[xandermac]

No new apps is one thing, the quality of existing apps is just scary. Take the Facebook app, this was RIMs chance to lead the pack with a native Facebook app and what do they do? They simply blowup the existing blackberry app to tablet size and it's the same old same old! It's pathetic that we have that level of mediocrity to look forward to in the twitter and social feed apps, which I guarantee will merely be blown up versions of the existing apps. No innovation whatsoever.

[papped]

No new apps is one thing, the quality of existing apps is just scary. Take the Facebook app, this was RIMs chance to lead the pack with a native Facebook app and what do they do? They simply blowup the existing blackberry app to tablet size and it's the same old same old! It's pathetic that we have that level of mediocrity to look forward to in the twitter and social feed apps, which I guarantee will merely be blown up versions of the existing apps. No innovation whatsoever.

Uhm, what exactly do you think has been happening with Android tablet apps... A lot of them they do not even scale manually, you just use them as-is from the smartphone versions.

[sportline]

I will pay$100 if anyone can port and root my pb to bbos6. That will make it work. Better than this qnx thing.

[xandermac]

The ones that google wrote were written specifically for the tablet and format perfectly, whereas RIM seen to have taken a different, faster, approach, merely duplicate the phone app. I don't care what a 3rd party does to be honest but RIM should know better, especially when they can honestly say they're the ONLY tablet with a native Facebook client. It should have been amazing rather than the same old bland. An opportunity wasted.

Uhm, what exactly do you think has been happening with Android tablet apps... A lot of them they do not even scale manually, you just use them as-is from the smartphone versions.

[Jerryg50]

I'm really keane to invest in a tablet right now, and although I'd really like to stick BlackBerry given I use their mobile devices, I just can't help but worry from what I've seen that much like in the sector of mobile devices the Apps available for the PlayBook are just lacking so much in both design and funcitonal quality.

The PlayBook has some good power, but yet it's still seeing apps that are nothing to boast about like tic tac toe, doom, and everything else we had decades ago. Simple boring games.

Is it a hardware issue? Are all the decent developers working with Apple software?

Or am I just plain wrong..

The Playbook was meant more for business applications, and that is where it shines. I use the PB for everything from stock trades to doing quotations for my clients. Since I got the PB, I no longer need to carry around a heavy laptop for my needs.

I use the PB in the tether mode for the net, and in the bridge mode for doing emails. I sometimes have to answer up to 50 emails per day. I spend an average of 3 hours per day just researching information on the net for my clients.

What I find very interesting, is I can be tethered on to the net checking out web pages for info, or doing email, and at the same time I can be talking on the phone (Torch) to my clients at the same time.

Another thing I like about the PB is it can fit in to my coat pocket. It is very light and easy to carry around with me. I am very impressed with the speed of how the PB responds. For its size it is a terrific performer.

From what I understand and what I based my purchase on, is the PB is excellent for doing business apps. It fit my needs perfectly!

I have used the PB for listening to music and watching videos. It functions very well in that area. The sound quality in to a good quality headphones, and the picture quality is very good.


Jerry G.

[jvictor77]

At least the browser works in my ipad. Heck even the torch browser is better than pb. Talkin about super duper flash browser experience? Lucky if you dont have to wait on the blue line.

Listen - I own a Torch too - and saying that its browser is better than the PB's is the biggest piece of BS I've read on here!

[shootsscores]

I will pay$100 if anyone can port and root my pb to bbos6. That will make it work. Better than this qnx thing.

Seems like you are having trouble learning QNX. I'm finding that QNX is rather intuitive. I've used it so much that I can anticipate what might cause issues. Having 8 browser windows and 5 apps open may cause the browser to pop off. This is easily rectified by flicking on the browser, going to "history" and popping on the sites you want. It all happens with remarkable celerity if you know what you're doing.

[sportline]

My torch is fast and consistent. Pb browser? You can try to click and you dont know if its clicked or not, or clicking/tapping wrong place. Nothing stellar, really. And it is slow while on wifi. With flash and images turned off. The ipad got no competition at home.

[kbz1960]

Go look at RIMs YouTube channel, you'll see for yourself that they also think it's the savior. They're hoping it saves them from the abyss of No Native PIM! How is that working out for you btw?

It isn't working for me as I don't own one, I'm waiting so I don't have to be on here bit_ching like everyone else and if I did own one I would expect what it is because I've been researching it.

And no I wouldn't be buying it because of the bridge I'll be buying one for the form factor, it does do flash as good or better from what I read than android does and we all know about apple.

I'll wait and see if the bridge gets any better but even if it doesn't how does your android bridge to your android tab or your iphone bridge to your ipad?

[sportline]

Seems like you are having trouble learning QNX. I'm finding that QNX is rather intuitive. I've used it so much that I can anticipate what might cause issues. Having 8 browser windows and 5 apps open may cause the browser to pop off. This is easily rectified by flicking on the browser, going to "history" and popping on the sites you want. It all happens with remarkable celerity if you know what you're doing.

I used webos from first pre. Of course Qnx is intuitive, its webos copy. I got bookmarks, all in mobile version. But the browser is nothing to brag about.
For some people coming from bbos, card view and multitasking is revelation. For me coming from webos, its nothing, its a given.

[kbz1960]

Yo didn't list calendar, twitter, IM's and other of the most used items on tablets.

OK for me I don't care about email on it, I don't care about calendar I don't care about twitter, IM apps yes but that is just me and I know a lot do care about those things. BTW I'm sure with windows live I could go to the web page and IM there.

I don't even get my email on phone LOL cause I don't need to or want to, I use my calendar on my phone again I'm just joe smoe so I don't need my calendar on everything I own or use because I always have my phone.

A tab for me would be something lighter and easier to haul around than my laptop which btw I don't sync anything with and for the larger screen than my phone for when I'm not home.

[xandermac]

The bridge is a nice feature for sure, other tablets can tether quite easily though and bridge for them isn't necessary as they have native PIM apps. Don't put too much faith in the bridge tho, you'll soon learn it's limitations, and considering you won't be using it for email I imagine you're looking at it more for the bridge browser? You won't enjoy that much.

It isn't working for me as I don't own one, I'm waiting so I don't have to be on here bit_ching like everyone else and if I did own one I would expect what it is because I've been researching it.

And no I wouldn't be buying it because of the bridge I'll be buying one for the form factor, it does do flash as good or better from what I read than android does and we all know about apple.

I'll wait and see if the bridge gets any better but even if it doesn't how does your android bridge to your android tab or your iphone bridge to your ipad?

[kbz1960]

The bridge is a nice feature for sure, other tablets can tether quite easily though and bridge for them isn't necessary as they have native PIM apps. Don't put too much faith in the bridge tho, you'll soon learn it's limitations, and considering you won't be using it for email I imagine you're looking at it more for the bridge browser? You won't enjoy that much.

No not for the bridge, I'll tether just like I do my lappy.

[xandermac]

Ok, cool. I think you're on the right track waiting a few months and allowing it to mature a little. I was way too early buying mine. Love the hardware tho, it's a sexy little slab.

No not for the bridge, I'll tether just like I do my lappy.

[sportline]

Ok, cool. I think you're on the right track waiting a few months and allowing it to mature a little. I was way too early buying mine. Love the hardware tho, it's a sexy little slab.

Good to carry. Good for bedside reading, thanks to kobo.

[turqrazor]

Within 3 months all the best and most important apps will be ported or developed for the playbook. It might not have 500,000 apps like the ipad, but hey who cares when 300,000 of them are fart sound effect applications, tip calculators and unit converters?

[papped]

Yeah in order to block ads you have to basically disable the javascript entirely, or constantly modify your hosts file to filter all the known domains (which obviously requires root access to the system).

[dkonigs]

Or simply support a browser plugin API like any decent desktop web browser, then we'd just have to port something like AdBlock Plus (which I think uses a URL filter list) and be done with it.

[kbz1960]

Ok, cool. I think you're on the right track waiting a few months and allowing it to mature a little. I was way too early buying mine. Love the hardware tho, it's a sexy little slab.

Yep the hardware and QNX as I think if done right will quite good.

[snowindec9]

i think the apps will come over time.after all,its a new device. if you can't be patient, then go to the ipad 2 or motorola xoom.its simple as that.

[togardergrosse]

It's funny since the thread title says about 'poor apps' and yet people starts trolling about FLASH usability in browser? Ok, I admit that there are lots of ads using flash. But if you want GAMES in FLASH, why don't you point your PB browser to Kongregate: Play free games online and play thousands of games there. The plus side of this is your storage won't be filled with hundreds useless games or such, but the downside is you need internet connection in order to play.

ps: I went to a 'PlayBook Meet & Greet' in my Country (which is still unavailable) and the rep showing me only YouTube. And then I asked him to point it to kongregate and he was shocked in awe.. LOL I think RIM should cooperate with them (and other flash based web for games) in order to promote PB more greatly.

[vicshannon]

iOS users have been using the full web experience since 2007 (sans Flash), while BB users have been stuck with baby web browsers.

Adobe dropped the ball on Flash development for mobile because, like RIM, they were blindsided by Apple's WebKit. Now, Adobe caved in by developing Wallaby, a tool for developers that converts FLA code into iOS-friendly HTML. This tool has been available since 8 Mar 2011.

RIM advertised Flash as a feature when in reality it's a handicap. Apple gave Adobe two full years to show a bug-free, battery-efficient Flash for iOS and failed. Adobe says it is Apple's responsibility to make Flash work with their OS while Apple says it's not. Adobe has always taken a Microsoft-like stance when it comes to compatibility. "It's not our fault."

Sounds like a true "Apple's the best since sliced bread" worshiper. I wonder how that lawsuit is going..? Adobe vs Apple!

I personally have an iPhone and love it.. Also own 2 iPods.. But the Playbook beats the iPad (1 & 2) hands-down (In my view) with hardware, true multi-tasking, full internet accessibility, and as the apps are developed, it will be a big contender on the market.

With RIM acquiring "The Astonishing Tribe" for developing apps and the ability to run flash games and soon the ability to run Android apps, I believe we will see an explosion of apps by this summer. Also, since TAT developed a lot of Android apps, I'm sure they will cross platform all their current apps to the Playbook.

Does the Playbook have some bugs that will need to be worked out? Of Course, So did the iPad, iPhone, iTouch when they first came out.. Why do you think they have updates every few months.

And with everybody that jailbreaks their iPhone's (me included), iPad's, and iTouch's, seems like to me that they want their devices to do things Apple doesn't want to allow. Hmmm!

Wouldn't it be funny if someone came out with an app that would run all the iPad apps on a Playbook? People that are developing apps for the iPad's and iPhone's will probably also develop for the Playbook and Androids. It's about making money.

Do a search at the iTunes store for "Fart" and see how many apps come up..now those are useful!! Yes, Blackberry has those also.. But Apple claims to have 250,000 apps but the problem is, more than half of them are useless or similar to several others. In reality, other than some games and about 10% of the useful apps, most of the apps on iTunes are just junk. I know, I have an iPhone and have searched a lot of them. And yes, again, there are junk apps on Blackberry's App World. Bottom line, when it comes down to the devices them self, other than the iPad having a bigger screen, it's big and cumbersome where the Playbook has better hardware and isn't cumbersome.

Oh and Adobe didn't drop the ball with Flash and Apple's webkit.. Apple is the one that dropped the ball.. Read up on what the lawsuit is about. Read up on Wallaby also, it is mainly for converting banner ads not action script and more sophisticated .FLA files.

[anon(1603170)]

I used webos from first pre. Of course Qnx is intuitive, its webos copy. I got bookmarks, all in mobile version. But the browser is nothing to brag about.
For some people coming from bbos, card view and multitasking is revelation. For me coming from webos, its nothing, its a given.

I dont care about your other arguments, but QNX is not a webOS copy. In fact, QNX has been around way before any mobile operating system... QNX > webOS any day, that RIM is sucking by making it the usual RIM proprietary software is another thing. But QNX at its purest (non RIM) eats and poops any other tablet OS. That RIM decided to release the flash sdk and is trying to make it a "BB OS" is different. QNX development is far more advanced and efficient than these flash/actionscript apps jumping around in app world.

Hopefully, some day, when they actually notice that C++ > flash, they will release the native development kit, which in fact is being held by RIM, probably to "RIMify" it, because QNX already has an sdk and it was successfully used to write an app for the playbook which was posted in an article not long ago. I dont really understand how they could ignore and take so much in releasing the software for native development, which is logically the most important and was already available... Releasing actionscript first makes it look like a gameish (not even worth calling it gaming) tablet even worse than the ipad, and its notable when the games category far outnumbers by more than 200% any other category in app world... and on top of that they are... well, :\ crappy games? except for a handful.

[sportline]

Rimify or whatever, whats left of qnx is what we got. I dont care of qnx's past cords and what ifs. What we got is what we got. Technicalities is not consumers concern..rim can research prepare and release whenever they want.Rim and devcom can live on the hype, but users live on usability. Now how usable is this tablet, that is up to consumers. The world conspires against rim with negativity towards pb. The world conspires against rim ceo so he sulk and run away. What else?

[anon(1603170)]

Rimify or whatever, whats left of qnx is what we got. I dont care of qnx's past cords and what ifs. What we got is what we got. Technicalities is not consumers concern..rim can research prepare and release whenever they want.Rim and devcom can live on the hype, but users live on usability. Now how usable is this tablet, that is up to consumers. The world conspires against rim with negativity towards pb. The world conspires against rim ceo so he sulk and run away. What else?

Yet again, qnx is not a copy of webos, how about you explain why do you think its so when QNX was released first? or you mean the visual style? Which is mainly what i quoted you for, the rest is just for the overall thread topic. I didnt even use what ifs... I spoke about whats there. I dont know what you mean by conspiracy either... Technicalities are related to consumer usability, without good technicality (e.g apps) usability is down to internet browser and bridge, unless you make your own, do you?