RIM offering PlayBooks to employees for $99

The BlackBerry PlayBook is looking increasingly like going the way of the HP TouchPad with RIM offering the tablet to employees at a huge discount.

RIM's latest desperate attempt to shift some of the crippling inventory currently launguishing in warehouses sees the company offer PlayBooks for just $99 to all employees - thats about £62.

Through a corporate portal workers can buy up to eight PlayBooks for the discounted rate, which also sees the 32GB device on sale for $149 and the 64GB model for just $199.

The deal could be the latest step towards offering those prices to the public in a fire sale reminiscent of HP's ill-fated WebOS tablet, which saw a surge in sales when reduced to under £100.

Huge hardware loss

The employee offer is likely to see RIM take a huge hardware loss on the device, while most of the devices will likely end up on sell-on sites like eBay or the Amazon Marketplace.

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which started off with an RRP of £399, has endured a disastrous year since it hit the shelves this spring.

Plagued by software problems, no email client and the non-appearance of the promised Android app player, its potential is unlikely to ever be fulfilled.

RIM also has to contend with the cut-price Amazon Kindle Fire tablet in the US, which makes a public PlayBook fire sale, all the more likely in the coming weeks.

Sky offering up new Sky Movies companion app

Sky will release a new Sky Movies app that aims to give film fans the perfect companion app.

The new app will give details of what is on Sky Movies, but also brings listings for cinemas and ties in to both the Sky Go and Sky+ apps.

Sky told TechRadar that is working on bringing in film news and third-party reviews in the future, and that the app would be released in the coming weeks.

Cinema

"The new Sky Movies App, coming soon, will allow users to browse movies currently showing on the service and what's on at the cinema," said Sky.

"If they subscribe to Sky Movies, they will also be able to watch films through a link to Sky Go and record films via the Sky+ app."

Sky believes that companion apps are the future and is keen to have individual apps that work together rather than one 'uber-app' that becomes too sprawling.

The App will be joined by a news look Sky Movies website.

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HP offering up refunds for Pre3 and TouchPads

HP has confirmed it will be offering refunds to all customers that bought TouchPads and Pre 3 phones before the huge price drop.

Over on its official site, it has listed the refunds available for every model of its ill-fated webOS devices, with customers offered the difference between that which they paid for the device and the new low shelf tag.

It's an odd move to see HP essentially giving away money – the Pre 3 was barely on sale in the UK and the TouchPad wasn't a huge seller, so the uprising against the price drop was never likely to be a massive problem to deal with, but the computing giant is clearly looking to draw a line under this with a gesture of goodwill.

Money back in your pocket

This means that refunds of over £300 will be winging their way to the accounts of customers that kept the early adopter faith with HP and bought into the webOS brand before it was canned and subsequently dropped to cheap-as-chips levels.

The offer is only open to those that activated the webOS device before 23 August 2011 though, so if you couldn't be bothered to rip open the packaging straight away, that laziness might have cost you a hefty sum.

The TouchPad is still getting over the air updates from HP, and efforts to bring the Android platform to the dual-core tablet are whizzing away, so it could be a double whammy of good news for those lamenting believing the hype around the ex-Palm platform.

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HP offering up refunds for Pre3 and TouchPads

HP has confirmed it will be offering refunds to all customers that bought TouchPads and Pre 3 phones before the huge price drop.

Over on its official site, it has listed the refunds available for every model of its ill-fated webOS devices, with customers offered the difference between that which they paid for the device and the new low shelf tag.

It's an odd move to see HP essentially giving away money – the Pre 3 was barely on sale in the UK and the TouchPad wasn't a huge seller, so the uprising against the price drop was never likely to be a massive problem to deal with, but the computing giant is clearly looking to draw a line under this with a gesture of goodwill.

Money back in your pocket

This means that refunds of over £300 will be winging their way to the accounts of customers that kept the early adopter faith with HP and bought into the webOS brand before it was canned and subsequently dropped to cheap-as-chips levels.

The offer is only open to those that activated the webOS device before 23 August 2011 though, so if you couldn't be bothered to rip open the packaging straight away, that laziness might have cost you a hefty sum.

The TouchPad is still getting over the air updates from HP, and efforts to bring the Android platform to the dual-core tablet are whizzing away, so it could be a double whammy of good news for those lamenting believing the hype around the ex-Palm platform.

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