Would you recommend beta 2.0 upgrade to non-developer?

[BeLO]

I am not a developer but I was curious to mess around with the 2.0 beta. What are the drawbacks for upgrading? Is it recommended?

[BBThemes]

its for developers only (RIM`s words not mine) and no i wouldnt suggest it tbh, from an end user point of view the browser is less stable and bridge doesnt work.

the dev tools in there do work tho, which is of course what matters

[berrycops]

l just tried it downgrad to 1.0.7 after 24h.

[brownsfan97]

I'd have to agree with BBThemes here.

I'm not a developer but just your run of the mill gadget freak and I HAD to have the 2.0 Beta. In reality, none of the Android apps that have been ported and actually work are anything I use - even though I've installed many of them. So 2.0 for me is nothing more than a minor UI tweak over 1.7.xxx.

And it was a bit painful to GET to 2.0, I don't see an easy path to get BACK to 1.7.xxx, and it is less stable - occasional browser crashes, app freezes, etc.

For me the Bridge apps do work - can't explain why when it doesn't for so many others - but they too are a little unstable.

In summary - I don't regret updating to 2.0, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

[BeLO]

Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I'll hold off on the upgrade until we have something more stable!

[gravymonster]

Its not worth it. I did it cause I wanted the folders to organize my desktop and the Kindle app. So I'm happy with it. But I'd rather have my real bridge overall.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

[robsteve]

I have to agree that it is not ready for the regular user. I downgraded to 1.07 because of the browser issues, bridge apps and other issues.

In addition, I think the Android Player may cause more problems than it is worth. I hope Andriod Player is an optional install on OS 2.0 when OS 2.0 is released to the public if it affects the amount of memory available to regular QNX apps.

[2ndHalfCor]

I think it's worth it. I'm not a developer, but there were a couple of Android apps that were very important to me. Plus, I was just interested to see what's coming. You have to be willing to crawl through some of the threads here to learn how to side-load Android apps, and you have to be willing to put up with an unfinished product and its occasional glitches. But my Playbook is more useful to me now that have those Android apps running and I'm hoping it will just get better over time until the real release of 2.0.

That said, I have no patience for threads that start, "I downloaded 2.0 and can't find the Android player." If you're not willing to do some reading, you're not ready for a beta release.

[peter9477]

Originally Posted by BeLO

Thanks for the advice guys, I guess I'll hold off on the upgrade until we have something more stable!

It's not so much that it's unstable... it's been pretty good for me.

The issue is merely that it's a deliberately stripped version, intended almost exclusively for developers to use for testing their own apps and how they run on either the Android runtime, or the most recent WebWorks or AIR 3 environments. Almost none of the real 2.0 changes are included in any form regular users can see at this point, including all the new apps that are expected, and other changes.

There are only a couple of tiny user-visible changes, and one fairly significant one: the ability to create "folders" for your app icons, and related changes to how the home screen works.

If you're interested in that last item, by all means try installing the beta, play a bit, but plan to revert back to 1.0.7 and carry on using it for your regular use, and you won't find much to interest you in this beta.

The only users who I think should really be running this, apart from developers, are those who are so strongly interested in Android stuff that they would be willing to put up with any number of other issues as a result.

I actually have several units. As a developer, I have 2.0 on two of them for testing, but my "main" unit has 1.0.7 and will stay that way until the final 2.0 release. It's just better for day-to-day use for now.

[L8Guy]

I am not a dev. and very new to PB. I loaded OS2 and have had no problems. First, the bridge is really no use to me since I don't have a data plan, so it doesn't matter if it works or not. I very much like the way the screen looks and acts in os2. With the help of some of the kind experts on this forum, it was absolutely no problem to side load a number of apps to play around with. (it did help that I actually read all the pages re: android so I had no problems). My main concern was to be able to read from my library of over 2000 books. Kobo basically can't handle my books, and the BookReader App (while only 99 cents) was able to read both my mobi and epub books, but not the best. In os2, I was able to load the kindle app and again, with the help of the people on this forum, I was able to make the kindle app work reading my books. It was only mildly complicated since one can't access the root/sdcard/kindle from windows file manager, and that is where the books need to be. I was able (with the help of an android file manager) to access the root etc. so was abble to 'move' the books I put into the PB using windows file manager. A 2-step process that was not hard at all. Now I have full access through the kindle app of all my books.

Depending on what your expectations are, os2 beta is very nice. It does everything I want it to, so far. When it is able to have it's own native calendar and contacts that can be synched with the same place the bb phone synchs on the computer, then all of my needs will have been met. Anything over this will be a very happy and likely bonus.

However, I suspect that I am not a part of the majority of users that have a PB. Regardless, I am a very happy user !!!!

[siausin]

It is fairly usable, though you would have occassional browser and other glitches but overall it is still a functional OS. If you are one who likes to try or mess with new things and are okay with dealing with some bugs then give it a go. Just ask yourself if below sound fine to you:

1. Bridge. You will need to open bridge apps like email, calendar, contact etc via the bridge browser.

2. Browser. It is obviously not as stable as the commercial OS. You are likely to get some stalls..are you okay dealing with closing the browser and reopen it when it gets stuck? It doesn't happen frequently, just occassionally.

3. No video chat. If this is important to you, don't use OS2

4. Some games don't work. Samurai II doesn't work. Games from gameloft like spiderman etc works. If you absolutely must have samurai II, then forget about OS 2 beta

5. Not all android apps work. If you can't lower your expectation here, then forget about OS2..

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[bpgui]

I'm not a developer, but I upgraded to 2.0 beta, and I am very glad I did.

The biggest reason: Docs To Go. It is much more usable and no longer destroys the formatting of my excel sheets. There are plenty of bugs though, so I can't recommend it. You'll need to decide for yourself whether it is worth it to you or not.

[berrybook]

I had it for a week and then downgraded. I rely on the bridge for browsing and it was not very stable as I would get network errors on a daily basis. Other than the UI tweak, I did not see anything special for non-developers.

[gordongr]

I wouldn't do it. I tried and it was so unstable for me I switched back & have had browser problems ever since

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Zoban]

Been running the beta sice devcon and now the updated beta and no issues..

Bridge has always worked normally for me.

Browser hasn't had any issue

Game I had all work fine (don't have samarii though)

The droid apps I have loaded added the functions I needed most. Office Suite, RDP, SSH, Dropbox, Tapatalk and others..

In short .. If I were to buy another PB tomorrow the first thing outta the box would be loading the beta of os2 ..