Apple Inc may launch iPad 3 in March 2012 (USA)
U.S. giant Apple Inc. is amidst rumours once again claiming that the company may be planning the launch of its next iPad as early as March 2012. According to sources, the iPad 3 is expected to provide LTE (Long Term Evolution) access enabling faster transmission of data.
Reports also reveal that the iPad 3 will be powered with a faster processor and will provide users with increased picture quality and clarity via its high-definition screen. Sources claim that Apple hopes to regain its control over the tablet market with this launch, which has been receiving growing competition from rival products such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Amazon Kindle, BlackBerry PlayBook and Hp TouchPad among others.
The company is yet to make an official statement about the same.
BlackBerry PlayBook to come with pre-installed music store
Research In Motion has announced that its forthcoming tablet device, the BlackBerry PlayBook will come with the 7digital Music Store pre-installed when it is sold in most of the countries.
The 7digital Music Store will give BlackBerry PlayBook users access to 7digital’s catalogue of over 13 million MP3 music tracks.
BlackBerry Playbook users will be able to search for tracks, albums and artists and preview tracks before making a purchase. Users can also discover new music through 7digital’s recommendation technology. Prices for Blackberry PlayBook users will match the prices on 7digital.com, with individual tracks and albums priced in a customer’s local currency.
According to Ben Drury, CEO 7digital, they are really excited to be working with RIM to bring the 7digital experience to the BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM has created an incredible Tablet with premium multimedia features and are delivering a truly exceptional music experience for mobile users, offering content that is extremely easy to discover, purchase and use.
The company already has a prior agreement to put its software into some BlackBerry smartphones.
Sprint Network to offer WiMAX Version of the BlackBerry PlayBook
Research In Motion (RIM) has announced that its upcoming tablet device, the PlayBook will be offered on Sprint’s WiMAX network. The tablet computer is expected to be available from Sprint in the summer.
According to Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion, the company believes a significant portion of the tablet market will want a higher performing, multitasking, professional-grade tablet and that is why they chose to design the BlackBerry PlayBook for premium performance with a powerful dual-core processor and multitasking OS. Together with Sprint, they are now building on that performance advantage with 4G and providing an unparalleled mobile experience for users.
In addition to Wi-Fi support, the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook features a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS. Additional details and pricing will be released closer to launch.
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BlackBerry PlayBook specifications
- 7″ 1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
- Ultra-portable at less than a pound and less than one-half inch thick: 0.9 lbs (400g) and 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
- 1 GHz dual-core processor
- BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
- MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
- Support for 1080p HD video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
- HDMI out
- Dual HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture
- 1 GB RAM memory
- Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
- Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
- Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
JPMorgan to offer IPads to investment Bankers
JPMorgan Chase & Co. will give its investment bankers iPads to offer an additional mobile tool as Apple Inc. expands its domain to Wall Street, intimidating Research in Motion Ltd. in a market it usually conquered.
According t reports citing two managing directors at New York-based JPMorgan, the company believes there are real benefits in the working environment that can be realized using this device – as well as the personal productivity and enjoyment that come as part of the package.
Apple is building on its momentum in the tablet space, controlling its 95% market share to expand from its traditional consumer base into the corporate market as RIM readies a rival device, the BlackBerry PlayBook.
RIM is trying to catch up with Apple as banks including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Group AG unveil applications for the iPad and Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. consider letting employees use iPhones instead BlackBerry.
As per the company’s previous e-mail, JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets behind Bank of America, will distribute iPads free of charge to all associates in its global investment banking division. Employees will get to keep the device as long as they remain at the unit until the pilot program ends on May 1, 2011.
RIM’s PlayBook popular amongst all tablets
Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry PlayBook, the tablet designed to compete with the iPad from Steve Jobs’s Apple Inc., is winning corporate customer months before it’s unveiling.
RIM captured the smartphone market with its BlackBerry and now is counting on such endorsement as it tries to challenge Apple’s dominance of the booming tablet market. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is betting on the PlayBook’s security features, such as e-mail encryption, to win over companies used to working with the BlackBerry.
According to Strategy Analytics, Apple sold 3 million iPads in the first 80 days after the product debuted in April, showing there’s demand for a device that straddles the gap between laptops and smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone. Apple had a 95% share of the tablet market last quarter.
Besides adding a revenue source, the PlayBook is a chance for RIM to regain some momentum from Apple, whose iPhone has stolen market share from the BlackBerry and is beginning to win some corporate customers. Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are considering whether to let employees use the iPhone as an alternative to the BlackBerry, three people familiar with the plans said this month.
PlayBook features a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen, inside there’s a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. There’s a 3 megapixel forward-facing camera and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, both of which are high-definition. There’s a full web browsing thanks to a WebKit-enabled browser. The playbook supports Adobe Flash 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Java, OpenGL and HTML5.
RIM Unveils The BlackBerry PlayBook
Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today redefined the possibilities for mobile computing with the unveiling of its new professional-grade BlackBerry® PlayBookâ„¢ tablet and BlackBerry® Tablet OS.
Perfect for either large organizations or an “army of one”, the BlackBerry PlayBook is designed to give users what they want, including uncompromised web browsing, true multitasking and high performance multimedia, while also providing advanced security features, out-of-the-box enterprise support and a breakthrough development platform for IT departments and developers. The incredibly powerful and innovative BlackBerry PlayBook is truly a game-changing product in the growing tablet marketplace.
“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world’s most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”
The Tablet You’ll Want to Take Everywhere
This beautifully designed and incredibly powerful tablet is ultra portable, ultra thin and super convenient for both work and play. Measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, the BlackBerry PlayBook features a vivid 7″ high resolution display that looks and feels great in your hand. With such a unique mix of utility, performance and portability, you’ll want to take it everywhere.
The New Benchmark in Tablet Performance
At its heart, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a multitasking powerhouse. Its groundbreaking performance is jointly fueled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS which supports true symmetric multiprocessing. Together, the abundant processing power and highly sophisticated OS enable the BlackBerry PlayBook to provide users with true multitasking and a highly-responsive and fluid touch screen experience for apps and content services.
Uncompromised Web Browsing
With support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML-5, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides customers with an uncompromised, high-fidelity web experience and offers them the ability to enjoy all of the sites, games and media on the web. For more than a decade, the mobile industry has worked to bridge the gap between the “real web” and mobile devices through various apps and technologies and, in fact, a significant number of mobile apps today still simply serve as a proxy for web content that already exists on the web. The BlackBerry PlayBook closes that gap and brings the real, full web experience to mobile users while also opening new and more exciting opportunities for developers and content publishers.
High Performance Multimedia
The BlackBerry PlayBook features premium multimedia features to support high-quality mobile experiences. It includes dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing that can both record HD video at the same time, and an HDMI-out port for presenting one’s creations on external displays. The BlackBerry PlayBook also offers rich stereo sound and a media player that rivals the best in the industry.
BlackBerry Integration
For those BlackBerry PlayBook users who carry a BlackBerry smartphone*, it will also be possible to pair their tablet and smartphone using a secure Bluetooth® connection. This means they can opt to use the larger tablet display to seamlessly and securely view any of the email, BBMâ„¢, calendar, tasks, documents and other content that resides on (or is accessible through) their smartphone. They can also use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data. This secure integration of BlackBerry tablets and smartphones is a particularly useful feature for those business users who want to leave their laptop behind.
Enterprise Ready
Thanks to the seamless and secure Bluetooth pairing experience and the highly secure underlying OS architecture, the BlackBerry PlayBook is enterprise ready and compatible (out-of-the-box) with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. When connected over Bluetooth, the smartphone content is viewable on the tablet, but the content actually remains stored on the BlackBerry smartphone and is only temporarily cached on the tablet (and subject to IT policy controls). With this approach to information security, IT departments can deploy the BlackBerry PlayBook to employees out-of-the-box without worrying about all the security and manageability issues that arise when corporate data is stored on yet another device.
QNX Neutrino Reliability
The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built upon the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture, one of the most reliable, secure and robust operating system architectures in the world. Neutrino has been field hardened for years and is being used to support mission-critical applications in everything from planes, trains and automobiles to medical equipment and the largest core routers that run the Internet. The new BlackBerry Tablet OS leverages and builds upon the many proven strengths of this QNX Neutrino architecture to support a professional grade tablet experience and to redefine the possibilities for mobile computing.
An OS Built for Developers
The Neutrino based microkernel architecture in the BlackBerry Tablet OS delivers exceptional performance, high scalability, Common Criteria EAL 4+ security, and support for industry standard tools that are already familiar to hundreds of thousands of developers. The OS is fully POSIX compliant enabling easy portability of C-based code, supports Open GL for 2D and 3D graphics intensive applications like gaming, and will run applications built in Adobe Mobile AIR as well as the new BlackBerry® WebWorksâ„¢ app platform announced today (which will allow apps to be written to run on BlackBerry PlayBook tablets as well as BlackBerry smartphones with BlackBerry® 6). The BlackBerry Tablet OS will also support Java enabling developers to easily bring their existing BlackBerry 6 Java applications to the BlackBerry Tablet OS environment.
Key features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook include:
- 7″ LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
- BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
- 1 GHz dual-core processor
- 1 GB RAM
- Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
- Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
- Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
- HDMI video output
- Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
- Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
- Ultra thin and portable:
- Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
- Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
- Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
- RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.
Availability
The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to be available in retail outlets and other channels in the United States in early 2011 with rollouts in other international markets beginning in (calendar) Q2.
RIM will begin working with developers and select corporate customers next month to begin development and early testing efforts.
The BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK is planned for release in the coming weeks and developers can register for early access at www.blackberry.com/developers/tabletos.
For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/playbook.
