[Canuck671]

I am waiting for the first "dumb" tablet to be released by blackberry. These will link with your phone and be an extension of the phones OS. Much like the PlayBook was, but not a stand alone tablet. They will be top end hardware and cheaper than a regular stand alone tablet. Should see them very soon. This is the system that thor has been trying to get across to the world.

Posted via CB10

[Marauder2]

I am waiting for the first "dumb" tablet to be released by blackberry. These will link with your phone and be an extension of the phones OS. Much like the PlayBook was, but not a stand alone tablet. They will be top end hardware and cheaper than a regular stand alone tablet. Should see them very soon. This is the system that thor has been trying to get across to the world.

Posted via CB10

That's exactly what I imagine when he says mobile computing platform. The thing is, although myself and others around here have an idea as to what he means, he hasn't shown us anything other than some QNX Bentley demos. I have a feeling by the time they want to release something big, someone else will have released something similar and people won't appreciate it as much even though BlackBerry would probably implement it best. I just don't trust them anymore to get it out there quickly and efficiently..

Posted via CB10

[moretreelessbush]

Bought an iPad mini last night, my playbook is out of battery, I am not in any mood to recharge it. I guess I will let it collect dust.

[victorshikhman]

The absolute worst part about killing off the Playbook was that even now, two years later, it's still a great piece of kit, running an incredibly smooth and capable OS.

iOS content management is atrocious. You can't just drag and drop your own movies and music onto devices, you are forced to use iTunes, only with the one computer you are allowed to sync your iOS device to, and iTunes is a bloated monster that forces you to play nice or take a hike. Files have to be in a particular format, otherwise they need conversion, sorting, labeling.

Playbook is so simple - drag and drop your music/movies/pics over USB/Wifi/Bridge and you're done. Every movie codec you need is available. Content retrieval from Playbook is just as easy, while from iOS it's plain painful. And don't get me started on navigation. After using a Playbook, going to an iPad seems like endless button presses and app relaunches.

As for Android, it's so glitchy and unpolished. I don't understand why dual and quad core handsets running 2-4GB of RAM with the latest Jelly Bean lag like crazy, app-crash relentlessly and provide a bewildering experience that never really makes you feel at home and in control.

Playbook OS has many flaws, but it is smooth, reliable, stable. Multitasking is truly magnificent. Gestures make navigation a pleasure. BB10 in whatever form it came to PB would have been such a joy to use.

I really don't see a great mobile OS at the moment that can make me forget PBOS. Maybe iOS7 is better than it looks. Maybe Microsoft's Surface line... but that's like buying a laptop, so why not just buy a laptop. Maybe next-gen Android... But I feel I can wait a year, skip the current generation of ho-hum tablets and their uninspired OS'es, and miss nothing.

If only BB could have pushed out one final update to the PB with the basics we were all expecting, I think it would have easily carried me another year or two easy.

[sportline]

already had few tablets after buying two dodobook..currently has ipad mini/ipad, and galaxy note8. all normal usable tablet...unlike the half cooked beta dodobook.

[Hawnz]

If you don't need a camera, Barnes and Noble are selling the Nook HD+ for just $149. 1080p screen, powerful CPU and GPU and expandable memory.

I bought a Nook HD + because it is light (18.1 oz) and the screen is great (256 pixels per inch). I got my mom an iPad Mini, which is a fine tablet. I even have access to an iPad 2. But I like the PlayBook the best and use it everyday. I will use it till it dies.

And about people complaining about iTunes. There are ways of getting media on to an iOS device without using iTunes. I have not done it lately because my mother can't find the media and I rather use the the PlayBook for videos.

[anon(4243545)]

I bought a Motorola Xoom 2 (price 200€): it outstands PlayBook.

[Telespielstube]

I needed to sell my Playbook month ago. A few weeks ago I somehow got the urge of getting another Playbook, because I actually liked the form factor, its light-weight, build quality, OS smoothness, how it felt in my hands and it was convenient at university(consumed very little space in my bag). I actually was thinking of getting a new Playbook on Amazon. Since Friday, I definitely have to rethink the current situation(how much money I want to spend after the announcement), but I tend to buy one anyway. I still like the device it is affordable and my position to the aforementioned points has not changed a bit.

[Mohamed Ali Mchala]

I think Ipad is the best tablet, with her millions of apps. blackberry is a bull**** with her broken promises.

[Zaqq]

waiting for the new nexus 7
Day 1 buy

[bobos boboulinos]

been a bb fun for quite long, i realized that the platform is off the cliff...how can anyone spend a dime on bb **** when sony is about to launch the xperia ultra z, that kicks ***? r u guys crazy? No more crappy sideloading, this company is the absolute fail....not for me guys

[kb5zht]

I use my Playbook browser to take roll in class. I use a periodic table app, the calculator, docs, box, ez grader....it has a few games on it like chess and space invaders....so I'm going to ride the PB pony until it drops. The issue for me about the BB10 announcement is HONESTY.....they LIED, or, were too stupid to realize it wouldn't work...either one indicates a large degree of incompetence...it seems BB is run by past-their-prime, shady, porno mustachioed used car salesmen in velour jumpsuits.

WKRP's Herb Tarlic comes to mind.

I too am not sure it was lieing or incompetence but either way, Blackberry bungled this up big time. I lean toward the incompetence theory, I just can't imagine them not knowing about the RAM requirements of the software and furthermore I am looking at devices that were released after the playbook and have already had follow up models released that surpass the playbook in terms of hardware.

[i] And nearly every stinking tablet out there has all the apps playbook just couldnt seem to get. Why did a child's game console get released with skype and blackberry couldnt do it? The final evidence of incompetence... THEY QUIT TRYING TO DEVELOP BBM FOR THEIR OWN PRODUCT AND ARE HELL BENT TO MAKE IT FOR COMPETITOR'S PRODUCTS!

Jeezzzzus H Christ whst more proof of non compis mentis do we need?

And where are all the mindless rim zombie fanboys that have been telling us to shut up for two years, that "it takes time but they will get it right"? I guess i wouldnt show my face either now.

[cw1988]

I bought a windows 8 phone yesterday and I'm in love! so my next purchase is going to be a surface pro. I have w8 on my desktop and always wanted to be fully windows so blackberry has given me the push to spend some money elsewhere.

I still back the pb though, I will find a use for it I'm sure as its a good bit of kit. I'm still using it now

[CrackedBarry]

The absolute worst part about killing off the Playbook was that even now, two years later, it's still a great piece of kit, running an incredibly smooth and capable OS.

iOS content management is atrocious. You can't just drag and drop your own movies and music onto devices, you are forced to use iTunes, only with the one computer you are allowed to sync your iOS device to, and iTunes is a bloated monster that forces you to play nice or take a hike. Files have to be in a particular format, otherwise they need conversion, sorting, labeling.

Yeah, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about, buddy. Or your knowledge about iPads and iTunes is based on stuff you imagined five years ago...

You can connect an iPad to any computer you want to, and sync/copy files.

(However, your iTunes account can be associated with 5, F I V E, different computers. That means, that if you buy a song, you can have it on five different computers. Your iPads and iPhones don't count as a computer)

Heck, it's been probably a year since I connected my ipad to my computer. Most of the time I just copy stuff onto it wirelessly. Why would you drag and drop when you can do it that way?!?

And nope, you don't HAVE to use iTunes to put your movies and music on your idevices. You can use other programs as well.
(And yep, you CAN just drag and drop files.)

As for converting, nice try, but an ipad can play pretty much all the most popular movie and music formats out of the box, without having to convert anything.
(The only file formats I can think of, that have to be converted are MKV files, that are usually only used for downloading pirated movies. So Ill give you that: If you're in the habit of stealing your movies, you might have to convert them, after you download your torrent...)

[Marauder2]

Heck, it's been probably a year since I connected my ipad to my computer. Most of the time I just copy stuff onto it wirelessly. Why would you drag and drop when you can do it that way?!?

And nope, you don't HAVE to use iTunes to put your movies and music on your idevices. You can use other programs as well.
(And yep, you CAN just drag and drop files).

Can you explain how you do both wireless file transfer and drag & drop please? Or any websites that would help? I didn't know it was possible to do this simply, and you do make it seem simple so I am interested, it's one of the things I love about my PlayBook


Posted via CB10

[CrackedBarry]

Sorry BBRY kicked you guys off their platform

As somebody who had both a Playbook, a 7 inch Android tablet and an iPad mini, I can strongly recommend the iPad Mini.

(Though Ive heard a lot of good stuff about Kindle Fire...)

The 7.9 inch form factor is close to what you're used to, and its small enough to put in most pockets. I think you'll also grow to prefer the 4:3 screen.

The app selection and quality is just VASTLY better on an iPad mini. Don't get me wrong, I liked my Android tablet. It just didn't see much use after u got an iPad Mini.

And a little warning: I noticed the same issue with my Android tab, and it especially goes for the Nexus 7... Most people report a significant performance degradation on their Nexus 7 after they had it for 6-12 months. Sometimes formatting the device solves it, but not always.

[FR33MAN]

For what I use it I will keep it. Just need something comfortable to follow me. I have pacemaker, Web browsing and watch videos. It works well for that. Do not know if I will consider to change when it will die.

Posted via CB10

[ADGrant]

I will repost what I posted in another similar thread (oh, I elaborated more in this post):

................

Well, I just returned a new but defective Acer W3 tablet. It is their 8 inch, Full Win8 tablet with separate accessory bluetooth keyboard.

The problem was if you inserted a micro-sd card into the slot, it would not release back out. It should be "spring loaded" and pressing on it should make it pop back up so it can be removed. Not on my unit. And when I returned it, they tested with their sd card on the Demo Floor Model - same problem. I left and they were still trying to remove the card. I had removed mine (my bb one) using a very thin pen knife.

Initial impressions, nonetheless. Screen was nice but I think the pb's is better. Speakers are located along one short edge, so not directed at you like the pb's. I tried hooking it up to my tv using an hdmi switcher box and it did not work whereas that's where I attach my pb which does work. But it did work on my other tv when directly connected. Did not fully scope out why. Win8 is new for me so it was somewhat awkward using it at first and using it on the screen. I did actually pair it with my 9930 and could move a cursor around. I may have missed something but hooking up to usb, I never did see it as a drive to accommodate easy data transfer. I did use the PUBLIC Network folder to move some stuff around between it and my pb.

I will say that I think the pb's swipe will forever spoil me. I kept trying to wake it with a swipe - you need to press a button along one edge. Similarly, trying to swipe away apps.

Now depending on your perspective it is a Windows tablet. But I immediately used IE to download Firefox. I copied over my Firefox desktop profile to it and instantly all of my extensions were there, my bookmarks. It just worked. I downloaded and installed Jetaudio and the generic Media player - just standard downloads. I tested it with flac and mkv files - no issues. I downloaded a "God" program that gave me full control over some hidden functions. So, it just runs standard Windows programs. Issues with standard programs on the small screen - some Windows controls are small or rather thin. The Close, Minimize, etc buttons at the tops of windows are rather small. The scrollbar on the right of windows is thin and hard to grasp as is the scroll button at the bottom of that scroll area. Maybe there are tweaks for that but I unfortunately inserted that sd card and when it would not come out, I stopped installing stuff, afraid there would be more stuff to try erasing (I did not know win8 has a complete ERASE feature that I ultimately used) if I had to return it. Win8 was new so that hampered some of my efforts in exploring. It comes with a kindle app, Word and Excel and some other stuff.

It seemed sturdy enough. I did not like the on/off button, although it is actually a Standby button but in grasping the tablet I accidentally pressed it more than one time. It also has real Windows Button (like on the keyboard) on the front of the unit (kind of like an ipad home button).

Oh, one thing that I did not like compared with the pb is that when trying to type into address bars or other such areas, the keyboard does not appear automatically. You have to summon it. Maybe there's a setting for that.

It's bt keyboard has a niche in the back to hold the tablet. They keyboard is chicklet like but full sized as opposed to the pb's mini. Oh, it is not rechargeable but uses two AAA batteries. No trackpad. Did not really test it much before returning it. Unlike the accessory keyboards for the HP small tablet and the MS Pro/rt, the keyboard on the Acer can be used when detached from the tablet. So you can control the tablet across the room with it. I gather you could pair those other units with bt keyboards if you wanted.

Now that it is returned, would I buy it again - I'm thinking about it. They did not have any in stock, so just got a refund.

I have one of those from the MS developer conference. It's the worst tablet I have ever used. Complete and utter junk,

[CrackedBarry]

Can you explain how you do both wireless file transfer and drag & drop please? Or any websites that would help? I didn't know it was possible to do this simply, and you do make it seem simple so I am interested, it's one of the things I love about my PlayBook


Posted via CB10

There are a never of different ways to do it. Some files you can just drag onto the iPad from your desktop. But there are also some apps that'll do it for you. Here are a couple of links:

http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/features.php

http://ipad.appstorm.net/reviews/utilities-reviews/transfer-files-the-easy-way-with-instashare/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4617045?start=0&tstart=0

As for the wireless sync, if you want to know more about it, you can try to Google it. Don't really know what to tell you, except you just go to 'settings' on your iPad and click wireless sync, and it'll sync with iTunes over wifi...

[ADGrant]

As regulars here will know, I bought myself an iPad1 to run Safari Online.

I'm sure the iPad is a stepping stone to somewhere else rather than a destination. The iPad is too big and heavy but the huge positive, as others have said, is that every App in the known universe will run on it.

From the iPad1, I might go for a Surface Pro - heavy but a very sexy bit of kit - or more likely at the moment is an iPad Mini - less heft than the iPad/Surface but retains the iPad advantage of having the biggest ecosystem.

My next tablet won't be an Android tablet. I can't seem to get on with Android - that's just me I'm sure, it wouldn't rule the world if it wasn't liked by millions.

I'm in no hurry. My iPad serves my current needs and we'll see what Xmas brings.

The Surface Pro is beautiful but it is very heavy and has poor battery life. It doesn't feel very much like a tablet to me because most of the decent apps are desktop apps. It's also priced more like a Mac Book Air than an iPad. The type cover works well on a desktop but for laptop use the iPad keyboard works better for me (iPad 3).

[CrackedBarry]

Windows RT tablets are all kinda shoddy. (Yes, even the Surface!)

As for the Surface Pro, it's kinda the worst of both worlds. It tries to blend the best of the laptop and the best of the tablet, but it doesn't really work.

Dont get me wrong, its a nice device. But you can get a better laptop for the price of a Surface Pro, or a better tablet.

Come to think of it, for the price of ONE Surface Pro, you can get an awesome tablet (iPad) AND a pretty decent laptop...

[ADGrant]

Surface RT or Pro.

Neither is a particularly good choice IMHO. They are both expensive. The RT is very slow and has no apps, the Pro is very heavy for a tablet and has poor battery life.

If you really want to run Windows 8, I would get a convertible UltraBook.

[Drayk]

Jump ship? They kicked us off the ship!

But yeah, I will probably either get the iPad or a Windows 8 tablet. I don't know which though. I will say that I don't like Android at all, so they are off the table for me.

Ipad is the only one off the table for me.

Posted via CB10

Ditto..... I actually got pissed at BBRY last year and bailed. Went droid & got a GS3 & G-Note 10.1.
I didn't read the release but, does it say anywhere the BBRY is scraping the PB all together?.... or just not bringing BB10 to the current PB.
I think we can all agree NOT having a tablet in the family line would be pretty freakin stupid so.....I'm betting a new PB will be dropped. After all, the "road map" released a few months ago showed a tab.... (minor sarcasm)

[rkennedy01]

HP Envy x2 FTW!

Thin and light (1.5lbs) as an iPad, runs full Windows 8.x (not RT), gives up to 16 hours of battery life when docked to the included keyboard base, and is compatible with virtually every Windows application, device driver and hardware accessory ever created. By far the best option out there right now for people interested in an alternative to the fruit and robots brigade. You can get one with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage for under $600 (under $500 if you look hard enough).

RCK

[WAJ1]

PB to Nexus 10
Sad to say I have done it moved on to a Nexus 10. I really enjoyed my time with the PB, but because Blackberry have shown that they no longer are supporting it, then its time to move on. When BB CEO said that tablets would not last then the last nail was in the coffin for the PB.

Bye -- Bye