NBA center Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic took a break from practicing for his team’s first playoff game last night to chill with Research in Motion co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis at the company’s BlackBerry PlayBook launch party. But despite his endorsement, many are wondering if he really uses a Playbook.
As he left the event, Howard tweeted: “Takin off. Had a blast RIM and blackberry y’all did an excellent Job the playbook is great. I love it. Now I need a busload of them for my teammates lol so we can all be connected. Hook a brother up lol.hint hint NYC I love y’all but I gotta get home. Yuuuuuuuaaaaaa.”
Problem is, he tweeted from Twittelator, an iPhone app. Unlike the Apple iPad and Motorola Xoom, the BlackBerry PlayBook lacks native email; you need to connect a BlackBerry phone and download Blackberry Bridge to access your emails or calendar on the PlayBook.
Balsillie, however, told the Wall Street Journal that native email support is forthcoming.
“A lot of people who want [a Playbook] will pair it freely and securely off their BlackBerries [by tethering, which is free]. Because it’s a full web [environment], you don’t need a specific mail client for all your Webmail, and most people do you use Webmail, but when you get a web type environment…and third, we will have if you want, a standalone, non-Web, non-paired email client on it within I believe the next 60 days.”
“I’m not sure it’ll be that common but it’ll be something you can fill and it’s over-the-air. I don’t think it’s worth dwelling on particularly,” he concluded.
For more, see PC Mag’s review of the BlackBerry Playbook and the slideshow below, the unboxing, and review of RIM BlackBerry Tablet OS 1.0.
And check out why Lazaridis freaked out earlier this week.
Copyright © 2010 Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.