[xsacha]

Hey guys. I have noticed there is a strange glitch when I do the following combination:

When on the main homescreen (shows all your apps), open the keyboard by swiping from the bottom left hand corner.

1) Hold Backspace button on keyboard
2) Press Top Right corner of screen for about a second
3) Press Top Left corner of screen.

4) Repeat steps if it doesn't work.

Now very very weird things happen! Can use apps while they are in multitask view, can freeze UI, can kill UI, etc.

Please report what you find.

[Sith_Apprentice]

I may be doing it wrong but I am unable to replicate this. Which is the back key you are referring to? Delete? If so then this is not working for me.


Edit:
Ok got it working. The screen becomes unresponsive for me. Even using bridge remote it does nothing. I had to press the power button and volume + key to get the restart menu up. Interestingly enough this worked for touching the screen.

[RicThot]

Just tried this and it crashed my PB... lol.

Opened Keyboard
Pressed & held back space
Held right top corner a couple seconds
Pressed left top corner

Nothing happened...

So I minimized the keyboard... BOOM!

Black screen. Holding the power button brought the standby/lock/off/restart popup.

Restarted and all is ok.


I'm curious, how exactly did you find about that combination lol....

[xsacha]

I made a video of me doing it.
As I only have one hand you can't see me pressing top left corner (but I do) -- I zoom in on keyboard during that.

In this reproduction of the glitch, I have browser open to show this weird glitch with web browser.

See:

[Sith_Apprentice]

Yeah it appears to freeze the UI/disable it. Try it with nothing open and see how you do. Mine also froze in landscape mode as if I had it set to not switch, but I did not.

[xsacha]

I'm curious, how exactly did you find about that combination lol....

I tried to do this:
FAQ: What is the BlackBerry “Help Me!” Screen & Why Do I Need It? - BerryReview

for Touchscreen models.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Have you tried leaving it to see if it is scanning etc? (like when you check database sizes on your blackberry). Or try launching it with the options screen open?

[xsacha]

It does nothing when the Settings screen is open or the login dialog is open.
Only got it working on home screen so far.

It also does nothing if I touch anywhere else on the screen other than those corners.
It also does nothing if I touch the corners in the other order.

Sounds bizarrely like an easter egg.

[Sith_Apprentice]

I got it to work by doing the backspace + top left + top right + top left + top right but I believe this is likely because right then left appears in there as well. Also it works for me if i end on the options icon it brings up a (frozen) options screen.

[kbz1960]

Is this suppose to do something other than lock you up?

I can see never doing this and it not being a problem.

[Sith_Apprentice]

I tried it in the Android player and it does nothing at all. Very strange, it seems like it would be something RIM put in, but no idea why.

[xsacha]

I think it must be something to do with the easter egg that exists in Blackberry phones.

[Spencerdl]

OK am I missing something, why would I do this in the first place?? It's not a common practice for me to go out of my way to render my PlayBook useless for actions I have no reason to do

[RicThot]

OK am I missing something, why would I do this in the first place?? It's not a common practice for me to go out of my way to render my PlayBook useless for actions I have no reason to do

You pretty much answered your own question there

[Sith_Apprentice]

I think it must be something to do with the easter egg that exists in Blackberry phones.

completely new OS, why build something so trivial into it? Has to be some sort of design, perhaps on certain builds, or in conjunction with data collecting apps (either on a computer or on the device itself).

[xsacha]

If they added it for a help menu/engineering menu on their other devices, it makes sense they'd use same method on their tablet -- regardless of its OS.

[Sith_Apprentice]

If they added it for a help menu/engineering menu on their other devices, it makes sense they'd use same method on their tablet -- regardless of its OS.

Thats very true, but it does not appear to be very helpful in its current form lol.

[xsacha]

Maybe we're not using it properly. Maybe it's another key on keyboard we were meant to use. Not sure.

Crashing usually means something unexpected happened.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Maybe we're not using it properly. Maybe it's another key on keyboard we were meant to use. Not sure.

Crashing usually means something unexpected happened.

LOL thats very true. You have been finding unexpected things in the Playbook since it came out though. RIM should employ you to do this.

[ody360]

Maybe those buttons were originally labelled, [Ctrl][Alt][Del]

[ody360]

Maybe those buttons were originally labelled, [Ctrl][Alt][Del]

Even though I originally said this as a joke, it may be accurate... When my pb was becoming unresponsive, as in apps weren't opening and closed apps couldn't be re opened,I did the three finger salute and it was as if something got reset and the system caught up to the last program I was trying to open!

[JeepBB]

It does sound like some kind of debug mode... but as the debug app isn't installed, it hangs?

We used to put similar special key combos in systems I've worked on to activate a calibration, or special settings, menu that we didn't want ordinary users to be messing with. Problem was, the operators would see you enter the key combo, word would pass on the grapevine, and suddenly everyone starts to wind up the Tx power, or whatever, on their kit coz "it works better if you do that". LOL

[RicThot]

Did you guys tried this in dev mode to see if it makes any difference ?