Was out at my local Best Buy yesterday Saturday, and right up front of the store, right in the mobile phone section, there I see a BlackBerry rep. He had the PlayBook hooked up to a LCD TV, and a Verizon MiFi for data. I was kind of shocked, to even see that BlackBerry is actually showing the PlayBook at the store. I talked to the rep and used the PlayBook; even though I had seen it at CES 2011. It has gone through some software updates from the last time I had seen it CES 2011. I asked the BB Rep, about the Calendar, and Email apps. Since they were not on the PlayBook, he confirmed that you need to bridge with a BB to have access to this. Rep said that you can always go online to view your email. For me, this is not the best solution. If the Android apps actually work on the PlayBook, and not have some restrictions of which apps will work. Then I guess you can always install a Android email app on the PlayBook.
The BlackBerry Rep mentioned that RIM was doing some final software touches with the Android OS on the PlayBook. He didn't want to go into too much info. I asked if the Android market would be available and didn't get a straight answer.
The PlayBook ran very smooth and very fast with multi-able apps running in the back ground, and displaying it on the PlayBook screen and to the LCD screen. I opened up the camera app and took some pictures and they came out very clear on the screen. Did some video while it displayed on the PlayBook and the LCD screen without any problems. You can actually record a video with the PlayBook and play a game at the same time. Very amazing that you can do this without any problem. I think RIM did a good thing to be able to run Android OS on the PlayBook. The release date for the PlayBook is April 19, so we going to have wait and see how well the consumer takes to this tablet. Who knows, with RIM actually doing the demos at Best Buy, the consumer might be interested in the PlayBook.
