no kids?
if you use it as a glorified netbook then tablets aren't for you. the form factor and some of the apps in the app store make an ipad very nice to have
no kids?
if you use it as a glorified netbook then tablets aren't for you. the form factor and some of the apps in the app store make an ipad very nice to have
DivideBYZero
Lifer
- May 18, 2001
- 24,117
- 2
- 0
PlayBook on the Engadget Show.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/25/the-engadget-show-020-rims-ryan-biden-gdgts-peter-rojas-f/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/25/the-engadget-show-020-rims-ryan-biden-gdgts-peter-rojas-f/
Kind of unimpressive interview, really. There's a lot of questions that weren't answered and some features not yet mentioned.
I may have missed it, but I don't recall any mention of BBM coming bridged on the Playbook. As it stands that's one key feature that defines Blackberry, and somehow they left it out. From what I've gathered, RIM employees are currently beta testing that feature (why it's not on the Beta Zone is beyond me). Supposedly it will be available in two weeks.
Also...Skype. It was mentioned, but this is very disappointing. I don't use it (though I could see myself doing so), but it's odd that it was shown in mock-up images of the Playbook, as well as being announced as a partner with RIM for this device. I'm not sure why they shipped the Playbook out without really any big 3rd party applications that can use the power of the Playbook efficiently.
Also, TAT make a big presentation about the capabilities of the Playbook, and some of the apps they were going to bring to the table as well (you can see them here). Why these weren't pushed to be included are beyond me; it seems a worthwhile thing to me.
As far as shortcomings, there are many. There have been charging issues (has a problem charging if the device dies completely), power button issues, notification issues, etc.
To elaborate, the power button seems to fail for some, and other find it difficult to even use (some models have a raised button, others have a flush button).
The notification LED doesn't seem to work. It comes on when you power-on, but if you receive a message on a bridged device, all you get is a glowing red corner on your screen. This is cool, however, if your device is on standby there's literally no way to tell if you have a message without checking your phone.
Native social apps should have been included. I know everyone's complaining about contacts/calendar/e-mail, but to me those fall to the side. If they're trying to get interest from a huge market, Facebook and Twitter apps should have been included. I don't use Twitter, but it seems to be very in demand.
I think what RIM expected was for everyone to use the browser since it's really well done. You can go to Facebook and Twitter and have the full experience. Personally, however, I like to be able to use all the gestures and whatnot as much as possible, and I think that could integrate very well with the apps.
With all that being said, I still love my device. I have no regrets buying it, and I'm really excited for what may come up for apps. Already there have been a few cool apps. Also, once the developer kit is released many more apps should make themselves available.
I'm also really looking forward to the QNX phones, but I suppose that's a different topic altogether.
Well, Hulu Plus works on iPad, and word has it that it's coming to other devices as well. You only have to pay a monthly fee...
Anyways, had the opportunity to "rub" a Playbook today at Best Buy... from up top to the bottom, and then inside...
The whole affair lasted for an hour.
Now here are some personal thoughts. Please excuse me if I couldn't help injecting my iPad 2 in there.
This thing is too small for my hands.
The bezel is not large at all. Same size as the Galaxy Tab's next to it, and definitely same size or even smaller than the iPad's.
It's not iPad 2-thin, but it's a very thin device.
Very light. Very very light.
Screen is vibrant and gives off quite a good vibe. Not comparable to my Captivate, but hey, even my iPad 2 is not comparable to my Captivate. But the AMOLED screen on the Captivate sucks under low light condition, so it evens out...
Power button does suck. For some reason, just this part of the device felt wrong.
Speakers sound okay. That device I tested lacked bass impact, but store was loud so I wouldn't have noticed either way. And not like my iPad 2 did any better.
Software... well, let's say first impression is... I don't see how portrait mode will work under any circumstance.
Texts are small. Not like i couldn't read them, but there were room for bigger.
No games on the device, so no 3D test. Too lazy to hunt App World.
App launcher interface... was smooth. But not as smooth as iPad 2, or my rooted Captivate running 2.3.3. I'm just generally spoiled, I guess. Even my MacBook feels slow compared to those 2.
Apps were inexplicably choppy. It was noticeable because the launcher was so smooth. It feelt like some developers didn't pay attention to the frame rate set for their apps. Or it might simply be that the device couldn't handle Flash at smooth 60fps. RIM needs some native development kit pronto...
The browser suffered from the same choppiness. Most noticeable while scrolling. I usually talk about Android lacking GPU acceleration but this was much worse. Not only that, the checkerboard pattern reminiscent of many older devices were there quite often despite the generous amount of RAM. I made sure nothing else was in the background. It felt like an iPhone 3G on a bad day, and not because of Flash, either. It got a lot worse where Flash was concerned.
Speaking of Flash, aside from videos, everything else felt like they were being forced to run on a Pentium 2 on top of Windows 7 with Aero Glass. It was choppy, laggy, crashy, and very prone to freezing.
But hey, it worked.
Obviously not for Hulu.
Videos up to 1080p played like they were made for this device, and could run in the background. Nice! But quite useless since going back to click the "Replay" button was a chore even on simple interfaces such as Youtube. Hint: it would lag, freeze momentarily, or crash.
App World literally had nothing of interest.
Lack of email app wasn't too terribly limitting.
But having to go through that laggy browser to read your email was annoying.
Top pull down menu was kind of confusing. I think it could have been made obvious, but the fact that the bezels doesn't have any way to tell the user what swiping on them would do might alienate someone who doesn't know.
Overall, it didn't feel like a beta device to me. It felt more like something that was brought down ultimately because it's trying to carry the weight of Flash, without any other way to present itself. Perhaps a native development kit would fix this, or perhaps more Adobe magic.
Otherwise, felt like the iPad 1 felt to me a year ago. But the iPad 1 had native apps as the biggest diffentiator.
Anyways, had the opportunity to "rub" a Playbook today at Best Buy... from up top to the bottom, and then inside...
The whole affair lasted for an hour.
Now here are some personal thoughts. Please excuse me if I couldn't help injecting my iPad 2 in there.
This thing is too small for my hands.
The bezel is not large at all. Same size as the Galaxy Tab's next to it, and definitely same size or even smaller than the iPad's.
It's not iPad 2-thin, but it's a very thin device.
Very light. Very very light.
Screen is vibrant and gives off quite a good vibe. Not comparable to my Captivate, but hey, even my iPad 2 is not comparable to my Captivate. But the AMOLED screen on the Captivate sucks under low light condition, so it evens out...
Power button does suck. For some reason, just this part of the device felt wrong.
Speakers sound okay. That device I tested lacked bass impact, but store was loud so I wouldn't have noticed either way. And not like my iPad 2 did any better.
Software... well, let's say first impression is... I don't see how portrait mode will work under any circumstance.
Texts are small. Not like i couldn't read them, but there were room for bigger.
No games on the device, so no 3D test. Too lazy to hunt App World.
App launcher interface... was smooth. But not as smooth as iPad 2, or my rooted Captivate running 2.3.3. I'm just generally spoiled, I guess. Even my MacBook feels slow compared to those 2.
Apps were inexplicably choppy. It was noticeable because the launcher was so smooth. It feelt like some developers didn't pay attention to the frame rate set for their apps. Or it might simply be that the device couldn't handle Flash at smooth 60fps. RIM needs some native development kit pronto...
The browser suffered from the same choppiness. Most noticeable while scrolling. I usually talk about Android lacking GPU acceleration but this was much worse. Not only that, the checkerboard pattern reminiscent of many older devices were there quite often despite the generous amount of RAM. I made sure nothing else was in the background. It felt like an iPhone 3G on a bad day, and not because of Flash, either. It got a lot worse where Flash was concerned.
Speaking of Flash, aside from videos, everything else felt like they were being forced to run on a Pentium 2 on top of Windows 7 with Aero Glass. It was choppy, laggy, crashy, and very prone to freezing.
But hey, it worked.
Obviously not for Hulu.
Videos up to 1080p played like they were made for this device, and could run in the background. Nice! But quite useless since going back to click the "Replay" button was a chore even on simple interfaces such as Youtube. Hint: it would lag, freeze momentarily, or crash.
App World literally had nothing of interest.
Lack of email app wasn't too terribly limitting.
But having to go through that laggy browser to read your email was annoying.
Top pull down menu was kind of confusing. I think it could have been made obvious, but the fact that the bezels doesn't have any way to tell the user what swiping on them would do might alienate someone who doesn't know.
Overall, it didn't feel like a beta device to me. It felt more like something that was brought down ultimately because it's trying to carry the weight of Flash, without any other way to present itself. Perhaps a native development kit would fix this, or perhaps more Adobe magic.
Otherwise, felt like the iPad 1 felt to me a year ago. But the iPad 1 had native apps as the biggest diffentiator.
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
Somebody must have been fucking with the display model, cuz I didnt have half the problems you did.
Next time you play with one, see if you can do a master reset on it. Only takes a few minutes surprisingly.
Next time you play with one, see if you can do a master reset on it. Only takes a few minutes surprisingly.
DivideBYZero
Lifer
- May 18, 2001
- 24,117
- 2
- 0
This. "No 3D games" is an odd one as every PlayBook comes with NFS: Shift on it.
Why would anyone want to pay a monthly fee for something they can get for free?
I also had the opportunity to mess with a Playbook and I was seriously impressed. The interface is vastly superior to iOS in my option, I tried out an iPad 2 after the Playbook and the home screen and multitasking felt like something from the 90's in comparison.
Deeko
Lifer
- Jun 16, 2000
- 30,213
- 12
- 81
I've had Hulu Plus for awhile now and I like it - I've actually cancelled my FIOS TV service, and just use Hulu Plus on PS3 and a Blu Ray player instead. I'll pay $8/month over $100...not to mention, Plus gets you 720p video.
dlock13
Platinum Member
- Oct 24, 2006
- 2,806
- 2
- 81
The only reason why I'm not going to pay for Plus yet is the fact that it doesn't have as large a library as Netflix, but I'm sure in time it will.
Also, I've been meaning to get to a Best Buy to test this guy out. Although, since it did just come out, the experience is going to be lacking as to what my mind wants it to be. I'm glad BlackBerry is releasing updates as quick as they are. I love that fact. They used to be pretty terrible when it came to updates/features they add in them. From the looks of it, they're actually stepping up their game in order to compete with all of these other companies/OSes.
Imp
Lifer
- Feb 8, 2000
- 18,828
- 184
- 106
Finally had a chance to play with one at Best Buy. It's okay, and I would pay good money for it, if only Google/Googlemaps actually worked... Icons don't work nor do gestures. All other sites I checked worked fine, so not sure what the deal was. The iPad 1 appeared to have a different/adapted version with no Streetview (ya, Flash).
Liked the weight and size of the Playbook. I'm not that big of a person, so it felt "right" for portability and use. The iPad is nice being big, but seems a bit cumbersome at that size.
Liked the weight and size of the Playbook. I'm not that big of a person, so it felt "right" for portability and use. The iPad is nice being big, but seems a bit cumbersome at that size.
I'll drop by again today and take pictures if possible. Perhaps someone intentionally removed those games or apps.
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
Actually, yeah. Maybe if the employees saw that people kept playing games on it and wouldnt let others try the productivity apps, they decided to delete it.
SONS OF BITCHES!
SONS OF BITCHES!
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
They're planning to release decent updates about every two weeks for a good while. Hopefully that stays on track. So far it's pretty much been Christmas every two weeks (last update we got BBM, Video Chat, Facebook app, stuff like that). Hopefully next week brings us bridged SMS, better browser function, etc.
RIM seems to have ironed out a large amount of the shortcomings on their end (still waiting on native apps), but the big work needs to be done by third party developers. The Facebook app is really nice but lacking functionality (all done by Adobe so no actual integration with the Playbook, so no notifications).
RIM needs to use the LED for notifications. Not sure why this iconic thing isn't used.
What probably happened is that they updated to the newest software, which has reportedly removed the games from some devices (no reason why yet).
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
Maybe, but I got like 3 software updates in the time I had mine, no loss of programs.
I think that's entirely possible, or perhaps a naughty customer...
I didn't see the employees having any beef with people playing games on the iPad 2 and other tablets on display.
Couldn't pass by today. Too much work. Maybe tomorrow morning. But I intend to go find out what happened.
But just to clarify, the "Games" pane was completely empty. Not even Solitaire or something as silly as that. Installed "apps" were also barren. Most of which were web links to launch the web browser like Hotmail and Gmail.
silverpig
Lifer
- Jul 29, 2001
- 27,703
- 12
- 81
I played with a PlayBook at future shop a few days ago and generally really liked it. I could definitely see myself getting one.
I found I really liked the size. This was a weird issue for me as I am still trying to decide what size of a tablet to get. Too big and you might as well carry a laptop. Too small and you might as well just use your phone. Then again, I'd LOVE to read a magazine on the iPad, but I'd rather carry around the PlayBook.
That being said, I wish it was wider. The length was pretty good, but it needs to be closer to 4:3 IMO. Maybe not fully 4:3, but closer. I know the companies are sticking to 16:10 and 4:3 for the most part, but that aspect ratio comes from TV. This is not a TV, so maybe a new standard should be set. It'd be nice if they all agreed and went with something. Maybe this isn't reasonable because I guess the only middle ground is 16:11
I liked the feel of the playbook and its portability. The back material makes it seem durable. The power button sucks.
I REALLY liked the top pull down bar once I figured it out. IMO this is one of the best usability features it has over the iPad/iPhone. So many times I'll be on a web page which gets lengthened due to the resolution and I have to scroll way down to read it all. Scrolling all the way back up to get to some of the controls sucks. Pull down menu FTW.
I also love how they have eliminated the button on the front. I like the iDevices because they have one button (simple) as opposed to android's four, which seems redundant to me. Going to (essentially) zero is a great move.
Some of the apps failed to load fully, crashing instantly. I attribute this more to the fact that it was a display model than anything. Half the phones in futureshop just plain don't work and are covered with all sorts of crap from people's dirty fingers. I actually didn't think I'd get to test the playbook out because the first one I came across wasn't on and couldn't be turned on. Luckily I found another one in another part of the store.
I found I really liked the size. This was a weird issue for me as I am still trying to decide what size of a tablet to get. Too big and you might as well carry a laptop. Too small and you might as well just use your phone. Then again, I'd LOVE to read a magazine on the iPad, but I'd rather carry around the PlayBook.
That being said, I wish it was wider. The length was pretty good, but it needs to be closer to 4:3 IMO. Maybe not fully 4:3, but closer. I know the companies are sticking to 16:10 and 4:3 for the most part, but that aspect ratio comes from TV. This is not a TV, so maybe a new standard should be set. It'd be nice if they all agreed and went with something. Maybe this isn't reasonable because I guess the only middle ground is 16:11
I liked the feel of the playbook and its portability. The back material makes it seem durable. The power button sucks.
I REALLY liked the top pull down bar once I figured it out. IMO this is one of the best usability features it has over the iPad/iPhone. So many times I'll be on a web page which gets lengthened due to the resolution and I have to scroll way down to read it all. Scrolling all the way back up to get to some of the controls sucks. Pull down menu FTW.
I also love how they have eliminated the button on the front. I like the iDevices because they have one button (simple) as opposed to android's four, which seems redundant to me. Going to (essentially) zero is a great move.
Some of the apps failed to load fully, crashing instantly. I attribute this more to the fact that it was a display model than anything. Half the phones in futureshop just plain don't work and are covered with all sorts of crap from people's dirty fingers. I actually didn't think I'd get to test the playbook out because the first one I came across wasn't on and couldn't be turned on. Luckily I found another one in another part of the store.
shortylickens
No Lifer
- Jul 15, 2003
- 80,287
- 17,081
- 136
Its a business tool, not a toy.
(Please disregard the lack email, calender and address book.)
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