Problems with PlayBook while travelling in the Caribbean
I'm a photographer and recently returned from shooting a wedding in Barbados and wanted to share my dismal PlayBook experience with you all. I'm an iOS user primarily but I when OS2 was finally released, I decided to purchase a PlayBook. I have to say that up until now, my experience with the PlayBook has been pretty much exceptional. There are a few issues / bugs to iron out in OS2, but overall, I love(d) my PlayBook. So, here's what happened.
I loaded up the PlayBook with a bunch of video for the flight (RIM; please, please, please add an AC3 audio codec to your video player and the ability to resume where you left off!) and was off to the airport. WiFi has generally worked well since I've owned the PlayBook and the airport was no exception. Connected up to the free hotspot and was happily checking my email and reading my news in the News app. Perfect!
Got on the plane, Airplane mode on, kicked back and watched some shows during the flight. Again, perfect!
Got to the resort where we were staying, turned off Airplane mode and attempted to connect to their WiFi and here is where everything fell apart...
The PlayBook was able to see all of the resort's base stations without issue but was not able to connect to any of them. Hmmm... Strange... Then pulled out my iPhone and my iPad and connected without issue with both of them. My MacBook Pro connected without issue. My wife's iPhone and her MacBook Pro connected without issue. So, essentially every other wireless device we had with us, worked as normal and connected to the resort's WiFi perfectly. PlayBook? Not so much.
And then things get really strange...
Looking at the connection info in the WiFi settings on the PlayBook showed that I was, in fact, connected and even showed a valid IP address and DNS server but with no actual data ever making it to the PlayBook. Odd... Deleted the connection profile and tried again. Same thing. Attempted a manual connection; same thing. Gave up for a bit and decided to take some pictures using the camera app. Camera app would launch but no image would appear on screen. Closed the camera app and tried to launch Videos. Nothing. I noticed that the camera app icon was ghosted out and that the app had frozen and was not shut down. What to do? Reboot. Yes, a reboot should fix al this weirdness... Except, no, it didn't fix anything; in fact, things got worse. The PlayBook would not reboot. It got stuck at the coloured, pulsing Blackberry boot screen and stayed there. Held down the power button to force it to shut down and rebooted again. Same thing. Repeated about 5 times and the PlayBook finally booted normally. Still no WiFi connection, but the camera app at least worked now. A while later, I launched the Video app to watch a show and boom! Here we go again... App would launch and nothing appeared on screen. Had to go through the whole reboot process again. It finally rebooted and I was able to launch and watch a few shows, but still no WiFi.
Now I'm thinking, my PlayBook is somehow hosed and I'll just have to use my iPad for the duration of our stay. And then I noticed another guest who also had a PlayBook and we got to talking. Guess what!? His PlayBook was experiencing the exact same weirdness as mine! Hmmm... Maybe it's not just my PlayBook after all!? I basically decided at that point to leave it in my hotel room and only use it watch a show before bed. Carried the iPad with me and had absolutely zero issues the rest of the my stay.
Got back on the plane and headed home (to Toronto) wondering WTF to do about my PlayBook. Got home, turned on my PlayBook, and...
Wait for it...
Everything is back to normal! WiFi works, apps are launching normally without crashing, no reboot issues, nothing! WTF happened while I was down south? And not just to my PlayBook, but the other guest's as well? Was it humidity / heat? Was it a time zone thing? Why would WiFi connectivity issues lead to the practically complete unusable state of the PlayBook? Has anyone else experienced this systematic failure of their PlayBook while traveling?
I'm happy that my PlayBook is back to its normal self but WTF!?
Anyone?
Merrill