[DaveTheA]

Originally Posted by hondacrvaz

The reviews coming in the last 24 hours aren't looking all that promising...

First BlackBerry PlayBook reviews summary - unless you're a RIM fan, stay away - Mobility feeds

The Reviews Of The BlackBerry PlayBook Are Unbelievably Bad

BlackBerry PlayBook Review - Watch CNET's Video Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/te...h/14pogue.html

I've had a look at all these and I'm not deterred. Actually, it seemed to me the CNet reviews were pretty positive. I can see why the Playbook might not work for some people, and why other tables might be regarded as having distinct advantages. However if you are a Blackberry user now, and are willing to trust that RIM and BB developers will come out with some decent keystone apps, the Playbook looks pretty darn good to me.

[TonyTone]

Originally Posted by hrbuckley

[...]As long as the hardware is well designed, the software can catch up if you have a good upgrade system. Which, reading between the lines, RIM seems to have come up with for the PlayBook. Kudos to RIM for having the confidence and openness to provide reviewers with early accesss and include them in the software upgrade system.
[...]

Co-CEO Jim Balsillie made another good point about apps which is really worth consideration. He Inquires ... With the PlayBook offering the full web experience, there are many apps that absolutely necessary. Why do you need a YouTube app when you can get YouTube? What benefit will a FaceBook app offer over an actual signing on to FaceBook?

[ArgonNJ]

I still predict the Playbook will be a flop.

[stevetaz]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I still predict the Playbook will be a flop.

Very surprising.....

[tsac]

As society get more and more accustomed to using Apps, the more people think they need them and this includes YouTube. I would hope RIM realizes this and starts offering incentives to developers to produce them.

[ifonline]

Originally Posted by tsac

I would hope RIM realizes this and starts offering incentives to developers to produce them.

Er... they did: Free BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Offer.

[daphne]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I still predict the Playbook will be a flop.

Well the media seems to be doing everything in their power to make that come true.

[hrbuckley]

Originally Posted by daphne

Well the media seems to be doing everything in their power to make that come true.

The media has been predicting the demise of Blackberry almost as long as they've been predicting California will fall into the Pacific Ocean. I had this discussion with an engineer from work (who thinks the same as the media) over lunch trying to understand where these ideas come from. His idea was basically if they can't sell more units than Apple (more Playbooks than iPads or more Blackberries than iPhones) then the company is doomed. But that is just silly.

Can't wait till I get mine tomorrow!

[aiharkness]

It is funny. I still can't get over how the fact that the Playbook adds value to your BlackBerry service is turned into a glaring flaw.

I have non-blackberry user friends and co-workers telling me the Playbook will be useless if you don't have a BlackBerry. Let me see, does their ipad enhance their capabilities with their iphone?

I'm in awe of the bridge just on the little I've learned. The use of the bridge to in effect "thether" without tethering via DUN is too cool. I expect more happy surprises.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[AndyMulhearn]

As an iPad/Curve owner it's interesting to read this debate and some of the misconceptions about why the Playbook is seen by many to be a flawed device and for me it's a bit of a disappointment

1, adding value to your Blackberry service is not a flaw and nothing I've read has suggested as such. However, making that the only route to your email through your tablet is a flaw because it significantly reduces the size of the market to which RIM can sell your product. In a market sector that is dominated by one product, the iPad, why would a vendor want to deliberately reduce their potential customer base?

2, the bridge sounds like a nice bit of tech but I'd stay away from anything like that. As I stand at the moment, I have a 3G iPad and Curve. Connecting to the internet does not use any of my Curve battery life - bluetooth is turned off, no extensive 3G data usage. As soon as you start going down the route of tethering to get connected, it's less convenient and you run down your phone's battery into the bargain.

Both of these points make me think that the only reason RIM have gone down this route is that they can't sell the Playbook with BIS connectivity because there's no way to charge the customer for the service once they buy it. "You mean I pay for this, and then pay you £5 per month just to get my email? I'm off to buy an iPad/Xoom/whatever." Providing email access without that charge would not sit well with BB users, like me, who have already signed up to two year contracts including the BB charge.

As to the app store, as some have rightly said, a handful of very good apps is better than thousands of crap ones. You only have to browse the Ovi app store for Nokia to see a massive app store fail. However, there is a perception that you need to have an ecosystem around connected devices and it needs to be a good one. Having a limited starting point and not being able to run BB apps is not going to attract the paying customers.

From my point of view it looks like a nice device that is being rushed to market and hasn't been thought through properly. And I rather hoped it would be one of the devices that would keep Apple on their toes.

[aiharkness]

Point taken that some things aren't where they should be at upon release, such as a native email client. But those things are coming.

You missed my point on the added value being turned into a flaw. I'm saying a lot of people don't get it and either mistakenly see the mating with the BlackBerry handset as something that is essential, or they are being disingenuous.

I fully expect the PlayBook to be able to operate as a standalone computer, with the bridge being a plus.

EDIT: by the way, I don't see the lack of a native email client as a huge deal, especially since one will be added/available soon. In the mean time, if I have to, I'll access email (except the carrier's blackberry.net email) via the browser, as I do now on the netbook I've been using.

I think RIM's attitude was don't let perfect get in the way of good enough, for release that is.

Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[torberry]

Originally Posted by AndyMulhearn

Both of these points make me think that the only reason RIM have gone down this route is that they can't sell the Playbook with BIS connectivity because there's no way to charge the customer for the service once they buy it. "You mean I pay for this, and then pay you £5 per month just to get my email? I'm off to buy an iPad/Xoom/whatever." Providing email access without that charge would not sit well with BB users, like me, who have already signed up to two year contracts including the BB charge.

We are the same- ipad 3g and blackberry.

It would be nice to not have to pay $40+/month to use 3G though. Can someone direct to a way to use my blackberry 3G account instead, ie tether?

Thanks!

[knottyrope]

Some carriers charge for tethering.

A brindge connection will not be charged.

[aiharkness]

2, the bridge sounds like a nice bit of tech but I'd stay away from anything like that. As I stand at the moment, I have a 3G iPad and Curve. Connecting to the internet does not use any of my Curve battery life - bluetooth is turned off, no extensive 3G data usage. As soon as you start going down the route of tethering to get connected, it's less convenient and you run down your phone's battery into the bargain.

Don't know what happened to Andy. Dropped in to share some of his wisdom, but didn't want to stick around for the discussion, I guess. We seem to be seeing a lot of that.

Actually, battery life on both PlayBook and the BlackBerry 9700 running OS 5 is more than adequate when continually bridged on BIS and no wifi in use. My conditions of use are BlackBerry handset holstered and playing podcasts from the BlackBerry podcasts app, PlayBook on short cycle screen dimming and standby timeouts when on battery, with frequent email reading and sending via the PlayBook, and occasional bridge browser use checking news one or two times an hour.
Posted via BlackBerryForums.com Mobile

[Hauser]

Spent an hour with a PB this weekend. Flash videos worked (slowly), Flash ads really slowed down the loading of many webpages I tried, and most Flash apps I tried didn't work at all, don't know if this is a mobile Flash limitation but it seems like "full web" really just means "plays Flash videos". Didn't have a BB to test against so couldn't test the productivity features. Browser and many apps very jittery and clunky. NFS game clunky. I really liked the bezel gestures, but multitouch gestures would be a nice addition as well. Found the sound of the onscreen keyboard clicks very satisfying for some reason. Loaded a bunch of apps and started seeing weird behaviour like apps opening very slowly, one app (Tetris) quit with no notification, and the browser hiccupped badly.

My opinion, bottom line: basically worthless without a BB phone. Even if you're an enterprise BB user or BES admin, the Playbook feels like a very beta piece of kit with extremely limited applications, if you've managed to go without a tablet until now you can surely wait another 6 months until the OS stabilizes and app developers hopefully start to fill in the cracks.

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Hauser

Spent an hour with a PB this weekend. Flash videos worked (slowly), Flash ads really slowed down the loading of many webpages I tried, and most Flash apps I tried didn't work at all, don't know if this is a mobile Flash limitation but it seems like "full web" really just means "plays Flash videos". Didn't have a BB to test against so couldn't test the productivity features. Browser and many apps very jittery and clunky. NFS game clunky. I really liked the bezel gestures, but multitouch gestures would be a nice addition as well. Found the sound of the onscreen keyboard clicks very satisfying for some reason. Loaded a bunch of apps and started seeing weird behaviour like apps opening very slowly, one app (Tetris) quit with no notification, and the browser hiccupped badly.

My opinion, bottom line: basically worthless without a BB phone. Even if you're an enterprise BB user or BES admin, the Playbook feels like a very beta piece of kit with extremely limited applications, if you've managed to go without a tablet until now you can surely wait another 6 months until the OS stabilizes and app developers hopefully start to fill in the cracks.

Interesting... We've had none of these issues with the four we have. My wife even used mine for some of her Facebook games.

What OS version was on the one you were using?

[daphne]

I suspect some of the slowness people are reporting has to do with the speed of their internet / wifi connection. I have very fast fiber internet at home and a wireless N router and have no problems on my PlayBook with flash being slow or slowing down web pages. Yesterday I was using it at Starbucks connected to their ATT wifi and it was very slow. I lot of the public wifi networks are still using wireless g and in some cases wireless b protocol. It makes a very big difference in the speed in my experience.

[hrbuckley]

Originally Posted by daphne

I suspect some of the slowness people are reporting has to do with the speed of their internet / wifi connection. I have very fast fiber internet at home and a wireless N router and have no problems on my PlayBook with flash being slow or slowing down web pages. Yesterday I was using it at Starbucks connected to their ATT wifi and it was very slow. I lot of the public wifi networks are still using wireless g and in some cases wireless b protocol. It makes a very big difference in the speed in my experience.

I have to agree with dapne on this one. I picked up a PlayBook while travelling and used it mainly on public and hotel Wi-Fi for two weeks. There was a lot of performance variablility but that was also noticed by my travelling compaions who were using laptops, iPhones, or Androids. And on my own BlackBerry. DNS performance had a big impact on sites with metrics, adds or that aggregated data for display.

[Hauser]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL

Interesting... We've had none of these issues with the four we have. My wife even used mine for some of her Facebook games.

What OS version was on the one you were using?

Whatever it shipped with, it was fresh out of the box. I should have taken video, next time I get my hands on it I'll do so.