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So I bought a Playbook

Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
$300 off on all Playbooks at every store. So it was $199 which up to $245 after tax and also bought a shell for it. I've been pondering on buying a tablet just as a toy but could not really justify it, but at that price, I decided to go for it. My hope is that it will eventually support android apps, though I'm not holding my breath. Will still be a fun toy to mess around with either way. Kinda sucks there's no email client though, but really in this day and age all you need is a browser. I can just implement a web client on my network and I'd be set.

/blog
 
Yeah it does indeed baffle me as well. I was reading up and from what I gathered nobody can write one either, because of some licensing thing. Don't get how that works.

One thing I am hoping to eventually use this for though is to control the furnace. I just need to find a USB programmable thermostat or proper devices so I can write a web front end. Basically a few relays and a temp sensor that can be communicated with through Linux.
 
I've got Android CM7 on my 10" HP TouchPad. Works great, but WebOS is better in a lot of ways. Using WebOS to make this post right now.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yeah it does indeed baffle me as well. I was reading up and from what I gathered nobody can write one either, because of some licensing thing. Don't get how that works.
Click to expand...
I thought it now supports Android apps natively? Is there no standard POP/IMAP client for Android?

Red Squirrel said:
One thing I am hoping to eventually use this for though is to control the furnace. I just need to find a USB programmable thermostat or proper devices so I can write a web front end. Basically a few relays and a temp sensor that can be communicated with through Linux.
Click to expand...

Make it a web interface so you can use a smartphone or any other mobile device to control it.
 
Hmm maybe it does support Android already, and I just have to do something. I'll have to read up further.

And yeah if I do end up making some kind of thermostat it will be web based. In fact I'd probably expand on it a bit and make it a basic home automation system. I eventually want to learn more about electronics, so I can make cool gadgets around the house. Really the principle of it is fairly straightforward. Just need to know how to make USB controllable relays, and know how to read sensors. With that knowledge quite a lot is possible.

I'm also impressed with battery life. Going on near 24 hours and it's at 87%. Keeping in mind most of the time it's standby, but I still pick it up all the time to fiddle with it.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Hmm maybe it does support Android already, and I just have to do something. I'll have to read up further.

And yeah if I do end up making some kind of thermostat it will be web based. In fact I'd probably expand on it a bit and make it a basic home automation system. I eventually want to learn more about electronics, so I can make cool gadgets around the house. Really the principle of it is fairly straightforward. Just need to know how to make USB controllable relays, and know how to read sensors. With that knowledge quite a lot is possible.

I'm also impressed with battery life. Going on near 24 hours and it's at 87%. Keeping in mind most of the time it's standby, but I still pick it up all the time to fiddle with it.
Click to expand...


Does the playbook have any decent gps programs (like navigon, copilot, etc) that download the map(s) to the device (i.e. that don't use data every time you use it)?
 
Red Squirrel said:
Hmm maybe it does support Android already, and I just have to do something. I'll have to read up further.

And yeah if I do end up making some kind of thermostat it will be web based. In fact I'd probably expand on it a bit and make it a basic home automation system. I eventually want to learn more about electronics, so I can make cool gadgets around the house. Really the principle of it is fairly straightforward. Just need to know how to make USB controllable relays, and know how to read sensors. With that knowledge quite a lot is possible.

I'm also impressed with battery life. Going on near 24 hours and it's at 87%. Keeping in mind most of the time it's standby, but I still pick it up all the time to fiddle with it.
Click to expand...

There was a thread here recently about a new wifi thermostat that allows you to program it over the web, among other things. Don't remember the product name but shouldn't be too hard to find if you are interested.

Course it won't give you that warm fuzzy DYI feeling. 😛
 
Herr Kutz said:
Does the playbook have any decent gps programs (like navigon, copilot, etc) that download the map(s) to the device (i.e. that don't use data every time you use it)?
Click to expand...

I found one, but it's kinda flaky It takes like 5 minutes for it to find the satellites, and I don't even know if it's accurate. The compass was never pointing the same way. I'm not aware of an app that does maps either, which I'm kinda surprised. It looks like there's pay ones though, with downloadable maps.
 
Kobota said:
any reason to chose the playbook over the kindle fire?
Click to expand...

If it's on sale for $199. That's about it, tbh. I'm liking it, but if I truely wanted a tablet and did not care about price, I probably would have gone with an Android based one.

The Playbook is not BAD though, like I don't regret buying it, but I sure would not have bought it at it's full price. I bought it knowing RIM might go tits up and it will basically be in the same boat as WebOS where nobody is writing any apps because it's dead. But all in all, with just the browser, a lot can be done if you have the web interfaces for it on your network. I can manage my torrents with it from the living room, check out forums, the weather, youtube etc... so it is a fun toy. It also has readers for office documents though I have not really tried it, so not sure how good the support is.

Oh and interesting thing I noticed when we were comparing it to an ipad at work. It's actually only like 1mm thicker than the ipad. The ipad's curved back makes it seem thinner. I'm betting they've patented that concept lulz.
 
Kobota said:
any reason to chose the playbook over the kindle fire?
Click to expand...

I have both - the PlayBook is a superior user experience in that the OS is smoother, the multitasking is better, and it appears to manage battery better. Also, the browser on the PlayBook is both faster and smoother.

On the flipside, the Fire has more apps available, and is better for consuming media, at least until v 2.0 of the PlayBook's OS is released with Android compatibility. So it really depends on what you want. Personally, the lack of an email client doesn't bother me...I have a smartphone, and it has a very good browser if I really need it.
 
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Deeko said:
I have both - the PlayBook is a superior user experience in that the OS is smoother, the multitasking is better, and it appears to manage memory better. Also, the browser on the PlayBook is both faster and smoother.

On the flipside, the Fire has more apps available, and is better for consuming media, at least until v 2.0 of the PlayBook's OS is released with Android compatibility. So it really depends on what you want. Personally, the lack of an email client doesn't bother me...I have a smartphone, and it has a very good browser if I really need it.
Click to expand...

You left out a big one though, the Fire is supported and will be for some time. The Playbook is not.
 
Bateluer said:
You left out a big one though, the Fire is supported and will be for some time. The Playbook is not.
Click to expand...

Supported by whom? Developers? Probably, but I did mention apps already. RIM has not shown indications they will stop supporting the PlayBook. In fact, with BBX as their future solution for smartphones, they certainly will keep the platform alive as long as possible.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I found one, but it's kinda flaky It takes like 5 minutes for it to find the satellites, and I don't even know if it's accurate. The compass was never pointing the same way. I'm not aware of an app that does maps either, which I'm kinda surprised. It looks like there's pay ones though, with downloadable maps.
Click to expand...

It supposedly varies (acquisition time) from program to program (or app).

Check out the online reviews for the "downloadable" maps. They are overpriced and supposedly suck. People say you have to manually cache the section of map by viewing it with internet access before you get any detail. Whatever is in that 300+Mb download, I don't know. Also, reports that the app owner deletes poor reviews.
 
With Adobe recently abandoning mobile Flash and Flash being the PlayBook's main claim-to-fame, I expect these will be clearanced out shortly.
 
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I am sorry for your loss. 🙁
rose.gif
 
Deeko said:
It does not, no....but honestly, when you've already got one on your smartphone, is it a big deal?
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Are you serious? At least give it a Bluetooth option so that you can use your phone's hardware (tether GPS) and some decent I/O (A2DP, KB&M, game controllers, etc).

Does it at least support USB host for expansion? That would allow a card reader too, I guess.
 
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