[cl8baller]

This is an interesting story about my PlayBook experience that I need to tell.

One night I grew bored, decided that to prepare for the official release of OS2 I will downgrade and rock OS1 for a while.

Allow me to make note, that I purchased my PlayBook a little after Thanksgivings sales during the purge of prices.

I was aware of the existence of the OS2 Development Beta and during my unboxing I was already signing up to receive the beta. I open, I upgrade, I am amazed and quickly integrated my tablet into my daily lifestyle where I see fit.

Back to the present, after I downgraded I grew frighten. I never experienced OS1, it felt like the screen grew smaller, it felt clunky, switching between applications was slow, the "cards" were too tiny to bear. The overall look and feel of OS1 frighten me to think, "If I had purchased this PlayBook before the OS2 beta, I would have returned this within hours of frustration."

I tried using it, but after a few hours of dealing with the default folder/tabs, the clunky "All" tab, even with my applications installed I op'd back to OS2 Beta.

The moral of this story, there isn't one, it was just a cringe-feeling experience.

[ody360]

I know what you mean...its like, its like os2 is this ring, this precious ring.... this... my..., preciousssss

[collapsed]

I always wanted to try the 1.0 OS but I want some android apps

[Skier1960]

Pretty much the main reason I purchased the PB. Knowing that OS2 was around the corner.. I don't own a BB phone for the time being. So the native e-mail and other new functions were the seller for me.. Checking for Software update after posting..Ha Ha..

[louzer]

Interesting take. I got my first Playbook at launch and would look forward to the monthly (for the first few months) updates to see what would be added to the 1.0.x experience. I remember video chat coming in the first update. I remember getting the bridge on the second. I remember being awed to find out that an unannounced feature of a subsequent update was enabling most web-connected apps to piggyback onto the bridge connections.

I litterally have my Playbook with me wherever I go and have integrated it into my daily routine along with my phone. I have grown very fond of the experience and used to the UI. Like many others have posted, I swipe around on any phone or tablet I encounter strictly out of habbit.

I didn't really like that the tabs were predefined but did like the idea that the main "All" tab listed all apps in one place. Without universal search, it sometimes made it hard to find some apps in the large list. But this single list of all apps, to me, was like the main apps page in Android - somewhere you could go to see and or find anything in one place.

I had been running the 2.0 dev simulator to work on apps, but chose to keep 1.x on my device because it truly became an integral tool in my life and I didn't want to compromise any functionality that I currently had with a dev beta. I had watched all of the videos that people made when the dev beta first came out and, of course, the videos from CES showcasing the apps that would appear in the final release. I had decided to stick with my simulator for dev purposes but to keep the current offical release on my Playbook.

With 2.0 fast (I assume and hope) approaching, I decided to bite the bullet, make a backup, and load the beta just to ensure app compatibility in a 'real' environment.

After a couple of days, I realized that the first tab would no longer be a place for all apps to reside. I had to recondition myself to swipe left and right to get to apps I want. I also realized that the folders (which I think is a great idea) make it more difficult to arrange icons - you have to be careful to not let go of an icon while touching another since it will then prompt you to create a folder. Also, if I want to spread out apps across multiple tabs, you must move them one-at-a-time from tab to tab. In other words, there's no simple way to move an icon from the first tab to the third tab without having to land in the second tab first. And, while I like the notion of having the app/folder dock on the top, it reduces the number of vertical scrolling rows that are visible which means it takes more swipes to get down the list. And finally, while the 'X' on the 'cards' for running apps is much easier to press, I liked the smaller cards with 3 and 2 half apps visible at a time better than the 3 with 2.0.

By the second day, however, I realized that after a fairly significant setup effort moving icons into organized tabs and grouping like apps into folders, most of the above issues became less concerning. It only took a day or so to mentally do a paradigm shift to accommodate the new UI.

My point is that most comments above are coming from people who came later to the game and didn't have the time with OS 1.x to engrain it into their way of doing things. 2.0 looks to be great. But I guess I was more impressed with 1.x than the previous posters here given that my first experiences with 1.x on a Playbook came after months of playing with a 1.x beta in a simulator. 1.x on the Playbook was as much of an eye opener for me at launch as 2.0 was to many of you who had the option of switching to the 2.0 dev beta shortly after purchase.

It has been both fun and frustrating to follow Tablet OS from beta on a simulator to full-blown 1.x on the Playbook at launch. With 2.0 just up the road, my Playbook is now reset to 1.x with my backup restored and is eagerly waiting. But unlike the rest of you, I'm thoroughly enjoying my Playbook experience on 1.x and am eagerly awaiting the notification on my phone that a bridge update is available.