Just before their big BlackBerry World conference, RIM has made a bunch of announcements, on top of the Bold 9900. Their recently-launched BlackBerry PlayBook will be receiving two notable apps from RIM this month: video chat and Facebook. This is good news since Skype is still nowhere to be found, and until there’s a video calling app on RIM’s first tablet, the front-facing camera is kind of useless. Facebook is a welcome addition, and will likely be the most used app for many people.
Facebook on the PlayBook will have all the features you might expect from the video teaser we saw from Adobe the other week: view and add friends, share and watch videos and pictures, Facebook chat, and cruise through your news feed complete with Like and Comment buttons. Although a launch date beyond “this month” hasn’t been established, RIM will be showing off Facebook on the PlayBook at BlackBerry World.
Video calling has been a bit more of a mystery since RIM has been very careful about making sure nobody saw the app working. Calls are made over Wi-Fi, and only work between PlayBooks for the time being. Incoming call notifications pop up on the tablet, though you can set yourself to a “Do Not Disturb” mode if need be. Once in a call, you can switch between front and rear camera, and mute audio if you need to take another call. Contacts are organized in a dedicated Friends list, but I’m not sure if that’s linked to your smartphone’s address book. If you’d like to know more, the app launches tomorrow through App World, and will be included in a software update for the PlayBook at the same time.
No word on BlackBerry Messenger, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it at the show too, since a leaked version of the Bridge app has recently leaked.
Full press releases after the jump!
RIM Announces New Video Chat Application for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet
Allows BlackBerry PlayBook users to easily share special moments with friends and family
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the availability of the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ Video Chat application – an easy and fun way for friends and family to place and receive video calls between BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets over an internet connected Wi-Fi® network.
“BlackBerry is a renowned mobile communication solution for connecting users to the people and information that matter most throughout their day,” said Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion (RIM). “With the BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat application we are excited to be enabling our customers to share important moments and events with family and friends via video calls. With the BlackBerry PlayBook’s high-resolution video cameras and stunning display, a Video Chat call is the next best thing to being there.”
Key features of the PlayBook Video Chat application include:
• One-Click Video and Voice over Wi-Fi Calls – with just one click users can make a call from their Video Chat contact list, log of recent calls or simply by entering the BBID email address of the person they want to call.
• Incoming Call Notifications – users will receive a notification pop-up when a new video call comes in, allowing them to accept the call as either a video or voice call, or decline the call. For those quiet moments – such as when while watching a movie or playing a game -users will also have the ability to simply set the “Do Not Disturb” option and the BlackBerry PlayBook will automatically ignore all incoming calls.
• Powerful In-Call Functions – by using the picture-in-picture function users can easily preview their own video image prior to placing the call in order to see what will be displayed on the other end. They can also easily switch cameras from front to rear so their friends can see what they are seeing, and for private moments users can mute/unmute audio or make or take calls using voice only.
• Friends List – BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat comes complete with a Friends List for maintaining your favorite contacts. A picture can easily be added to a contact to personalize the entry and a Call Log makes it simple to keep track of received and missed calls.The BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat application will be showcased this week at BlackBerry World 2011 (www.blackberryworld.com) in Orlando FL. It is expected to be available on May 3 and will be distributed to existing BlackBerry PlayBook customers through an over-the-air software update and will also be available on BlackBerry App World™.
RIM Announces New Facebook App for BlackBerry PlayBook
Waterloo, ON – Following on the success of the Facebook for BlackBerry® smartphones app, Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced Facebook for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ — a new app that delivers popular features of Facebook, optimized for the 7″ high resolution, multi-touch LCD display of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
“There are over 30 million users of our Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app who are staying in touch with their social network while on the go,” said Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion, “Now with Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook we can also offer customers highly engaging social experiences optimized for the PlayBook including the ability to share FaceBook pictures and videos with friends and family on an HDTV.”
Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook offers users a highly engaging experience by integrating popular features and functionality of Facebook including;
View and add Friends – Users can interact with friends quickly and easily: find friends by scanning the new grid view of their profile pictures; search for and add new friends and manage new friend requests; browse their profiles, photos and videos; view and interact with wall posts; view key information on profiles and pages; and view, comment and ‘like’ photos on profiles and pages.
Enjoy seamless photo and video viewing – Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook makes it easy to upload photos from the BlackBerry PlayBook Picture Library, tag friends in photos, view comments, tags and likes. The BlackBerry PlayBook can also be connected to an HD TV to display photos and videos at a whole new level in full 1080p HD.
Connect with friends using Facebook Chat – On the BlackBerry PlayBook screen, users can enjoy side-by-side viewing of online contacts and active conversations. Notifications of new Chat messages are displayed on the Notifications Bar, so users can quickly and easily read and respond to new Chat messages while browsing friends’ profiles, viewing their pictures or reading their status updates.
View and interact with the News Feed – Users will be able to browse highlights such as photo uploads and status updates and seamlessly view links in the BlackBerry PlayBook browser. They will also be able to “Comment” and “Like” to discuss and show appreciation for friends’ content, as well as publish a status update or upload a photo from the status publisher accessible from their Profile or from within the News Feed.
The Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook application will be showcased this week at BlackBerry World 2011 (www.blackberryworld.com) in Orlando, FL and is expected to be available on BlackBerry App World™ in May.