RIM BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0

Research in Motion's long-awaited PlayBook OS 2.0 update is finally here. It adds native email, contacts, and calendar support, complete with a unified inbox, plus the ability to run Android apps directly from the tablet.

The OS is a free, over-the-air update that's approximately 400MB in size. I had no problem installing it on our loaner PlayBook. The contact book keeps track of when you last met up with specific people. The unified inbox lets you combine or separate personal and work email accounts. It also syncs with Microsoft Exchange. On the social networking front, it integrates Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn messages.

One interesting feature: You can use your existing BlackBerry handheld as a keyboard and mouse for the PlayBook. However, OS 2.0's Android compatibility is something less than it appears; you can only run apps that have been reformatted for the PlayBook, and that are available in BlackBerry App World.

For more, see Taking RIM's New PlayBook OS 2.0 Tablet Out For a Spin, as well as our full review of the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

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About Our Expert

Jamie Lendino

Executive Editor, Reviews

My Experience

I’ve been a technology journalist and editor for more than 20 years, including for PCMag since 2005. I've also written seven books about retro gaming and computing. Previously, I was the editor-in-chief of ExtremeTech. I’ve been on CNBC and NPR's All Things Considered talking tech, plus dozens of radio stations around the country. My articles have also appeared in Popular Science, Consumer Reports, Computer Power User, PC Today, Electronic Musician, Sound and Vision, and CNET.

Before all this, I was in IT supporting Windows NT on Wall Street in the late 1990s. I realized I’d much rather play with technology and write about it, than support it 24/7 and be blamed for whatever went wrong. I grew up playing and recording music on keyboards and the Atari ST, and I never really stopped. For a while, I produced sound effects and music for video games (mostly mobile and online games in the 2000s). I still mix and master music for various independent artists, many of whom are friends.

The Technology I Use

I’ve been cross-platform for decades, with PCs and Macs, iPhones and Android, Atari and Intellivision, NES and Sega…I’ve been doing this a while. Especially everything Atari, from the 2600 and 800 through the Atari ST, Jaguar, and Lynx. I bought my first 286 PC in 1989, the same year I bought my first issue of PC Magazine from a newsstand. I subscribed in the 1990s and upgraded to a 386, two 486s, and beyond.

Today, I use a 16-inch MacBook Pro, a custom AMD Ryzen 7 PC, and an Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop. My phone is an iPhone 14 Pro Max. For music recording, I work in a variety of DAWs (and review them all for PCMag), but my main ones are Logic Pro and Pro Tools. I use an LG 27-inch 4K monitor, a pair of PreSonus Eris E8 XT studio monitors, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser studio headphones, and a Focusrite audio interface. For my books, I use Scrivener, Microsoft Word, and Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. I also use a zillion emulators of old computers and game consoles for…work.

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