We don’t cover the BlackBerry Playbook here on Android Community because, well, it’s a BlackBerry. But some recent community mods may change that, at least after a fashion. IntoMobile reports that the latest rage amongst Playbook modders is rooting via a tool called Dingleberry (no comments form the peanut gallery, please). It turns out that if you root the latest version of the Playbook’s Beta software, it’s possible to use the Android emulator software therein to run just about any Android app you like – including the Android Market and other Google apps.

The process isn’t easy, and for the moment it’s restricted to those adventurous enough to risk bricking their $500 $400 $200 device. You’ll need some Android basics and a launcher before even beginning to flash Google’s apps on board, and doing so required the same separate app package that CyanogenMod 7 uses. But for the BlackBerry bold who want the admittedly slick UI of the Playbook and hundreds of thousands of Android apps, it’s a pretty neat trick.

The process will likely be streamlined after the official release of the Playbook’s 2.0 software early next year, but this sort of thing is never going to be official. The bigger question is, how long will it be before RIM either scraps the Playbook all together or starts again from scratch? Who knows. But in the meantime, welcome to the Android world, Playbook users! Just don’t expect to play Shadowgun on that thing.

6 COMMENTS

  1. If blackberry would just embrace this hack and make it part of their next release, it would likely be a Huge boost to their failing sales. tablets are all about the apps ….

    • Failing sales??? Lol, maybe before the huge price-cut promos, but you have obviously not seen the number of PB that entered the markek in the past 15 days! And sorry but saying that RIM should embrace this hack is as dumb a comment can be…

  2. “[…] adventurous enough to risk bricking their $500 $400 $200 device. “.

    That is just wrong, there is no way to brick the PB with this hack… it’s a soft-mod that gets wiped out the second you run a security wipe on the device.

  3. Bricking? Don’t you mean slumming? Seems a shame anyone who has a superior tablet like the Playbook feels they need to lower their standards to fit in. Tired of the slander.

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