1. T_Touch's Avatar
    The PlayBook, as I and every other Playbook lover knows, has received her share of negative reviews. They were brutal and most of the criticism stemmed from the notion that the PlayBook shipped without a native email client.

    I was never a strong proponent of native email on the PB so perhaps I'm a bit biased. With all the latest news and video previews that I've seen over the past few days with respect to PB 2.0 and the new native email, I'm not impressed. I'm thinking ok now people will have their beloved native email but how much will their user experience improve as a result.

    In those same seek peaks, however, I also see the new remote control feature added to BB Bridge and my interested is really piqued. WOW, so my BB device can be used to control my PB while outputting to my TV? Now that's a feature worth its weight! As well, I can input from my BB keyboard AND I can also display what's on my BB to my PB - that's so similar to what I thought the PB should add to 2.0 as an improvement - - to be able to use the PB as sort of a virtual screen to "project" whatever's on the BB to it. Hopefully (if not already at the time of launch), that feature would work with anything displayed from the BB screen. Imagine using something like google maps using your device's data but projecting it on the PB when on the road.

    I realize that native email (on a tablet as well as a smartphone) is really important to some but for me, the email on my phone and bridging is fine. It's those other things that 2.0 has to offer that will make the PB a better device.
    Last edited by T_Touch; 01-14-12 at 01:17 AM.
    stevepar, rotorwrench, MTL and 5 others like this.
    01-14-12 01:14 AM
  2. papped's Avatar
    I wouldn't say "most" of the criticism was from the lack of native email. It was kind of a running joke that it was omitted because BB rose to fame based on email...
    01-14-12 01:20 AM
  3. kennyliu's Avatar
    To each his own.

    I, as many others, don't have a BlackBerry phone. For me, native email will speed up working with messages many many times. That's a lot of time saved. Besides, I personally don't think that experience working with web-based email services can be compared to the experience working with a native email client. That's the experience quality part.

    Anyway, I am so excited about the new features. Can't wait a few more weeks
    stevepar, blue-b, RicThot and 5 others like this.
    01-14-12 01:27 AM
  4. Pearl9100's Avatar
    native email really is a bfd. It put rim on the map and is what Blackberries do best. If you are not a heavy email user, then I can understand why native email isn't a big deal. But for business users, it is IMPERATIVE and is the main reason why companies give their employees phones and/or tablets (to get employees to work and to check their email without paying them).
    01-14-12 01:52 AM
  5. jamesharmeling's Avatar
    I have 5 important email accounts and have grown to rely on my BB's to have instant access in one spot. Having it come to my Playbook will be an awesome much needed feature. And the contact sync and calender.....ooooooooo!!!!!!
    anon(2254645) and AggreX like this.
    01-14-12 06:05 AM
  6. RicThot's Avatar
    I'm with kennyliu, everyone has its preferences... as far as I'm concerned, the bb phone remote is a gimmicky gadget that I will not use (ok, I'm biased, I dont own a bb phone... yet :-) ), it's not like my couch is 20 feet away from my tv anyways... on the other hand, native email, calendar and contact, all integrated will boost my productivity 300%, which is what I'm using the device for.
    01-14-12 06:26 AM
  7. anon(2254645)'s Avatar
    The PlayBook has to be a self-contained unit to be successful. A company cannot count on a base of their phone owners to be able to utilize features that should be there from the start. If Apple had released the iPad with the requirement that you needed an iPhone to make email, calendar, contacts, etc. work, there would have been an uproar of epic proportions and sales would not even near what they are today. The Bridge is a nice accessory feature for us BB users, providing in essence a free tethering function. I can hardly wait for the new native features!
    01-14-12 06:57 AM
  8. justincase1911's Avatar
    Native email is the one feature in os2 that I won't be using. I'll keep my email on my 9930 and only on my 9930, thank you very much.
    bigbmc26, Uncle Remus and cylaer like this.
    01-14-12 07:00 AM
  9. homer1475's Avatar
    The PlayBook has to be a self-contained unit to be successful. A company cannot count on a base of their phone owners to be able to utilize features that should be there from the start. If Apple had released the iPad with the requirement that you needed an iPhone to make email, calendar, contacts, etc. work, there would have been an uproar of epic proportions and sales would not even near what they are today. The Bridge is a nice accessory feature for us BB users, providing in essence a free tethering function. I can hardly wait for the new native features!
    If apple released it that way everyone would be hailing it as the next best thing, and every tablet to date would be working this way with no native PIM, but rather a "bridge" requiring that same manufacturers phone. Apple would still have sold millions. Since it was Blackberry, its not worth a sh!t, and every blogger/reviewer on the planet lambastes BB for every releasing such a "half baked" product. Personally I think it was a good idea to push your phones as well as tablet in a combo. I have email on my phone and PC, why do I also need it on my tablet when my phone is always in my pocket?
    kzeusr, kemj, bigbmc26 and 1 others like this.
    01-14-12 07:15 AM
  10. beamolite's Avatar
    Let's just hope the emails aren't truncated. That's my biggest complaint.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    01-14-12 07:29 AM
  11. T_Touch's Avatar
    native email really is a bfd. It put rim on the map and is what Blackberries do best. If you are not a heavy email user, then I can understand why native email isn't a big deal. But for business users, it is IMPERATIVE and is the main reason why companies give their employees phones and/or tablets (to get employees to work and to check their email without paying them).
    That's why you have the Bridge.
    01-14-12 07:42 AM
  12. kill_9's Avatar
    I wouldn't say "most" of the criticism was from the lack of native email. It was kind of a running joke that it was omitted because BB rose to fame based on email...
    Secure wireless email is Research In Motion's primary claim to fame. But let's not bother with accuracy shall we.

    My primary criticism of the way Research In Motion marketed the BlackBerry PlayBook stems from their decision not to focus strictly on existing BlackBerry smartphone users, particularly organizations, all of whom are the target audience for "the world's first professional-grade tablet." Later, the company could have expanded into the consumer tablet marketplace. Anyway, native email seems important to some people so its inclusion with the next release should alleviate some of the negativity this tablet has unfairly received.
    T_Touch and jelp2 like this.
    01-14-12 07:50 AM
  13. T_Touch's Avatar
    The PlayBook has to be a self-contained unit to be successful. A company cannot count on a base of their phone owners to be able to utilize features that should be there from the start. If Apple had released the iPad with the requirement that you needed an iPhone to make email, calendar, contacts, etc. work, there would have been an uproar of epic proportions and sales would not even near what they are today. The Bridge is a nice accessory feature for us BB users, providing in essence a free tethering function. I can hardly wait for the new native features!
    I disagree with you. Tablets of this sort is still relatively new and as such there is no real requirement of having a native email especially considering the BlackBerry paradigm focused on pairing rather than native likely because of security reasons for their business user's.

    Although rather redundant, I'm not arguing that native email is useless. I'm sure it would be nice to have. I'm simply saying that I don't think it is as obligatory as the critics have expressed.

    The other features that 2.0 is offering will actually make the PB a better product.
    01-14-12 07:52 AM
  14. kill_9's Avatar
    Let's just hope the emails aren't truncated. That's my biggest complaint.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    Large emails are split into 2KB chunks to conserve bandwidth but as you scroll to the bottom of each chunk the next 2KB block is pulled down. The tablet seems to automatically grab the next 2KB block from the smartphone so I rarely ever see anything other than the full email as I smoothly scroll towards the end of the message. Am I missing the point you are trying to make?
    01-14-12 07:55 AM
  15. QuantumFish777's Avatar
    I like the whole intergrated social thing. Not just emails but having contact details and chat history all from one location is great, reminded me of Microsofts keynote speech on Windows Phone and they were showing how everything social is tied together within a few screen presses, and I though "cool".
    Well this PB feature has made me say "cool" too
    01-14-12 08:01 AM
  16. sjfwhite's Avatar
    I could get by without native email if my gmail accounts and pop3 accounts were full functional through the bridge. I can only read the messages in those accounts and can not reply to them. Is this a bug in the bridge or is this by design?
    01-14-12 09:38 AM
  17. anon(2254645)'s Avatar
    I disagree with you. Tablets of this sort is still relatively new and as such there is no real requirement of having a native email especially considering the BlackBerry paradigm focused on pairing rather than native likely because of security reasons for their business user's.

    Although rather redundant, I'm not arguing that native email is useless. I'm sure it would be nice to have. I'm simply saying that I don't think it is as obligatory as the critics have expressed.

    The other features that 2.0 is offering will actually make the PB a better product.
    We're all entitled to our opinions, but everyone I know who owns an iPad (myself included) does not own an iPhone, nor do they intend to. If they had (unknowingly) bought an iPad that did not have native email capabilities, most would have returned them. Tablets today are being marketed as potential portable replacements for laptops. I use my iPad and PlayBook about 75% of the time now, in the one year I've owned tablets. I personally would not have bought a tablet if it were nothing but a glorified ereader and game machine. Yes, I bought the PlayBook under the assumption that it would be getting the OS2 features added, including native email. I respect your opinions, but I believe (since we're coming from the BB world) that you're misreading the desires of the general public in this case.
    01-14-12 09:59 AM
  18. howarmat's Avatar
    Large emails are split into 2KB chunks to conserve bandwidth but as you scroll to the bottom of each chunk the next 2KB block is pulled down. The tablet seems to automatically grab the next 2KB block from the smartphone so I rarely ever see anything other than the full email as I smoothly scroll towards the end of the message. Am I missing the point you are trying to make?
    you are missing the point he is trying to make. Truncation cant be avoided. It the email is truncated by RIMs NOC you cant get it and there is no "get more"
    Blacklatino likes this.
    01-14-12 10:15 AM
  19. T_Touch's Avatar
    We're all entitled to our opinions, but everyone I know who owns an iPad (myself included) does not own an iPhone, nor do they intend to. If they had (unknowingly) bought an iPad that did not have native email capabilities, most would have returned them. Tablets today are being marketed as potential portable replacements for laptops. I use my iPad and PlayBook about 75% of the time now, in the one year I've owned tablets. I personally would not have bought a tablet if it were nothing but a glorified ereader and game machine. Yes, I bought the PlayBook under the assumption that it would be getting the OS2 features added, including native email. I respect your opinions, but I believe (since we're coming from the BB world) that you're misreading the desires of the general public in this case.
    Indeed we are all entitled to our own opinions and this thread happens to express my own. I would argue that many of your iPhone-less friends have gmail, yahoo, or other accounts that they can access just fine with their PB or their iPads. I would also argue that if tablets are being offered as replacement laptops, then accessing their web-based email should not be a problem.

    But my main point of contention is really with your last statement that I'm "misreading the desires of the general public in this case". I think this is incorrect.

    My point is simply now that 2.0 will offer native email, what will make the PB a better product is the other features offered and even future improvements that will have nothing to do with native email. I said in my OP that I was not personally impressed with that feature and I even admitted that I may be biased in my opinion. It did little more than what my phone already does save the fact that it will displayed on a bigger screen. But then again, I can do that anyway without native email when I simply pair my device with my PlayBook.

    It's the remote feature that is what's really the selling point.
    Uncle Remus likes this.
    01-14-12 10:35 AM
  20. howarmat's Avatar
    IMO with native email and such you can market it to people other than blackberry owners. This is a far bigger pool than before. Yes the remote feature is good but again only appeals to blackberry users which is a smaller pool. For those without a BB the PB is a much better tablet option once OS 2 is released.
    AggreX and pantlesspenguin like this.
    01-14-12 10:42 AM
  21. omniusovermind's Avatar
    Native email is faster but I went web-based on my desktop due to not wanting the clutter bogging up my hard drive. don't know how it will affect the PB OS yet though.
    01-14-12 11:08 AM
  22. Zirak's Avatar
    The PlayBook has to be a self-contained unit to be successful. A company cannot count on a base of their phone owners to be able to utilize features that should be there from the start.
    hindsight has possibly (if the PB takes off then you are correct) shown that email is necessary. I thought RIM had the correct idea with regards to no email and bridge, I thought 5% of phone users would have grabbed a PB making it a "success"
    I did not even consider that RIM was going to try and sway (many) iphone + ipad users to convert to BB for a tablet, they should leave that to the phones.
    Perhaps if the PB had a few more business "apps" it would have made it in enterprise months ago.
    I don't get the 1999 backwards thinking that we need to have all our apps/email on every device. I would rather have 1 device with all my mail/data on it and have IT connect to different input/output devices.
    01-14-12 11:15 AM
  23. dandbj13's Avatar
    Without native email and PIM, the PB is nothing more than an expensive accessory for a BB phone. With those features, it is a stand-alone tablet. If RIM believed any of the BS security explanations for why it is good not to have email on the tablet, they would have built a 2.0 build without those features for security minded customers.

    The fact is, RIM wanted everyone to have native email and PIM onboard. They were just late getting it done. They were desperate to rush something out the door to compete. They thought they could limp along for a few weeks while they patched it up. Those few weeks turned into the year from He!!.

    I'm glad it has worked out for some. But RIM never intended the PB to be without those things. Everyone who claimed to prefer not having email on their device is having to scramble to come up with another line. Not one of those people is going to refuse to upgrade because it forces native email on them. Time to put the email argument to bed. It's over.

    RIM was not trying to make an expensive accessory; they were trying to compete with the iPad. The accessory idea is a non-starter. Even RIM customers preferred the iPad to the PB. At least with this update, I can see RIM keeping more of its customers in the fold. Once RIM secures their own base, they can think about going after someone else's. This is the first step in that direction.
    pantlesspenguin and blue-b like this.
    01-14-12 11:25 AM
  24. howarmat's Avatar
    hindsight has possibly (if the PB takes off then you are correct) shown that email is necessary. I thought RIM had the correct idea with regards to no email and bridge, I thought 5% of phone users would have grabbed a PB making it a "success"
    I did not even consider that RIM was going to try and sway (many) iphone + ipad users to convert to BB for a tablet, they should leave that to the phones.
    Perhaps if the PB had a few more business "apps" it would have made it in enterprise months ago.
    I don't get the 1999 backwards thinking that we need to have all our apps/email on every device. I would rather have 1 device with all my mail/data on it and have IT connect to different input/output devices.
    which might have been fine, but the bridge doesnt work for iOS nor android devices. Native email argument would be not nearly a big deal if that were the case.
    01-14-12 11:27 AM
  25. conix67's Avatar
    Try to use PB today at work without BB. Like in meetings or presentations. If RIM built PB as companion for BB at work, they succeeded. But their assumption was not correct since many people don't use BB.

    Email client is the core of all apps for workplace, and possibly instant messengers which seem to be the trend these days. So a productivity focused device such as PB or other tablets must have these requirements fulfilled before adding other extras.

    The concern about lack of native email since PB's introduction is quite valid. It is also the reason OS 2.0 is being praised by media.
    01-14-12 11:58 AM
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