RIM (NASDAQ: RIMM) announced a host of new features for its PlayBook tablet at the BlackBerry World conference this week. Version 1.0.3 of its BlackBerry Tablet OS incorporates the ability to engage in video chats with other PlayBook tablets, while also expanding the BlackBerry Bridge feature to include the use of the popular BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) and support for document editing.

The integration means that BBM alerts will appear on the PlayBook notification ribbon as users enjoy the full BBM experience on their PlayBook. Document-editing support lets users view or edit pictures and documents such as spreadsheets and slideshows over BlackBerry Bridge. BlackBerry smartphones operating on a BES setup will see modified files automatically saved back to the BlackBerry smartphone's SD card to maintain security for corporate data.

Like the iPad, video chat will only be available via Wi-Fi, though RIM was quick to tout the PlayBook's ability to do video chat multitasking--which RIM says allows video and voice chats to "continue running in the background while you interact with other applications."

According to the official RIM blog, users who purchase and activate a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet starting today will automatically be upgraded to 1.0.3 as part of the setup process. Existing PlayBook users can check for the update at any time under Software Updates in the settings menu.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at BlackBerry Blogs
- check out this article at MobileBeat

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