BlackBerry PlayBook Updates Could Come 'Every Two Weeks'

ORLANDO—The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will get updates at the startlingly fast pace of up to "every two weeks," RIM vice president of software Alan Panezic said at the BlackBerry World conference today.

"If we need to, we'll be cranking new capabilities for users every two weeks," he said.

Those frequent updates may involve major features or apps. The update coming tonight, version 1.0.3, will enable video chat between PlayBooks, add the new Facebook app, enable BlackBerry Messenger to work over BlackBerry Bridge, and "make the browser ... much more compatible with the entire Web," Panezic said.

While 4G versions of the tablet will come out this summer, with a WiMAX model first, followed by LTE and HSPA+ versions later this year, there's no need for 8.9-inch or 10.1-inch PlayBook sizes, Panezic said.

"We've hit just that right seam of size," he said.

Wireless carriers won't hold up the PlayBook updates, Panezic said. Carrier approval has been a big problem for BlackBerry phone OS updates, delaying many updates by months. But RIM has made deals with wireless carriers so that only changes that affect the radio will require approval, and changes that just "add value to the end customer" can be pushed out directly by RIM.

RIM will "make sure there's very clean separation between what's going on with the radio and the rest of the OS," soothing the carriers' fears, Panezic said.

Panezic said that more PlayBook information will be coming tomorrow.

For details on the PlayBook running Android apps, along with BlackBerry Java apps and apps written for a native software developers' kit (SDK), "tomorrow might be a good time to stick around," he said.

Earlier today, RIM also announced two powerful new BlackBerry phones with high-res touch screens, fast 1.2-GHz processors, and a new OS that offers better graphics than BlackBerries had before. For more, see PCMag's hands on.

For more on the PlayBook, see PCMag's full review and the slideshow below, the unboxing, our review of the BlackBerry tablet OS, and PCMag's comparison of the Xoom, PlayBook and iPad 2.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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