IT NEWS: GADGET: BLACKBERRY

BlackBerry PlayBook FaceTime Rival Planned

Posted by Joe Minihane on Wed 16 Mar 2011

RIM reveals plans to take on FaceTime with dedicated app for new tablet.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is set to get its own dedicated video conferencing app. That’s the word from the Canadian company’s David Heit, who says the new offering will be available, “…very soon.”
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The new effort will be seen as a direct competitor to Apple’s FaceTime, which is now available on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod touch. Until now, it had been assumed that the front and rear-facing cameras on the PlayBook would utilise a third party video app like Skype.

Heit refused to hand over specific details, but the timeframe suggests this will be sitting pretty on the PlayBook at release. The iPad-battler is due out in early April, six months after it was first announced.

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