BlackBerry Playbook...best tablet ever?

OrangeWolf said:
Thanks man -- good recommendations. I've played PvZ before and loved it. I've heard about Angry Birds, and all good things. :D

When I see articles like this that talk about the most popular apps for the Blackberry Playbook are they talking about sideloading? Because while it sounds like they are talking about official apps I can't find any of the ones they speak of in AppWorld -- I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or what.
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I think they must be, I haven't had a chance to dive into it myself. Maybe someone else can join the conversation and educate both of us... ;)
 
Most of those apps are indeed sideloaded but work flawlessly.

The only reason that MOST Android apps that we all know, love, and want AREN'T on the Playbook yet is because the creators of these apps haven't officially ported them yet to the Playbook format (.bar).

I can confirm that the Kindle app works flawlessly, no problems what so ever. Very fast and smooth.

See the thing is that most Android apps simply can't be straight converted to .bar format because most Android apps require the "back" and "options(?)" buttons that are on all Android phones...my ideal solution to this would be for RIM to add soft buttons like a lot of Android tablets have...but this simply hasn't happened yet. Also, to the best of my knowledge, RIM decided to go with Android 2.2 as its backbone for Android app support.

As I have said before though...I don't use many apps, so the ones that I do want can either be sideloaded (say converted Android apps created by people other than the original developer e.g. Kindle) or are available via App World (like a weather app).

RIM is still working on the Playbook though so more updates are coming! Also, according to recent reports (like 2 days ago or so) Blackberry OS 10 is coming for the Playbook at the end of the year (I know thats like MONTHS away, but still...). No word yet on Android support, but if OS 2.0 has it I see no reason why OS 10 won't have it...should be implemented 10x better too I hope.

Hope this answers SOME questions...actually had NO idea my thread was still active! Now that I know though I will answer all questions the best I can! Thanks for all the support guys, and not just for my purchase but for RIM as well!
 
Cool! Thanks guys.

I mostly have the tablet for (1) Web browsing, (2) Document viewing (word, excel, pdf, powerpoint), and (3) E-mail. So in my case apps are... I guess they're the icing on the cake, not the cake itself. I've never had an Android device so it's not like there's a specific app that I really want (I've got an eInk Nook for eReading, so that's sorted).

So I can wait for more to be ported. No rush on my part -- and so far I haven't seen anything in the sub-250 market to compete with the Playbook in my primary areas of interest. I had originally intended to get an Ideapad A1, but the screen on it was atrocious in comparison to the Playbook (and even though it's newer than the Playbook, I think the specs are still worse in some ways).

Thanks for making the thread -- it made me feel a lot better about the bad reviews I'd seen around (which you're right -- most of them were complaints about apps, and most of the others were fixed with OS 2.0).

P. S. The Monopoly App for $3.99 works and looks great, but the AI is stupid. ^^
 
Does the playbook support IMAPS based email servers and if so, does the email polling work in the background and alert you to new messages all day long if the screen is off and the device is just laying dormant?
 
vr. said:
Does the playbook support IMAPS based email servers and if so, does the email polling work in the background and alert you to new messages all day long if the screen is off and the device is just laying dormant?
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It definitely supports IMAP and although I only have GMail linked to mine, it is doing regular wakeup/polling intervals while otherwise asleep to pull down new mail notifications. When you get a message its default response is to charm a tone and blink its signature Blackberry message LED at you ominously.;)
 
Thanks for the quick reply R-Type. I'm not using Gmail and IMAPS is different than plain IMAP so I'm looking to find out if it does it have the option to use a 3rd party IMAPS server in the settings? I haven't found a review that talks about this in depth.

Also, are you using any free app that lets you browse samba shares on your LAN and open files right from the LAN?
 
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I didn't need a tablet either, and as much as I love my Playbook I haven't touched it in a few days...why?

Well for one, I upgraded from my SUPER shitty MetroPCS 1x speed crap Android phone to a Sprint 3G BlackBerry 9930 (best phone ever) and on top of that picked up a mad cheap EVO 3D off of Craigslist which is PERFECT for a media device (games, movies, music, etc.).

So my tablet NEED has been dramatically reduced. :-/
 
I also have a BB 9900, best phone ever.. Its keyboard is just AMAZING.

You should be able to bridge it to your playbook, and surf the web etc... it's a pretty cool technology.
 
I also use a Bold 9930, best damn email phone I've had. I am looking forward to the next gen Bold with QNX though, the Playbook's selection of quality apps already far exceeds OS 7.
 
I don't have a smartphone at all (I wouldn't use it enough to justify the increased monthly cost of a data plan, and if I don't have a data plan I'd rather keep the battery life of my current phone), so this is filling a very nice niche for me at the moment.

:D
 
wtburnette said:
Still waiting to see what happens. I don't want to buy something now and find that in a couple months time something better came along. I don't need a tablet at this point, it would just be convenient. I can certainly afford to wait...
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Same here. I've been eying the NookTab, KF, and PlayBook, but I want to see the specs for the Nexus tablet. If it has dual core and 1280 x 800 I'm in. But I doubt it, because tablets with an MSRP of $200-250 don't even have 1280 x 800.

But hey, I can hope right? Right? Is this thing on?
 
OrangeWolf said:
I don't have a smartphone at all (I wouldn't use it enough to justify the increased monthly cost of a data plan, and if I don't have a data plan I'd rather keep the battery life of my current phone), so this is filling a very nice niche for me at the moment.

:D
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Smart phones are generally a pain. poor battery life and constant alerts. Playbook pays for itself. Just buy a coffee and use wifi!
 
Aye, I like it.

I got my Gmail set up on it too, finally... but I was a bit irritated to notice that it automatically checked my e-mail for me when I was sitting around eating at a sushi bar earlier today.

I've always been careful about not logging into things like my primary e-mail account on public wifi, but my Playbook seems to be doing it automatically for me. Makes me a little nervous. There's bound to be a way to turn that off though, heh.
 
One question before I buy a PB. Can I stream Amazon Prime videos on the PB?
 
Mr. Wolf said:
One question before I buy a PB. Can I stream Amazon Prime videos on the PB?
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Yep, all through the browser (fullscreen works well too). You can even mirror it out over hdmi.
 
I got to play with a Playbook recently. It was better than I had expected given all the negativity around it when it launched.

I'm looking for a tablet, though I will wait for the Nexus Tablet before picking anything up.

OrangeWolf said:
I don't have a smartphone at all (I wouldn't use it enough to justify the increased monthly cost of a data plan, and if I don't have a data plan I'd rather keep the battery life of my current phone), so this is filling a very nice niche for me at the moment.

:D
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Jeez I've had a smartphone for almost 10 years now. There's nothing like having the ability to get information about anything anytime.

You could get a smartphone and make it wifi only.


chrispycrunch said:
Smart phones are generally a pain. poor battery life and constant alerts. Playbook pays for itself. Just buy a coffee and use wifi!
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Smartphones are so much fun! I guess if you're not much of a techie, you may hate them. But then why are you on this forum lol

I don't find it a big deal to charge my Galaxy Nexus every night.
 
I have to admit, after using a PlayBook in a store for 3 minutes, I was surprised by how good and smooth it was. I usually dislike all Blackberry stuff, but it was impressive.

Not that it's enough to make me switch from my iOS ecosystem, just giving credit where it's due.
 
shurcooL said:
I have to admit, after using a PlayBook in a store for 3 minutes, I was surprised by how good and smooth it was. I usually dislike all Blackberry stuff, but it was impressive.

Not that it's enough to make me switch from my iOS ecosystem, just giving credit where it's due.
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It really is nothing like their previous efforts, I personally think QNX pulls off the smoothness of iOS while managing to bring true multitasking to tablets.
 
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