RIM will release a Blackpad

CANADIAN PHONE MAKER Research in Motion (RIM) has decided that the image it wants for its rumoured tablet is that of darkness.

According to the rumour mill RIM wants to name its forthcoming Apple Ipad killing tablet the Blackpad. The name reminds one of a 17th Century pirate who was the scourge of the seven seas, or possibily a highwayman on the London to York run. Either way there is something of the night about it, and it certainly won't have a connotation of fruity like 'Blackberry' does.

According to whois, the Blackpad.com domain name is now in the hands of RIM and, while it only goes to a blank page now, that does seem to indicate that the Canadian smartphone outfit is going to have a tablet with the word 'Black' in its name.

The latest rumour circulating is that the tablet will have a seven inch display, embedded 3G, dual cameras and a 1GHz processor. However at this stage of the rumour mill game anyone's guess is as good as another's. At this point in the Ipad rumour cycle word on the street was that the Ipad was going to be cheap and useful.

MobileCrunch thinks that 'Blackpad' is just a code name and it will probably ship under the name 'Cobalt', but who wants a tablet that will give them the blues?

We would have thought that it would be a good idea to dump the 'pad' from the name. Black is fairly cool but there are loads of better things to do with it. Blackslate, Blacksablet, Blackadder, or Blackknight. You could have a Blacksabbath for heavy metal fans, or a Black&white for Michael Jackson fans. But then, Blackpad will be consistent, we guess. µ