Blackberry Playbook update brings built- in email

A software update was made available Tuesday that gives Blackberry’s Playbook tablets, among other things, their own email program.

One of the criticisms of Research In Motion Ltd.’ s Playbook — released last year as the Canadian company’s answer to Apple Inc.’ s ipad — has been that it depended on a link to a Blackberry smartphone or web- based program for email.

Playbook owners can now download for free Playbook OS 2.0, which has an integrated email function for managing work and home email accounts, as well as messages from social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

It also has a calendar that incorporates information from a user’s social- network connections, and features an improved version of BlackBerry Bridge, which creates a wireless connection between the tablet and a Blackberry smartphone for improved viewing of documents, contacts and other functions.

The Waterloo, Ont.- based company also said its Playbook software update includes a new virtual keyboard with auto- correct and predictive word-completion features.

“Building on the Blackberry PlayBook tablet’s proven web browsing, multimedia and multi- tasking strengths, the new Blackberry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements,” David Smith, RIM’S senior vice- president of mobile computing, said in a statement.

The Playbook’s performance on the market to date has been underwhelming. While some analysts expected RIM to sell several million Playbooks in its first year, as of last month, RIM had only sold about 850,000.