#clalk

Today I had the opportunity to sit down with one of the Senior Technical Account Managers at RIM and was able to learn a little more about the upcoming Playbook and other RIM products.

I will just run it in point form and you can let me know if you have any questions:

Playbook 

Coming in three hard drive sizes: 16, 32 and 64GB

Australia will get it 3 weeks after its release in the US (end of March in the US, late April Aus)

Targus have been working with Blackberry on folders and accessories for the Playbook

the Playbook will have pins for charging and dock connecting, no official word on accessories like keyboards and docks but "expect a fair few at launch"

The Blackberry BES will allow you to add a policy to the device and modify the way it interacts with the tethered Blackberry

Supports HTML5, CSS, Flash

Chalk

Being released in the next couple of weeks

Allows companies to deploy media (video, powerpoint etc) to Blackberry devices via the BES and report on them

Reporting can be on who has watched and who hasnt (important for compliance training)

Mobile Voice System

The ability to use your office landline as your identification for dialing out and receiving calls

Will originally support Cisco with Mitel support following

MVS will allow someone in China to use their desk number in Sydney to make and receive a call using the Sydney phone system as the caller so call costs less

MVS will benefit companies looking to give a simple number to customers and not be concerned with employee mobile numbers as staff come and go. Customers will not use mobile numbers to dial, instead using a constant landline number for their representative.

Today's meeting was very exciting and informative. I was also shown a presentation on the Playbook. In three or so weeks time I will be getting an actual demo of the Playbook and be able to play with the unit myself.