I remember when RIM first introduced the Blackberry Playbook and it was going to be the option I was going for over the Apple iPad 2; reasons because I pictured having BBM, Calendar, Messages, Contacts alongside the magnificent multitasking and flash support on the tablet device, however when it was actually released, it was disappointing because you had to have a Blackberry device to enjoy what Blackberry was all about in the first place.  I ended up purchasing one and waited for the OS 2.0, now that it’s released, it has the features I want and it also means as long as I tether my internet from my iPhone, my Blackberry device can stay in the office.
With the new update, I believe RIM Â is now catching up after so long with their competitors; we now have the Calender, Message, Contact and new updates to the Blackberry Bridge:
Messages:
Prior to the release of OS 2.0, you can send and receive emails on a very basic level as long as you have linked your Blackberry handset with your Playbook, but now you can have as many email accounts as you like, coming through Exchange, Hotmail, Gmail, IMAP, or POP.  What I also found useful was how you can add your Facebook and Twitter accounts also; integrating those means they come up as messages and when you reply or read them you sometimes forget you are reading from Twitter although it can become annoying and cluttered, it’s still a useful update and reminds me of how Nokia as integrated social networking to the Windows Mobile.  The UI is perfect for reading, deleting and sipping through emails in landscape mode and ability to add attachments; it’s now a perfect companion for the professionals on the move.
Calendar and Contacts:
The well designed Calendar app gives you the monthly and weekly views to choose from and the calendar app integrates with email accounts and Facebook. You can select which calendars you want to view; it’s also a complete package with the ability to synchronize your google calendar which most people find useful. The contacts app collects all your contacts from Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and your email accounts, which is brilliant except those of you with over 30K followers on twitter it could begin to look very busy, but you can always select which account contacts you would like to display to stop the busy look.
Blackberry Bridge 2.0/Blackberry Remote
RIM looked at Blackberry Bridge and made a few changes which I guess woud be from collecting user feedback; it allows its Blackberry smartphones to communicate with the Playbook and what’s new includes:
– Controlling the tablet with your Blackberry device
– Trackpad
– Keyboard.
Using your Blackberry device physical keypad to remotely type away n your Playbook means Playbook users now get best of both worlds. It also mimics the gestures from your Playbook tablet. You can copy and paste, share files and most importantly share internet connection providing you have adequate data allowance from your network provider.
Android apps:
With the new update you can now benefit from some of the apps available on the Android Market, but you will notice they are not easily noticeable as RIM is trying to make it as seamless as possible. To find the apps it’s best to check the crackberry website for a list in their forums, but I downloaded the word-press app to beging with.
Wishes for next update:
The Blackberry Playbook OS 2.0 has been a much needed update however, I was a little disappointed the BBM app is not natively integrated, and that would be my only wish for when the next update is released. Hope RIM can read this.
Over to you, What would you like to see on the next update?
