TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

By Chris Meadows

A number of sources, including Ars Technica and Bloomberg, report that Research In Motion is rumored to be turning to embedded software company QNX to provide the operating system for its new tablet, allegedly to be called the “BlackPad”. RIM actually bought QNX Software Systems from Harman International Industries in April for $200 million.

QNX embedded software is used in a variety of devices, ranging from BMW and Porsche car audio systems to medical devices to nuclear power plants to the Crusher robot tank. It has also been released as a downloadable bootable floppy disk distribution, and has a small but active open-source developer community. RIM reportedly hopes to take advantage of this community to promote application development for the BlackPad.

Meanwhile, PreCentral reports that Hewlett-Packard has officially confirmed, during an investor call, that a webOS tablet will be released “in early 2011”. Not many other details were forthcoming, however.

Of course, the big question is how any of these tablets will stack up against the 800-lb gorilla that is the iPad.

By Chris Meadows

We reported in May on rumors of a possible Blackberry tablet device flying around. Lately, those rumors seem to have solidified. Our sister blog Gadgetell reports that Research In Motion, makers of the Blackberry, has acquired the domain name “blackpad.com” from the previous owner, who had owned it since 2002.

CNet ties together some other reports, including a post from Bloomberg in which anonymous sources claim the device is going to be Blackberry’s crack at killing the iPad, having similar specs and pricing to the wifi-only version, and will launch by November.

The tablet will be called the Blackpad, according to Bloomberg. Its touch screen will measure 9.7 inches, similar to the iPad, and the price will be "in line" with Apple’s tablet, the cheapest model starting at $499.

It will rely on wi-fi and Bluetooth to connect to the Internet, rather than 3G, and might well be meant more as a companion device to the Blackberry for people who already own one than as a true standalone.

Either way, Gadgetell notes that RIM and AT&T are planning some kind of special event in New York on Tuesday, August 3rd, and it might well be a natural place and time for such a tablet to be announced.

The Blackberry has had a number of e-book reading apps, including the Mobipocket reader that the iPhone ecosystem still lacks, but has not generally had the multimedia-friendly reputation of the iPhone. Can it turn this around with a Blackberry tablet? Will the tablet, unlike the iPad, run Flash?

Perhaps we’ll get some of the answers on Tuesday.

By Chris Meadows

Our sister blog Gadgetell summarizes a Crackberry.com post about rumors of a Blackberry tablet that have been flying around. There really isn’t a lot of solid information, just speculation. It isn’t even clear whether such a device would run the same OS as Blackberry handhelds, or Android.

As Gadgetell points out, RIM (Research In Motion, the makers of the Blackberry) started out with a business focus and has been aimed primarily at the enterprise ever since. Apple, on the other hand, has had to retrofit all the enterprise features that users have asked for—and even then they won’t be out until OS 4.0. With that in mind, a potential Blackberry tablet could have a significant edge over the iPad when it comes to business adoption even if it doesn’t catch on with consumers.

But at the moment, nothing about the potential device is clear, so it seems largely to be a case of “wait and see.”