Playbook reviews are out!

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Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
Ahhh, thanks! The one day I take my eyes off the blogs... What is the deal with Tuesday launches??!

heh, I like Tuesday launches, because if its something I am getting shipped, I'll still get it by the weekend.

Oh, this is a random side note I forgot to mention before, but remember way back when people complained about the power button, and RIM said they'd fix it? It seems they did. The one I played with in the store on launch day had a terrible power button that's hard to press, the one I got is much better. Probably why later reviewers didn't understand the concern.
 

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
7,490
0
0
Well that was an issue from the beginning. The Playbook launched as a beta testing device to be honest. Lots of the models have a flush power button and others have a raised power button. I'm almost certain all the ones being produced are raised now.

Mine's flush and it's not a problem at all. I push where the button is and it goes into standby, and my fingers are of average size.
 

Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
What I found with the flush one, is you had to just "trust" it and push with your finger. It felt too depressed/small so people would try to use a fingernail, which made it worse. If you just kinda mashed it with the meat of your finger, it worked better.
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
0
The Carphone Warehouse page won't let me put the thing in the basket, so maybe I'll just rock up to a store. I have the day off anyway, so that will work out.
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
22
81
OK, just put in my Pre-order for the 32Gb version. Now I just wait till June 16th!

When I was in the UK last summer, it seemed like Carphone Warehouses were more common over there than Starbucks are here in the colonies. :)

I'm looking forward to your review, DBZ.

how did google sell out?

I'm not sure if I would consider it "selling out" but the big thing that Google did with Android that annoyed me was not releasing the Honeycomb source in a timely manner. Since the beginning they have said that it's "open", and some VP said that this was different from others because you can do something like "gtar xvf android.tar; make" or whatever that exact quote was, but then they turn around and hide the source while favoring certain manufacturers over others and it comes across as hyprocritical - they say one thing and then do another.

To me if they say it's open source, then it should always be open source... and the idea of open source is that you can always get the source code and use it. It's not just open source except when it's closed.

And I don't mean to take this Playbook thread down the path of other Android Honeycomb threads... it's bad when a moderator is hijacking a thread... I'm just answering the question. :)
 
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DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
0
When I was in the UK last summer, it seemed like Carphone Warehouses were more common over there than Starbucks are here in the colonies. :)

I'm looking forward to your review, DBZ.

Yeah, those places are everywhere, but their stupid site prevented me from buying there, so PC World is a good option. They're our "Best Buy", even though we have a few of those now, just not near enough to me.

I'll be sure to post up my extremely biased experiences when I get it. ;)

Anyhow, this is the green light for Mrs DBZ to use her coporate discount to get an iPad2, so we'll have both in the house. She was waiting till I could order the PB before she did it. Odd lady, but there you go!
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
When I was in the UK last summer, it seemed like Carphone Warehouses were more common over there than Starbucks are here in the colonies. :)

I'm looking forward to your review, DBZ.



I'm not sure if I would consider it "selling out" but the big thing that Google did with Android that annoyed me was not releasing the Honeycomb source in a timely manner. Since the beginning they have said that it's "open", and some VP said that this was different from others because you can do something like "gtar xvf android.tar; make" or whatever that exact quote was, but then they turn around and hide the source while favoring certain manufacturers over others and it comes across as hyprocritical - they say one thing and then do another.

To me if they say it's open source, then it should always be open source... and the idea of open source is that you can always get the source code and use it. It's not just open source except when it's closed.

And I don't mean to take this Playbook thread down the path of other Android Honeycomb threads... it's bad when a moderator is hijacking a thread... I'm just answering the question. :)

that's always been an issue with google. they code something to version .8 or so and release it as open source so that someone else can finish it. unlike with general linux that's in millions of devices that most people don't realize android is going up against apple. either google has to code it all itself and license the OS like MS does or if they let others do it then the flavor of the month company wants time to make a return on their R&D investment.

I think in the end MS may beat google after they get WP7 fixed up and matured. there is a clear line between OS dev and handset manufacturer. HTC and the other handset makers are on a pretty even level in this environment.

with XDA releasing ROM's almost as soon as the new version is released it doesn't make financial sense to pay developers to code the next version if your competitor can just grab the source and put it on a piece of hardware they have waiting to be released. google either needs to develop it themselves or have it be like regular linux where no one is favored. but then if they have incompatible versions of android out there then apple will kill them
 
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oogabooga

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2003
7,806
3
81
I got to play with one for just a little bit at Best Buy. It was pretty nice.

I activated the camera though... and couldn't figure out how to get out of it >< I ended up having to look up some instructions on my phone to figure out the swipe command to get back to the home screen. ><
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
106
Had it for about a week now. Haven't used it that much.

Major complaint right now is the wifi. It can't pick up a signal at school, and when it does, it has a hell of a time actually connecting. In comparison, I have a Dell Vostro, and it's done fine in the same building. Also, the instructor was running an MacBook and picked up way more networks than I could in the same room.

Edit: Did some googling. Seems like iPad 1 and iPad 2 users are having the same problem. Sounds like an antenna size thing, but people with smartphones aren't having the issue. I "forgive" laptops since they're bigger and more tried/tested, but smartphones? Huh?
 
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finbarqs

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2005
3,617
2
81
I was totally interested in this... and now I'm not. I guess because the whole no hulu thing kind of put a stop to this for me..
 

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
we have one here..work sample from RIM/Verizon trying to get us to buy them.

lack of apps sucks.. forcing a teather to an existing BB for email/Contacts/Calender is a total and bad joke..

It's a crippled device with no future..

It's got decent hardware.. but everything else about it sucks..

the gestures are terrible BTW..
 

finbarqs

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2005
3,617
2
81
we'll see how the Playbook fares against the Touchpad. Since one uses WebOS, the other uses QNX... we'll see who has the superior OS! (And we might get the stint of hulu working well for a few seconds)
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
we'll see how the Playbook fares against the Touchpad. Since one uses WebOS, the other uses QNX... we'll see who has the superior OS! (And we might get the stint of hulu working well for a few seconds)

I can already tell you that WebOS is superior to every smartphone OS out right now. Even though it's been two years since the Pre first came out, people are still trying to catch up to it and stealing their ideas. What Palm HP needs to make sure is that the hardware is good. That's what sucked about the Pre, the OS was awesome but the hardware was terrible. Plus the lengthy time between new phones really hurt adoption.
 

finbarqs

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2005
3,617
2
81
I still wonder why they haven't implemented GPU acceleration for the UI. I mean, they have a solid fix on the hardware!
 

finbarqs

Diamond Member
Feb 16, 2005
3,617
2
81
the touchpad, or webOS 3.0... why don't they implement GPU acceleration for the OS?
 

DivideBYZero

Lifer
May 18, 2001
24,117
2
0
the touchpad, or webOS 3.0... why don't they implement GPU acceleration for the OS?
Ahh OK, thought you meant PlayBook, which clearly has it.

The answer? Does the TouchPad not have acceleration? Nobody's used one yet, so we won't know until it drops for review.

Also I noticed you didn't mention Hulu.
 

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
Ok messing with it a little more.. found there isnt even a decent Ereader solution out there.. cannot import even DRM free EPUBS or .PDFs into the only reader supported or available..

and the Blackberry apps store is beyond embarrassing.. wow.. This device really is epic fail..