RIM's Tablet OS , which is making its debut on the BlackBerry PlayBook
($499-$699,2.5 stars), has good bones, but for now, it,s skeletal -and it's
critical to the future of the company.
This operating system is nothing like the previous BlackBerry OS , and it
will share many of its components with the upcoming BlackBerry 7 for
smart phones. The user interface of the QNX- based OS looks great, but
it's missing basic apps, and currently suffers from a confusing SDK strategy.
This operating system is nothing like the previous BlackBerry OS , and it
will share many of its components with the upcoming BlackBerry 7 for
smart phones. The user interface of the QNX- based OS looks great, but
it's missing basic apps, and currently suffers from a confusing SDK strategy.
There is plenty of potential and a lot of good news here,though.This OS is light
years ahead of the 1990s-era Java environment you see on current BlackBerry
phones.And this is not Symbian, which is so barnacled with the encrustations of
the past that it can not move forward. This is a beginning.
To a great extent I am reminded of Mac OS X10.0, of iOS 1.0 and , more recently,
of Android 1.0. The first version of Apple's now established desktop OS introduced
a new kernel, just like this OS does, and had to run earlier apps in a virtual machine
just like this OS will. It was horribly unstable, and could not play DVDs or burn CDs,
which were big -deal features in 2001. iOS 1.0 did not even support apps.
Android 1.0 did not include a video player or recorder, did not support stereo
Bluetooth, and did not support Microsoft Exchange.
