We’ve been invited by the good guys from Research In Motion “RIM” to do some Blackberry talk and get educated about their latest, especially that this event came straight to Kuwait after showcasing their goods at CES in Las Vegas.

To tell the truth, I’ve been hoping to get some news regarding Blackberry’s Playbook and their rumored (now confirmed) OS10, of which would most likely be revealed to the public in February at the Mobile World Congress since they both made (or going to make) a historical mark on the company’s future. In the mean time, we were greeted by their $2,000 BlackBerry’s Porsche Design P9981 of which came in a state of the art packaging.

In a brief, the event was well hosted, the lighting was nice, people were beautiful and hosts that were more than welcoming; let’s not all forget the food, sweets and most importantly; Coffee.

Mr. Mohammed Al-Mefleh was the spokesman of the day, reiterating RIM’s role in the mobile industry and answering our eager techie questions, which mine was specifically targeting the Android apps integration with the BB Market for the PlayBook’s OS2.

I was concerned more or less about the “method” if you will, of the so called integration, whether the Blackberry Playbook’s next OS would play the Android Apps natively or through a mediator (an emulator); Mr. Al-Mefleh was very generous with the answer and did indeed mention that there would be a chosen (certified) apps that would be played by an “Android Player” application made through a joint venture between Google and RIM. How well would that work out in the end is yet to be seen when the Android Player becomes available with the PlayBook’s next update; the PlayBook OS2 (might be available around February). Some talk regarding the latest features of their OS 7.1 was illuminating, giving a nice insight into what the new OS update features would bring with it (to be released sometime in the next month or so).

What’s New in OS 7.1?

• BlackBerry Tag: A simple method of tapping two NFC enabled BB devices to share information, files, add personal and BBM contacts and more.
• The New BBM: Up to 160 Characters worth of user profile info. Upload pictures directly from your BlackBerry camera, just snap and set as profile pic, oh and it should support animated avatars too like GIF and such!
• Mobile Hotspots: … Finally, sharing connections with up to 5 devices!!!
• And oh, if you’re one of the lucky owners of a Curve 9360 and/or 9380, you’ll be in for a surprise: FM Radio! The aforementioned devices are already equipped with the hardware and circuitry and OS 7.1 is your way to utilize that missing “Radio” fun

Mr. Al-Mefleh mentioned that the updates would be pushed in to your devices Over The Air (OTA), meaning you’d be prompted to update your device once the update is scheduled to our region by RIM. And don’t worry, if you’re too lazy to update, the device will update itself for you! (trust me, it’s not a bad thing )

Personally, I’m still waiting for the complete BB overhauling that is promised to be in the OS10, but my dreams were short lived as the OS10 is somehow shrouded in secrecy and I wasn’t allowed in that circle of trust… YET

All in all, it was fun and educative and we’ve been promised another event in the near future to bring us more BB-Insides; and with that promise we left the venue with a very appreciated gift in the shape of a BB9900 that ended up in my wife’s hands… and I was content with the BB stress ball that was left for me!

Thank You RIM for a great event!

Here’s a bonus picture of Nasser from Blog37 kissing his Camera (sorry dude, couldn’t resist!! )