and the screen is large enough that it’s easily readable and sharp. It’s not overly large like my iPad, which I don’t consider portable enough.
Long rabid comment short, I ended up buying one. :O
And nope, I’m not abandoning Android, my Nexus One is still hands down my favorite portable as it’s an everything device and I’ll be using it to tether this tablet.
But now I can develop for Android, BlackBerry, and of course my lackluster iPad.
Anyways, my only regret, is that I’ll be holding off on the HTC Flyer now, but on the other hand my wife wants one.
I thought u could play the android games too?!!
Meh, it’s not the same. Widgets won’t run, multitasking is still iffy and the Google native apps more than likely won’t be available for it. Plus there’s more to Android than just the apps. Also, the ton of Android Tablets on the horizon will certainly outclass it specs wise.
I’ll still need to check it out in person, but I’m not seeing anything mindblowing here. Plus they seem to be only demoing the same apps over and over.
“multitasking is still iffy”? Are you serious? Multitasking on the PlayBook is more awe-inspiring than any multitasking I’ve ever seen on any other device including desktop OSes
I was referring to the multitasking of Android apps. Even so, this looks like a ripoff of webOS’s multitasking which to be honest isn’t that awe inspiring. I had a Pre for 7 months and it merely ‘froze’ apps in the background. For example when you thought the browser was still loading it wasn’t. In all fairness I haven’t played with one of these yet so it might be an improvement.
Blackberry and Windows devices, always 2 steps behind. Android is and will be the leader. Don’t waste your time with wannabees. The fact that this even exists tells you all you need to know about RIM. Lets no develop something better, lets just develop something that runs the other guys stuff. EPIC FAIL +2
Nice video!!..