BlackBerry PlayBook Experience

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The BlackBerry PlayBook Experience is in full swing here in NYC and now that it's near my home turf I couldn't be happier. The minute the clock struck 5pm I hopped on the subway and headed over to Chelsea Market just in time to catch the first of their themed attractions: Experience the Written Word presented by FLATT magazine and hosted by Editor in Chief Christina Lessa. Throughout the day, various authors read bits and pieces from their short stories and novels, signed autographs, held Q&A sessions and showed demos of applications relating to music and books.

As we told you earlier, the purpose of these hands-on events is to show you the full capabilities of the PlayBook and show you everything it has to offer. In this case, it meant tables of PlayBooks and Bold 9900's (they were either AT&T or Rogers), that visitors could try out and use and become more familiar with. RIM employees were on hand to answer questions, demonstrate each device's features and make sure the atmosphere was exciting and pleasant. Plus you have to love the PlayBook wall they had in the corner for people to purchase a 32GB or 64GB tablet.

PlayBook Wall

One of the applications they tied into this event as part of the written word motif is Wattpad by WP Technology. Dubbed "YouTube for ebooks" Wattpad is a way for readers to discover new works, share their selections and connect with the authors and other users. This is a site for not just published authors, but for anyone to submit short stories, novels, or partial chapters for readers to comment on and enjoy. Users can download stories to their PlayBook, search through various categories that include fan-fiction, post comments to the author, share what they're reading to Facebook and Twitter, and most importantly read original content from writers from all over the world. Wattpad is an ebook reader so you'll be able to browse and read all from within the application.

Wattpad 

  • 5 million stories posted with another 500,000+ added every month
  • Over 1.7 BILLION minutes spent on Wattpad each month
  • 8 Million unique monthly visitors
  • 1 comment posted every second
  • Many popular titles have over 10 million reads and more than 10,000 comments

Wattpad is available for BlackBerry Smartphones running OS 4.5 and higher and the BlackBerry PlayBook running OS 2.0 and is FREE in BlackBerry App World. Wattpad lets you discover new authors and gain access to millions of original stories.

Demo Table

I had a great time interacting with other BlackBerry fans, newbies, and those holding the demos. This is a great way for RIM to get their message out there and expose more people to their platform. Nothing shows off what the PlayBook can do than actually holding it in your hands and taking it for a spin. People from all ages lined up to listen to music, play games, and drink some beverages all while being serenaded with music from movie composer Paul Cantelon and his wife Angela McCluskey and listening to authors like Brittany Geragotelis and Sophie Flack. 

BlackBerry Experience - Lizz Winstead

The experience is open to the general public and each day they are holding giveaways with prizes that include the BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry Music Gateway, 1-year PressReader subscription, SOUL and Sennheiser headphones and more. So if you're near Manhattan and want to stop by then be sure to do so during 11am - 7pm to have some fun. I'm hoping to catch the other scheduled events before it ends on July 23rd. 

BlackBerry PlayBook booth - Grand Central

If you can't make the experience, you can still check out the PlayBook in NYC as they'll be holding tablet demos at these locations.

  • July 10-20 - Grand Central Terminal Main Entrance
  • July 10 - Times Square Pedestrian Walkway
  • July 11-14 - Bryant Park
  • July 15-18 - Union Square
  • July 19-20 - World Financial Center
  • July 21-23 - Columbus Circle

Check out more on the BlackBerry PlayBook Experience
More information / download Wattpad

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