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BlackBerry PlayBook to get Video Chat and Facebook apps

Jeffrey Van Camp
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BlackBerry PlayBookRIM’s BlackBerry World doesn’t open until tomorrow, but most of its big news has just cracked. RIM has announced that its new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (review) will get a couple new apps in the near future. Via an OTA (over the air) update tomorrow, everyone with a PlayBook will get a new Video Chat app, and later this month, a full-fledged Facebook app should be available.

Video Chat: Apple made this a requirement when FaceTime came to the iPad. Google has integrated its own video chat into Android tablets and now RIM is catching up. The new Video Chat app will have “one-click” video and voice over Wi-Fi, allowing users to make a VOIP call to anyone using a phone number or a BlackBerry ID. The app comes with a host of basic features like the ability to choose between taking a video and voice call, a contact list, mute/unmute, on-the-fly camera switching, incoming call notifications, a “Do Not Disturb” mode, and a call log. We will test this application out when it launches tomorrow.

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Facebook: The world’s most popular social network is getting an official PlayBook app in May. The Facebook app will have most of the basic Facebook features along with an easy way to upload videos and photos from the PlayBook to the social network. It will also have Facebook Chat (instant messaging).

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“There are over 30 million users of our Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app who are staying in touch with their social network while on the go,” said Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion. “Now with Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook we can also offer customers highly engaging social experiences optimized for the PlayBook including the ability to share FaceBook pictures and videos with friends and family on an HDTV.”

We look forward to checking both apps out when they launch.

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Jeffrey Van Camp
Jeffrey Van Camp
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