Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky reports from RIM’s BlackBerry Developer Conference where CEO Mike Lazaridis announced the BlackBerry PlayBook. The new tablet has a 7-inch 1024×600 touchscreen, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and runs the QNX OS that RIM acquired earlier this year.

Lazaridis was joined on stage by the company’s founder, Dan Dodge, who said that “QNX is going to enable things that you have never seen before,” and added that the PlayBook would be “an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players.” RIM also touted the PlayBook’s ability to handle Flash content via Flash 10.1, as well as Adobe AIR apps.

The PlayBook features dual-facing cameras, one 3-megapixel and one 5-megapixel and is capable of  1080p video playback which it can output through it’s built-in HDMI port.

The PlayBook integrates nicely with BlackBerry handsets allowing you to tethering the tablet for 3G connectivity and use the PlayBook as a viewing device for content on your handset.

The PlayBook’s user interface looks quite interesting, it’s like a mashup of webOS, BlackBerry OS, and iOS. Although, there isn’t a whole lot to say about the PlayBook’s interface at this point because no one has used it outside of RIM. The PlayBook isn’t shipping until early 2011 but no actual device was demoed on stage and no one was allowed to use one at the press event. Justice Gödel Conder put it best when he wrote the following:

There is not a single frame in the BlackBerry PlayBook commercial that shows the actual device! The only thing being seen in the commercial is CG special effects. Don’t believe me? Watch the ad again. Sure, those special effects are amazingly fast and responsive and cool but where is the device?

So until I can watch a video of someone using an actual piece of hardware, this thing is as good as vaporware.