[jpash549]

Marty_LK: Looks like a tie to me based on what specs you quoted. How about weight, screen area, ports available, apps available?

[Sonic-NKT]

I personally am SO confused on what apple thinks they will accomplish by pricing the mini so high. They could literally blow the competition out of the water if they had priced the mini at 200 dollars. No disrespect to my PB but apple could own the 7 inch tablet market if the had priced the mini competitively. Why would a person buy a 299 ipod touch when you could buy the mini for 26 dollars more, thus hurting one of their oldest product lines? Why release The New Ipad, just to release a New-er one a few monthes later? I think something seriously wrong is going on at Apple HQ.

I thought exactly the same, if they had priced the entry device at price to compete with kindle fire hd and nexus 7 (200-250) they would have taken the 7" market over night imo.

i dont plan to get one but are the final specs out for the wifi only version? i read on some pages it only had 512mb ram and only 3g model had a GPS chip? if that would be true they really had screwed up... well besides the price.

Looks like a tie to me based on what specs you quoted. How about weight, screen area, ports available, apps available?

About the apps, i guess all ipad compatible apps wil run on the new mini. Maybe some special ones that require the retina display of the ipad3 wont not work but i dont know if there are any...
So it will start out with a huge ios collection of compatible apps.

[Marty_LK]

Marty_LK: Looks like a tie to me based on what specs you quoted. How about weight, screen area, ports available, apps available?

The Playbook is: 14.99 oz. The iPad Mini is: 11.01 oz.

The screen sizes are: Playbook - 7" with 1024 x 600 res. iPad Mini - 7.9" 1024 x 768 res

Display contrast ratio: Playbook - 1160:1 (nominal). iPad Mini - (?)

Ports are: Playbook - Micro HDMI port, microUSB v2.0, 3.5mm miniplug jack. iPad Mini - proprietary iOS mini port, 3.5mm miniplug jack

Speakers are: Playbook - two front facing stereo. iPad Mini - one down facing mono.

Sensors: Playbook - Accelerometer, gyro, light. iPad Mini - (?)

[baolam86]

Most people own the pb are either bb users or people who know the true value of pb once they decide to purchase it. So, i dont think neither of these people will be excited about a new tablet that has spec of a two year old of its bigger version. I rather buy the up coming Surface than wasting money on this "amazing" mini ipad

[Rello]

According to specs, the iPad Mini PPI is 162. The Playbook has a PPI of 170 and the Playbook will provide just as much image display of normal widescreen videos as the iPad Mini would.

Playbook dimensions are: 194 x 130 x 10 mm. iPad Mini dimensions are: 200 x 134.7 x 7.2 mm

The Playbook CPU is: Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9. The iPad Mini CPU is: Dual core, 1 GHz, ARM Cortex-A9

The Playbook cameras are: 5MP and 3MP. The iPad Mini cameras are: 5MP and 1.2MP. Both devices record 1080P @ 30FPS. The front camera on the Playbook records 1080P @ 30FPS, the iPad Mini does not.

The Playbook is the clear winner considering it has the better OS and will have BB10

Clear winner because it has the better OS? By what standards? I don't mean to argue but u don't even know what all features BB10 will have. What people seem to forget is that yes, the PlayBook has hardware that is still decently competiitive...but that doesn't matter because IOS and android offer a better experience and ecosystem right out the box. Whether BB users admit it or not, our ecosystem isn't touching Apple's at all. If anything BBOS is better competition than the PlayBook. Tablet OS has no seamless ecosystem. Hopefully BB10 will change all this. U can say u prefer BB10's UI to IOS....I know I do, but to say BB10 is a "better" OS is going overboard.

[Marty_LK]

Clear winner because it has the better OS? By what standards? I don't mean to argue but u don't even know what all features BB10 will have. What people seem to forget is that yes, the PlayBook has hardware that is still decently competiitive...but that doesn't matter because IOS and android offer a better experience and ecosystem right out the box. Whether BB users admit it or not, our ecosystem isn't touching Apple's at all. If anything BBOS is better competition than the PlayBook. Tablet OS has no seamless ecosystem. Hopefully BB10 will change all this. U can say u prefer BB10's UI to IOS....I know I do, but to say BB10 is a "better" OS is going overboard.

I was actually more referring to the UI than the actual OS. The Playbook UI is second to none. It is the sweetest and easiest and most satisfying UI ever created. I have an Android tablet and had an iPad. I constantly find myself trying to navigate my Android tab trough swipes. The same for the iPad I had. The latest Playbook OS update also made it so much smoother, faster and slick.

I have no doubt that Apple would love to have the Playbook UI. Same for Google. Anyone who has a PB has a fine piece of hardware and an outstanding mobile multitasking powerhouse. The biggest part of the iPad Mini is the fact that it is new. People, including myself, tend to want the latest gadgets. The PB has been out over a year and is old now. But even at its age it bests the new iPad Mini for features, convenience and price.

BB10 won't be worse than the current PB OS. BB10 is RIM's fevered effort to regain some market share. I seriously doubt BB10 would be worse than whats currently out.

[FMB8900]

Awesome post! thanks op!

[adamkesher]

A few weeks ago the rumors spread like a forest fire, Apple would be launching the iPad Mini. The rumor is no longer a rumor, it's real. Apple's jump into the smaller tablet space has millions of people excited, but here are some reasons not to be excited if you own a BlackBerry PlayBook.

Same But Different.

The iPad Mini offers the same options as the other iPads but is shrunken, or it is simply a bigger iPhone. The PlayBook is built on a still new operating system named QNX, which RIM continues to refine. Even when the PlayBook has BlackBerry 10 OS on it, the phone and tablet will be far from the same.

Landscape it.

One of the best features of the BlackBerry PlayBook is that the default and suggested use, are in landscape format. Landscape allows for so much more space to work with when typing or browsing the web.

Small world.

Even at about eight inches the IPad Mini is still not that Mini compared to the BlackBerry PlayBook at about seven inches. The PlayBook can fit just about anywhere. On multiple occasions I even had the PlayBook in my back pocket.

No bridging together.

What about those times where you have no wifi? With the BlackBerry PlayBook you have access to the web, even when the web is not available via wifi. BlackBerry Bridge is one of the key features the PlayBook offers.

It's not a BlackBerry.

Simply put, the Mini is no BlackBerry product. The facts are evident. BlackBerry products are built with a foundation of security and reliability. Most BlackBerry users would probably give up a few apps in exchange for security because that's what makes BlackBerry unique.

The iPad mini is not a "bigger iPhone." It will run tablet optimized apps (like the iPad), and Appke has quite a few of those. Does the Playbook even have Netflix or Kindle yet? Keep in mind the Playbook launched at $499 with little to no functionality, the iPad mini will debut at $329 with endless functionality.

[adamkesher]

Prediction : the iPad mini will sell more units through pre-orders by 7:00 am Friday than the Playbook has sold period, including the fire sale,since its 2011 debut.

[mrjakecyrus]

I am really sorry but original poster, you are on crack. DO YOU NOT KNOW that people want uniformity between devices, hence why apple is so popular? It's the same across all platforms, phone, ipod, ipad etc.. Blackberry's weakness was always they had too many platforms. I'd have to find the post, but someone on here contacted a pretty big company asking them when their app would come to blackberry and they said never because on blackberry they would have to develop for Os 5, 6 and 7. THAT'S THREE PLATFORMS!!! People want simplicity and unfortunately, our Playbooks and Blackberry's aren't the answer. Apple released ios 6 ON ALL PLATFORMS at the same time. Do you know how many of us when we had Blackberry had to friggin wait for carrier approval for Os updates? MONTHS. PLAYBOOK IS A YEAR AND A HALF OLD, and the pre orders for Mini will be 5 times the amount that RIM has sold in it's entire run. I love Blackberry but I also live in the real world.

Jessica

*Cough* yes, excuse me, but, do you not know of android and apple?? Android is up the the letter K in the little ABCs. thats about twice as many as Blackberry. Minus one (Honeycomb, that one is for TABLETS). but yes, still twice as many. Apple? they have been running the same OS since the beginning. So Apple is kinda lagging in the OS department. Blackberry has had an appropriate amount of OS for how long they have been around. not to mention all the ones you said are for the Blackberry phones, not the Playbook.
So before you bash Blackberrys OSs, you should do a little research.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9330 using Tapatalk

[Plazmic Flame]

Post #5 ended this thread.

[RubberChicken76]

Does anyone else find fanboy claims of "X user interface/OS is better than Y" to be kind of pointless? So many of them come without specific examples of 'why' this is the case.

I say this as I look at my PlayBook and my iPhone 4S. Both get the job done, both are quite easy to use, both have relatively few 'glitches' relative to my old Bold. I like the PlayBook better for multi-tasking, the iOS browser seems a bit more stable. Other than that, I can't really think of anything that would make me go "oooh ... iOS is light years ahead" or "PlayBook OS is revolutionary".

They get the job done, easily, with a minimum of hassles.

[akstone]

i only need 1 reason. it's apple. i could never be excited by, or purchase anything from apple with a good conscience. they're the monsanto of tech.

[lnichols]

I laughed when I watched the live blog and they release the specs, then the price. Laughed at them already upgrading the big iPad after such a short run with the 3. Our year and a half hardware on the Playbook is better than most on the Mini, we have HDMI out without an adapter, no proprietary ports, and we will be getting BB10. Combine that with the fact you can get a Playbook 64 at Office Depot for $189 right now and it would be a no brainer. What is truly sad though is that Apple will sell a ton of these for Christmas for people looking to get kids and family something with an Apple logo for the $329 price.

[RubberChicken76]

Most of you also forget that THE 7 INCH PLAYBOOK was what like 700 bux when it first came out?
Jessica

Actually, it was $499. Again Jessica, if you want to bash, research is your friend. :-)

[GreyGhostRos]

Actually, it was $499. Again Jessica, if you want to bash, research is your friend. :-)

Maybe she confused with 64gb version which was priced 699..
RIM intended to sell it at that price (notice that the playbook 4g prices hover around a similar place)..
I wonder if the wifi only playbook is even in production.. They seem to be finishing remaining stock at the moment with that discounted price. I doubt they can stay in production at that price.

However IMO for the specifications the ipad mini comes with I think that 329$ price tag is pretty reasonable.

[RubberChicken76]

Maybe she confused with 64gb version which was priced 699..
RIM intended to sell it at that price (notice that the playbook 4g prices hover around a similar place)..

Yeah - they're $549 without contract, about $50 less than the older WiFi only ones sold for originally.

[amjass12]

I am really sorry but original poster, you are on crack. DO YOU NOT KNOW that people want uniformity between devices, hence why apple is so popular? It's the same across all platforms, phone, ipod, ipad etc.. Blackberry's weakness was always they had too many platforms. I'd have to find the post, but someone on here contacted a pretty big company asking them when their app would come to blackberry and they said never because on blackberry they would have to develop for Os 5, 6 and 7. THAT'S THREE PLATFORMS!!! People want simplicity and unfortunately, our Playbooks and Blackberry's aren't the answer. Apple released ios 6 ON ALL PLATFORMS at the same time. Do you know how many of us when we had Blackberry had to friggin wait for carrier approval for Os updates? MONTHS. PLAYBOOK IS A YEAR AND A HALF OLD, and the pre orders for Mini will be 5 times the amount that RIM has sold in it's entire run. I love Blackberry but I also live in the real world.

Jessica

bb10 is supposed to be the one platform for the future (for the playbook and phone) so this should fix the problem you have described

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[sinsin07]

I believe the Playbook, especially with BB10, has a serious chance to outshine the new iPad Mini in the eyes of the common customer. I see nothing about the little iPad that is better than the Playbook. They are both the same overall size. They both have a similar display resolution. But the Playbook has a much cleaner and more user-friendly interface.

Say what? The Playbook is a $500 device, which was in the market to compete with the iPad. Now it's relegated as an iPad Mini killer?

How far we have fallen.

[breathlessTP]

Here's my 2cents worth and five reasons not to be excitted about the iPad Mini:

A-P-P-L-E !!

[Marty_LK]

Say what? The Playbook is a $500 device, which was in the market to compete with the iPad. Now it's relegated as an iPad Mini killer?

How far we have fallen.

They say the iPad Mini is nothing more than a squished iPad 2. The Playbook has been out as long as the iPad 2 and based on it being a larger iPad Mini, bests it in hardware, features, convenience and portability just like the Playbooks bests the iPad Mini. Therefor the Playbook has been an iPad 2 killer since release and is now an iPad Mini killer - whether the market sees it that way and adopts it well enough to outsell the iPad Mini.

[Sheri-BB]

I will give one why the iPad is better:
SKYPE.
Sorry but I put my playbook in the drawer. Maybe I will pull it out again when things work for me.
Its pretty much worthless if I can't communicate with others

[Marty_LK]

I will give one why the iPad is better:
SKYPE.
Sorry but I put my playbook in the drawer. Maybe I will pull it out again when things work for me.
Its pretty much worthless if I can't communicate with others

Your wish is my command - hehe. Whether it works, I don't know. I haven't installed it. If it works, you're fixed up with Skype.

Blackberry Playbook Audio and Video Apps | Good e-Reader Android APP Store - Playbook App Market

[tarektoverso]

I think that Apple has gone the mini iPad way because they are aiming those who have tiny hands. Have you tiny hands ?

[BerryClever]

How did I ever survive without Skype????? How can I survive now without it on the PB????
It is awful. There is no means to communicate with others except:
Phone
Text
Messenger services
Skype on the computer
Skype on phones
FaceBook
Twitter
Email
Face to Face

There is no way to contact the outside world without Skype on the PlayBook!

I am poking fun, but I get why people want it. I think it should be available, and probably will be with BB10, but I think people are over exaggerating it a bit.