[blackjack93117]

Autocorrect? Arrow Keys? Let's get REALLLL crazy. A DELETE KEY EVEN???
Ya know. Stuff that has existed on every other virtual keyboard for a decade.

Dare to dream man.

Ahh thanks for the explanation. Good points actually, would have helped if you mentioned that in your first post.. Get a bluetooth keyboard if you basically want a netbook or a laptop. Wrong device for you - return it and move on. This is not for typing dissertations (shoulda been obvious) . It serves the needs of "legions" of others .. A lot of stuff doesn't even require typing, and a lot requires minimal typing. Dare to dream man!

Not saying arrow keys and delete keys would not be helpful, surely they would! But I'm sure not going to toss the thing in the trash over it. Autocorrect I find more annoying than helpful... NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT backspace backspace Arggg You're a college student, learn to spell and type.

[tchocky77]

Ahh thanks for the explanation. Good points actually, would have helped if you mentioned that in your first post.. Get a bluetooth keyboard if you basically want a netbook or a laptop. Wrong device for you - return it and move on.

See. If those things are industry standards, (they are), and have been for years, why is it unreasonable to expect them on a device launched 4 months ago? BB's attitude that I should waste money on a peripheral to bring them to parity does not bode well for them. Some of you seem to expect substandard features. My question is why?

[blackjack93117]

See. If those things are industry standards, (they are), and have been for years, why is it unreasonable to expect them on a device launched 4 months ago? BB's attitude that I should waste money on a peripheral to bring them to parity does not bode well for them. Some of you seem to expect substandard features. My question is why?

ok I got curious. please show me the arrow and delete keys on the iThingy, the standard of the industry. I could honestly be missing it because I don't even want to touch the thing.

[newshutr]

just go for the one that gives what you want...

Dated a girl like that...

[newshutr]

Posthaste? Boss? Cherry?

Someone got their hands on a thesaurus app....

[tchocky77]

Fanbois treat criticism of favorite brands as threat to self-image


Just happened to see this on Ars. Kismet that I should read such a thing on the same day I'm exposed to some PlayBook supporters.

[sookster54]

Why don't you check out the ipad where you lose all kinds of important formatting like footnotes if you uses Apple's Pages word processor?

Tablets have no place in the "back to school" world. You can't write an academic paper without footnote citations.

^ hahahahaha

[Mvor7]

Buy a Laptop dammit! YES, it's not as cool. But YES it does it all.

[Cynn]

See. If those things are industry standards, (they are), and have been for years, why is it unreasonable to expect them on a device launched 4 months ago? BB's attitude that I should waste money on a peripheral to bring them to parity does not bode well for them. Some of you seem to expect substandard features. My question is why?

iOS lacks these buttons and I'm pretty sure Android does as well. It seems obvious that you are new to the tablet world on the whole. If you had instead purchased an iPad it too would have lacked these "industry standard" buttons. Would you have rushed posthaste to whine and moan on an Apple forum with this same diatribe? Educate yourself before purchases and these things won't happen.

[blackjack93117]

This:

Fanbois treat criticism of favorite brands as threat to self-image

Just happened to see this on Ars. Kismet that I should read such a thing on the same day I'm exposed to some PlayBook supporters.

Is your response to this?

ok I got curious. please show me the arrow and delete keys on the iThingy, the standard of the industry. I could honestly be missing it because I don't even want to touch the thing.

Nah I don't think it's a self image thing, I think it's a matter of being annoyed by someone who doesn't know what they are talking about, but pretends they do..while also pretending that they are not some other kind of fanboy. And then pretending they are a student while using 30 year old outdated slang and comparisons to keyboards from the IBM PC days? (Industry standard in the 80's)

[brucep1]

Schools and colleges have no idea of what they are doing. They are doing it for PR purposes and they are getting money from somebody.

We have seen a generation of children who can't do the 3R's properly because the money was misspent on magical technology.

They are doing it for PR purposes? Actually, they are doing it to save on the cost of producing textbooks, which in turn makes costs less to students. You can buy an Ipad version of the book for significantly less than the paper version.

By this statement, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

And I don't know what college you attended, but students at my college handled the 3R's just fine. In my post, I mentioned colleges, but I can see how you would get confused by the big sentences and words I'm using, which in turn makes you think I was talking about regular schools.

[sookster54]

I find the PB's keyboard very accurate, I'm capable of typing 120-140wpm on a computer keyboard or typewriter with less than 1% error margin (I'm 40, been typing since I was 6), I find the PlayBook's keyboard very accurate where you put your thumb/finger, the iPad/iPod keyboard is the same way but Android keyboards are annoying and way too easy to press the wrong keys (which is why I like SlideIT and formally Swype, Swype sucks now).

Of course the PB's lack of error correction is one drawback to the keyboard, hopefully an update will add that.

[OverShadow417]

Btw since when do high school students use the phrase "Posthaste" ?

Hey, using underutilized words is a path to gargantuan win and ye shalt not bash those that use nigh forgotten tools of literary conveyance and uncouth speech patterns, for they are to be congratulated on sprucing up what would otherwise be a boring and *Insert synonym for LAME here* post.

Also - "Posthaste" is a word, not phrase, so touch�! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

[DivideBYZero]

Obvious Troll is obvious.

[samab]

They are doing it for PR purposes? Actually, they are doing it to save on the cost of producing textbooks, which in turn makes costs less to students. You can buy an Ipad version of the book for significantly less than the paper version.

By this statement, you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

And I don't know what college you attended, but students at my college handled the 3R's just fine. In my post, I mentioned colleges, but I can see how you would get confused by the big sentences and words I'm using, which in turn makes you think I was talking about regular schools.

The colleges are getting their names in the press and they aren't giving you 100% of the saving. They are pocketing the difference. I am also talking about selected colleges requiring their students to get specific brand of laptops and ipads.

If you want to have electronic college textbooks, you can buy a kindle which cost a lot less than the ipad.

[tampasoccer]

return it, stay away from BBs, you're obviously not qualified.

moronic statement. obvious fanboy.

[tampasoccer]

Obvious Troll is obvious.

'Troll'- someone who dares to disagree with RIM fanboys and actually have a truthful opinion on how crap something is.

It's ok though, an update is 'coming soon' for their personality flaw.

I wonder if BetaMax and the Atari Lynx had as many brainwashed fanboys as BlackBerry does?

[frfghtr]

I wonder if BetaMax had as many brainwashed fanboys as BlackBerry does?

Probably, because it was a better format. Unfortunately, Sony's poor marketing strategy led to it's downfall.

It's editing, hi-fi, picture quality and transport functions were far superior to VHS but less recording time, higher price and mass production of VHS by Sony's competitors led to it's demise.

[brucep1]

The colleges are getting their names in the press and they aren't giving you 100% of the saving. They are pocketing the difference. I am also talking about selected colleges requiring their students to get specific brand of laptops and ipads.

If you want to have electronic college textbooks, you can buy a kindle which cost a lot less than the ipad.

Colleges are a business..No business is going to pass along 100% of the savings, why would they? But, it does pass some savings on to the student.

It's not about just getting their name in the press. The ipad has a couple of unbelievable apps that work BETTER than textbooks..For example, a number of medical apps exist for prescribing drugs, helping doctors determine the correct amount of dosage and timeliness of use. These are also used by many teachers in the medical field.

Saying Ipads don't have a place in the classroom or that they hinder students' growth is just a moronic and uneducated statement.

[tampasoccer]

Probably, because it was a better format. Unfortunately, Sony's poor marketing strategy led to it's downfall.

It's editing, hi-fi, picture quality and transport functions were far superior to VHS but less recording time, higher price and mass production of VHS by Sony's competitors led to it's demise.

I did quite an in-depth post comparing the two a few months ago. The similarities are quite strong; better format etc but not opening up to others...

[frfghtr]

I did quite an in-depth post comparing the two a few months ago. The similarities are quite strong; better format etc but not opening up to others...

Even though beta bit the big one and frustration rose daily with the inability to rent tapes, I still took great pleasure watching news programs and seeing cameramen lugging these huge Betamax video cameras around because the VHS models just could not compete.

I wonder if mine still works?

[mjs416]

I can't even interface with efficiently.


*goes to check out the Crackberry iPhone forum*

Lots of stuff you cant with efficiently I would say.

[samab]

Colleges are a business..No business is going to pass along 100% of the savings, why would they? But, it does pass some savings on to the student.

It's not about just getting their name in the press. The ipad has a couple of unbelievable apps that work BETTER than textbooks..For example, a number of medical apps exist for prescribing drugs, helping doctors determine the correct amount of dosage and timeliness of use. These are also used by many teachers in the medical field.

Saying Ipads don't have a place in the classroom or that they hinder students' growth is just a moronic and uneducated statement.

Medical school represents 0.0001% of the entire collegiate student population.

And if you can get into medical school, you already got your 3R's perfected.

[BigD00d]

Wow, read the first post of this thread, and can't say I disagree more.

Bought the playbook because I was tired of lugging around the ten pounds of laptop/charger I was using for college previously. Instead i use the playbook tied to my Storm 2, makes it wayyy more easy to take notes.

I may be a bit biased as I have giant, massive man-hands that allow me to thumb-type in landscape mode so it's easier to type. About the only thing I really, really dislike is the lack of autocorrect, which is a shame considering how awesome it is on my main BB.

As per the Ipad/Android tablets, they both feel crappier IMO. Android tablets are just rather flimsy(the big 10 inch Acer feels so cheap. The screen is a blocky, unresponsive feeling plastic, and the finger-controls are counter-intuitive/less fluid than the PBs sweeping strokes. The Ipad is literally the Iphone OS stretched to a bigger screen, and iOS is pretty much crap ona stick.)

One fo the big things I've had to learn is that the PB doesn't need to use apps.

For example: The other day I was thinking about what I'd like to have on my PB. On my phone I use 4-5 apps consistently, and one of them is Pandora. So Bing!, An idea in my head. I'd love a Pandora app for my play-Oh wait!I can just go to the Pandora website! It's like being on a full-fledged browser!

And since Amazon just released their kindle cloud player I can now view my textbooks on my PB rather than my BB. Even better! Not to mention the PB runs my college's java-based website a lot better(read: It actually lets me use it) than Ipad.

[bpdude]

Wow, read the first post of this thread, and can't say I disagree more.

Bought the playbook because I was tired of lugging around the ten pounds of laptop/charger I was using for college previously. Instead i use the playbook tied to my Storm 2, makes it wayyy more easy to take notes.

I may be a bit biased as I have giant, massive man-hands that allow me to thumb-type in landscape mode so it's easier to type. About the only thing I really, really dislike is the lack of autocorrect, which is a shame considering how awesome it is on my main BB.

As per the Ipad/Android tablets, they both feel crappier IMO. Android tablets are just rather flimsy(the big 10 inch Acer feels so cheap. The screen is a blocky, unresponsive feeling plastic, and the finger-controls are counter-intuitive/less fluid than the PBs sweeping strokes. The Ipad is literally the Iphone OS stretched to a bigger screen, and iOS is pretty much crap ona stick.)

One fo the big things I've had to learn is that the PB doesn't need to use apps.

For example: The other day I was thinking about what I'd like to have on my PB. On my phone I use 4-5 apps consistently, and one of them is Pandora. So Bing!, An idea in my head. I'd love a Pandora app for my play-Oh wait!I can just go to the Pandora website! It's like being on a full-fledged browser!

And since Amazon just released their kindle cloud player I can now view my textbooks on my PB rather than my BB. Even better! Not to mention the PB runs my college's java-based website a lot better(read: It actually lets me use it) than Ipad.

Now theres a blast of fresh air. Good common sense post.