It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything official from RIM about BlackBerry PlayBook Android apps support but it has obviously been beavering away on the feature. A beta build of the BlackBerry PlayBook Android app player was inadvertently revealed by the BlackBerry.com website and has now made its way onto the web.
While RIM has now pulled the original change-log which held the link to the BlackBerry PlayBook Android app player, numerous unofficial download sites are now hosting the file. Read on to find out what the brave BlackBerry PlayBook owners who’ve taken the plunge think of the app and what RIM has to say about it…
BlackBerry PlayBook owners who’ve grabbed the early build of the Android app player report that the file is huge and the app itself runs quite slowly. Understandably, there are also some major elements missing from the software build including a back button which means you have to swipe across the bottom of the screen to flip between pages.
The version of the BlackBerry PlayBook Android app player that’s out in the wild now is based on Android Gingerbread 2.3.3. That means it should, in theory, be capable of running almost all non-Android-Honeycomb apps and, ironically, relys on a newer version of Android than the majority of true Android phones in use right now.
RIM has confirmed that an old version of the BlackBerry PlayBook Android app player was accidentally uploaded and has been removed. It advises uses to stay away from the official downloads and promises an official beta release of the software later this summer.
If you’ve tried the Android App player on your BlackBerry PlayBook, jump into the comments and let us know what you made of it.
