Last week RIM made available to developers and beta testers a new version of the OS for the Playbook tablet. To get the 2.1 beta download you have to request it via this link, and it will show up on the device soon after.
The only new features I’ve noticed as a user, are being able to use the new apps from the v.2.0 update in portrait mode. So apps like Contacts and Messages for example, you can now turn the tablet and they rotate. Wow! Amazing! RIM is so on the cutting edge as usual. But the app rotation is really slow to occur. After rotating the Playbook you have to wait an annoyingly long moment to see it happen. And the other new feature is having Android apps display and run in their own window. Before they all ran inside an obvious emulator app window. Yes, once again, a profound new concept in modern app appearance, display an app in it’s own window.
So the only 2 features that are noticeable to the typical user were once again things that we would have expected by default in any modern tablet, and I know I was fully expecting in the long awaited 2.0 update a short while back. But at least they are finally here, so when I take my PlayBook off the shelf (which is rare) to use instead of my Android based Asus Transformer Prime (which I use daily) I can rotate the screen. Good job RIM! We were expecting those apps and the ability to rotate them I think over a year ago when you released the PlayBook.
