From BGR- “RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky believes RIM has sold approximately 250,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets to date. In a note to investors on Wednesday, the analyst points to channel checks in stating PlayBook sales have remained steady since the device’s launch on April 19th. If these estimates are accurate, RIM’s PlayBook is handily outselling the XOOM.”

Leather Case for BlackBerry PlayBook – Book Type (Black) Ver. 1

Leather Case for BlackBerry PlayBook – Book Type (Black) Ver. 2

Leather Case for Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 – Flip Type (Black)

Leather Case for Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 – Book Type (Black)

and many more…

“One of the key questions that stood out to me was “When is BBM going cross platform or to the PC? Kirkup was straight forward and said that there was no plan or intentions of doing either. The reason being is that BBM is a key to attracting customers to BlackBerry. Another reason is the fact that the infrastructure that runs BBM is internal and taking it outside of RIM’s would be probably a really bad idea. I am not saying it couldn’t happen but i do not see how doing that would benefit them. There are quite a few apps already do that but not as good as BBM. If RIM really wanted to do that it would make more sense to maybe buy one of the 3rd party developers such as live profile or Whatsapp and simply give it access to API’s that would allow others to use that app to send messages to BBM users and vise versa. But I believe BBM needs to stay in-house.”

MessageGateway is a BlackBerry application which can forward mails from a list of preconfigured email addresses as an SMS message or as a BlackBerry PIN, to the number in the subject line.

“BlackBerry® Balance™ technology enables BlackBerry smartphones to be used for business and personal purposes without compromise except that employers will not want employees to use Balance. When connected to an organization’s BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, specific IT policies along with features built into the device software help keep personal information, which you will not be allowed to access anyway, separate and business information highly secure, allowing users to not enjoy the fullest BlackBerry experience on a single device.”

I don’t know if this is a good idea or not. As a consumer I would love to use BlackBerry services on a non-BlackBerry phone, but it feels like RIM is giving away its most prized assets to the competition and leaving itself little room for maneuver in the future.

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM, TSX: RIM) is announcing today plans for a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterprises and government organizations. The solution will make available the market-leading management, security and controls of BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express for BlackBerry® devices plus, through RIM’s pending acquisition of ubitexx (creator of the ubi-Suite device management solution), the solution is expected to incorporate secure device management for Android and iOS based devices and tablets, all managed from a single web-based console.

“The multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution is designed to address a growing market and respond to requests from enterprise customers who want a secure multi-platform device management solution from a company that already delivers the gold standard for enterprise mobility,” said Peter Devenyi, Vice President, Communications Platform Group at Research In Motion. “We recognize the opportunity to continue leading in the enterprise market by providing customers with a common platform to help simplify the management of a variety of mobile devices.”

The single web-based console is being designed to provide IT administrators with a simple and efficient way to distribute software and manage policies, inventory, security and services for BlackBerry devices, as well as other mobile devices. IT administrators will be able to manage devices over-the-air, including activating devices, distributing software and applications, locking or wiping devices, enforcing and resetting device passwords, setting IT policies, and managing optional mobile applications for end users. Certain features are expected to remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices because such capabilities are built into the design of a device’s operating system. Examples include RIM’s industry-leading push technology, network and data usage efficiency, behind-the-firewall access to enterprise applications and systems, and many of the over 550 IT policies available through BlackBerry Enterprise Server.  The recently-released BlackBerry® Balance™ technology (see separate press release issued today), which supports the use of a single smartphone for both work and personal purposes without compromising the security of corporate content or the privacy of personal content, will also remain exclusive to BlackBerry devices.

To me this offers the final nail in the coffin for Symbian- without Nokia, it really isn’t even worth considering now. It is a real shame for the 4,000 who will lose their jobs, but I guess we could all see it coming.

Apple has come clean on the iOS location tracking issue by posting a Q&A on the subject- “Sometime in the next few weeks Apple will release a free iOS software update that:

• reduces the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone,
• ceases backing up this cache, and
• deletes this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

In the next major iOS software release the cache will also be encrypted on the iPhone.”

RIM has acquired Tungle which will potentially offer the ability to share calendar data over different platforms on PIM hardware. That would be more than useful on the PlayBook… “This is exciting for you too as we expect the Tungle service to only get better. Our plan today is what it has always been – for Tungle to become integrated with your daily activities and be ubiquitous within the applications you’re already using. When you think scheduling, Tungle should be at your fingertips.”

Of course, the 7 inch screen just looked stupidly small next to my iPad. A point of sale display nearby boastfully proclaimed “Amateur Hour Is Over” (presumably a sly dig at the iPad), but all I could think of when I picked up the device was how it felt like a Fisher Price toy. It felt too light and too plasticky. It just isn’t a device that is in the same class as the iPad and I found it hard to take it seriously.

My deep reservations about the form factor aside, the good news is that the QNX software is fast and fluid. It’s far more responsive than Android on the Galaxy Tab and far more polished than Honeycomb on the Motorola Xoom. Seeing all your open applications running live in the “card” view is really quite cool, but I didn’t get a chance to push the multitasking to the limit to see if performance would suffer in real world use.

I hunted around for an app which would allow me to test the onscreen keyboard, eventually stumbling upon Word to Go (which looked pretty similar to the iPad version, I have to say).

Unfortunately, that is where the similarity ended. Firing up the application and attempting to type in landscape mode was an exercise in frustration. Not only did the keyboard take up half of the already small screen, but the keyboard itself was only a three quarters of the width of an iPad’s and each key about two thirds the height. Worse still, there was no autocorrect, resulting in a large number of typos, even in the few short sentences I managed to type.

Switching to portrait mode, I was more successful. Thumb-typing is definitely the way to go on the Playbook – it feels really, really comfortable when held that way. The lack of autocorrect is still a handicap, however, with the keyboard depending upon complete accuracy when typing – so the typos persisted. It felt great, but it didn’t work great. Moreover, can you imagine sitting in a business meeting with a Playbook held up in front of your face while taking notes?

Overall, I think $499 is a steep price to pay for a device which is basically no more than a BlackBerry accessory. It may indeed find a market with some of the BlackBerry crowd, but the form factor alone severely limits its usefulness. My iPad has replaced a laptop for me; I couldn’t imagine the Playbook doing the same.

Trevor

“The primary beef that reviewers have pointed out is the single best feature according to this group of BlackBerry owners. I’m referring to the lack of native email, calendaring, and contact apps on the PlayBook. That didn’t concern this group in the least, and when I explained how the BlackBerry Bridge lets them work with those functions on the PlayBook while leaving the data on the phone, I wasn’t prepared for the reaction I got. I actually heard squeals of delight from several BlackBerry owners.

RIM gets it. They understand how devoted the core group of BlackBerry owners is to its products, and they have aimed the PlayBook squarely at them. The BlackBerry is an integral part of these folks’ lives, and the PlayBook takes that experience and makes it much better. As one BlackBerry owner told me, “this is a window into my BlackBerry, and that is wonderful!” She went on to exclaim she was going to buy one today. “Let my husband keep his beloved iPad, my PlayBook brings my BlackBerry front and center”.

UPDATE- I have taken the video embed off because it keeps auto-playing. The link to the video is here.

If you want to know what Wakeful does check out the video demo below. I love this idea.

BGR- “The hardware is there but the software is buggy at times,and  the apps are severely lacking and almost non-existent in terms of quality. While the Web browser is extremely solid, with no native email or calendar or contact apps, the PlayBook isn’t a very good standalone product. This should all change in the coming months thanks to the free software update, and what’s even better is RIM no longer has to go through carriers to push out updates out since this model doesn’t have a carrier partner — we should see software updates fast and often RIM told me. I just don’t see a killer app on the PlayBook, and that’s the real problem. It does a lot of things, but it doesn’t do 90% of things better than an iPad 2 or a XOOM.”

CrackBerry- “As a BlackBerry fan and somebody who wants to see RIM hit nothing but pure homeruns, I’m of course a little choked up over the PlayBook’s first at bat performance. There’s no doubt it has some raw talent and killer moves that are going to attract some fans and loud cheers from the crowd (including me of course), but to be a real superstar it’s going to have to mature a little more and roundout its skill set. A little more practice time in the batting cage before stepping out on the field may have been the call to make on this one (as in waiting until native email and core app integration were complete before hitting the market).”

Wired- “It’s a well-constructed device with great media-viewing capabilities, solid hardware specs and a price on par with the current tablet market. But with serious gaps in key areas like app selection and Flash stability, you may want to think twice before picking one up.”

There are countless other reviews already up and the general feeling is that it is good, especially the battery, but not great. However, the changes needed to make it great are possible in software so it could become great over time.

You can view the interview, or rather lack of it, here.