Yesterday marked the release of the new Blackberry Playbook, which is a tablet that is said to compete with the iPad 2 and the Xoom.  The Playbook is smaller than the two popular tablets but packs a big punch and will be a thorn is the side of Apple and Motorola.  The Playbook doesn't have any buttons on the front of the device, instead all is controlled with touch gestures.  It took a while for me to get use to the gestures and kept on forgetting what does what.  This device will be difficult for people to get use to especially when you don't have a home button that is easy to push to get to the home menu.  Other than that the device is overall fun to play with and the user interface is well set up.  Lets take a look at the specs of the Blackberry Playbook. 


Ultra portable, super convenient
Height 5.1" / 130mm
Width 7.6" / 194mm
Depth 0.4" / 10mm
Weight 0.9 lbs / 425g
7" LCD display, 1024 x 600 screen resolution
Multi-touch, WSVGA, capacitive screen

Professional grade performance
Get started easily – simply swipe-to-wake
Full computing power in a tablet format
1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM
Symmetric multi-processing
Accelerometer, 6-axis motion sensing (gyroscope), digital compass (magnetometer) and GPS
Micro USB port

Uncompromised web
Games, media, apps and everything the real Internet offers
Full Adobe® Flash® 10.1 enabled
Built-in support for HTML 5
No-compromise rendering of text, graphics and video

Connect anytime, anywhere
BlackBerry PlayBook tablets will offer support for network configurations as follows:
BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n + WiMax
BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n + LTE
BlackBerry 4G PlayBook with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n + HSPA+
All BlackBerry PlayBook tablets support Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR

Amplified BlackBerry experience
Wirelessly connect to your BlackBerry® smartphone* for real time access to:
Email, calendar, address book and task list, using
BlackBerry® Bridge™

Best-in-class media
3 MP high-definition forward-facing camera
5 MP high-definition rear-facing camera
Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
Crystal clear video; H.264, MPEG4, WMV HDMI video output
Micro USB and Micro HDMI ports

Business ready
BlackBerry Bridge technology
Corporate intranet browsing
DocsToGo, Adobe Reader
Enterprise VPN

BlackBerry Tablet OS
Powerful, user-friendly QNX technology: It’s what the World Wide Web runs on
Multi-processing for true multitasking
First and only microkernel based end-to-end real time
operating system

Rich application ecosystem
Rapid development environment
Reliable BlackBerry Tablet OS, powered by QNX technology
Supports POSIX OS, SMP, Open GL, BlackBerry® 6, WebKit, Adobe Flash, Java® and Adobe Mobile AIR

We track the head of the user with the front facing camera in order to create a glasses-free monocular 3D display. Such spatially-aware mobile display enables to improve the possibilities of interaction. It does not use the accelerometers and relies only on the front camera.

HTC has unveiled their 3D phone, the HTC EVO 3D that does not require and 3D glasses to view like the Nintendo 3Ds.


HTC EVO 3D Specifications:

• Dimensions: 5.00 x 2.60 x 0.47 inches (127 x 66 x 12 mm)
• Weight: 6.00 oz (170 g)
• Display: 4.3 inch S-LCD 3D capacitive touchscreen display, 540 x 960 pixels
• Memory: 4 GB with expandable up to 32 GB MicroSD
• OS: Android OS 2.3
• Processor: Dual Core Snapdragon @ 1.2 GHz
• Camera: 5 megapixel camera (stereoscopic lens for 3D) and 1.3 megapixel front facing camera
• Connectivity: CDMA Dual Band (800/1900 Mhz)
• Data: 1xEV-DO rev.A/WiMAX (Sprint's 4g)
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0
• GPS: GPS with A-GPS
• Battery: Li-Ion 1730 mAh

Design and Display

The HTC EVO 3D looks very similar to the original HTC EVO 4G, with the 4.3 inch screen and the square design with slightly rounded corners. However, looking closely, it does have some key differences, first off being the S-LCD display that supports 540 x 960 pixel resolution. The screen is beautiful, colorful and bright, though it does falter a bit when compared to a Super AMOLED Plus, as found on the Samsung Galaxy S 2. However, it is still better than decent and in addition, displays 3D, thus the name, HTC EVO 3D.
Below the display are the standard 4 Android shortcuts for home, menu, back and search. To the sides reside the volume rocker and a very nice dedicated camera button. Next to the dedicated camera button is a switch to change from 2D to 3D for taking pictures. Up top is the 3.5mm headphone jack and power / lock button. The standard layout, in all honesty. Rounding out the back is the 5 megapixel camera with stereoscopic lenses and dual LED for flash. Overall, an impressive package pulled into an attractive, though familiar, look.



Hardware and Software

The HTC EVO 3D comes loaded with some impressive hardware, starting with the 1.2 GHz dual core Snapdragon processor, which runs the latest version of Android, Android 2.3, smoothly. Extremely smoothly in fact, as there was no lag surprisingly. It also comes with HTC Sense 3.0, a newer, updated version of Sense that adds small touches to the user interface.
It's definitely good to see the HTC EVO 3D come with Android 2.3, as I dinged the HTC Thunderbolt for coming with Android 2.2. The 4 GB of internal storage is a bit of a disappointment, but with the expandable microSD, it is forgiveable. The rumored 1730 mAh battery is definitely enough raw power to run the HTC EVO 3D, though it will take some real world testing with the official smartphone to see how much the dual core processor sucks up power. Overall, really good specs on the smartphone.



User Interface


HTC didn't just stop with the 3D, they added a few more user friendly features to the HTC EVO 3D. They're very simple additions, but it's the small things that make the HTC EVO 3D stand out, just a little bit more. For instance, the home screen makes a full circle, instead of stopping at the last screen. Simply slide to the left and eventually you end up on the right and vice versa. Slide your finger fast enough and a little carousel of sorts starts, spinning the home screens like a cube. A small addition, but actually extremely helpful.
The dedicated camera button is not a small little inset button like on most other smartphones, instead, the HTC 3D has a big, circular, silver button sticking out. While some may dislike the odd little button sticking out, it did make camera use feel more natural. A simple change, but once again, gives the HTC EVO 3D a slightly different feel. It seems the HTC EVO 3D has taken a different route from the HTC Thunderbolt, opting to mix things up a bit with change.
Like all Android smartphones, the HTC EVO 3D is no different when it comes to learning the phone. The touchscreen interface is easy to digest and learn for people of all ages. The con is in the viewing angle for 3D, like the Optimus 3D, there's a very limited viewing angle to get the 3D working out correctly.



Features


The HTC EVO 3D, as the name suggests, is a 3D smartphone. Like the LG Optimus 3D, the HTC EVO 3D does not require any kind of eyewear to support the 3D effects. As mentioned in the user interface section, the 3D effect does have a con, there is a limited viewing angle, meaning you have to hold the phone at the right angle to get the full 3D effect. In addition to viewing in 3D the camera can take pictures and record video in 3D with the 5 megapixel stereoscopic camera with dual LED flash.
The camera is also capable of 1080p HD video recording in 2D mode and 720p HD video recording in 3D mode, which puts it up a notch against its brother and competitor on Verizon, the HTC Thunderbolt. In addition to the back facing camera, the HTC EVO 3D has a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, which is yet another welcome addition. It's great to see HTC shifting away from just VGA front facing cameras and beating out its competitors such as the Motorola Droid Bionic in the front facing camera department.