playbook case with keyboard

Hi, am delighted with my new 64gb playbook. I want to do everything all at once.
managed to get my itunes onto it and feel way impressed with that. However, I am wondering if
any of you more knowledgeable peeps out there can advise me whether or not
to bother spending more cash on a case with bluetooth keyboard.

Have limited funds, so don't want to waste cash on impractical purchases, any advice would be
very much appreciated.:eyelashes:

I am brand new to this, so please be patient if my questions are 'dumb'

Depends on what your going to be using your playbook for. If I was going to be using any type of word processing or big e-mails I would be wanting a keyboard for sure. For random posts, twitter and facebook I don't need a keyboard.

I have a laptop where I do assignments, is it possible to do that sort of thing on a playbook? I desperately want to load up a dvd series
onto playbook but haven't a notion how to do that, have you tried. thanks for responding.

Welcome to the forums.

If you are planning to do a lot of writing, then go for the keyboard. The PB mini keyboard is the best hands down. I initially bought a cheap Keyboard from ebay and I regretted it.

To convert movies to PB compatible format the two main programs that are used is either the Freemake or the HandBrake, both free and are installed in your PC. Freemake has already presets for PB (insert dvd, choose to convert it to PB, make yourself tea/coffee/dinner and come back after an hour or so and voil�, just a matter of transferring it to you playbook either using a USB or the wifi sharing feature). The handbrake does not have a PB preset preinstalled so you need to search for it in Google.

Being a researcher in academia myself I use a lot my PB for writing papers. Expect basic formatting and needless to say forget about reference managers and so on. I have written hundreds of pages on it and there were no problems. Also great for note taking or taking photos of graphs e.t.c that they are of interest. When it comes to excel, I have given up on it cause it is next to useless.

Overall a great tool in my case. Enjoy it!!!

Edit:
To transfer movies from your PC to you PB.

1) tap the gear icon on the top right corner of your PB. from the drop down menu scroll down and tap in "storage and sharing". Tap on File sharing", "wifi sharing" and "password protect" to give them the value "on". It will ask you to create username and password. Make sure that you write them down somewhere (they are case sensitive) cause there is no way to retrieve them if you forget them. Now, on the left menu go all the way up and choose "about". The top line says "view information about your tablet: General". Click on the general and choose network. Make a note on the numbers next to iPv4. Ignore the right slash and the two numbers after it.Now go to your PC, open the a windows explorer and at the address bar type without the quotes "\\Numbers_next_to_iPv4". Ok, seriously now, put the numbers NOT the sentence. Now you are inside your palybook from you pc. In the window that will appear double click on the media folder, it will ask you for username and password which are the ones that you created earlier and now its a matter of dragging and dropping your videos to the video folder.

2) Just connect your PB to your pc using the supplied usb cable, and then its another hard drive in your PC so just drag and drop.

3) Finally again use the supplied usb cable to connect to your pc, open the desktop manager and synchronise ... stuff. It's a long time since I used this method so I forgot how it is being done.

I agree, I've tried several and if you want a case/keyboard combo you can't beat the BlackBerry mini keyboard. I just got mine for $65 and some have even found them cheaper. Quality construction, long battery life, nice typing feel and best of all, a trackpad! It will turn your PB into a mini laptop.

BTW gibbly33, there are no "dumb" questions here. Welcome and check out the Tips and Tricks sticky, as well as the PB User Manual.

thank you for that, hopefully I'll get to know as much as you seem to over the next decade maybe! Unfortunately I'm so green I don't even know what sticky means. Its going to be a long road for me i think.:rolleyes:

How do you know that the programmes are on my pc. I am in ireland and maybe its different here.

OMG a kindred spirit, I have been trawling through ebay looking for playbook gadgets, you've probably saved me some heartbreak.
Is there anything you'd recommend buying that is a playbook essential. Do you happen to use yours in your car for music? I'd like to
but I think i'll have to get a transmitter of some sort as I can't seem to see aux cable.

Am I allowed to digress a little, or do people find it annoying. Advice on forum behaviour would be appreciated, don't want to get into
anyones' 'bad playbooks' (excuse the pun} I just couldn't resist!

No problem. Feel free to ask whenever you are have problems with your PB or just to express your opinion on something. Members of this forum they will be more than happy to answer your questions and help you to resolve your problems. In general it is appreciated if you perform a search in the forums or in google beforehand because your question may have been asked and answered already.

How do you know that the programmes are on my pc. I am in ireland and maybe its different here.

I don't. I am only suggesting that these programmes are used to convert movies. You may have noticed that the programmes I wrote are in blue font. That means that you can click on them and a new page will open. This is the page that you can download the program from. I would suggest to ignore the handbrake and download the Freemake.

Originally Posted by gibbly33

Hi, am delighted with my new 64gb playbook. I want to do everything all at once.
managed to get my itunes onto it and feel way impressed with that. However, I am wondering if
any of you more knowledgeable peeps out there can advise me whether or not
to bother spending more cash on a case with bluetooth keyboard.

Have limited funds, so don't want to waste cash on impractical purchases, any advice would be
very much appreciated.:eyelashes:

I am brand new to this, so please be patient if my questions are 'dumb'

There are Handbrake presets for Playbook for both lower and HD quality movies if that's what you're looking for. After ripping several of my own movies I used those instead of iPad presets for my Playbook and they look/play great!

And welcome to the wonderful world of Crackberry.

Hi and Welcome to the Forums.
If you want to save a copy of the manuals, just click the link in RED below.

Enjoy!

There's a thread in the last day or two discussing the keyboard. Many like it and others find it not as good. It is a chicklet type - so the keys are vertically/rectangular aligned and not slanted like a "normal" keyboard. It takes some getting use to. Some don't like the case as it adds weight and bulk or already have cases.

[QUOTE=dave_h_946;7732985]
If you are planning to do a lot of writing, then go for the keyboard. The PB mini keyboard is the best hands down. I initially bought a cheap Keyboard from ebay and I regretted it.

Being a researcher in academia myself I use a lot my PB for writing papers. Expect basic formatting and needless to say forget about reference managers and so on. I have written hundreds of pages on it and there were no problems. Also great for note taking or taking photos of graphs e.t.c that they are of interest. When it comes to excel, I have given up on it cause it is next to useless.

Overall a great tool in my case. Enjoy it!!!
[QUOTE]

If you use LaTeX to markup your research papers, and depending upon the complexity of the papers, there is an application called otgTeX available in BlackBerry AppWorld.

Originally Posted by F2

There's a thread in the last day or two discussing the keyboard. Many like it and others find it not as good. It is a chicklet type - so the keys are vertically/rectangular aligned and not slanted like a "normal" keyboard. It takes some getting use to. Some don't like the case as it adds weight and bulk or already have cases.

Almost every notebook computer has chicklet-style keyboard and many of the Bluetooth and WiFi keyboards for regular desktop computers have adopted chicklet-style keyboards. These keyboards are definitely a far cry from the classic IBM Model-M keyboards; they were excellent for typing and handy for self-defence if under attack. ;)

Originally Posted by BB9700CA

Almost every notebook computer has chicklet-style keyboard and many of the Bluetooth and WiFi keyboards for regular desktop computers have adopted chicklet-style keyboards. These keyboards are definitely a far cry from the classic IBM Model-M keyboards; they were excellent for typing and handy for self-defence if under attack. ;)

I refused to give up the IBM Selectric typewriter that came with my office when I was hired and was still there 30 years later - not that it was used very often but it still had useful purposes - Computers - bah!

If you use LaTeX to markup your research papers, and depending upon the complexity of the papers, there is an application called otgTeX available in BlackBerry AppWorld.

I didn't know about that. But, I once tried to learn the program and I gave up. I was learning at that time Python and Matlab and it just was too much to learn LaTex although not a programming language itself.

But I'll keep your post for future reference. Thanks.

Originally Posted by dave_h_946

I didn't know about that. But, I once tried to learn the program and I gave up. I was learning at that time Python and Matlab and it just was too much to learn LaTex although not a programming language itself.

But I'll keep your post for future reference. Thanks.

otgTeX is strictly a processor for LaTeX to output the document in PDF format; you need a separate application such as TextEdit, available in BlackBerry AppWorld, or any other text editor to write the LaTeX commands plus actual content. I am planning to develop an implementation of vi/vim for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Originally Posted by gibbly33

thank you for that, hopefully I'll get to know as much as you seem to over the next decade maybe! Unfortunately I'm so green I don't even know what sticky means. Its going to be a long road for me i think.:rolleyes:

How do you know that the programmes are on my pc. I am in ireland and maybe its different here.

The stickies are at the top of page 1 at the beginning of the PB forums and say "Sticky", as in a yellow sticky notes. :)

Also I recommend when you are replying to a poster's comment that you select "reply with quote" so we know who or what you're responding to.

As for your "necessary " PB items, besides a case or keyboard/case you want ($65 at provantage.com), I recommend a rapid charger. They can be had for a good price if you shop around. Two reasons to get it: The connector is a magnetic surface pin type, which will save your micro-usb port from wear and tear, the other being that in my experience it will shave around an hour off of a total charge and definitely shorten your top-off time. A must have as far as I'm concerned. Depending on your needs and uses, another would be a good screen protector. I also like my charging dock as it allows me to display my PB upright when I'm using it in clock mode on my desk or bedside, watching a movie, looping photos as a sideshow on my office desk..etc..and being charged at the same time, not worrying about my battery usage.

I'm sure you'll receive a lot of recommendations but those are mine to start with. Have fun and enjoy :).

Originally Posted by gibbly33

OMG a kindred spirit, I have been trawling through ebay looking for playbook gadgets, you've probably saved me some heartbreak.
Is there anything you'd recommend buying that is a playbook essential. Do you happen to use yours in your car for music? I'd like to
but I think i'll have to get a transmitter of some sort as I can't seem to see aux cable.

Am I allowed to digress a little, or do people find it annoying. Advice on forum behaviour would be appreciated, don't want to get into
anyones' 'bad playbooks' (excuse the pun} I just couldn't resist!

If you do mp3 or wav files, the PB has excellent audio playback. If your car headunit/stereo has an auxiliary input, buy a double male 3.5mm cable, plug one end into the headphone jack of your PB and the other end into the aux input of your car stereo and enjoy, just watch the road:)

As for forum etiquette, if you started the thread, digress as much as you want. If you are posting on another poster's thread, it's bad form to digress too much from their subject. If you feel it necessary to digress in regard to another's comment, you can always PM (private message) them. Tap on their avatar and when you get to their profile, select private message below their avatar and send one:). I'll send a test one LOL

I do a lot of writing. and day by day this case looks increasingly more desirable. anyone know where to find one for those particularly...frugal...among us? I've had no luck with even the likes of ebay...

I recommend the BlackBerry Convertible Case, BlackBerry Mini Keyboard, and BlackBerry Rapid Charger combination available through ShopCrackBerry.

Check this out:

Cost Central Sells BlackBerry Playbook Mini Keyboard With Convertible Case For $37.90! | NerdBerry.net

This normally sells for $119