[tumblingdice03]

I know next to nothing about the playbook, and have just found out my teenage son will need to complete the school year at home by online courses offered by the school or state. While looking at laptops ect to use for him I wondered if a Playbook would work? Can anyone tell me if they have the online access capabilities that would be needed to perform home school tasks and could run off of my home wifi ? Or would I be better of going with a notebook? Thanks for any info!

[zoban]

For the amount of work invloved in an online course etc nI'd suggest at a minimum a netbook over any tablet.

I love my Playbook but not something I'd want to type on all day/night everyday. Least not yet anyway .. Maybe when OS2 is baked and released we'll see.

[elshaman]

You can sync a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the PB...But a netbook is better, for documents and other stuff...

[FF22]

There is also the limitation on printing if that would be necessary. There really is not print options without dabbling in some other printers or transfers to a computer.

[kill_9]

While I use my BlackBerry PlayBook for some aspects of the online courses I am currently taking I still need my notebook for some things at this point. That said, a decent netbook can be purchased for 199.00 and the BlackBerry PlayBook (16GB) is 199.00 so both are still a reasonable combination for maximum flexibility and utility. If you are willing to use a "cloud based" office suite there are a few options including Microsoft Office365 for a monthly free and others are free.

[M.Rizk]

A PlayBook would work fine, but still depends on the type of the course itself, for example, I do Practice toefl exams online everything work, but I can't get the speaking section to work, it requires Flash and the PlayBook got itl but requires that I access to settings on the Flash to enable the microphoneto transmit voice through it, which is something seams to be impossibleas you can't access the Flash settings, maybe for security reasons

However if we went to imo.im which is a Flash based IM client an supports VoIP, the PlayBook can easily connect to Skype on it and transmit the sound from microphone normally!

I would advice you to go to either Staples or BestBuy or any similar store near you with your son, let him test a part of the courses on it there then think about it

I hope I helped.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[tumblingdice03]

Thanks for all the great responses! I think for now we are going laptop and I'll have to find another reason soon for me to jump into the PB world!

[blackjack93117]

Probably safest to go with a very compact notebook - Sony VAIO?

Nothing against playbook of course, but any tab would have limitations and massive typing is not so easy on them -its a luxury. and an awesome one at that?

Buy one for yourself though as a toy they are priced great right now. - Best buy $199 on line.

[Artwerks]

Being a student, I usually have at least one online class each semester, and for the other classes, the vast majority of the documents are found online. My Playbook is great when reading a powerpoint document on the couch, or killing time during a boring class, but it just can't do enough to replace a laptop just yet.

Here are a few reasons why a laptop is needed over any tablet :
- My online classes can only be accessed using Firefox or IE, a Playbook is useless.
- I oftenly have 2-3 powerpoints opened and a few tabs in my browser in order to write the essays, which needs a bigger screen and a great multitasking.
- A keyboard is necessary. Even with a Bluetooth keyboard, my Playbook only has only one keyboard profile, a basic qwerty, no auto-repeat for the delete key, not a good auto-correct such as apps found on a pc and the arrows on the keyboard don't work. Even for writing notes during a class, I find it difficult using the Playbook as it is right now.
- I need to send a virtual copy of my work and a printed one... The Playbook can't print.
- A real Office suite is needed. Every teacher has it's own requirements about fonts, margins, spacing, etc...

Hope it helps! And, at 199$ right now... I say let's go with a cheap laptop AND a Playbook!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800