[grahamf]

BlackBerry - Tablet OS - Calling All Apps for the BlackBerry Tablet OS
Available for Windows AND MACINTOSH!

I'm downloading it right now; I'm hoping it's as full featured as the Blackbery simulators, but if the OS officially isn't ready then it may only include the browser and home app, as seen in the android and iphone emulators

[taylortbb]

Already downloaded and installed. This is the first screenshot. Unfortunately, there's nothing there! No apps, no settings, nothing. It's just the bare OS and program launcher. We'll have to wait a bit to get more info.

RIM also really needs to document this thing better. All the installer does is extract an .iso, I had to do everything myself from there. Fortunately it was simple, just booted from the CD in VMware and installed it in a virtual machine. The process is much more like installing a desktop OS than anything else, you can tell QNX has its origins in a more desktop-like OS.

I'll capture some video and upload it to YouTube in a bit. There's not much to see though.

[taylortbb]

Found one thing that's really interesting to note. The PlayBook is taking a virtual display which is a bit bigger than the area it's actually drawing too. That's the black border you see in my screen shot. The border is almost exactly the same size as the bezel, and the image it's drawing is 1024x600, the PB's screen resolution. It's like that border area is there for me to click on, even though it doesn't display anything. It seems to be responding to gestures, like if I start a swipe to open the system tray from down there, and only go a few pixels into the display area, it opens. I'm about 95% sure the PlayBook will feature a touch sensitive bezel.

[grahamf]

um, how do you install the emulator? and will virtualbox do?
NVM. set up a new one with QNX as the guest os, 1GB RAM, 64GB HDD, booted from ISO.

But now it wants to constantly overwite, and booting from disk says OS image is missing. help?

[taylortbb]

I used VMware, but I expect Virtual Box will do.

[grahamf]

Yeah Virtualbox seems to work, but now it wants to constantly overwite, and booting from disk says OS image is missing. help?

What are the exact steps, after booting from the disk, for installing QNX and booting from it?

[Irving94]

Found one thing that's really interesting to note. The PlayBook is taking a virtual display which is a bit bigger than the area it's actually drawing too. That's the black border you see in my screen shot. The border is almost exactly the same size as the bezel, and the image it's drawing is 1024x600, the PB's screen resolution. It's like that border area is there for me to click on, even though it doesn't display anything. It seems to be responding to gestures, like if I start a swipe to open the system tray from down there, and only go a few pixels into the display area, it opens. I'm about 95% sure the PlayBook will feature a touch sensitive bezel.

Excellent find. So if i'm a noob with a mac and i wanna play around with the simulator, all i do is download virtual box and open the .iso file? I really wanna begin developing for Blackberry (starting with the Playbook).

[grahamf]

ok, step by step, how did you install the emulator?

[thedannelson]

Man is this NOT worth installing. There is nothing in it to play with. No applications, web browser etc.

Update: If you want to see what the keyboard on the playbook is going to look like... in the simulator go to settings, then enable developmental mode. It will ask you for a password (which is blackberry). When you click in the box, the keyboard will come up. Looks like a solid keyboard. Hope they get the touchscreen quality up to par on this device.

[grahamf]

It's now stuck on "unable to find process 'splash animation'

[taylortbb]

Took a few more screenshots for everyone. VMware video recording isn't co-operating. This, plus my earlier screenshot, is literally every screen that exists in the OS that we can see now, excluding development mode (just shows my IP address).

In order that is:

• Home Screen (Tray Expanded)
• Notification Screen
• Now Playing
• Options - About
• Options - Security
• Change Device Password (w/ keyboard)

[grahamf]

Would you mind emailing me a copy of your .VDI/.VMDK/etc boot file? I've tried installing but it's not working.

[surrealsounds]

Been playing around with this for a little while. Pretty much the same discoveries as taylortbb, so nothing new to comment on (although I have noticed the swipe element when you click and drag on the different tray settings, though that was to be expected.)

Too bad we don't have hardly anything to work off of, but I like what I'm seeing so far, plus the keyboard is set up rather nicely. I'm gonna play around and see if I can get an audio file on it and attempt to get some sound other than the key clicks on the keyboard.

SS

[taylortbb]

I think far more interesting than poking at the PlayBook UI has been looking through the files on the ISO. It has a full install of QNX that's not compressed or anything. My observations:

• I found a full Python install and a site package that looks like in development bindings. I expect Python will be a supported platform. (Woohoo! Just incase this didn't already look nice enough for devs like me)
• It has a Samba server. That means Windows (SMB) file sharing, probably both client and server modes.
• Remote deploy works by accessing "http://<PlayBook IP>/appInstaller.cgi" with dev mode enabled. It appears the Flash Builder plugin packages your app and uploads it over HTTP. You can use that page to get a list of installed apps, amongst other things. Having an web server on board is potentially a good thing.
• All of the PlayBook UI is built in Flash. Even the Launcher is an .swf file. The PlayBook doesn't just support Flash, it's Flash to the core.
• There's a Squid proxy server in here. Presumably a part of RIM's WebKit proxy technology.
• There's a bunch of wallpapers from DigitalBlasphemy on here. I can't help but wonder if they're properly licensed.
• I found several audio files for system actions. Things like lock/unlock, low battery, etc.
• I haven't seen any trace of a printing system other than a brief mention in the Samba config file
• It appears to support multiple themes. I've seen a couple mentions of them.
• There's a config file for a FTP server. Haven't seen the server itself.
• Looking through the display config file I see references to the TI OMAP 3 platform. Given that platform doesn't meet the specs we already know I expect it's being used in the prototypes, or at least was at one point. This may suggest a TI OMAP 4 is the production SoC, but it's a shaky connection. The screen res it lists doesn't even match the PlayBook's screen, and much of this code is left over from QNX Car. It may just be legacy code, it's in the middle of references to Freescale automotive processors, though the page also mentions VMware.
• Tethering appears to use standard tethering methods. I see PPP chat scripts for Rogers and Fido. Expect tethering fees to be the same as they are now, it's not some special tether.
• I found a Dvorak layout for the keyboard, if that's your thing.
• There's multiple mentions of geolocation. I don't know if it's integrated GPS, GPS over Bluetooth, or WiFi positioning; but expect apps ro be able to know where you are.

[pbgonnarock]

one note it doesn't work in virtual box ... only works in vmware

[tumer]

So guys what do you guys think we can do with a touch sensitive boarder or bezel as for alps and stuff any ideas ?

[der C.L.]

a short vid. via youtube
thanks 2 caliber12378



gr33tz

[tumer]

I know there isn't much there but what is there locks good ?

[grahamf]

one note it doesn't work in virtual box ... Only works in vmware

dammnit


.

[grahamf]

All of the PlayBook UI is built in Flash. Even the Launcher is an .swf file. The PlayBook doesn't just support Flash, it's Flash to the core.

Really? that's a bad sign that the 9780 and other newly launched devices will not be able to run QNX.

However, since QNX is a microkernel system, it's sorta possible that they can strip out the flash and make a UI out of Java or something else that is supported.

Or, the Simulator is just running a Flash UI because it's easier to whip one up than it is to make the current UI useable.

[taylortbb]

Really? that's a bad sign that the 9780 and other newly launched devices will not be able to run QNX.

However, since QNX is a microkernel system, it's sorta possible that they can strip out the flash and make a UI out of Java or something else that is supported.

Or, the Simulator is just running a Flash UI because it's easier to whip one up than it is to make the current UI useable.

There's zero chance of QNX ever appearing on current hardware. A microkernel has nothing to do with it, that's a level way below the kind of thing you're talking about. Making this UI work right requires hardware acceleration. The UI paradigm is also completely different, the PlayBook has no physical buttons and uses gestures on the touch sensitive bezel. You can't carry that over to any of the current phones, nor do they have hardware powerful enough to run it. Probably the only current hardware you could run it on is a Palm Pre, which has a similar touch sensitive bezel. But needless to say, that's not happening.

I'm quite certain the current Flash-based UI is here to stay. The QNX Car system, which this is obviously based on, also had a Flash-based UI. The top platform RIM is pushing for developers is Adobe AIR, and that's what the current Navigator is written in.

[grahamf]

There's zero chance of QNX ever appearing on current hardware. A microkernel has nothing to do with it, that's a level way below the kind of thing you're talking about. Making this UI work right requires hardware acceleration. The UI paradigm is also completely different, the PlayBook has no physical buttons and uses gestures on the touch sensitive bezel. You can't carry that over to any of the current phones, nor do they have hardware powerful enough to run it. Probably the only current hardware you could run it on is a Palm Pre, which has a similar touch sensitive bezel. But needless to say, that's not happening.

I'm quite certain the current Flash-based UI is here to stay. The QNX Car system, which this is obviously based on, also had a Flash-based UI. The top platform RIM is pushing for developers is Adobe AIR, and that's what the current Navigator is written in.

The Storm series, Bold 9650, and Curve 8530 had Hardware acceleration.

Unfortunately they are obsolete, and no GSM blackberry support OpenGL.

However, RIM would have to create a different UI any-ways in order for the QNX to be able to work on non-touch blackberrys and smaller screens any-ways, so they could probably make a non-accelerated UI fairly easily.

[taylortbb]

The Storm series, Bold 9650, and Curve 8530 had Hardware acceleration.

Unfortunately they are obsolete, and no GSM blackberry support OpenGL.

However, RIM would have to create a different UI any-ways in order for the QNX to be able to work on non-touch blackberrys and smaller screens any-ways, so they could probably make a non-accelerated UI fairly easily.

They had very limited hardware acceleration. There's still no support for OpenGL ES 2.0, which I'm pretty sure is a pre-req for the Flash hardware acceleration. They'd have to build a completely new UI which isn't based on AIR, which also means a completely new set of OS apps that aren't based on AIR. It might share the QNX kernel, but it wouldn't be Tablet OS without AIR. It'd be like a BlackBerry without Java. Maybe you could port the kernel, but it'd be a completely different platform.

[G.myrthil]

hey guys there is a good review on engadget about the Blackberry PLAYBOOK. you should check it out.

[CASH]

I think the simulator is just Flash based. But I see your point about the apps being developed in AIR, so it is very possible that the PlayBook's QNX OS is Flash based.

Kind of cool that I was toying with desktop AIR apps and wondering how far it would go before the PlayBook was announced.