PlayBook Tips and Tricks

[anastasiophan]

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet - Manuals and Guides

PlayBook OS 2.0 Beta Tips:

• Drag an icon onto another icon to create a folder containing both icons.
• Drag an icon onto a folder to add an icon to a folder.
• To remove an icon from a folder, drag the icon to the upper left of the folder where the "x" is located.
• When in a folder, there is an invisible "x" on the upper right corner in the same location as the "x" in the upper left corner.
• You can swipe the Folder label to the left or right and the folder will close.
• To access Bridge Apps, direct your browser to "http://127.0.0.1:187" or "http://localhost:187" and follow the links to each bridge app. Forum Discussion Here.

Android Applications

• How to install Android APKs
• To switch between open Android Apps, use the icon found in the Navigation Bar at the bottom of the screen.
• Make sure to close Android Apps by backing all the way out to the Android home screen.
• Recommended to use Android Task Killer to make sure everything is closed properly
• When all else fails, close the Android Player completely and reopen using a DIFFERENT application than the one that caused it to break.

Installing Android Apps on OS 2.0 Beta

Below are some handy steps (and quick download links) for installing Android on your PlayBook. Its pretty quick and takes about 10 minutes if nothing goes wrong. My instructions are a little bit different than everyone else, but thats because I ran into three problems during the setup. By following these steps you should be a-0-k with minimal effort. In addition, as a disclaimer, if something goes wrong… well your stuck googling it to find an answer because this is not RIM recommended or approved.

Before all else – Backup your BBPB.

Installation:

Read more at Filearchivehaven.com

General OS Tips:

• Mute - Hold the "Play/Pause" Button.
• Hard Reset - Press and Hold the Power Button along with the Volume Up and Down Buttons.
• Show Status Bar from Inside App - Swipe diagnally from either top corner.
  Tap the Battery icon in the Status Bar to bring up options to "Turn off/Stand By/Restart" your PlayBook
• If you hold the uppercase button on the keyboard, it will border it blue, now you can type everything uppercase.
• Besides tapping in a text field to bring up the keyboard, you can bring it up anytime, any app, by swiping up from the bottom left corner - basically where the little keyboard icon sits when the keyboard is up.
• By tapping the clock/date on the home screen you can bring up the calendar and then swiping up within the calendar takes you to the Date and Time screen in settings.
• Auto capitalization, periods, and spell check work in the bridged apps and Docs to Go. Possibly a hint at whats to come system wide.
• Your PlayBook must be powered on in order to charge it.
• Wake Up Your PlayBook - Swipe from Bezel to opposite Bezel (Left to Right, Right to Left, Top to Bottom, or Bottom to Top)
• To Move or Delete an App, press and hold the App's icon for a couple seconds until it starts to pulse.
• While Bridged: In an email, double tap a link and it will be opened in the browser

Media Tips:

• Screen Capture - Press Volume Up and Volume Down simultaneously.
• A quick way to crop an image is to zoom in on the image how you want it cropped and take a screen shot of the zoomed in image.
• Push and hold the volume up or down key to skip forward or back through your media.
• While watching a Video, you can pinch-to-zoom to zoom in on the video while it is still playing.

Watch a demo on how to sync media with your PC

Browser Tips:

• Open a link in a new tab. Press and hold a link and a menu appears.
• If your in the browser and your trying to enter a address that doesnt end in ".com", you can press the ".com" button and hold it - this will bring up a menu with the following extensions that you can select: ".net", ".org", ".edu", ".gov", ".ca", and ".biz".
• Double tapping Flash objects such as videos (youtube or embedded videos) or games makes them go full screen.
• To add a bookmark to your PlayBook Homescreen, press and release the "add bookmark" icon (white star with the + sign). Choose Add to Home Screen, enter a name for the shortcut and you're done.
• To access local files on your PB, type "file:\\\accounts\1000\shared" or "file:/accounts/1000/shared" into the browser.
• Double tap an area of the screen to zoom in on that section. Double tap again to zoom out to the full page.

App World Tips:

• Pull up the keyboard and type "r, s, t" to clear the cache in App World

If you are experiencing Bridge issues, please try the following:

- Delete Bluetooth pairs on both the BlackBerry Smartphone and the PlayBook
- Go to Options
- Go to Network and Connections
- Go to Bluetooth Connections
- Press the menu key and choose MAP Options
- Uncheck all options under Message Services
- Press the Back button and choose to Save
- Within the Bluetooth Connections screen, press the menu key
- Select Options
- Under Serial Port Profile, uncheck everything but Data Transfer
- Press the Back button and choose Save

After going through these steps, please restart both the BlackBerry Smartphone and the PlayBook then attempt to use BlackBerry Bridge again.

Transfer Files to PB 5x Faster:
Copying files via wi-fi sharing to the playbook typically chugs along at close to 1MB/sec.
Downloading files in the browser runs much faster (5+ MB/sec).
Any files placed in the media share are picked up by the media library (music, photo, video apps). This includes the downloads folder.
So if you happen to have a web-server running on your Mac or PC, you can just make your large media files available via the web server then tap&hold on files to "save link as".

Files will download to the device close to 5x faster via this method.

You can move files around in your wi-fi share afterwards (ie. from downloads/ to videos/) if you want without incurring a copy penalty.

While this may not be terribly convenient for copying multiple files, you can always make a .zip of the files and hunt around for an unzip app. If there isn't one out there yet, you can bet there will be.
Of course, by then the wi-fi sharing may be running at full speed


How to import security certificates on the BlackBerry PlayBook

Please complete the following steps to import and use security certificates on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™:

Connect the BlackBerry PlayBook to a computer using a USB cable
If it hasn't already been completed, follow the steps on the PlayBook screen and the computer to install the drivers
On the PlayBook navigate to the Gear icon and select About
In the Information drop down list, select Network
3B. If this is the first time activating the device you will not be able to get the IP address from the PlayBook. Connect the PlayBook to your PC and open the BlackBerry Device Manager. The BlackBerry Device Manager will list the IP address of the PlayBook you can use to access it.

Copy either the IPv4 address listed under USB or Wireless
On a Windows® computer, open the Run dialog box and type \\127.1.1.1 (where 127.1.1.1 should be replaced with the actual IP address of the BlackBerry PlayBook)
On a Mac computer, select Go -> Connect to Server... and type smb://127.1.1.1 (where 127.1.1.1 should be replaced with the actual IP address of the BlackBerry PlayBook)
Copy the certificate file to the certs share on the BlackBerry PlayBook
Touch the Gear icon in the top right hand corner of the PlayBook and select Security
Within the Security menu, select Certificates
Touch the Import button in the bottom right corner
Select the certificate to be imported and touch Next
Select the Class and which certificate store(s) to import the certificate into
The certificate will now be available when creating a VPN profile, Wi-Fi® profile, or when a accessing a secure website

KB26515-How to import security certificates on the BlackBerry PlayBook

[gravymonster]

Open a link in a new tab. Press and hold a link and a menu appears. Maybe obvious but ive been so happy since i found it.

[Xecutioner88]

Originally Posted by anastasiophan

• Mute - Hold the "Play/Pause" Button
• Hard Reset - Press and Hold the Power Button along with the Volume Up and Down Buttons
• Show Status Bar from Inside App - Swipe diagnally from the top right
• Screen Capture - Press Volume Up and Volume Down simultaneously

Wow, i had no idea this shortcuts existed, thanks!! (pretty hard to figure it out spontaneously).

[Rudee66]

status bar can be shown by swiping either of the top corners actually.

[jerrymx]

This may not be all that useful but I thought it was cool....

You can actually do a screen capture of a video while its playing.... I was watching the HD demo video that comes with the PB and did a screen capture and the video didn't skip a beat. The pic it took also looked great.

It may not be practical but I think its shows the versatility and power of the playbook!

[lindajm22]

Originally Posted by jerrymx

This may not be all that useful but I thought it was cool....

You can actually do a screen capture of a video while its playing.... I was watching the HD demo video that comes with the PB and did a screen capture and the video didn't skip a beat. The pic it took also looked great.

It may not be practical but I think its shows the versatility and power of the playbook!

I actually just posted this in another thread. I thought it was really cool and I made some fantastic wallpapers from that demo video. I didn't think to try it while the video was running though. I paused it, waited for the controls to disappear and then took the shot. Love it!

[anastasiophan]

Updated with your tips and added one more of my own.

"A quick way to crop an image is to zoom in on the image how you want it cropped and take a screen shot of the zoomed in image"

[urbnimports]

i tried the screen capture thing but its not working for me....where does it save the capture?

[jerrymx]

It saves the pix in the "camera Pictures" Folder.

[urbnimports]

you can't be connected to the bridge in order for this to work...just an FYI

[Oniberry]

Originally Posted by urbnimports

you can't be connected to the bridge in order for this to work...just an FYI

You can be connected to Bridge, just not with a BES Blackberry. Security feature. It works fine with a BIS berry.

[anastasiophan]

Originally Posted by Oniberry

You can be connected to Bridge, just not with a BES Blackberry. Security feature. It works fine with a BIS berry.

I was just about to say the same thing.

Any other good tips and tricks so far?

[Darlaten]

I'm not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but if your in the browser and your trying to enter a address that doesnt end in ".com", you can press the ".com" button and hold it - this will bring up a menu with the following extensions that you can select: ".net", ".org", ".edu", ".gov", ".ca", and ".biz".

I love that they included the .ca extension. I wonder if there will be an update for the new .xxx extension that will be coming out. LOL

[anastasiophan]

Thats a new one, thanks!

[mohawk rcer]

Originally Posted by Darlaten

I'm not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but if your in the browser and your trying to enter a address that doesnt end in ".com", you can press the ".com" button and hold it - this will bring up a menu with the following extensions that you can select: ".net", ".org", ".edu", ".gov", ".ca", and ".biz".

I love that they included the .ca extension. I wonder if there will be an update for the new .xxx extension that will be coming out. LOL

i been hearing about this .com thing but i dont see it on my key board!