BlackBerry PlayBook software secret cracked?

A trio of software developers said Wednesday they have cracked BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer software and promised to reveal the secret within a week.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion was investigating the 'jailbreaking' claim, which threatened to mar the firm's reputation for mobile devices with tough security.

Jailbreaking refers to altering operating software to allow unauthorized access to systems or the running of unapproved programs.

Videos on YouTube showed one of the developers using a PlayBook to stream a television show from online service Hulu, which does not typically run on the RIM tablets.

'RIM is currently not aware of a jailbreak being leveraged by anyone other than the researchers,' the Canada-based company said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

'If it is determined that the claim is accurate, RIM will follow its standard response process to develop and release a software update that is designed to minimize adverse impact to our customers or carrier partners.'

PlayBook tablets run on a QNX operating system that is different from the software that powers BlackBerry smartphones, which are popular with businesses because of security provided by RIM.

'BlackBerry smartphone users are not affected,' RIM said.

The developers vowed to release a PlayBook jailbreaking tool by this time next week.

'If such a tool is released, RIM will investigate it,' the company said.

'RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and to working with researchers to continue to protect our customers,' it said.