[Makkari]

Does or will the Playbook natively include HTTP proxy support? I ask because I recently bought a Xoom tablet, which I love but it lacks that support and I am considering returning it and waiting on the Playbook.

As to why I need HTTP proxy support, well, let me quote someone else:

"When attempting to use the Xoom in an intranet scenario at an enterprise, or a college/university, there is no way to configure a HTTP web proxy to allow you to gain access to the internet."

Why do I need an HTTP proxy?

When on an isolated network such as at work or at school, you do not have a direct connection to the internet for security reasons. You connect to an intermediate device for HTTP access which then proxies your connection to the internet. Without the ability to specify a proxy, you have no way to connect to the public internet while on the internal secured network. Unless you have the 3G/4G (LTE when updated) plan, you're only access to the internet would be by specifying a proxy server to use.


I work at a school and I need HTTP proxy support. Android doesn't natively support it, even though Google has known about the issue since 2008. Some Android devices have it, such as the Samsung Galaxy S, but that's a Samsung customization.

To make matters worse, I owned an iPad 2, which has native HTTP proxy support; so does the iPhone. I returned the iPad because I felt limited and boxed in. I'm an Android user and the level of customization and freedom that exists on Android compared to iOS made it difficult for me to tolerate the iPad for too long. It does have a very polished, refined, simplified, and complete OS, but then you're also very limited in what you can do and how you can do it. I don't want that. I want the freedom and customization that is Android, but if I cannot get native HTTP proxy support to use the device at work, the device becomes useless to me. I want to keep it, I want to like it, but that issue is non-negotiable. Thus, if the Playbook natively includes HTTP proxy support, I will definitely get it, because I have no desire to get the iPad again. Anyway, if anyone knows the answer, I'd really like to know. Thanks.

[peter9477]

I would think this would be one of the things offered by the "VPN mode" that we've heard about. (We've heard its name, basically, and nothing else yet.)

I don't believe anything else has yet been reported that might be related to this.