Research in Motion (RIM) has announced in their annual BlackBerry Developer Conference, by CEO Mike Lazaridis, the company’s new tablet called the PlayBook. The tablet will employ an OS created by the recently acquired QNX (just like the rumour said) called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. It’ll offer full OpenGL and POSIX support alongside web standards such as HTML5. All these will be tied into RIM’s new WebWorks SDK. Read more…

After being MIA for quite some time, RIM’s long-rumoured tablet is getting cooked up, again. Wall Street Journal has a news report that says the tablet, Blackpad or SurfBook or whatever, will be launched by RIM as early as next week! Now if you look in the calendar, next week is the company’s Develop Conference in San Francisco. The QNX operating system is also sticking to this tablet. The only connectivity you’ll get from this brick would be through Wi-Fi, which means this thing won’t be sold with a data plan and contract.

The manufacturing wizards at Quanta are rumored to be on tap for manufacturing it with some sort of Marvell power under the hood, and even if the tablet ultimately fails Foleo-style, it could still be a huge launch: WSJ’s sources are also saying that RIM will end up migrating all of its phones to QNX in the long term.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Okay, sometimes big corporates will go and trademark any names that they think of during lunch time, the patents first and ask questions later concept. So it’s no shocker to see RIM filing the name “SurfBook”. The name “SurfBook” was filed in early August, only to show up in Canada’s filing system recently. But seriously, you can’t blame us for imagining much funny stuff when you go and file a word that has a “Book” and “Surf” in it. Ok. Perhaps filing a patent with the word “Book” is nothing worth nothing ten years back but not these days.

There’s no matching documentation in the USPTO just yet. Surfing a site called “SurfBook”, or accessing the cyberspace using a “SurfBook”. RIM, what on earth happened to your BlackPad? No more love for the black? Maybe we’ll get a “SurfPad” to surf with, you know?

SOURCE via Electronista

It was obvious that BlackBerry’s latest Torch did not do very well to push BlackBerry forward in the war with Apple, and Google for domination of the world. Torch not bright enough, need for vespene gas! Well RIM, you’ve got the fire, the fire! Colorware has taken the Torch, and given their signature ‘LEGO-treatment’. Somehow, it looked better than the original Torch. This might actually boost some of the sales for the Torch, by a scars few dozen units perhaps. Either way, it’s available to customize now in the source link for $250 (send your own) or $1,050 (buy new sans a contract). Video’s after the break, should you need one.

Read more…

RIM has updated their ever popular BlackBerry App World, and it has gone live for the past few days for BlackBerry users across Asia. Frankly, not much has been altered on the surface, but several new features such as a credit card payment option, enhanced discovery and search capabilities, and a new user identification system called BlackBerry ID have been integrated into the new version.

Read more…

When RIM acquired the infotainment special QNX Software Systems back in April, nobody knew what they’re up to. Now, some lights have been shed, as according to Bloomberg, three separate sources are citing a report claiming that RIM intends to run operating system built by QNX on its upcoming BlackPad tablet.

It’s curious that the company is opting against upscaling its BlackBerry 6 operating system into the tablet space, though one of the sources suggested that’s due to legacy code hanging around in the still new OS, making it easier to just start afresh when building the slate’s software package. It shall be very interesting indeed to see how well this $200 million investment works out for RIM; it’ll certainly be the biggest departure from the BlackBerry maker’s conservative norm.

SOURCE via Bloomsberg

There has been some update to the ban on BlackBerry services over at Saudi Arabia. According to MSNBC, RIM has handed over user codes that will let the country track individual users. A BlackBerry server had also been placed inside Saudi Arabia for testing purpose. But what exactly are the government getting access to? The unique pin number and code for each registered BlackBerry. That would give Saudi-authorities access to BBMs.

This seemed to be the only solution for RIM, if they want their services till still being aired up in these case-sensitive countries. Though I am nobody to judge the security flaws of these unmonitored services, but if they were to monitor terrorist activities through such means, surely other sensitive information will also be leaked out through such means if it was monitored by unethical personals. I supposed we would be seeing similar solutions over at UAE and other countries that have similar concern over this security issue.

[via Msnbc]

Apple Daily has some new rumours of the BlackPad that was so mysterious. Besides giving the Apple iPad a kick in the shiny metal butt with some modern specs like front-and-rear-facing cameras, it’s going to sport 9.7-inch multitouch panel. Other standard specs would be like Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi 802.11n. Quanta is said to have won the bid to manufacture the tablet with plans to ramp up for 2 million units starting in September, with another 8 million planned for 2011. Quite ambitious there. But with the price of $499, RIM would need to have more tricks up its sleeve.

[via Next Media]

RIM has go official for their latest edition in the Blackberry Curve series smartphone. All details have been release on their North American site. Check out the specs of the Curve 9300 below. Read more…

RIM has somehow come in terms with the government of Saudi Arabia regarding the ban on BlackBerry services in the country. Saudi Arabia was about to ban the BlackBerry Service and some other Internet related features of the BlackBerry smartphones due to security reasons, given that they are worried terrorists would coordinate their activities through the means of RIM’s services which wasn’t monitored by the government. Read more…