Last month the BlackBerry PlayBook was spied strolling through the FCC with HSPA+ and LTE connectivity in tow, and now it seems that the cellular-enabled slate has posed for a few "in the wild" shots. A CrackBerry forums user going by the name fakedeadmau5 has posted photos of a PlayBook complete with a SIM card slot, but the bad news is that he didn't have a 4G SIM card to put in the slate in order to test it out. Outside of the SIM slot, this PlayBook looks fairly similar to the one that's been around since last year. It's also worth noting that the software on the device lists a "Mobile Network" option in the Settings menu and has a BBM app icon in its app drawer.

RIM has been talking about its plans to release HSPA+ and LTE-capable PlayBooks for some time now, but so far we've yet to see any such device actually materialize on store shelves. Although there's been no official word from RIM concerning a release date for a PlayBook with a cellular radio, a leaked roadmap from back in January pegged the tablet as coming in May or June. Here's to hoping that we hear more soon and that this 4G PlayBook doesn't fall to the same fate as Sprint's WiMAX model.

Via CrackBerry, CrackBerry forums