Beautiful isn’t it? The new Blackberry PlayBook is RIM’s foray into the growing tablet market. And on paper, it looks like it might give Apple a run for their money.

It runs on a new BlackBerry Tablet OS for an optimized tablet experience like how iPad does it. Nothing like Android’s sloppy implementation. It comes packed with a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM. It’s no wonder why RIM claims that the PlayBook is the “fastest tablet ever.”

Outside that raw horsepower is a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a 3-megapixel front-facing camera, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a HDMI port, as well as a microUSB jack.

The OS rounds up all that hardware with familiar finger gesture support, multitasking, and ability to handle Flash content and Adobe AIR apps via Flash 10.1.

Feature list:

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
• Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Check out the Blackberry official website for more pictures.

RIM announced today its latest BlackBerry 9000, also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Due to its black color enclosed in a chrome border, it’s hard not to notice the similarity between it and the iPhone.

The BlackBerry Bold is not putting up a fight without being well-prepared. It has 3.5G HSDPA support, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 480×320 resolution screen (twice the resolution of the most recent BlackBerry Curve), physical QWERTY keyboard, trackball located under the screen, full-featured desktop-style web browser, 2MP camera with video recording capabilities, built-in camera flash, and 5x digital zoom. Definitely a worthy competitor to the iphone.

Unfortunately for RIM, the BlackBerry Bold has yet to have an official launch date. The iPhone will be upgraded with new features very soon, and we don’t know how shiny the Bold would look by then.

Come later this year, RIM will offer a new application software that will provide users of select devices based on Windows Mobile 6 with a virtual BlackBerry application experience.

That means support for BlackBerry email, phone, calendar, address book, tasks, memos, browser, instant messaging and other applications developed for the BlackBerry platform.

The extension of BlackBerry applications to a broader range of devices should spell good news for both the CrackBerries and BlackBerry enthusiasts who are still thinking if they should get their hands on one.

Key benefits of running the new BlackBerry application suite on a Windows Mobile-based device will include:

• The added benefit of BlackBerry applications, with a consistent user interface and messaging experience.
• BlackBerry “push” technology – messages and information updates can be delivered automatically to the Windows Mobile-based device
• Support for BlackBerry® Mobile Data System (BlackBerry MDS) allowing organizations to develop their own BlackBerry applications or deploy third-party BlackBerry applications that can run on Windows Mobile-based devices as well as BlackBerry smartphones.
• Support for various input methods, including QWERTY keyboards, 5-way navigation, touch screen and stylus operation.
• Support on BlackBerry® Internet Service, which provides push-based email from up to 10 supported email accounts (including most popular ISP accounts), attachment viewing and web browsing with optimized wireless efficiency.
• Support on BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which tightly integrates with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM® Lotus® Domino® or Novell® GroupWise® to provide synchronized, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data with the industry’s most advanced security features, over-the-air IT policy enforcement capabilities and optimized wireless efficiency.