[rjedge54]

I totally agree. The PDF Reader from Adobe is a serious embarrassment to RIM as a company and PB/QNX as a platform. No search, no bookmarks, no annotations. I really wish RIM would stop decking around and ensure there is a decent PDF Reader for PB.

As a user, I don't care if the fault lies with adobe or RIM. I lay 100% of the blame with RIM as they have made no effort to fix this serious issue. Talk to Adobe or develop code in-house.

The same argument applies to bookreading. Where is the promised Kindle reader. Don't blame it on Amazon, rather put some developers on the problem. These issue need fixed!

And yet RIM shows us a blackberry being used as a PB remote. Can we have some real apps? It worries me that RIM has not figured these problems. Key apps are essential.

K

I'm afraid your logic escapes me here. You seem to be saying that if a 3rd party developer doesn't make an application that meets your requirements sufficiently that it is RIM's fault and they should force the 3rd party developer to fix it, in this case Adobe. Even with the "alleged" shortage of PlayBook apps that is still a lot of developers and apps to stay on top of. Good luck with that. As far me I would rather they stay focused on their own software and devices.


While you may not consider Bridge with remote control a real app, it. Is huge for many of us. Somehow in spite of this alleged shortage I and many others seem to be able to find one or two useful applications to be able to get done what we need to. Could there be more, of course. They are coming and with increased frequency and quality.

[rjedge54]

As it stands, on the current official OS, the PB is a 1/4 baked device. Good hardware, but functionally crippled - my little 7" Android tablet has access to 400,000 apps, and thousands are quality apps. I'm on Honeycomb, with the Ice Cream Sandwich update coming any day. Honeycomb is fast, slick, and stable, and I don't see any advantage at all for the PB browser over my Android browsers, which include the built in browser, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Dolphin, and other

And how many versions did it take for the Android to get to this lofty position? The PB is just over 9 months old and on version 1. Android is 9 years old (Android Inc.) purchased by Google in 2005 with the first device in 2007. How many quality apps were available for it in the first 9 months.


It looks like this isn't the device for you then. We have 3 PB's in this house and we have so far found enough quality apps to meet our personal needs and my work needs in IT (VPN, Remote Desktop, Splashtop, SharePlus, Evernote, Telnet/SSH, eWeek, BlackBerry News, Docs To Go, ProInsights).

[Barredbard]

One would assume, but you'd never know it by some of the negativity flying around here. Point is, you really should do a little homework before making a purchase like this. If you do and you find that the device doesn't do everything you need it to do, then you plain and simply should not buy it. If you do make the purchase blind, it's no one's fault but your own if it doesn't do what you think it should.

If you purchased based on features and functionality that were promised but not present at the time and are bitter about their delays, that's another story; but there are probably thousands of other threads already addressing those complaints, and raising them again in topic-specific threads like these is counterproductive and annoying, and it usually leads to brand-bashing, which then leads to pointless bickering. Not good for anyone.



As I noted, there are plenty of other places for criticism. No need polluting a thread seeking help on a specific issue with more of it.


Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled thread topic. I've been less than satisfied with the Kobo reader as well, but I'd like to thank those who suggested Book Reader. It seems to have decent reviews, and I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

This is an incredibly flawed argument. RIM makes tablets to sell them, not to have them occupy shelves. There is only so much research one can do before purchasing an item, or before being ejected from a Best Buy store by an irate salesperson. Blackberry users trust RIM. Stating that "you should have done your research before purchasing" puts the blame on the consumer. I can assure you that no company is so short-sighted, even if people in this forum are. If RIM states that it is making a business-oriented tablet, one can be forgiven for thinking that the tablet would handle business-oriented tasks well.

The OP should be free to post his disappointments without fear of censure from fanatics. After all, despite all the negative press, he did purchase a Playbook. He earned that right at the same time he parted with his money. And while there may be any number of threads discussing tangential issues, he should not be obligated to sift through all of it to find one on point with his particular issue. If criticism does bother a reader so much, that reader should create a website where the only posts allowed are those proclaiming the virtues of RIM and Blackberry devices. People signing up on such a website would know beforehand that only praise hymns about Blackberry devices would be permissible.

In the meantime, here on Crackberry, in the real world, the OP invited commentary with his post about the deficiencies of the PDF reader. Any posts that tackle that issue are relevant, appropriate, informative and belong in this thread, trolls notwithstanding.

[JVRudnick]

I would have to agree with the comments on BookReader....works fine for me. However as others have noted, the "finding" of that app was a chore...but with my collection of 500+ sciFi books from 1940-now, they all can be read & enjoyed!

Oh, does anyone know if there is an inclusion of some kind of a RIM native app for reading eBooks in the new 2.0 coming soon?

Jim

[sleepngbear]

As it stands, on the current official OS, the PB is a 1/4 baked device. Good hardware, but functionally crippled - my little 7" Android tablet has access to 400,000 apps, and thousands are quality apps. I'm on Honeycomb, with the Ice Cream Sandwich update coming any day. Honeycomb is fast, slick, and stable, and I don't see any advantage at all for the PB browser over my Android browsers, which include the built in browser, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Dolphin, and others.

There are free e-readers and file managers that are far superior to anything on my PB. I can access any shared file or directory anywhere on my network, and stream from my network to my Android effortlessly and free.

It is unbelievable how many apps in the PB app world have 4 or 5 stars - like Free Chess, when they wouldn't rate a 1/2 star in the Android or IOS world. And the prices are inflated for the PB as well. My 3 Angry Bird apps on the Android came for free...

I love the hardware on the PB, but it's just not functional without an adequate software base. Hopefully, OS2 will change this. If not, bye bye PB.

So now we've declined from a half-baked product to 1/4-baked. My stars. Which all has exactly what to do with the original subject? This is the kind of post I'm going on about - it's bashing an entire product line and contributing nothing to the question about a quality e-reader. There are hundreds of threads already complaining loudly about everything the PlayBook doesn't have or do. This kind of thread is not the place for more of that.