RIM Shocks Tablet World, Demos BlackBerry PlayBook E-mail App

Looks like RIM’s troubled BlackBerry PlayBook tablet may be getting a much needed boost. At its BlackBerry Innovation conference,  the company finally showed off its native e-mail / contacts / calendar apps for the 7-inch tablet which launched last spring without these core features.

According to RIM blog BlackBerry Cool, company reps displayed the PlayBook flaunting an e-mail client said to fully take advantage of the tablet’s large-format screen and showed it reading mail, composing messages and zooming in and out.

More impressive is the PlayBook’s calendar which will boast smart design elements like a split-screen view for absorbing your itinerary at a glance, plus display number dates in large font to highlight particularly busy days.  The PlayBook was also shown to have deep contact integration with the ability to dive into virtual cards and view all pertinent info at once.

Of course RIM couldn’t infuse the PlayBook with this cutting-edge technology alone. It enlisted the help of app-maker Gist to pull in these abilities into the tablet’s OS. Sadly PlayBook owners will have to wait a bit for the upgrade, however, which will reportedly roll out on February 17th, 2012.

via BlackBerry Cool

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