BlackBerry PlayBook Capabilities Amply Demonstrated by TAT

RIM recently acquired Swedish design firm The Astonishing Tribe, and for Mobile World Congress 2011, they were put to work demonstrating just how awesome the BlackBerry PlayBook could be. We got a look at three apps TAT had cooked up for a demonstration at the Texas Instruments booth (since the PlayBook runs on an OMAP 4430 dual-core 1 GHz processor from TI).

The first app made use of the tablet’s HDMI-out to project the user interface onto the big screen (managed by one of the processor cores) while the PlayBook itself showed a simple cursor (handled by the second core). The TV would display a 3D-enabled media viewer, so you could toss on the dorky glasses and look at some video and pictures that would really pop. You might notice some of the UI elements have been recycled from their joint project with Synaptics and a few others called Fuze. The second app is a scapbook that lets you resize, rotate, and assemble pictures with a variety of extra graphics (like thought balloons). Sharing options are built right in, so you can send your glorious creations off to Facebook. Finally, there was a multi-carrousel multimedia management app called Frontrunner that looked freakin’ sweet. Like the scrapbook, the app could handle multiple touch inputs at once without breaking a sweat – 60 FPS all the way.

I know these are just concepts to get developers excited about the potential with the PlayBook’s horsepower, but seriously RIM, just hand over the UI keys to TAT. Let them drive the bus, because if this is the kind of stuff they cook up when they’ve got free reign, I want them to be able to cram as much awesome into the native BlackBerry UI as possible. Yeah, there’s an established set of interface paradigms that the BlackBerry installed base are used to, and the PlayBook as is will be comfortably familiar to anyone who has used a webOS device, but now’s the time more than ever to squirt out something original, and it looks like TAT could do that in their sleep. I wouldn’t be exaggerating by saying that this got me the most excited out of everything I saw at MWC 2011.

At very least, it would be great to see these apps in App World as fully-realized alternatives to native capabilities. There was one other app from TAT that was a cute weather thing using WebWorks that they weren’t showing at the TI or BlackBerry booth for some reason; video of it is also below.

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

Anonymous

no video of the other apps?
- http://www.intomobile.com/ Simon Sage
  
  Sorry, embedding issues. Up now.
  - Anonymous
    
    These apps look amazing! Why didn’t any other site cover these?
    - http://www.intomobile.com/ Simon Sage
      
      The short answer is: because I’m The Man.
      - Ali
        
        indeed (y)
      - Ali
        
        indeed (y)
      - Anonymous
        
        I concur
    - Anonymous
      
      Perhaps other sites shamelessly cater to page views by focusing on posting anything with Apple in it. For example, Gizmodo had an item on National Enquirer’s stalking Steve Jobs and declaring his demise. When you sink as low as using National Enquirer as a source….
      - Anonymous
        
        LOL. So true.
        
        Media controls the masses, don’t let it control YOU.
Anonymous

Wow. that was an amazing demo of Frontrunner. I think RIM really needs to give TAT a bit more control interms of implementing TAT’s UI expertise. The PlayBook has enough power built in to support those “resource hungry” animations. Things are looking up though for RIM! Now need a release date and price.
Anonymous

spellbound!
Anonymous

Well you know Simon, RIM has always been good about letting outsiders develop Themes for BB Phones. I think Blackberry should carry over the “Super App” concept to the “Super Theme” and let TAT throw down the gauntlet that all other should aspire to.

TAT was an awesome acquisition for RIM that is for sure.
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/1111 Eric at Ebscer

Glad to see TAT already doing some great stuff for RIM…
http://twitter.com/ex_post_facto Ex Post Facto

Buying TAT was a brilliant move by BB
- ThreatVector
  
  Dude, the reason this is impressive is primarily due to the operating system (QNX) not TAT…
Anonymous

Wow I CANT believe this is from BB