[stevelam]

i thought i'd buy one on a whim just to see what can be done with a $200 tablet. my gf has an ipad 2 and i have an iphone 4s. i used to have an android phone as well.

the abysmal app selection was to be expected but wow. i thought i could get by having no native email client but the gmail browser link barely EVER works. the html5 view always screws up somehow (constantly shows "no offline messages/no new email") and i have to resort to switching to the ugly mobile view or the slower full desktop view.

i don't think i've encountered this issue on the iphone or ipad (but i rarely have to load up my email in the browser anyway)

secondly, no good free twitter apps??? i have Lemma installed and its just WAY too barebones and slow to scroll. plus the UI is just not attractive compared to what i'm used to on the iphone/ipad. its just not pleasant to use and unresponsive.

feedwheel, the first and apparently highest rated rss feed app that can sync with google reader, is horrible. extremely slow and painful to use. i just found geereader today which is waybetter but also ultimately suffers from minor touch response lag as well. i'm assuming this is because it wasn't done with the NDK?

no good video streaming from pc to playbook apps. don't get me started on the unusable orb launcher. VERY SLOW since it doesn't cache any file lists at all and both the 'mobile' and 'tv mode' views are unusable on the playbook. mobile view is WAY too small. 'tv mode' view doesn't even show you the full directory and file names! ridiculous! the other app, 'sonicair' costs $2.99 + 10 euro donation!! nowhere near the nice UI design and experience of iOS app airvideo which is only $1.99 and MUCH easier to set up. this was a massive gripe for me on the playbook.

given the hardware in this thing, i expected a MUCH snappier performance of the OS in general. instead i can definitely feel that very slight stutter every time i'm scrolling in various window panes (most apparent when i'm browsing the app world) which is one thing that really annoyed me about android as well, except android at least has the apps to make up for it.

overall i'm hoping if os 2.0 ever gets released, at least the laggy OS can be fixed and/or at least android player apps will make up for the extremely low quality native apps on this thing.

i hope the playbook gets better and i just didn't spend my money on a glorified tablet web browser. even the browser itself bugs out and sometimes i can't even switch tabs!

anyway this is the view from an iOS user. i expect anyone brand new to tablets in general would think the playbook is pretty cool but when compared to iOS i simply can not believe RIM expected this thing to sell for $499+.

at the new price point of $200 i didn't expect it to emulate iOS or have all of its features or anything, but even right now it just seems insanely barebones for something thats been out since april 2011.

[meltbox360]

Valid points imo. The OS however is not slow. The reason you experience stuttering is because RIM decided to moronically push adobe air which still has no good hardware acceleration. If the NDK and an API were released at launch we would have more pleasant apps. They really shot themselves in the foot there. Air is just not built to perform well and as far as I can see it won't perform well in the future. To be honest I probably will never purchase an app made with air on the playbook because the experience is terrible, stutters all around. The rest of the playbook however does please me although Gmail has started to act up in the browser.

Oh well, personally I can wait for the fixes. It still plays flash, browses the web, plays some nice games, videos, music. I don't need any more.

[patpatiar]

besides the app selection what other qualities don't/do you like?

[Silverfern]

i duno what u talking about browser is good especially with the 1.08 patch, gmail works fine for me, HTML5 doesnt screw up. I dont use twitter or those feeds, so i dunno about them, i love the tablet

[anindoc]

Well you have posted a message thats going to instigate a flame war.

Let me ask u a few things- from your note its obvious you are not a layman in the world of tablets, you know a lot as evident from of ur use of technical jargon. Having said that it baffles me to note that you didnt even do the basic research on the PB, to know what it can and cant do. You have come here at CB, so u knew where to find PB info good or bad.
But u went and bought a PB, came here at CB and post your very first message bashing PB and comparing it to your ipod, ipad.

I am not buying your crap, I for one think that you are trolling the PB forums, however if your only plan was to start a flame war,well you have succeeded. Now you go play with ur pads and pods, here in the PB forums dont bash PB and compare it with ur beloved pads, it simply wont fly.

[chrism_scotland]

I'd give the latest 2.0 beta a go, I've found it to be much better.

[anon(375378)]

Bottomline, If your an IOS user, you are not going to like the PlayBook. I do understand the following for Apple products and respect those that support them. However, most here support BlackBerry and purchase their products for what satisfies OUR needs. Always do some research before you purchase and don't let just a price discount be the reason. *not saying this was YOUR reason, just offering advice.*

[JPMorgan_]

I'm having an issue with G-mail on my PlayBook, it seems to be always offline messages only, it won't display new e-mail messages received,

I've read in a post above, that there is some kind of patch to fix this?

�where can I get the 1.08 patch for gmail?,
Many thanks in advance

[_StephenBB81]

Bottomline, If your an IOS user, you are not going to like the PlayBook. I do understand the following for Apple products and respect those that support them. However, most here support BlackBerry and purchase their products for what satisfies OUR needs. Always do some research before you purchase and don't let just a price discount be the reason. *not saying this was YOUR reason, just offering advice.*

This I have to Disagree with.

My Doctor is an iPhone user, and he loved my PlayBook, IF the PlayBook had the 3 Apps he likes on his iPhone he'd buy a PlayBook (back at the $599 I paid for my 32GB)
The Launch OS was snappy enough, the way I switched between apps he wished he could do between his 3 iphone apps so smoothly. the size of the playbook and the gestures made him very happy, he wouldn't entertain a Blackberry PHONE, but certainly would have got the PlayBook if those 3 apps existed,

[stevelam]

Valid points imo. The OS however is not slow. The reason you experience stuttering is because RIM decided to moronically push adobe air which still has no good hardware acceleration. If the NDK and an API were released at launch we would have more pleasant apps. They really shot themselves in the foot there. Air is just not built to perform well and as far as I can see it won't perform well in the future. To be honest I probably will never purchase an app made with air on the playbook because the experience is terrible, stutters all around. The rest of the playbook however does please me although Gmail has started to act up in the browser.

Oh well, personally I can wait for the fixes. It still plays flash, browses the web, plays some nice games, videos, music. I don't need any more.

well thats what im hoping for. fixes that will make this thing more usable. i don't know what feedwheel and lemma were made with but both suffer laggy UI response and just serves to irritate me rather than be something i can actually enjoy using on a tablet.

as for flash support...thats never been a big deal for me (seeing as i generally use iOS devices) and its even less of a deal since adobe is killing off flash for mobile devices anyway.

gmail acting up in the browser is a major annoyance. i don't have a blackberry so i don't use bridge etc etc so the browser is the only way i can read my mail. i don't know if its specific to the bb browser or if the html5 version of gmail is just buggy but it still glaringly points out the lack of a native email client (yes i knew this was the case when i bought it but i certainly didn't know i could barely even use email in the browser either).

[stevelam]

besides the app selection what other qualities don't/do you like?

i would say the current apps themselves aren't of very high quality so it makes the playbook that much less useful.

the actual UI of QNX is pretty good and i have no complaints about that. the astonishing tribe did a good job in making everything look pretty. but a tablet can't survive on just looking good and i really didn't expect to have to google "does the playbook have a native twitter app" because i just thought it would by now.

nor did i expect the facebook app to not be able to view groups!!! annoying.

as for people calling me a troll...meh. i have a playbook and these are my current thoughts on it. if people have a problem with negative reviews than thats their problem. if you happen to like the playbook thats cool. but i just wanted to point out a few issues that were very apparent to me.

[TheScionicMan]

I'm having an issue with G-mail on my PlayBook, it seems to be always offline messages only, it won't display new e-mail messages received,

I've read in a post above, that there is some kind of patch to fix this?

�where can I get the 1.08 patch for gmail?,
Many thanks in advance

In the mobile version of GMail, scroll to the bottom of the left column and select Basic HTML. Make a bookmark and delete the other GMail icon.

[Accidental Post]

TO the OP. I was almost set to the pull the trigger on the PB Friday and all I could think of was the following. WHEN we will really see an update? And since this was for my wife and she wanted the ability to use it as an e-reader I stepped back got online and did some research only then I decided to put it back and picked up an Iconia Tablet.

I hope you all get your updates as scheduled or promised. It should be s decent tablet at that point but without having a bb to bridge to it it was kind of a boot point at this time.

[_StephenBB81]

i would say the current apps themselves aren't of very high quality so it makes the playbook that much less useful.

the actual UI of QNX is pretty good and i have no complaints about that. the astonishing tribe did a good job in making everything look pretty. but a tablet can't survive on just looking good and i really didn't expect to have to google "does the playbook have a native twitter app" because i just thought it would by now.

nor did i expect the facebook app to not be able to view groups!!! annoying.

as for people calling me a troll...meh. i have a playbook and these are my current thoughts on it. if people have a problem with negative reviews than thats their problem. if you happen to like the playbook thats cool. but i just wanted to point out a few issues that were very apparent to me.

Big Problem with lack of high quality apps was that RIM has had a little over 1 Month of developer tools, they got released in October, we aren't talking 3-4 years of App refinement like iOS has had.

The speed that the the quality apps have come out like Madden, and SimCity has been impressive, When The PlayBook UI drops AIR and moves 100% to Cascades the speed will be drastically better,
I really am surprised about your issue with gmail, I have had no issues, mind you I don't use it often, as a by product of Being a BlackBerry fan, I hate the touchscreen interface for typing so my email use on the PlayBook is minimal. and I'm not a facebook user.

I would go to the PlayBook apps section of the forum and look around for apps, I have heard good things about twitter on the PlayBook, (no keyboard thing again means I don't use them) So with a bit of community support your experience will get better.

[BlackStormRising]

i would say the current apps themselves aren't of very high quality so it makes the playbook that much less useful.

the actual UI of QNX is pretty good and i have no complaints about that. the astonishing tribe did a good job in making everything look pretty. but a tablet can't survive on just looking good and i really didn't expect to have to google "does the playbook have a native twitter app" because i just thought it would by now.

nor did i expect the facebook app to not be able to view groups!!! annoying.

as for people calling me a troll...meh. i have a playbook and these are my current thoughts on it. if people have a problem with negative reviews than thats their problem. if you happen to like the playbook thats cool. but i just wanted to point out a few issues that were very apparent to me.

Spill. which "current" apps in appworld have you bought and downloaded?

[stevelam]

TO the OP. I was almost set to the pull the trigger on the PB Friday and all I could think of was the following. WHEN we will really see an update? And since this was for my wife and she wanted the ability to use it as an e-reader I stepped back got online and did some research only then I decided to put it back and picked up an Iconia Tablet.

I hope you all get your updates as scheduled or promised. It should be s decent tablet at that point but without having a bb to bridge to it it was kind of a boot point at this time.

i assume if all goes on schedule the new OS version will be out in feb 2012. but keep in mind it has been pushed back multiple times already and going through the OS 2.0 beta threads, it seems more of a nightmare than anything.

i mean the native email client was supposed to be released within '2 months of launch' but this was back in april 2011.

i'm also trying to find a decent PDF reader and the official adobe reader for playbook is HORRIBLE (just as bad as the iOS version but at least iOS has much better pdf reader alternatives like goodreader).

[stevelam]

Spill. which "current" apps in appworld have you bought and downloaded?

i haven't 'bought' any. all of the ones i'm trying now are all free.

right now i have lemma, vevo, imt vnc, orb, drums lite, guitar playbook, instrument tuner, air browser, sketchbook, geereader.

lemma is bad and i already spoke about it here.
imt vnc has horrible UI and can seemingly only save one vnc server setting at a time? (i have 3 computers in the home i want to connect to).
i've already talked about orb.
drums lite is USELESS because theres a slight delay when tapping drums.
guitar playbook i haven't actually tried yet.
intrument tuner also sucks and doesn't seem to pick up my guitar that well at all.

[_StephenBB81]

i haven't 'bought' any. all of the ones i'm trying now are all free.

right now i have lemma, vevo, imt vnc, orb, drums lite, guitar playbook, instrument tuner, air browser, sketchbook, geereader.

lemma is bad and i already spoke about it here.
imt vnc has horrible UI and can seemingly only save one vnc server setting at a time? (i have 3 computers in the home i want to connect to).
i've already talked about orb.
drums lite is USELESS because theres a slight delay when tapping drums.
guitar playbook i haven't actually tried yet.
intrument tuner also sucks and doesn't seem to pick up my guitar that well at all.

Are all your iOS app comparisons also Free Apps?

[Spencerdl]

To the OP, if you don't like the PlayBook ......take it back (simple solution)

[rjedge54]

I'm having an issue with G-mail on my PlayBook, it seems to be always offline messages only, it won't display new e-mail messages received,

I've read in a post above, that there is some kind of patch to fix this?

�where can I get the 1.08 patch for gmail?,
Many thanks in advance

To get the 1.08 update go to settings, software updates, check for update. The mobile Gmail app problem may not be related though. I had the same problem on mine before I applied 1.08, but my wife's worked fine. My solution to the Gmail problem was to go into the browser options, privacy and security, select clear cache and clear local storage. That resolved the problem and it hasn't re-occurred. In fact this trick has cleared issues encountered on various other sites that would sometimes not load properly.

[Pearl9100]

This I have to Disagree with.

My Doctor is an iPhone user, and he loved my PlayBook, IF the PlayBook had the 3 Apps he likes on his iPhone he'd buy a PlayBook (back at the $599 I paid for my 32GB)
The Launch OS was snappy enough, the way I switched between apps he wished he could do between his 3 iphone apps so smoothly. the size of the playbook and the gestures made him very happy, he wouldn't entertain a Blackberry PHONE, but certainly would have got the PlayBook if those 3 apps existed,

I rarely agree with derusett, but I do in this case. Just because someone uses an iphone does not mean that they will automatically hate the playbook or a BB. That type of logic has a lot of holes in it.

[_StephenBB81]

I highly doubt it given Rim's spotty track record. If anything, it will underwhelm many. Jmo after being a longtime crackberry user.

The NON Developer release of OS2 on display at the Innovations forum in Toronto this past week is already higher than my low expectations out of RIM,
when they don't strip out the user features of OS2 it is a pretty snazzy OS, and the fact they will be changing the UI from Air to Cascades alone will result in a considerable improvement in performance, so with minimal visual change the interaction will be substantial, they are much further along than most realize
I am a firm believer that it is BES/BIS they are working on to get it up to speed for Carriers and Enterprises before they can launch full OS2 on the masses

[jsheik]

hmmm.. alright everyone have their own opinions ..
i also use a blackberry playbook.. i have have it for two weeks now and i love that thing!
also addicted to the tablet. But i have also the iphone in my pocket. So it tells nothing.. you can use both..

[tommynap01]

i find it soo funny how everyone gets soo defensive because of his review.. isnt that whats a forum about? stop whining guys, if thats his take on the playbook then thats fine. its hard to go from an ipad 2 to a playbook. the hardware is excellent but unfortunately the software is just not there yet. hopefully when 2.0 gets released all our problems will be fixed

[jcbrunson]

hmmm.. alright everyone have their own opinions ..
i also use a blackberry playbook.. i have have it for two weeks now and i love that thing!
also addicted to the tablet. But i have also the iphone in my pocket. So it tells nothing.. you can use both..

I'm with you. I haven't put the dang thing down for two days straight since I bought it! Each is entitled to their own opinion, and my opinion is A+ so far. Can't wait for OS2!