out with my playbook

**drum** · 01-03-2012, 11:06 AM

just wanted to share this. Got my playbook on boxing day and i'm just loving the whole pb experience i discover something new everyday. So today i put my playbook in my bag and went into town to pick up a few things noticed a coffee shop and decided to have a quick drink. As i sat down i saw a free wi-fi sign so i thought i'd try the playbook with a router other than my own. My pb picked up the signal straight away and i sat there with my coffee, muffin, 9900 and my playbook surfin and sending off a few emails and having a great time made me feel proud to be a BB owner. Thats it really cheers

**Tank1978** · 01-03-2012, 11:08 AM

Same, mine picks up wifi everywhere. no problems..

**aj.bb.fanatic** · 01-03-2012, 11:17 AM

I'm sure this has an impact on battery life, but I've noticed that the my Playbook conveniently finds and seemingly connects to saved wifi profiles even when on standby.
I realized this when I connected to wifi at a coffee shop, put my Playbook on standby as I left for home, then when I turned it back on (from standby), it was already connected to my home network.
Very convenient! It's like working with someone you don't have to spoon-feed with instructions. He proceeds and does what needs/has to be done.

**TheScionicMan** · 01-03-2012, 12:40 PM

We have the same wifi setup in all five of our offices. The PB instantly connects regardless of which one I go to

**alnamvet68** · 01-03-2012, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by drum

just wanted to share this. Got my playbook on boxing day and i'm just loving the whole pb experience i discover something new everyday. So today i put my playbook in my bag and went into town to pick up a few things noticed a coffee shop and decided to have a quick drink. As i sat down i saw a free wi-fi sign so i thought i'd try the playbook with a router other than my own. My pb picked up the signal straight away and i sat there with my coffee, muffin, 9900 and my playbook surfin and sending off a few emails and having a great time made me feel proud to be a BB owner. Thats it really cheers

This is what happens when you have coffee and bran muffins while playing with your Playbook....

[YT]youtube.com/watch?v=NygOFsExGMU[/YT]

**peter9477** · 01-03-2012, 02:10 PM

Originally Posted by jrohland

What uses battery on the PB (and your BB) is, in this order:

CPU (Central Processing Unit). If the metal BlackBerry on the back is warm, the CPU is working and the battery is being heavily used.
[snip]
Screen. The screen and backlight actually don't use that much power but, updating the screen uses the GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). Like the CPU, the GPU uses a good amount of battery power.
[snip]
The backlight for the screen doesn't actually use that much power but, it is not needed when you aren't looking at it so, it gets shut off.

jrohland, how did you come up with the conclusion that the screen and backlight don't use much power?

I know it's hard (impossible?) to distinguish between having the screen on and having it update, unless you're defining "updating" as being "changing the contents". If we pretend that no CPU or GPU is used to update a screen with unchanging contents (and it's true to a small extent), then we can measure the actual screen and backlight power consumption.

What you'll find is that having the screen and backlight on together actually uses between about 1.7W (dimmest) and 3.0W (brightest). That's actually quite a bit of power, and definitely more than the CPU uses in almost any app, except CPU-intensive gaming. (See PlayBook: Power Consumption for some background.)

For the PlayBook, screen+backlight should top the list of what uses the most power under most conditions. Unfortunately, merely having the screen on, but the tablet doing nothing interesting, accounts for more than half the power consumed in many typical uses.

**drum** · 01-03-2012, 02:10 PM

swiping my playbook while in the toilet! oh no!! thanks for that alnamvet68 that was funny

**alnamvet68** · 01-03-2012, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by drum

swiping my playbook while in the toilet! oh no!! thanks for that alnamvet68 that was funny

Anything to put a smile on a fellow PB frat bro'.

Not to get off topic, but am I the only one who misses Seinfeld so terribly...I mean, what a great show, and if you were blessed to be raised in NYC, the show is even more enjoyable.

**PatrickMJS** · 01-03-2012, 02:50 PM

I'm now almost afraid to say that I often take my pb into the bathroom... but never with coffee & muffins...

That Seinfeld clip was hilarious. No, Al Nam Vet, you're not the only one... quite often when I'm channel surfing, I'll watch an old Seinfeld re-run. Funny how often I catch one I've never seen before... like that clip about the bathroom book. Now whenever I'm in NYC, I try to book a room in the upper west side. Totally takes me back to those cherished episodes.

**blackjack93117** · 01-03-2012, 02:54 PM

Interesting - I went through a coffee shop today as well...was feeling quite good about my playbook and not having to be there lol The place was crowded with squatters using the wifi - I couldn't find a place to sit and enjoy my muffin, but who cares? I had the whole outdoors.

Video coming soon - standby.

F2 · 01-03-2012, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by alnamvet68

Anything to put a smile on a fellow PB frat bro'.

Not to get off topic, but am I the only one who misses Seinfeld so terribly...I mean, what a great show, and if you were blessed to be raised in NYC, the show is even more enjoyable.

I miss aspects of NY but could never live there again.

**alnamvet68** · 01-03-2012, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by F2

I miss aspects of NY but could never live there again.

I could, if I was guaranteed the same quality of life I enjoy here where I'm at....let's face it, there isn't a decent pizzaria, Jewish deli, Chinese restaurant, Italian deli, dirty Sabrett hotdog, Greek Gyro, etc. all points away from NYC.