Playbook is an amazing tablet - but it sucks because of lack of apps

The really good Twitter apps (desktop and iPad and phone) are quicker and easily more fluid than twitter.com. They give you notifications directly instead of forcing you to clutter your email inbox with all your twitter @mentions. The good apps consistently remember where you left off. They keep the context of your TL as you dive into other conversations (the official iPad app is especially good at this) or even as you come back to your TL after a few hours. They give you attachments inline even if the poster didn't use the official twitter services for those.

I think once you see better twitter apps for PB, people will realize the browser really is a poor substitute, particularly on a tablet.

so the op can post another thread about something repeated ad nauseam, but we can't say anything to the contrary?

crackberry.com: all app complaints, all the time.

i am running out of lions winter ale. granville island brewing better have more. i need a keg. vanilla makes it extra tasty.

Originally Posted by pkcable

Come on guys! If you have nothing to contribute to the discussion, just move along to the next thread. The OP has a point, and is entitled to express it, and others can agree or disagree. HOWEVER lets not insult each other!

Originally Posted by amro

so the op can post another thread about something repeated ad nauseam, but we can't say anything to the contrary?

crackberry.com: all app complaints, all the time.

i am running out of lions winter ale. granville island brewing better have more. i need a keg. vanilla makes it extra tasty.

amro,

It's not what you say, it's HOW you say it. ;) Yes you CAN disagree and state your point, you should do so WITHOUT being insulting.

Originally Posted by pcguy514

You must not like cookies, this is NEVER a problem if you stop using clear all option . Clear CACHE and local storage in browser not cookies.

Nope, many websites simply require a login after a certain period of time, example EBay.

if posters stopped complaining about the same things that we already know about, it wouldn't have to be pointed out time after time. we could all move on to something more productive, like my previously mentioned rum, beer, and bikini apps.

and please show me where i've insulted anyone. i openly admit i've said posts and threads are ridiculous. because they simply are. but i haven't insulted anyone.

i got 20 points towards something. i assume a ban, for "insulting a user". the comment was "threads like this insult my intelligence."

I have 168 apps on my PB. Thinking of buying more, like splashtop, or maybe the footbal game.

I like twitter better on phones, like the apps I have on my iPhone/pod and BB.

I can agree that BlackBerry generally does have a lack of apps, for their smartphones and tablet. I really do hope this changes. I don't hold RIM 100% accountable for this though.. When you're talking about netflix and Skype and stuff there's responsibility for the respective companies to do something about it as well.

It really is the one major thing I can think of that is keeping the Playbook on a leash.. It's too much of an important aspect to disregard.. And although the tablet itself is absolutely awesome, its only half of the picture. The ecosystem is the other half. They don't have a terrible ecosystem and it is very satisfying for some, me included.. I mean it does everything I want it to do and much more than other tablets, but in some cases much less.

But you can clearly see that every platform has its ups and downs and is geared towards different people. Nothing is perfect, far from it.

The playbook is not a failure in itself. It has great hardware, great OS, a decent selection of apps, but they do need to be expand on that, and if you've been following RIM at all, you can see that they really are trying in this department. Games are great on the pb in my opinion. Excellent form factor and they run really great.

Not just twitter but there are a few apps that I am surprised that RIM will not make. I don't have a BlackBerry phone, but when I search the AppStore on my laptop I notice there are quite a few apps made by RIM that is only available for it's phones and not the PlayBook. Maybe things like GTalk and MSN can't work because it is required in the background (I don't know, just a guess), but other apps look good that don't require to run in the background (like BlackBerry Travel).

Originally Posted by amro

if posters stopped complaining about the same things that we already know about, it wouldn't have to be pointed out time after time. we could all move on to something more productive, like my previously mentioned rum, beer, and bikini apps.

and please show me where i've insulted anyone. i openly admit i've said posts and threads are ridiculous. because they simply are. but i haven't insulted anyone.

i got 20 points towards something. i assume a ban, for "insulting a user". the comment was "threads like this insult my intelligence."

That's CB for you. Only insult bb or RIM cause anything else is off topic.

The App thing really is done to death. I don't buy 'we NEED apps' even though its being constantly rammed down our throats. Obviously a lot of others are all about the apps, but I don't know why they come here to spread the word. The other operating systems obviously have more apps developed, people who want apps 400,000 apps should go stick with those platforms. Pretty simple.

Originally Posted by OttawaGabe

Nope, many websites simply require a login after a certain period of time, example EBay.

That is with good reason the default behavior of most financial sites. Fb, cb, twit, msn, gmail etc never ask for pass if cookies are untouched. Same as you need a desktop browser.

Needless to say if you prefer to have apps like ebay keep your password you will eventually have more to worry about than lack of apps on your pb. If you catch my drift.

Don't care that there is no Twitter app, cause don't see the need. Is there a real need for Twitter in anyone's life? Just saying...

All this has become extremely tedious.... it is simple... as with anything you purchase... if it does not do what you want... talke it back and find something that does... If apps are how you judge you device... and there are not enough... buy a device that does.....

I for one work that way.... When I bought my Playbook when they first came out... I found many apps preloaded.... NDS, Tetris, Docs to Go.. etc. Playbook suites my needs just fine... If it stops to, I will simply set sail to the land of Apple and Android......

So many people hating on the OP. How could you not agree ? The OP is totally 100% correct. It's ok to admit it. I would go a step further and say part of the problem is the large number of post OS 2 Android garbo apps. Just look in the New Arrivals area in games or apps. You would be lucky to find one single solid app that you use twice a week. Go ahead and look.

Before OS 2 was released the folks at RIM were banging the "Quality not quantity" drum. What ever happened to that ?

Originally Posted by mickeyboat

BS. Too hard to put twitter.com in your bookmarks I guess. With the power of the PB you need few apps.

Too hard to put domain.com email in your bookmarks I guess. Everybody's using the email app for some unknown reason.

Originally Posted by amro

funny how you all want apps for use on a tablet, yet don't say a word about using a web browser on a desktop.

Desktop = 14" - 22" (may be bigger or smaller) + full physical keyboard + mouse/trackpad + at least 720p screen (on most) + most websites are desktop targetted

PB = 7" + touch screen keyboard + no mouse (for those tiny links and radio buttons) + 1024x600 screen

Originally Posted by kennyliu

Desktop = 14" - 22" (may be bigger or smaller) + full physical keyboard + mouse/trackpad + at least 720p screen (on most) + most websites are desktop targetted

PB = 7" + touch screen keyboard + no mouse (for those tiny links and radio buttons) + 1024x600 screen

and one tap to open a browser.

facebook app? as much as i hate timeline, the browser lets me save pics posted by my friends. the app, not so much. the app doesn't show the groups i have been forced to sign up for. it doesn't filter out stupid game posts. it doesn't do half the things you can do in the browser. using the integrated messages app for twitter and facebook just makes things worse. may as well be reading braille.

Originally Posted by amro

and one tap to open a browser.

facebook app? as much as i hate timeline, the browser lets me save pics posted by my friends. the app, not so much. the app doesn't show the groups i have been forced to sign up for. it doesn't filter out stupid game posts. it doesn't do half the things you can do in the browser. using the integrated messages app for twitter and facebook just makes things worse. may as well be reading braille.

Because the PB facebook app is crA p.

Now, my favorite part, can you answer why there are so many apps in Google Play and why do so many people download them by millions (paid or free)?

Edit: Oh, and as I can see, you are using an app for Twitter. Also, if you go to App World, you'll see that Blaq (paid) is a top app. Why would that be the case? People don't know they can use twitter.com in their browser :confused:

Originally Posted by dbmalloy

All this has become extremely tedious.... it is simple... as with anything you purchase... if it does not do what you want... talke it back and find something that does... If apps are how you judge you device... and there are not enough... buy a device that does.....

I for one work that way.... When I bought my Playbook when they first came out... I found many apps preloaded.... NDS, Tetris, Docs to Go.. etc. Playbook suites my needs just fine... If it stops to, I will simply set sail to the land of Apple and Android......

Tedious is the word I would use for anyone who continues to repeat the RIM mantra of "its coming soon" or "it will get better sometime soon" or "we will leapfrog the competition" or the now laughable saying "quality apps are on their way".

We are now almost a year into the Playbook's life-cycle and, arguably, the ecosystem is still lacking and it doesn't look like the ecosystem, or lack thereof, is going to improve anytime soon. In fact, given the advent of poor to horrible - with a few notable exceptions - of Android apps, I'd argue that the ecosystem is worse now then it was prior to the launch of the Android player. It has become clear to all but the most blind that premium brand developers have made a choice to ignore the Playbook; a situation that does not look like its going to be addressed anytime soon.

I understand the frustration on the part of the OP and I also understand the frustration on the part of those users who believe that apps dont matter. The latter group is clearly in the minority though when it comes to consumers; it is for this reason alone the Playbook continues to struggle despite quality hardware.

I can't help but be reminded of what happened to the Sega Saturn - quality/superior hardware at the time combined with horrible, limited, and non-existant titles. The result? Well, as many people on these forums have suggested to those complaining about the lack of apps; people went to other consoles and the Sega Saturn was relegated to nothing more than a bit player. Is this prophetic? Time will tell.

Originally Posted by dbmalloy

All this has become extremely tedious.... it is simple... as with anything you purchase... if it does not do what you want... talke it back and find something that does... If apps are how you judge you device... and there are not enough... buy a device that does.....

I for one work that way.... When I bought my Playbook when they first came out... I found many apps preloaded.... NDS, Tetris, Docs to Go.. etc. Playbook suites my needs just fine... If it stops to, I will simply set sail to the land of Apple and Android......

I love my playbook and it's *capable* of doing what I want, or it might be if it had apps comparable to the others. I don't want to "set sail" to another platform. I want this one to be successful. I think the OP, and the countless others venting here, want that as well. Maybe there should be a specific forum area for this?

why do people download android apps at all? because they like malware?

i've never been to the android app whatever. i don't care what's available there. i don't use android apps on the playbook. i refuse to.

i don't have a twitturd app. i don't twitturd. it's a waste of time. it's bad enough i do anything on facebook, considering it's just a data mining site.

makes perfect sense to me.

get your head out of the blackberry forums and read what's happening around you. the android app place has been hit by malware for the second time in recent weeks. the apps will mine emails and contact info and anything else it can find and send it to the "dev's" web site. what kind of checks and balances does google have in place? none, it seems, since this has happened more than once.

i bet it takes a long long time to have some kind of exploit found in the pb browser.

super crossfire? great app. facebook and twitturd? better experience in the browser hands down.

and the malware android app was downloaded something like 70000 times before anyone even noticed a problem.

Any other horror stories?

Looks like your arguments are against Google's security/privacy policies, but not against apps per se. Am I correct? Or would you still argue that, if RIM or Google had very strict app privacy/security (such as Apple's) policies in place, apps would be useless because there is the browser?

'Apps' is a marketing tool. Its ambiguous and non-defined. Apple's platform is catered towards requiring apps. Android is open and its utilised by a large proportion of OEMs and has led to the development of a significant amount of apps. It is true iOS and Android have far more 'apps' than the other current mobile platforms but this 'advantage' is more a marketing tool than an actual advantage. Thats the truth. We need apps like we need tablets....... we don't.

i don't argue apps are useless. i just pointed out i think super crossfire is a great app.

the facebook app doesn't give you facebook like facebook is presented and rendered for a browser. the experience is different, and lacking (and even the things that suck about facebook are missing in the app, as i've already pointed out). twitter i don't care about, but the web rendering should be far better than an app, because it's coming from twitter itself.

i have several conversion apps. i still load the browser and ask google for the conversion. i don't use the bing mapping app as it just plain sucks. i use google in the browser. i've never opened the google mail app, if it even is an app. probably just a launcher for the browser. the google email app for the phones sucked. the integrated messaging app was better. even the phone browser was better for email.

isn't it better to see the desired content as it was supposed to be, not as some third party thinks you should see it?