Owners of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet have long bemoaned the device's lack of a native email client and its tepid app environment.
However, the version 2.0 OS update is finally available and looks to address some of those complaints.
Aside from productivity features such as email, documents, calender, a key improvement is app discovery.
BlackBerry App World has seen an overhaul, with browsing options highlighted with better graphics and carousels and streamlined via a slew of new tabs and categories.
Games can now be viewed by Top Rated or by New Arrivals, while the Featured store front now pushes apps through promotional categories such as Fun With Food and Brainteasers.
Are we there yet?
The OS update also adds a significant amount of social network integration, allowing users to sync Twitter, Facebook and e-mail accounts on the device.
Time will tell if more developers now feel that providing content for the previously barren App World store is a worthwhile endeavour - something that obviously will depend on the device's install base.
If you are an Android developer interested in making the PlayBook leap, RIM will even give you free device, if you promise to release an Android app on App World before its revised 2 March Android developer program deadline.
So what do you think? Will the 2.0 update be enough to save the PlayBook? Are you a developer reconsidering whether or not to make the move to RIM's 7-inch tablet?
Let us know in the comments below.
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When Matt was 7 years old he didn't write to Santa like the other little boys and girls. He wrote to Mario. When the rotund plumber replied, Matt's dedication to a life of gaming was established. Like an otaku David Carradine, he wandered the planet until becoming a writer at Pocket Gamer.
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