RIM Launches Its Answer to the iPad: PlayBook

I thought Blackpad was kinda lame, but PlayBook makes me yearn to have it back. Despite its lack of a catchy name, RIM introduced its first tablet last night at its developers conference. And it actually doesn’t look half bad.

The seven-inch device features a 1 GHz dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM. As rumored, Blackberry chose to go with a brand new OS instead of using its recently launched Blackberry OS 6, something that should give the new tablet a little extra flow. Designed to sync with Blackberry phones and Blackberry enterprise servers out of the box, the PlayBook will definitely be more of a workhorse than the iPad (wouldn’t WorkBook have been bad but still better?).

While enterprise is clearly on RIM’s mind, the PlayBook includes a number of features that will also appeal to casual tablet users. The two HD video cameras give the PlayBook picture, video and videoconferencing capabilities. And the inclusion of Adobe Flash opens the full Internet experience for work or play. HDMI output is another key feature.

The weakest part of the PlayBook is that it confirms rumors of Wi-Fi/ tethering to a Blackberry phone and no 3G. However, RIM says that 3G and 4G versions will be launched after the initial model debuts early next year. [via CNET]