RIM’s devotion to QNX OS isn’t a thing of the past, since today they started offering the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.1 update. It’s now live and comes with a SMS feature and portrait email. If you like messaging you can now start SMS text messages from the tablet when tethered through the BlackBerry Bridge solution.
Portrait view in email, calendars and contacts is also available now. There’s also Android App Player support for the camera and in app purchases, plus device encryption, that will extend to personal data and wireless printing beyond the local network. You will have to be an owner of the original WiFi-only PlayBook to get version 2.1 of the software today. People who bought the carrier-tied PlayBook 4G LTE will get their updates in about a month. If you want to know about other improvements brought by the update, it appears that the Android application support now offers multi window applications, aside from camera support and in app payments.
There are also new features for the enterprise users, allowing them to better separate work from personal data. There’s also an update to the Print to Go app and the Canadian video store is now preloaded into the platform, without requiring you to download it from the BlackBerry App World.
