[Coach57]

Just got a Windows 8 laptop. I was hoping for the best, but so far I've been terribly disappointed.

It's a messy chimera of tablet and PC that doesn't work well as a productivity tool and is essentially not yet ready for prime time, although there are glimmers of something interesting. The tiles are just so darn pretty to look at, and some tile apps (e.g. Netflix) really are much better than the browser version, while others (e.g. Skype) are clunky messes.

Today I thought to myself... "Gee, my Playblook is a much better platform for multitasking and than this!" Its combination of gestures and touch (easily replicated with a mouse) are miles ahead. And it's actually much more mature. So that led to two more thoughts:

1. If Blackberry put the playbook on a laptop form factor, and added an office suite (e.g. Corel office), I would buy one. The Chromebook is a step along these lines, except Google Docs is in my experience a slow, clunky, and low-quality of experience environment. My intuition says that you still need local apps to manage most productivity tasks smoothly and quickly. However, it's clear that cloud storage is going to soon sweep up most users' data. Skydrive, for instance, makes it more worthwhile and easier to store anything of value in the Cloud than your own hard drive.

2. Thorsten (I love calling him by his first name, as if we were friends) keeps talking about the end of the PC and the end of the tablet (I don't really see that myself). What exactly is he talking about? I don't think it's idle chat... there's a product behind there, as well as web services for sure. If you don't own a cloud nowadays, I think you're going to be toast.

Any ideas, fellow Crackberryheads?

[AluminiumRims]

Can Blackberry kill the PC/laptop? No, but Microsoft obviously can.

Blackberry BB10 does support connecting a mouse and keyboard out of the box as well connecting to monitor using HDMI. However, right now BB10 has no good multi resolution, multi monitor support. You could imagine your phone being your laptop and at your desk you connect keyboard, mouse, monitor but right now there is no support for this. BB10 must in this case support touch screen/low resolution as well as mouse/high resolution and I haven't seen any mobile OS supporting this yet. Microsoft tried but failed and this opens up for Blackberry to try this out but they have to move fast because Android/Chrome will certainly try this as well.

From a technical point of view, BB10 as all the possibility to become this OS.

[donmateo]

I wish BB would make a PC OS. That would be neat.

[southlander]

No. Windows is firmly entrenched and highly useful. Not to mention BlackBerry has a hard enough time keeping smartphone marketshare lately.

[kbz1960]

No. Windows is firmly entrenched and highly useful. Not to mention BlackBerry has a hard enough time keeping smartphone marketshare lately.

+1 and rotflmao since the emoticon doesn't work either

[ssbtech]

I use my PC to do the dozens of things that my phone/tablet cannot do.

Unless all you want to do is use Facetube and twitspace, mobile OS's do not belong on PCs. We've seen that with Windows 8.

[SK122387]

I like my retina Mac Book Pro way too much to ever consider a BlackBerry-powered computer. I don't think I'll ever use any other type of computer besides an Apple.

[amazinglygraceless]

Unless BBRY made an actual netbook/notebook/laptop the answer is no.

There is no smartphone or tablet that is even remotely adequate as a computer replacement.

[AluminiumRims]

Unless all you want to do is use Facetube and twitspace, mobile OS's do not belong on PCs. We've seen that with Windows 8.

No, I think a mobile phone can facilitate a desktop UI as well as there is nothing preventing that today. Only the OS that supports this is missing and it will come in time, the question is only which company will provide it so that it becomes popular. Who knew that laptop would outsell desktops 15 years ago? The same will happen with phones, computers become smaller all the time, from occupying an entire floors to being pocketable.

Microsoft tried this but failed because they were arrogant and made to many mistakes. An OS can support both mobile and desktop UI, the burden is really on the application developer to provide double interfaces because I think it is hard to combine an interface with ambiguous input (finger) vs precise input (mouse). Also the wide variety of resolutions is a challenge. So the company that solves this in a convenient way will be a winner.

[1Criz]

No, in the same way television didn't kill radio.
Can mobile replace laptop as a major computing platform? Yes, it already started.
Will BlackBerry be a significant part of this shift? I hope, let's see what they have in the pipeline.

Posted via CB10

[Coach57]

That was basically my conclusion too... Microsoft tried and failed, or rather, rushed their product to market to prevent further defections to the Apple and Android dominated tablets. And in so doing, essentially killed the goose that laid the golden egg, because Win 8 sucks compared to Win 7, on desktops/laptops.

My "Feeling" is that the Playbook OS strikes a better balance... an integrated environment that manages multiple apps smoothly and seems more suitable to a precision pointing device (e.g. mouse).

The trick is not too go too far towards the cloud, like the Chromebook and its reliance on Google Drive apps (frankly not useable by the average professional -- OK for home use and those with specific needs, and entirely eclipsed by Office 365 and Skydrive in my opinon).

My feeling is this is well within reach for Blackberry, and Thorsten is hinting at it.

[kbz1960]

I don't get "ms f'd up with win8 on desktops". I use it just the same as xp or 7. I ignore the modern side, don't use it at all.

[Fnen90]

The only think BB10 can do is make apps for its BUSINESS users ...but, what about us ? Nothing..we suck ! Yay!

[Coach57]

And you think NOT using tiles is a success?

In my experience certain apps don't play nice and jump into "tile" view unexpectedly. If you play in control panel you'll see some strange behaviour, and I've already had a freeze up on a PC that's only a week old. This is progress?

[sexybabe88]

you have got to be kidding

[kbz1960]

And you think NOT using tiles is a success?

In my experience certain apps don't play nice and jump into "tile" view unexpectedly. If you play in control panel you'll see some strange behaviour, and I've already had a freeze up on a PC that's only a week old. This is progress?

Don't know. Some like them so don't, I don't. I don't care if the modern side is a success or not as my lappy works as it always did with some tweaks. Runs all the same programs and does all the same things. The same lappy is faster than it was on 7. The only issue I have is with lenovo not updating the power management.

Right now the modern apps suck as far as I'm concerned but maybe they'll get better. Just like all the fanboys here that cry BB10 is a new OS you have to give it time........ Back at them.

I don't know why anyone would leave BBRY for WP8 when they have the same app issues unless they feel MS will be better at getting them.

[Jerale Hoard]

I'm starting to feel ad if you guys forgot the reasons behind the new BlackBerry platform.

Posted via CB10

[MartyMcfly]

Hell no..they need to focus on getting their smartphones up to par..


Sent From My New IPad using Tapatalk

[RECOOL]

Straight NO..

[eninrebmun]

I use my PC to do the dozens of things that my phone/tablet cannot do.

Me too... like use it to maintain my BlackBerry. :-P

[AluminiumRims]

I'm starting to feel ad if you guys forgot the reasons behind the new BlackBerry platform.

Could you please elaborate.

[Stephen Severino]

Ages ago, Palm had this same vision--that a mobile OS was good enough for people's needs. They started to develop a product called the "Foleo," which was a notebook form factor that ran off of the phone OS.

Unfortunately, the Palm OS died before a product was ever pushed out.

Honestly, I think the concept is sound. Powerusers would be surprised how small most people's computing needs are.

As a teacher, my computing needs are completely fulfilled by BB10 or Google's Chrome OS. I actually find Microsoft Word and PowerPoint overly complex with too busy interfaces for my typing or presentation needs.

If BlackBerry can regain smartphone marketshare, could they take significant marketshare by introducing something similar to the Foleo? If it was done properly, absolutely--especially if it was more cost effective for people to purchase such a thing in place of a regular PC.

Posted via CB10

[anon(4275744)]

Just got a Windows 8 laptop. I was hoping for the best, but so far I've been terribly disappointed.

It's a messy chimera of tablet and PC that doesn't work well as a productivity tool and is essentially not yet ready for prime time, although there are glimmers of something interesting. The tiles are just so darn pretty to look at, and some tile apps (e.g. Netflix) really are much better than the browser version, while others (e.g. Skype) are clunky messes.

Today I thought to myself... "Gee, my Playblook is a much better platform for multitasking and than this!" Its combination of gestures and touch (easily replicated with a mouse) are miles ahead. And it's actually much more mature. So that led to two more thoughts:

1. If Blackberry put the playbook on a laptop form factor, and added an office suite (e.g. Corel office), I would buy one. The Chromebook is a step along these lines, except Google Docs is in my experience a slow, clunky, and low-quality of experience environment. My intuition says that you still need local apps to manage most productivity tasks smoothly and quickly. However, it's clear that cloud storage is going to soon sweep up most users' data. Skydrive, for instance, makes it more worthwhile and easier to store anything of value in the Cloud than your own hard drive.

2. Thorsten (I love calling him by his first name, as if we were friends) keeps talking about the end of the PC and the end of the tablet (I don't really see that myself). What exactly is he talking about? I don't think it's idle chat... there's a product behind there, as well as web services for sure. If you don't own a cloud nowadays, I think you're going to be toast.

Any ideas, fellow Crackberryheads?

I think they are planning on packing so much horsepower into a phone that you will only need ala carte perifrials, like a screen or printer. Needless to say, you don't pack them with you, just keep them at the office and/or home.

From Zed to U via CB10

[sinsin07]

snip...
2. Thorsten....keeps talking about the end of the PC and the end of the tablet (I don't really see that myself). What exactly is he talking about? ...

The more pertinent question, "Does Thor know what he is talking about?"

[draconis123]

Windows 8 failed because it was geared completely for tablets and gave PC users a ****ty experience.

I don't feel that the BlackBerry OS is robust enough to support desktops and laptops. Maybe I'll be wrong in the future but like someone said here before me, BlackBerry is struggling to remain relevant in the mobile market. If they manage to survive this then we might see big things from them.

Posted via CB10 on my sexy *** Q10