Those of you in the UK who are eager to get your hands on the first 7-inch BlackBerry device have just under a month to wait. UK retailers have now unveiled the date and prices for RIM’s PlayBook. It will cost you £400 (16GB), £480 (32GB), or £560 (64GB) for your tablet, starting on June 16th. That’s not too long of a wait.

Availability will be widespread. You can get it at Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4u, Insight, and Best Buy UK to name a few that have already announced that they will be stocking the tablet.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is a pretty solid piece of hardware, and a popular tablet choice, but it looks like there was a problem batch of the tablets. According to an inside source nearly 1,000 faulty tablets were shipped to Staples, and now they are being recalled by the company.

Hopefully Staples and other retailers will let their customers know about the problem right away, but if you want to be sure about the one that you bought, just hit the link below and check out the searchable spreadsheet of all 935 alleged serial numbers.

Creative is on a roll. Now the company has announced the availability of the ZiiSound Dx series of pure wireless modular speakers. The ZiiSound Dx series includes the ZiiSound D3x wireless modular speaker, ZiiSound D3x wireless one-piece speaker and ZiiSound DSx wireless subwoofer.

These speakers are sure to sound great and they connect independently to stereo Bluetooth devices like your iPhone, Blackberry, Android smartphone, iPad or Creative ZiiO tablet. The ZiiSound Dx series also uses apt-X audio technology for superior sound.

According to multiple sources, RIM is planning on releasing its sequel to the BlackBerry PlayBook around the holidays. The screen size is the main difference. The PlayBook 2 would likely be an additional PlayBook model as opposed to a second-generation tablet.

And it looks like this tablet will be in the 10-inch size. The current model has a 7-inch screen. The first model is selling well if you believe some analysts, so a larger version with an updated OS that includes an email client, BBM and more could be a home run. Makes sense. Hopefully we will hear more on this soon.

It’s official. RIM has confirmed that Angry Birds is headed to the BlackBerry PlayBook, and it should be available on the PlayBook some time this summer. The new game is called Angry Birds: Anger Management and gameplay has changed a bit. Now they sit in an anger management class and talk about their issues. Okay, I made that up. But the game is coming to RIM’s tablet.

We don’t know if Rovio Mobile will be launching a paid version of Angry Birds for the PlayBook, or whether it will be a free version supported by ads. We do know that this game is a massive hit and you will likely buy/download it.

Do you know what’s in your PlayBook? Well, we already knew most of the specs, but some things we were unsure of. Like whether the 7-inch tablet had a gyroscope. Now we know that it does, thanks to the guys over at iFixit who have done their usual great job of prying a gadget open and digging inside. What would we do without them?

They gave it a repairability score of 7 out of 10, which is pretty good. Replacing the front glass is a bit hard, but that is true of most devices. Hit the link below for the full details and lots of awesome pics. And don’t try it at home unless you are very confident in your skills.

As of today the wait is over. The Blackberry PlayBook can be yours for $500 for the 16GB model, $600 for the 32GB version, or $700 for the 64GB-equipped version. So, now that you can buy one, will you? With basic productivity apps like native email and calendar not yet available, many might look elsewhere.

Then there’s the fact that Android app compatibility hasn’t yet been introduced, and that the PlayBook needs a BlackBerry smartphone nearby in order to be a better tablet. So at this stage, it clearly isn’t for everyone. Will you be buying?

Video calling is now a major trend in mobile devices and so the BlackBerry PlayBook wants it on board as well. It ships with both front and rear cameras, for just that reason. But it was assumed that the PlayBook would be using a third party app like Skype for video calling, but according to RIM, they will be releasing their own video conferencing app that will be launching with the tablet.

Aside from that, we don’t have any details on the app. We aren’t sure if it will be limited to BlackBerry PlayBook tablets or if it will show up on other phones and computers. The tablet will be arriving very soon, so we will learn more anytime now.

RIM has been keeping pretty quiet about how long their upcoming tablet’s battery life is, but now some leaked screenshots of the tablet’s “Battery Assistant” app are shedding some light on the issue. If these pictures are the real deal, then we won’t have to worry about the tablet’s battery life. It is amazing.

They show the tablet at 50% battery life and the indicator says that it can last another 8.5 hours of web surfing. If 50% is 8.5 hours, then that means that the tablet will be able to surf the web for 17 hours on a full charge.

According to BGR, multiple sources have said that RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook will hit store shelves on April 10th. They also have news that the BlackBerry Tablet OS will reach Gold Master status on March 31st, so it will be delivered as an update when you first boot up your device.

It matches what we’ve been hearing and RIM did promise a release for the first quarter of 2011, though we still don’t know which carriers will be providing connectivity on the tablet. Hopefully we will learn more soon.

Of course the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be heading to Sprint with support for its 4G WiMAX network, but what about Verizon? Well, it looks like Verizon will be getting it as well. A page was discovered that previously allowed users to join an early-access type of program for the PlayBook on Verizon.

Looks like the site is owned by a marketing agency that works for RIM and Verizon, so it looks credible. There’s no official confirmation that the PlayBook will be arriving on Verizon though. I guess we will see what happens.

An unofficial count from Shawn Dubrovac has revealed the sheer numbers of tablets that have leapt onto the tablet market following the early success of the iPad. The list shows that at least 100 tablets and crossover e-readers have shipped, including not just major names like the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom but also newcomers like Enspert’s Identity Tab line and the Notion Ink Adam. The list includes 24 generic tablets at Freescale’s booth as well.

And that is not even a complete list. It doesn’t include some close relatives, like Enspert’s S200 VoIP Home Hub, and devices that have been confirmed officially but weren’t formally unveiled at the show.

HTC’s entrance into the tablet market might be the HTC Flyer, which should ship this March in the US with Android 2.3 Gingerbread as the operating system. The HTC Flyer will have its OS updated to Android 3.0 Honeycomb as soon as it becomes available.

It will be sold in the US via an unknown carrier. Probably not AT&T and Verizon since they are preparing to roll out the Motorola Xoom, and T-Mobile has announced the LG G-Slate. Sprint has the WiMax BlackBerry PlayBook. The tablet wars just keep amping up.

Apple claimed 87.4 percent of the tablet market before the Galaxy Tab hit the scene, according to an IDC study of tablet share. Apple had a near-monopoly of the tablet market last summer. Analysts also expected 17 million tablets to have shipped by the end of the year, almost all of which would still have been iPads.

Of course Android would have cut into Apple’s share in the fall with 1.5 million Galaxy Tabs estimated sold and will likely cut into it even deeper in 2011 with the Motorola Xoom for one. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook could play a part as well.

The BlackBerry PlayBook has us all drooling ever since we first heard of it, but we had been hearing concerns about its battery, and maybe that there would even be a product delay. Well RIM wants to ease your mind with a healthy dose of damage control.

According to a statement made to Erictric, there’s nothing to the PlayBook’s battery issues and initial product test findings were based on pre-beta units. RIM says that the PlayBook is still good to launch by the end of March. This is great news, since this tablet is very promising and we are all looking forward to it.