Here's a video from Ars Technica showing the RIM Playbook vs. the iPad in a browsing comparison. The playbook clearly offers the superior experience based on a number of tests, and looks quite good overall!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...wn-to-ipad.ars

I suspect that this product has been heartily tuned for efficiency, and the beefy Tegra 2 lending more than a helping hand with this amazing performance.

(* as a side question, I wonder what JS engine is being used. )

The playbook is shaping up to be quite the product! It shows that RIM has paid close attention to detail in the UX, as it's looking remarkably polished. It remains to be seen weather the app support will rival that of Android or iOS, though for key apps, this tablet should hold its own nicely.

Very impressive RIM. Just goes to show what a little attention to detail can yield.

I should say, that the iPad browser is quite good on its own and this is only one area of comparison. Nevertheless, the playbook looks quite nice!

Now this is very cool. Apparently the Playbook has a 'module cavity' for expandability!


http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/j...ule-cavity-hi/

This is a feature that I wish laptops had (for USB connected accessories -- eg. wireless mouse dongle/3g dongle). It would be nice to have always-connected USB dongles tucked into the body of the device, rather than hanging off of the side.

Here's the first Engadget hands-on of the Playbook:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/b...ands-on-video/

The task-switching interface is very Palm Pre, and that's a very *good* thing as it's a wonderful metaphor for task management.

An interesting feature is that applications in the background aren't automatically halted (android does this), and the task manager can continually update the display and show the resultant live app in the task 'card' (android doesn't do this -- so far as I can tell). Palm does the same thing with their task manager.

All in all, it's very interesting! The stakes have been raised!

WebOS-like multitasking with unique off screen gesture controls for opening, minimizing and switching between apps. Sounds interesting.

http://www.tabletpcreview.com/defaul...laybook+tablet

Java Environment on Playbook may support Dalvik VM for Android apps

http://www.bgr.com/2011/01/26/exclus...-android-apps/

The RIM Playbook development process gets a very serious rant:

read the rest

BB responds:

http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/0...per-relations/

Good to see them respond this way. Hopefully it will be an indication that they will be seriously improving their development process.

Playbook says its Native Development Kit (NDK) will support C/C++ with "industry standard GNU toolchains." Does Samsung or any other 7" tablet maker offer this?