RIM has confirmed time and again that App World will launch on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to support app discovery, but they haven’t done much in the way of actually showing it to us. Luckily, some sharp eyes at CES grabbed a quick glimpse of RIM’s official software store, App World, running on the tablet on one of the many demo videos. We sent one of our goons to the RIM booth during CES to check it out, but clearly they took it down after they saw CB’s post.
The big thing this shot reveals is that Skype is on the way to the PlayBook, even though it wasn’t demoed in the variety of third-party apps at the show. The PlayBook comes with an HD-capable 3 megapixel camera on the front, which is really there for video calling, and as Skype is just about the biggest video calling and VoIP service on the planet, it’s great news for BlackBerry that they’ll be supporting the tablet. There’s also a 5 megapixel camera on the back to show callers what you’re looking at, plus 7-inch 1024 x 600 display to see contacts on a nice big screen. There’s also a beefy dual-core 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM to handle multiple callers should Skype ever decide to bring that feature to mobile or tablets. I hope that Skype will work on the cellular network once Sprint goes live with their WiMAX version.
Developers, you might want to wriggle your way onto App World for the PlayBook too, since RIM is giving away tablets to anyone who has their app accepted before the device launches. Sounds like a good enough incentive for me to make an app, maybe even learn how to code to actually do it. In any case, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Skype running on the BlackBerry PlayBook, and everything else App World will have to offer.
[via CB]
