[RexBB]

What i don't understand is RIM didn't make the sales they wanted. But we all know playbook has the potential to be the best at the moment untill a new ipad, windowtab, ...

But why haven't they made it possible to use the mircro usb for an external hard drive. That would give them edge against the competition. And for the business world very usefull if you can plug in your usb-stick. It would take a lot of ipads 3,4,5.. untill you will be possible to do that with a not apple hard drive.

My guess is that the upcomming windows tablat will be possible to do that, so they best be first to do that.(i know other tablets use micro sd cards, but the use of a external hard drive would be very very usefull)

[blackjack93117]

What i don't understand is RIM didn't make the sales they wanted. But we all know playbook has the potential to be the best at the moment untill a new ipad, windowtab, ...

But why haven't they made it possible to use the mircro usb for an external hard drive. That would give them edge against the competition. And for the business world very usefull if you can plug in your usb-stick. It would take a lot of ipads 3,4,5.. untill you will be possible to do that with a not apple hard drive.

My guess is that the upcomming windows tablat will be possible to do that, so they best be first to do that.(i know other tablets use micro sd cards, but the use of a external hard drive would be very very usefull)

Because then they couldn't charge $200 more for the 32g model...

There is some wifi hard drive buried in the threads here somewhere however...not sure how well it works...

[awattwell]

I agree from a consumer point of view...but bj is right. Imagine if it had an sd card reader?!

I could only afford the 16, but between orb, teamview and vnc, quickish file transfer is only a few clicks away.

Not sure if the other tabs can do that, but it is freakin awesome for me to log onto my computer with my pb to transfer files to my pb...no wires and no stairs.

[E10CDM]

well, with Box.net app you get your free 50Gb cloud drive now, so why attach something?
the free version also allows larger file size upload, have not discovered max file size yet

[dave_2611]

Because then they couldn't charge $200 more for the 32g model...

There is some wifi hard drive buried in the threads here somewhere however...not sure how well it works...

for some of us 32 or 64 gigs is still not enough space. atm i have 250gigs + of music on my hard drive, it would be awesome if i could take it with me on mypb or via a hard drive.

does anyone know if the

Seagate GoFlex Satellite 500GB Mobile Wireless Storage (STBF500100) works with the playbook yet?

Seagate GoFlex Satellite 500GB Mobile Wireless Storage (STBF500100) : External Portable Hard Drives - Future Shop

[dave_2611]

if it did support hard drive, imagine the possibilities, with hdmi out you could turn your playbook into a true home theatre. you'd have access to your music movie and picture library. it would definitly give the playbook some serious kick. what do you think? if we got a decent app or media library software you might be also able to use the playbook for doing music at parties

[hackerguy]

for some of us 32 or 64 gigs is still not enough space. atm i have 250gigs + of music on my hard drive, it would be awesome if i could take it with me on mypb or via a hard drive.

does anyone know if the

Seagate GoFlex Satellite 500GB Mobile Wireless Storage (STBF500100) works with the playbook yet?

Seagate GoFlex Satellite 500GB Mobile Wireless Storage (STBF500100) : External Portable Hard Drives - Future Shop

It works great. I have been using it since June with no problems.

[FF22]

well, with Box.net app you get your free 50Gb cloud drive now, so why attach something?
the free version also allows larger file size upload, have not discovered max file size yet

It may be my dsl connection or my router or just the way it is - but frankly, this Cloud stuff is not necessarily the fastest way to store and retrieve info. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth (shudders) but uploading my photos, videos, and music could take days if not longer and then retrieving may be a tad bit faster but still. Now convenience - obviously having it anywhere is very nice but getting it to/from, a bit less so.

[RexBB]

well, with Box.net app you get your free 50Gb cloud drive now, so why attach something?
the free version also allows larger file size upload, have not discovered max file size yet

max upload size of box free version is 200mb or so, for movies you can't use it. also with online storage you still need to download the stuffyou want to watch. that takes some time movies. Stupid to wait for a movie to download when you got it on you hard drive.

Now you have to start up you laptop plug in the hard drive and put the movie thru wifi or usb on your pb just an unnessary step.

Even when it's possible to plug and play your hard drives people will still buy a 32, 64 gb version.

I understand why apple doesn't do it, they want to decide what you can and can't do. Otherwise appletv wouldn't sell.

Don't think it would take a lot of time for the bb developers to make a app that supports external hard drives. os 2.0 is ready and will be launched in more than a month so they have time to make that app.

[RexBB]

windows 8 will even have normal usb support

[Superfly_FR]

One acronym answers all : DNLA. To come with 2.0 (?) it will allow you to access any multimedia compliant device ... in ... an out ! No wires, no nothing, just enjoy !
This is a far better security and ease solution ...

[rleo25]

During business meetings frequently I have to download files from memory sticks of attendants, and also upload files to theirs, using wifi and the cloud is not the solution yet, neither wifi drives, usb external drive support is a must and would be a winning feature. The first tablet with this capability will be my favorite.

[dharvey24]

i have a wireless nas which holds all my pics and music. naturally all my laptops and pc's see it as a network drive which works great. to enable access for my playbook i bought a �20 pc off ebay and installed hfs server. i can now access my pics and music 24/7 via the internet, i can even upload docs on the go. All files remain in one place without them needing to be moved or uploaded to a third party. works great. with hfs server you can even allocate specific folders to share with friends and family.

[FF22]

During business meetings frequently I have to download files from memory sticks of attendants, and also upload files to theirs, using wifi and the cloud is not the solution yet, neither wifi drives, usb external drive support is a must and would be a winning feature. The first tablet with this capability will be my favorite.

Good point. I will say that a usb thumb drive did become my method of moving data back and forth or to/from others' computers. At the moment, it cannot be done with a pb.

[lnichols]

What i don't understand is RIM didn't make the sales they wanted. But we all know playbook has the potential to be the best at the moment untill a new ipad, windowtab, ...

But why haven't they made it possible to use the mircro usb for an external hard drive. That would give them edge against the competition. And for the business world very usefull if you can plug in your usb-stick. It would take a lot of ipads 3,4,5.. untill you will be possible to do that with a not apple hard drive.

My guess is that the upcomming windows tablat will be possible to do that, so they best be first to do that.(i know other tablets use micro sd cards, but the use of a external hard drive would be very very usefull)

Why haven't they released the Android Player? Why haven't they released the Native PIM/e-mail? Why haven't they released the USB Ethernet adapter for the Playbook? Because obviously the QNX integration and implementation isn't going as smoothly as they thought and/or RIM can't deliver on promises. Maybe USB/OTG will be in the 2.0 release which will be available sometime after devCON which in no way implies soon after devCON, because it is RIM an they forecast with lawn darts.

[mandony]

During business meetings frequently I have to download files from memory sticks of attendants, and also upload files to theirs, using wifi and the cloud is not the solution yet, neither wifi drives, usb external drive support is a must and would be a winning feature. The first tablet with this capability will be my favorite.

As far as I understand, you can already do this by using bridge file management or PB file managers to read cards installed on BB phones. Perhaps using copy from phone and paste to PB. While your files may not be on a USB stick, they can be on the BB phone supported card, usually microSD.

If your file providing person uses a microSD card, they can use an inexpensive microSD to USB adapter to connect the card to their PC.

We must transition to new memory devices. Recall when 5.5" disk > 3.5" disk > ... many others .... > cd > dvd > usb stick > microSD > portable drives > ... ??? sooner then what we think. IMO there will soon be more use of over the air (for example WIFI or the next generation) rather than hard wired connection between devices.

[rleo25]

Could you figure out how much does it take to get out your micro sd from the bb (bold 9700 in my case), insert it into an sd card adapter, stick it into a card reader, copy/paste, go all the way back to your bb... and wait for the bb to reset ... do you really think this is a viable option at a board meeting where people are in a hurry ? We are talking business my friend...

[Saiga]

USB slave support would be huge. Thats the only thing I really really want on my PB.

[blackjack93117]

As far as I understand, you can already do this by using bridge file management or PB file managers to read cards installed on BB phones. Perhaps using copy from phone and paste to PB. While your files may not be on a USB stick, they can be on the BB phone supported card, usually microSD.

If your file providing person uses a microSD card, they can use an inexpensive microSD to USB adapter to connect the card to their PC.

We must transition to new memory devices. Recall when 5.5" disk > 3.5" disk > ... many others .... > cd > dvd > usb stick > microSD > portable drives > ... ??? sooner then what we think. IMO there will soon be more use of over the air (for example WIFI or the next generation) rather than hard wired connection between devices.

I think the issue is large local data storage without uploading/downloading/copying.

OP is apparently thinking of streaming endless data - movies, audio what have you without operator intervention....offloading data to another medium/device does't solve this. Is this wifi thingy good for that? Or is it too slow?

Opening your phone to remove/install an SD card and reboot is simply too time consuming/inconvenient to be practical for data transfer.
.

[mandony]

... do you really think this is a viable option at a board meeting where people are in a hurry

For your needs likely you need a laptop or a tablet PC.
The PB is purely a 'tablet'; as such it can not yet expected to be device to satisfy every need.

[RexBB]

For your needs likely you need a laptop or a tablet PC.
The PB is purely a 'tablet'; as such it can not yet expected to be device to satisfy every need.

playbook is more than Just a tablet, it's technical possible to get usb support. they just need to make an app or software update so you can.

then the playbook would replace alot of laptops in the business world.

And if you see that the windowstablet will be able to do that then it's best for RIM not to wait to long otherwise they will be left behind again

[rleo25]

playbook is more than Just a tablet, it's technical possible to get usb support. they just need to make an app or software update so you can.

then the playbook would replace alot of laptops in the business world.

And if you see that the windowstablet will be able to do that then it's best for RIM not to wait to long otherwise they will be left behind again

I agree with you Rexbb, there is coming this Samsung win-8 tablet with usb support and I watched a video on the Thinkpad tablet where a guy used a usb memory stick to transfer data. The TI Omap prosessor inside the Playbook has this capability. I don't know why RIM doesn't take advantage of all the potential of this CPU...

[peter9477]

RIM hasn't taken advantage of all the potential because taking advantage of potential takes TIME.

It will come. There's been traces of code inside for months now which show stuff related to host mode support. Configuration files, for example, indicating that it's been used to talk to iPods, generic serial devices, and mass storage devices.

In the 1.0.7 update, some low-level driver support related to host mode was added, presumably to support some close partners developing something with the native SDK, or perhaps to support some internal testing, or just because it was not considered a problem to have some work-in-progress buried inside where nobody would see it <wink>.

Many people keep asking the same thing about certain features: "Why didn't RIM support this?" and "Are they nuts? How could they ship a product without this feature that everyone wants?"

The answer is generally easy: you can't do everything at once. Give them a bit more time...

[RexBB]

RIM just has a big marketing problem, you say that they are problebly testing it to do it in the future.

Atleast they can say that it will be possible in the future to do this. The problem for me is not that it will take a long time for the update but an announcement that it will be possible in the future would be nice.

Because of the fact that apple created this market people are not used to big os update and allway will think that they will come out with a new model.

So in my opnion it would be better for RIM to give more info over update in advance, and say what they are working on atm and in the future. Then people know what to expect. And not say they will do it before that time, just do a mothly os update.

That would give RIM and the PB a very strong position on the tablet market, because people know that what they buy only will get better. And you are sure that you have a up to date tablet for atleast 2 years. And not that ipad bull**** that you have to buy each year a new ipad.

That would be a very big advantage on the business market and on the consumer and prosumer market.

At the moment PB is has the most business potential, but when the windows tablet comes out with a native office suit it's hard to beat that.

If you see in europe still a huge potential market for a tablet because still not many people have one, it's not like in the states. You see a lot ipads on the tv many tv shows are sponsored. But still no PB advertising. There are only a handfull shops in my region that sell it and with limited stocks, 1 pb/shop. Every where i come nobody has seen a pb before, they all are like" wow blackberry has a tablet".

Even this year my school started with a ipad project to replace the laptops.

MESSAGE FOR RIM: IF YOU NEED HELP FOR ADVERTISING IN BELGIUM CONTACT ME

[peter9477]

RIM just has a big marketing problem, ...
...
So in my opnion it would be better for RIM to give more info over update in advance, and say what they are working on atm and in the future. Then people know what to expect.

I totally agree with that.

I think there are people (perhaps the CEOs) who believe strongly that their best bet is to say nothing in advance, maybe so as not to "spoil the surprise" (as in, some degree of marketing "impact").

I think that's wrong. Expectations are critical... missing them is bad, and you can avoid that either by helping set them correctly in the first place (which they don't do), or by revealing absolutely nothing in advance (which they try but fail at doing).

Of course, I have no credentials as any sort of wizard marketeer and neither, I suspect, have most of the people complaining. I'm also not someone who has built a multi-billion dollar company out of nothing and neither, I suspect, are most of the people complaining.

Perhaps our more transparent approach would hold some benefits, even if applied conservatively. Perhaps not. I think at least RIM could give it a shot some time... a little experiment might give them some useful information that they currently don't have.