- I recently took my PB to a progress review evening at my school and all my friends thought it was really cool. Most people there only have iPads or android tablets so had never seen something like the PB.......
Is this something that has only happened to me or are people just generally suprised with capabilities of the PB??Geeoff likes this.04-08-12 11:11 AMLike 1 - I recently took my PB to a progress review evening at my school and all my friends thought it was really cool. Most people there only have iPads or android tablets so had never seen something like the PB.......
Is this something that has only happened to me or are people just generally suprised with capabilities of the PB??04-08-12 11:14 AMLike 3 - Everywhere I have brought my PB has always garnered interest. I carry mine in the convertible case so I can prop it up and surf while tethered or watch a video or two and I always get asked if it's an iPad. With a smile on my face, I respond "Nope, this is a BlackBerry" while surfing flash heavy websites over my Bold 9700's 3G connection.
The best and most priceless (and rather useful) moment of my PlayBook was when opening a new account and their internet was going insanely slow being on a shared DSL line.
Getting to the online setup of my account the banker was waiting forever for the terminal to creep to life just so I could activate my online banking and I pulled out my PlayBook and not only caught up with the banker but completed the process entirely via Bridge Mode/Tethering.
They were quite impressed as none of them have seen a PlayBook before. Even a few there commented "I thought BlackBerry was out of business" and here I am before them with my little PlayBook and it blazing much faster over T-Mobile in comparison to their corporate Intranet and dedicated DSL line of which must have been awfully slow or their Windows Terminal server simply not having enough memory to have so many open sessions. All simply bypassed by an "old" Bold 9700 and my little PlayBook at speeds they never thought possible.
I've had a ton of moments like these with people who had iPad 2's and various Android based tablets (no fanboyism here, I also have an iPad 2) and after showing them the clarity of the 3MP front facing camera, they were quite impressed, even more so when I demoed the ability to capture full 1080p video from either camera and the sound quality of the PB's speakers.
For a tablet I bought out of simple curisoity, I am happy to have bought it as now it goes everywhere with me. I still get plenty of use out of my iPad 2 as well as the larger screen is great for reading (I'd love a third generation iPad for the sake of higher definition text whilst reading but just simply can't justify the purchase right now).
I consider what I see is having a bit of the best of both worlds. Having the iPad and the PlayBook make a great combo. My PlayBook is almost always with me when I head out and while charging it up, I have my iPad for reading various books and some great games on the iOS platform. I really would like to get my hands on a Android tablet to see just how user friendly they can be but some run FroYo on a tablet which is just weird to me as I'd rather have a shot at the dedicated tablet based Honeycomb experience.OttawaGabe and fruitdroid like this.04-08-12 12:08 PMLike 2 -
It seems very shallow to continuously whine about what isn't there and completely ignore what is there.04-08-12 12:23 PMLike 5 - i actually think it is shallow to continuously deny RIM doesn't have enough apps compare to both Android and IOS. Sideload doesn't countOttawaGabe likes this.04-08-12 04:14 PMLike 1
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Over the years I developed a freeware philosophy on all my devices... which is somewhat flexible since I also use OEM bundled apps or giveaways. I ignore crippleware such as "lite" or "free" limit versions of apps for this is not real freeware (see how this is a huge share of the free content at BB App World...).
If you go to iOS or Android anyone can very easily have an extremely functional device without impacting their finances. Can't talk about Windows Phone since I know almost nothing about the app availability (but even Windows Mobile had at least one quality app in every segment). In the PB things are such that apps free under other tablet OSes are paid here!
Even though this is my approach. If I were to pay for apps the one's I'd be most outraged to pay for are the ones I need to buy because what my OEM gives is of insufficient quality or feature.
Take the following for instance:
1- By size and design one of the main uses a PB can have is ebook reading. Yet it lacks the ability to open common ebooks (not counting pdf) such as epub or even txt! No actual free decent app or even a good paid one (not at the level of Moon+ Reader at least).
2- The bundled PDF reader is lousy (inferior to the ports under other tablet OSes) and there is no free or paid native alternative app.
3- The office suite (from a company owned by RIM) is inferior to the versions under other tablet OSes. Only recently an alternative appeared (yet it's moronic having to pay because your OEM didn't do their due).
4- The web browser leaves much to desire. The amount of web pages that doesn't work is unacceptable (there's also the lack of multi simultaneous page rendering, bookmark organization, no adblocking...). The native alternatives aren't as complete as the native and are paid.
5- The video codec support is not half bad though it's not VLC / mplayer level. If you need subtiles you have to pay, if the format is unsupported there's no alternative (besides flv which should be there out of the box since Flash Player supports it).
6- File management is practically nonexistent out of the box. Air Browser is the only "native" free decent file manager yet the UI is cumbersome and it lacks features.
Image that on your PC or Mac you didn't have the most basic apps or that the bundled ones ranged from mediocre to awful and imagine you had no Kindle/Calibre/..., Adobe Reader/Foxit/Sumatra..., LibreOffice/AbiWord/..., Firefox/Chrome/Opera/Safari, VLC/mplayer/iTunes/codecs/..., file management... Now imagine all that was available was paid and inferior to the above mentioned.
Yeah everyone is just a whining without just cause.
I won't talk much about the absence of out of the box admin/root access. Would anyone here allow this in a Windows / Linux / Mac machine? Is this even supposed to be acceptable? Who is actually the owner of the device/OS you bought? Why would it be an acceptable standard on the mobile devices (just because Apple cemented this dictatorship with iOS are users supposed to lie down and take it when other OSes follow the same trend?). Am I supposed to only be able to use the apps the device/OS maker decides that are appropriate or allowed for me to use? But I digress.
That said yeah my PB catches the eye of a lot of my colleagues. Most tablet owners at my workplace have iPads as expected and they like the clean design and compact size of the PB. But it would be impossible for me to convince anyone to get one (not that I would even try... I myself would have bought a Kindle given the same choice again). I love the hardware (and the sale price was competitive) but it makes me sad that I can't actually count on it for the functions it was expected to do.Last edited by joaosousa; 04-08-12 at 05:06 PM.
04-08-12 04:34 PMLike 9 - I was denying nothing but to have the "I want everything for free" philosophy is to want substandard software. PCs often come with MS Works as a word processor. It hasn't nearly the capabilities of MS Office, but Office will cost you considerably more to get.
I have downloaded apps from App World. Some I've paid for and some were free. I don't care if an app that answers my needs costs me money. I don't need it to be free.
I use my Sony PRS650 to read books but the 99 cent BookReader (which I did purchase) works very well for cookbooks and for illustrated children's books I have for my granddaughter.
I get that some of you are of the "I want what I want RIGHT NOW" mentality, but life sometimes throws you a curve. If what you want is what is available on Android and/or Apple, save your pennies and get an Android or an iPad. Simple.
I manage just fine with my PB and that's really all I care about. If you are unhappy, well, there's a solution for you.04-08-12 06:35 PMLike 0 - hpjrt, you know we are often on the same side, but I honestly don't understand your attitude. We are the consumers, the paying customers, no congregants in the Church of RIM. I, for one, am totally disgusted with the lack of apps, paid or free, and I think management should be doing a he!! of a lot more to fix this situation.OttawaGabe and kennyliu like this.04-08-12 07:35 PMLike 2
- the truth is that apps make a OS these days. What does it matter if QNX is great if there are no apps to make it useful. I mean, there are no banking apps on AppWorld, mint.com doesn't have an BB app, five guys doesn't have an BB app. If RIM can't instill a sense of continuity and value in the minds of the consumer, why would any company develop an app for it? Same goes for OS 7, which they pretty much said won't continue since the change to BB10. Then, who, I ask, will make an app for an OS that will find it's way to developing markets and low end devices only? That's why I sold my Bold 9930 and got an Android. Now I have Amazon, banking, mint, and can play and chat with family and friends over a multitude of apps.04-08-12 07:55 PMLike 0
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There's another problem with App World, if you want to bring them up. Many potentially useful apps are fairly pricey, and usually costs more than on Android or iOS. It makes me difficult to commit to purchase as there's no going back if I didn't like the apps. They should have more trial versions made available.
Anyway, having just these several useful apps won't satisfy majority of tablet consumers.pcguy514 likes this.04-08-12 08:11 PMLike 1 - You can pretty much access everything through the browser...banking, amazon, movies, tv shows etc. and playbook's browser is great and getting better with each upgrade
With free apps comes advertising...I dislike apps with advertising. I would rather pay the $2 than have to view advertising every time I use it
There are some games from App World that show how great the pb is for gaming. It's the perfect size to hold in you hands and the screen and speakers are also great.Last edited by anthogag; 04-08-12 at 08:24 PM.
CairnsRock and bigbmc26 like this.04-08-12 08:22 PMLike 2 - You can pretty much access everything through the browser...banking, amazon, movies, tv shows etc. and playbook's browser is great and getting better with each upgrade
With free apps comes advertising...I dislike apps with advertising. I would rather pay the $2 than have to view advertising every time I use it04-08-12 08:24 PMLike 0 - hpjrt, you know we are often on the same side, but I honestly don't understand your attitude. We are the consumers, the paying customers, no congregants in the Church of RIM. I, for one, am totally disgusted with the lack of apps, paid or free, and I think management should be doing a he!! of a lot more to fix this situation.
You and I are often on the same page but in this case I suppose it comes down to what one expects from App World. I have downloaded some apps that suit my own personal needs. Being Canadian apps like Netflix is a non-issue since what is available on Netflix Canada isn't worth the subscription. Skype would be nice I suppose but the only person we would Skype with is my step-daughter in Australia so it's not a huge issue for me. (Besides, I'm not overly fond of my own image so video chats are repugnant to me in general!)
Unlike you, I do not have any experience with other tablets, so I suppose my expectations are less as a result. Do I think RIM should be doing everything they can to get as many quality apps they can? Absolutely. Do I expect this to happen overnight? As a small business owner I can understand how sometimes things just don't happen as quickly as one would like.
As long as I get what I need from my PB I'm content. Not everything in App World is crap.
That said, I agree with Conix67 that there should be more free trials for some of the more costly apps.alan510 likes this.04-08-12 08:43 PMLike 1 - You can pretty much access everything through the browser...banking, amazon, movies, tv shows etc. and playbook's browser is great and getting better with each upgrade
With free apps comes advertising...I dislike apps with advertising. I would rather pay the $2 than have to view advertising every time I use it
There are some games from App World that show how great the pb is for gaming. It's the perfect size to hold in you hands and the screen and speakers are also great.
I have RBC app on my iPhone. It's far more convenient than even a PC with browser. Good apps are awesome on smartphones/tablets and the browser is simply a backup when apps lack.
Don't mind paying $2 for good apps of course.04-08-12 08:44 PMLike 0 - Same talks as before. Browser can do a lot of things, but not better than dedicated apps. Also, as you can see from another thread, it seems the browser in OS 2.0 has some issues RIM needs to fix, before we can call it great.
I have RBC app on my iPhone. It's far more convenient than even a PC with browser. Good apps are awesome on smartphones/tablets and the browser is simply a backup when apps lack.
Don't mind paying $2 for good apps of course.
Do you have a playbook
For me the browser has been great. I'm not experiencing problems and 90% of the web pages I visit work well and look really good. There are times when it's better than my desktop computer browser.
When RIM fixes the issues it will graduate to excellent04-08-12 08:56 PMLike 0 - I love the PB os. I bought an ipod touch yessterday and I can't stand it. I feel like I have handcuffs on when I use it. I wish I bought another Playbook.04-08-12 08:56 PMLike 0
- You can pretty much access everything through the browser...banking, amazon, movies, tv shows etc. and playbook's browser is great and getting better with each upgrade
With free apps comes advertising...I dislike apps with advertising. I would rather pay the $2 than have to view advertising every time I use it
There are some games from App World that show how great the pb is for gaming. It's the perfect size to hold in you hands and the screen and speakers are also great.
1) Do you check your email in the browser or do you use the native/Bridge email?
2) So if the "full" web browser is all we need, how come Android owners download apps by millions (both free and paid)?04-08-12 09:23 PMLike 0 - Two things I ask people who claim they need nothing but a web browser:
1) Do you check your email in the browser or do you use the native/Bridge email?
2) So if the "full" web browser is all we need, how come Android owners download apps by millions (both free and paid)?
I guess my point is..."there's an app for that" is a boring iPad 'construct'. That's the Apple way and it's being forced on everyone else
I would prefer a natively strong TATalizing playbook with supporting apps. I really like what RIM is doing with HTML5bigbmc26 likes this.04-08-12 09:47 PMLike 1
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