[XPEH]

Ran into this article a couple weeks ago. It's from Jay Palmer, a tech review guy at Barrons. While it doesn't give away many specific details, it's very upbeat. Enjoy

A Serious Challenge to iPad2: - Barrons.com

[kcmo]

Wow, this is a great article!

[Intosh]

Barron's writers are usually quite negative on RIM.

Surprised to find a positive article there. Funny that there were only 6 user comments; negative articles usually attract much more comments.

[JRSCCivic98]

I dunno about it being a "great" article. Seems like it's just a viewpoint shared by someone who demoed a unit for a short while. There was nothing technical in the article... and the writer lost come credibility when they spouted off that the PB will be more secure than an iPad in the enterprise market, yet didn't cite specifics, which leads me to believe they're going by what RIM was saying and by the ideal that "Blackberry is more secure than anything else". Something that was proven to be false a couple of weeks ago when OS6's browser was circumvented to gain control over a Blackberry.... a browser platform that the PB also runs.

I guess the writer could have shared more details, but something tells me they were probably put under an NDA to keep things tight short of just basic viewpoints, which we already know and have had many people share.

[XPEH]

Well, Palmer is the guy who runs the Gadget of the Week column in Barron's and tends to be pretty critical (just look at his last week's review of Nokia's E7 that he completely trashed). Given that the WSJ/Barron's empire (just look at Walt Mossberg reviews of any Apple product) tends to love Apple, I think it speaks volumes that Palmer pinned PB against iPad 2 and said that PB will give iPad 2 a run for its money.

Likely he didn't have permission to cite specifics, I agree, which is why the article doesn't have many specific details.

Losing credibility is a bit strong - I think it's a fair statement that Blackberry devices are some of the most secure in the world. That's why RIM has issues in India and elsewhere where governments complain their system is too secure, and that's why Obama uses a Blackberry. Recent OS 6 hiccup was unwelcome, true.

[Intosh]

There is no absolute and flawless security. Just because there was one hole discovered doesn't mean RIM's secure platform is suddenly worth nothing.

[Sirhill]

Civic is there nothing that can be said about RIM of their platform that will make you change your mind. You good and da** well know that the blackberry platform is one of the most secure in the world, so how does he lose any sort of creditability for not laying down specific facts. I agree with a lot of things you say but your whole post was pushing it a little. And before you start posting your own facts look at one thing, out of the box the Pb is more secure than any other tablet in the market or coming to market. Yes even over the ipad in an enterprise situation.

The article is a viewpoint because all articles are just that someone's opinion. It was not written for anything other than giving people info on the fact that Apple Ipad may not be all its cracked up to be when compared to the PB. And if that means that one security breach in a decade makes it less secure than i will take those odds over a device that has been hacked into (what do you call jail breaking/rooting) more times than I care to count.

[sf49ers]

I dunno about it being a "great" article. Seems like it's just a viewpoint shared by someone who demoed a unit for a short while. There was nothing technical in the article... and the writer lost come credibility when they spouted off that the PB will be more secure than an iPad in the enterprise market, yet didn't cite specifics, which leads me to believe they're going by what RIM was saying and by the ideal that "Blackberry is more secure than anything else". Something that was proven to be false a couple of weeks ago when OS6's browser was circumvented to gain control over a Blackberry.... a browser platform that the PB also runs.

I guess the writer could have shared more details, but something tells me they were probably put under an NDA to keep things tight short of just basic viewpoints, which we already know and have had many people share.

ha ha..sour grapes!

[lnichols]

Something that was proven to be false a couple of weeks ago when OS6's browser was circumvented to gain control over a Blackberry.... a browser platform that the PB also runs.

Well since the iPhone and iPad have the exact same bug in the Webkit based browser on both devices, does that give them a leg up on RIM on the security front?

[tumer]

Well civic at least he's tried one not long you you have pretty much doomed it with out trying it so I will take his word over yours on it and CX's .
GREAT ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[missing_K-W]

Can someone please copy and paste the article?...thanks

[bighap]

A Serious Challenge to iPad2: - Barrons.com

From a tech viewpoint, the big news last week came Wednesday from San Francisco, where, with its usual splash and style, Apple (ticker: AAPL) unveiled the iPad2. The specs were as expected�it's thinner, lighter and faster than the original, and boasts more features. The really big surprise (other than that Steve Jobs came back from medical leave to make the announcement) is that the 2 will go on sale this Friday.

This is sooner than expected, and that hurts Research In Motion (RIMM), whose BlackBerry line of smartphones compete head-on with the Apple iPhone. A day before the Apple do, RIM had hosted a New York event to show off its coming BlackBerry PlayBook, a tablet designed to compete in a potentially huge market that Apple, more or less the only player, now owns. But RIM's PlayBook, which most think will go on sale in early April, is one to watch, even though it's among more than 45 tablets coming out this year.

While the PlayBook has been much viewed since the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January, few have actually gotten to test a unit. But now, with most of the operating bugs removed, RIM is opening the gate. Along with a clutch of reporters, including techies, business types and even a fashion columnist, I was allowed to sit down in the relative peace of a caf� in New York's Meatpacking District and actually play with a PlayBook for a couple of hours.

And I loved it!!

My first take: It's not an iPad clone. The screen is touch-sensitive almost to the very edge, and the PlayBook looks a lot classier and more sophisticated, having a metal/glass finish�rather than the iPad's plastic/metal feel. At 0.4 inches deep, it's thinner than the iPad1, but just a tad thicker (at about 0.08 inches) than the 2. It's also lighter, weighing in at 0.9 of a pound (more or less the same as a Kindle DX) to the iPad2's 1.3 pounds. That was to be expected, given that the PlayBook is smaller, having just a seven-inch display to Apple's 9.7-inch screen.

That size is critical, not least because Steve Jobs insists that no one would want a tablet smaller than the iPad. I have to disagree. Like my Kindle, the PlayBook fit happily in my side jacket pocket, and the screen, which is incredibly bright and clear, was more than big enough to surf the Web, watch a movie, and deal with just about any application. OK, it's not a laptop substitute. But, all other things being equal, I'd vote for the PlayBook over the iPad.

But they aren't equal. There are thousands of iPad apps available, many more than for the PlayBook. And, initially, the PlayBook will have only Wi-Fi connectivity; the iPad also offers 3G (third-generation) cellular. But those advantages for Apple are slightly negated by two factors. Unconfirmed speculation has the PlayBook able to run applications for Android devices. And users will also be able to tether their PlayBooks to any smartphone to access the Web over cellular links.

The PlayBook has one large advantage, at least for corporate users who depend on their BlackBerry phones and who are an important part of the total market: It gives users a high degree of security for their devices, which is not yet offered by Apple. In its own 4G�when that becomes available later this year�or through a tether to a BlackBerry phone, the PlayBook is also secure.

Scan the recent blogs, and you'll find that there are lots of people already writing off both the PlayBook and RIM. That's a mistake. The PlayBook will give the iPad2 a run for its money.

[JRSCCivic98]

Civic is there nothing that can be said about RIM of their platform that will make you change your mind. You good and da** well know that the blackberry platform is one of the most secure in the world, so how does he lose any sort of creditability for not laying down specific facts. I agree with a lot of things you say but your whole post was pushing it a little. And before you start posting your own facts look at one thing, out of the box the Pb is more secure than any other tablet in the market or coming to market. Yes even over the ipad in an enterprise situation.

The article is a viewpoint because all articles are just that someone's opinion. It was not written for anything other than giving people info on the fact that Apple Ipad may not be all its cracked up to be when compared to the PB. And if that means that one security breach in a decade makes it less secure than i will take those odds over a device that has been hacked into (what do you call jail breaking/rooting) more times than I care to count.

I am actually looking forward to a QNX BB to come out of RIM whenever that happens, but I don't want them to make a QNX kernel based BB that's the same as what we have now. If they're going to go QNX, they need to do it similar to what they did with the PB.

Now, onto the bolded part... to my knowledge (so far right now and as of release), the PB is secure in the Enterprise world because it cannot be connected to BES or even directly to an enterprise email server via a native email client. So, ya, if not being connected to something makes it secure, they are secure.

Either way, remember that so far I haven't found a single tablet that I can see myself carrying, so it's not like I'm critical of the PB, but not critical of the iPad or something else for my particular uses, but I also won't close my eyes to some small shortcomings the PB has.

On a positive note, I like the "Presenter Mode" of the PB. That's a nice capability. Once can only wish that more companies would open the dynamic functionality of their tablets and OSs up a bit more than they are now because if you ask me, they can all be capable of this same function if the makers tried. Just yesterday someone found a simple hack (if you can even call it that since it was just editing one file to add the function) to allow the iPad and iPhone to have mirroring via the HDMI or Composit video out cables. Why on earth Apple didn't just backwards enable this, I don't know... well, I do, they wanted to make it look like only the iPad2 was special enough to do this, but whatever... Steve is stupid and so are other corporations that take us all for the idiots that we're not. This is why our community and others like ours are so cool. We take over where these money grubbing corporations leave off and show the world what their devices can really do. That's where the real magic happens.

[TheScionicMan]

Well since the iPhone and iPad have the exact same bug in the Webkit based browser on both devices, does that give them a leg up on RIM on the security front?

And Civic, please remind us of who is responsible for creating Webkit and the security swiss cheese that it has proven to be?

[JRSCCivic98]

And Civic, please remind us of who is responsible for creating Webkit and the security swiss cheese that it has proven to be?

Doesn't really matter. The same thing could be said about MS and the holes they've had in IE for years that they keep patching. We're getting a bit off-topic here, but the end argument comes back to what I and other have said in the past. Make something really really popular and cool and prepare for the elite to poke some holes in it.

WebKit was originally open, both Apple and Torch Mobile had the option to make it as secure as possible. Apple failed on their part, Torch failed RIM on their part after they got bought out. So, the finger pointing can go round and round really. The nice part is, the more hackable something is, the less we have to follow the rules and limitations that these companies put on OUR products after purchase.

[mahen915]

I am actually looking forward to a QNX BB to come out of RIM whenever that happens, but I don't want them to make a QNX kernel based BB that's the same as what we have now. If they're going to go QNX, they need to do it similar to what they did with the PB.

Now, onto the bolded part... to my knowledge (so far right now and as of release), the PB is secure in the Enterprise world because it cannot be connected to BES or even directly to an enterprise email server via a native email client. So, ya, if not being connected to something makes it secure, they are secure.

Either way, remember that so far I haven't found a single tablet that I can see myself carrying, so it's not like I'm critical of the PB, but not critical of the iPad or something else for my particular uses, but I also won't close my eyes to some small shortcomings the PB has.

On a positive note, I like the "Presenter Mode" of the PB. That's a nice capability. Once can only wish that more companies would open the dynamic functionality of their tablets and OSs up a bit more than they are now because if you ask me, they can all be capable of this same function if the makers tried. Just yesterday someone found a simple hack (if you can even call it that since it was just editing one file to add the function) to allow the iPad and iPhone to have mirroring via the HDMI or Composit video out cables. Why on earth Apple didn't just backwards enable this, I don't know... well, I do, they wanted to make it look like only the iPad2 was special enough to do this, but whatever... Steve is stupid and so are other corporations that take us all for the idiots that we're not. This is why our community and others like ours are so cool. We take over where these money grubbing corporations leave off and show the world what their devices can really do. That's where the real magic happens.

Civic, for someone echoing every sentiment against closed-software, I'm surprised you're not using FOSS and still on Windows :P

I agree with those points and companies will learn sooner or later that not all customers are sheep.

[grreyes24]

I really don�t know for sure, so correct me if I�m wrong, but I though at Pwn2Own they hacked a Torch and were able to see the contacts and Images database. That�s not good, but I�ve seen other times, on an iPhone for example, where hackers are able to access everything on the phone including saved passwords. That seems a lot worse to me. So saying that iOS products are just as secure as a BlackBerry doesn�t seem like a fair statement to me.

[mapsonburt]

Civic, you are missing the boat... I work for a VERY large IT company with 10's of thousands of BlackBerry's. You know how many iPads we let connect to our intranet? ZERO. You know how many PlayBooks we'd let connect? All of them. The PlayBook goes through the well established (and trusted) BES connection. We've looked MANY times at letting the iPad in - especially with extreme pressure from senior execs, but there is just no way until it is proven to be as secure as BES and can be wiped remotely, etc., etc.

The PlayBook will be allowed into the company on day 1. That's a HUGE competitive advantage for RIM.

[TheScionicMan]

Civic, for someone echoing every sentiment against closed-software, I'm surprised you're not using FOSS and still on Windows :P
.

Would it surprise you that she also uses an iPhone?

[MI_Jester]

The PlayBook can connect to the Corporate infrastructure through VPN. With the Bridge, it can use corporate PIM data AND the corporate Intranet (if you have that enabled on your BES). It does all of that in a sandbox environment so that everything is gone as soon as the Bridge is broken. If you use Bridge on a device that has been compromised through the Webkit vulnerability, they will still not be able to access the corporate data since it is partitioned.

That still sounds pretty darn secure to me.

[chasvs]

Last year I was positive the ipad would be a game changer while so many experts were showing serious doubt. I'm as certain now that the Play Book will be a major success and the first serious challenger to the ipad2. The Droid tablets are overpriced toys. The Play Book is a serious device with a business focus that will be a game changer in its own right.