1. whackamac's Avatar
    Well Ladies, Your chance is gone to have had scored this manly hunk of man. LoL... Well we are back from our trip to Vegas. We are no longer single people any more. Haven't had sex since the wedding night so I guess the rumors are true... j/k... we have been like rabbits.... But anyways!

    I have used the living crap out of this playbook now. I can now say that I have absolutely raped the device. Overall for what the device is, it performed wonderful if you think of the Playbook as a 7" consumer tablet minus the lack of apps. Now I am a businessman and I use this device much deeper than the average consumer would. Using this for business and for planning, I had some problems. Tethering made me angry. Very angry. And not the Bridge Browser. I actually bought a month of tethering so I did not have to use the hotel wi-fi.

    The Bad:

    Mind you I was on 1.0.5 during the trip until my flight back.

    1. I will be long winded on this one in hopes RIM reads it and tries to replicate the issue. The hotel wifi was horribly slow and we had our laptop with us as well so we could upload the professional wedding pics and video to our families that came on DVD. So I decided to download the BB Desktop Software on the Playbook, and transfer it via usb cable to the laptop so I could tether the phone through the laptop for a bit to do my tasks. It went horribly wrong from there.

    I tried time after time to download the file to the playbook but it kept disconnecting the tether (the phone still states modem mode) or it would go to sleep and stop the download. I even tried using the PB during the download so it would not timeout on me and it disconnected several times. I gave up and used the hotel wifi to get the software. I tried to download a completely unrelated file from another site and it failed as well. Did that as a control. After many hours of downloading, I got the laptop tethered and that worked great. I uploaded many things as well as downloaded several things as well.

    I dont know if it was the carrier or the tethering, but I lean on the playbook/tour combo. Both devices are fully updated as well. Settings were checked.

    2. The camera's low light abilities. Not too big a deal, but low light shooting (i.e. inside some darker casinos came out really bad. The video camera definitely needs more settings and options.

    3. The lack of specific apps. I would have LOVED the ability to print with this device. I believe it is essential. WE MUST PRINT! Having to transfer to a computer to print is just stupid with the wifi and network printers that are available.
    3a. NATIVE EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL. PLEASE GET ON THIS RIM!!! Sometimes I do NOT want to carry my phone or it is not in range. Maybe I have another brand phone and cannot use bridge...
    3b. Native Calendar. Cmon RIM... Now leaving that out is just stupid. That would have come in handy when scheduling our time during our trip more than you could imagine.
    3c. LOGMEIN IGNITION. Using the browser really sucks.
    3d. A good GPS app would have been nice for driving the areas around Vegas. I fortunately brought my car's GPS so not a big deal.

    4. Did I mention, LET US PRINT!!!! I could print my service orders onsite from this device... or in house... I could use this device to detach from my computers and be more personal with my clients when designing their solutions.

    5. We need a proper dock. Not a charging only dock, Please develop a proper dock that connects HDMI, Power and USB all in one happy little dock I can put next to my TV. I know the port setup will make that a bit harder than a proprietary connector like an iPad or droid tab, but it can be done. Just put 2 side guides on a full width dock solution. And give us a full size USB port on it!

    6. A Credit Card Swiper app and hardware. This is Essential as well. I could use this to take payments at our upcoming Blues Festival at the ticket counters INSTEAD OF STUPID IPADS.... They are soooo big compared to this.

    7. There seems to be something funky with the GPS. Takes a long time if ever to get positions. Sometimes it is fast. I scratch my head. Drivers?

    Now for the good!!!!

    1. The convertible case is the most wonderful addition this device could have.

    2. THE CAMERAS F-IN ROCK!!!! I got almost an hour of 1080p video of the Las Vegas Hotels and Strip. We also got video of parts of Red Rock Canyon. The video camera performed flawless other than low light conditions which is understandable. Took many pictures as well and they came out wonderful too. I do personally believe that the cameras could use some more setting options, but that is me. Some of my video is me holding my PB in a covert manner with the camera on, the case closed, and walking down the strip just filming what one would see walking. I still have to go through a lot of it. I am sure there is funny crap there.

    3. The size of the unit is wonderful. You can carry it around and use it very easily. It looks like a book personally. I even was told when I had it and I was still in my Tux that I could go for a preacher (I dont do ties...) so I tried to heal the guy with my playbook. It did not work. When I was not using it, I put it in my wifey's bag and that was that.

    4. Browsing the internet was pretty good using tethering. Only 2 disconnects the whole time and I do not know what to blame for those. Being able to stop anywhere and just hop on and find where you need to go is priceless. Do refer to the downloading problem above though...

    5. Poynt is kind of cool especially when on a trip. Has lots of info and GPS placement.

    6. Battery life.... Not bad. Not super great. I have seen improvements in battery life with the updates though. And accepting the Video Chat agreement

    7. The TSA at the airport did not even care what it was. All 8 times I went through the checkpoints. (needed a smoke during the layovers...) In several major airports. Big plus! I only got searched once because they were training people.

    8. The device is inconspicuous. People think it is a Kindle or Ebook. Then I show them what it really is. And people cannot believe it's a blackberry until they see the logo.

    9. All other stuff pretty much performs on the norm. The unit is fast and getting faster with each update. I raced several ipads in the airport after the update and won over and over.


    So there is what I can think up for now. I am still tired and resting so I can go back to the grind tomorrow. We are going to still take back the PB's we bought for our business, but I am going to keep this one in hopes RIM will complete the device and I can see the progress. With only a few things addressed, this device could be a formidable business tool saving us poor bastards from having to carry large laptops around anymore. Just hook your Playbook to your TV or hotel's TV and you have a larger screen computer at your fingertips...
    Last edited by whackamac; 06-21-11 at 06:22 PM.
    06-21-11 06:19 PM
  2. s219's Avatar
    You know the credit card swipers work on iPod Touches too, right? If size is an issue, iPad is the totally wrong option to pick as a point-of-sale device.
    06-21-11 06:32 PM
  3. drethos's Avatar
    regarding number 8 in the "good" section, i keep getting "that an ipad" or "is that one of those android tablets". never called it an ereader or kindle.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    06-21-11 07:51 PM
LINK TO POST COPIED TO CLIPBOARD