[mmcpher]

Very happy with it so far, but like everyone else, anxiously awaiting the upgrades to bring native apps and fuller bridging. It takes all kinds, but I find it hard to figure how you go to the trouble and expense of buying something like this, without knowing what it is and what it will do. It has an excellent wifi browser, media capabilities, keyboard (landscape/portrait), and with the form factor and the native word processing and spreadsheet apps, is the first smartphone or tablet that I can really use to create, edit, and view documents and spreadsheets.

I haven't had too many problems at all, so far as serious glitches, and I really like the way the OS is put together and the speed and smoothness of everything. The "default" browser is the wifi browser, provided you are connected to wifi. If you are not, then you can surf through the Blackberry Bridge by specifically opening the Bridge Browser, which is slower and varies based on your phone's signal strength (I think). But when you're on wifi and are accessing emails through the Bridge, and select a link to go to that webpage, the Playbook automatically launches the wifi browser, which hums. The launch-ready apps are, in some cases, little more than beta/place-holders, but even so, you can see that the Playbook should be capable of some great stuff, once the developers get on board and RIM gets the OS upgraded.

From my p.o.v., I read all the carping about apps and launch-version native apps as motivated by a preemptive impulse to try and discredit the device before its in widespread use, because its rivals, and its rival's supporters in the tech press, see it as a genuine competitive threat. FWIW.