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RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: Unfinished, Unusable
snydeq points out this InfoWorld review of the BlackBerry PlayBook, "an 'unfinished, unusable' tablet from RIM. 'At the core of it all, the design of the PlayBook as a BlackBerry-dependent device was simply a boneheaded decision by executives who hoped a hit product might entice more BlackBerry sales,' Gruman writes. 'Why RIM chose to ship the PlayBook in such a state is unfathomable. The iPad 2 and Xoom have been out for weeks, so there's no heading them off at the pass. Instead, the PlayBook debuted with all eyes on it — but instead of a world-class performer, we got the homeless guy who plays air guitar in front of the mall.'"
I read the first few paragraphs, and he says he would rather use no tablet at all than this thing -- and it still gets 5.4 from him. Score inflation much?
Classic case of hubris and " love to hate " syndrome . It has got a good CPU , Support Flash , QNX run on Dalvik VM so there is always a plan B of supporting . Android Apps . I think for version 1 this is a decent device and i have used the pre released unit . Multitasking is good enough and by any count it is better than Xoom . in a world filled with Android and Apple Fan boys its hard to measure anything on a standalone basis .
somethings are best left unsaid , I am one of those things
Not enough product shipped to stores (we got 3 64GB models, just enough to satisfy preorders on launch day), they didn't hype the fact that we'd be opening an hour early on launch day for those who wanted to pick up one, they didn't get a demo model out so people could play with it to entice more preorders, didn't get a demo out to stores so staff could learn a bit and show people fun stuff about it, or useful stuff about it, and accessories didn't reach the store for the most part until the day after launch or later. Three mediocre cases, that's all there was available for people to chose from. Seriously one of the worst product launches I've seen pretty much ever.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
I see far fewer blackberry devices where I work - where they once dominated. This tablet sounds bad. I guess I won't see one of these any time soon.
A better title would be:
RIP BlackBerry PlayBook: Unfinished, Unusable
I admit I haven't tracked Blackberry much, but I remember many of us at worked had smartphones that implemented general standards (e.g. becoming a usb mass storage for getting files on and off via usb cable). Meanwhile, the blackberry users were still forced to use weird, proprietary programs to get at the device because RIM wouldn't implement standards. Once upon a time, this was typical, just like Palm's Hotsync, but those days should be long behind us except that RIM props it up.
Then I read in a review that the playbook does the same BS, requiring proprietary, RIM-only software that only works with Windows and OSX. Most of the world has this figured out, don't see why RIM is still going this route.
Then I see they decided to tie email/calendaring etc to a blackberry handset with *no* option to do it without it. Further complicating things, it looks like AT&T forbade it on their stuff.
Even with new shiny UI elements, they are in many ways stuck in their annoying ways. Of course, it's probably no coincidence they are annoying as hell *and* are so popular in the 'enterprise' space.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
As John Gruber, of Daring Fireball, said:
It does however support Pegasus email client.
This aint Daytona and you aint Dale Earnhardt. So stop trying to draft on Interstate 40.
We may do well to remember that the iPhone was the second iTunes branded phone. Apple's first phone was the Motorola ROKR.
That the ROKR was pants doesn't seem to have hurt Apple's later success with the iPhone. That the first edition of the Playbook is pants doesn't necessarily mean that the product line is dead in the water.
Now, one can certainly make the argument that given Blackberry's reputation, further generations are unlikely to be significantly better. But that's really a different argument.
As a homeless guy who plays Air Guitar in front of the mall, I am insulted... I am MUCH better than RIMs Playbook
(currently using my homeless iPad to post on Slashdot)
Really.
I've got my Curve 8520. Emails are absolutely flawless - talking to my gmail.com account while sending emails using my business domain (which is actually using google). Talks to my google calendar well too.
Over the years, I've had to support a number of folks using various BBs to talk to various email servers.
Setup was always kind of a pain. Varied a little bit from one version of the software to another... From one carrier to another... But their wizard was always a little cumbersome. And if you didn't do it right you'd get spammed with synchronization messages. And sometimes you'd wind up with a second email address somehow.
These days I'm just supporting co-workers on an Exchange server. Getting them to talk to the Exchange server securely, using SSL, is a bit of a trick. You have to run through their wizard and intentionally set it up wrong. When it doesn't connect right it gives you the option of specifying your settings manually. Then you can tell it exactly how you want to connect.
Once you are connected and talking to the Exchange server, even looking at an email message in Outlook will cause the BB to think it's new. So you wind up re-downloading old messages all the time. This has been an issue for a couple years now, and the only consistent solution I've seen is "buy a BES."
As far as calendar sync goes... Well, it doesn't. Unless you've got a BES (or things changed very dramatically in the last year or so) you'll need to plug your phone in to your computer in order to sync your calendar. This is a huge pain for us, because it means we have to install the BB client software on random computers around the hospital... And configure it... And then folks need to keep track of their USB cables and remember to plug in periodically.
On my Droid, I just set up a "corporate sync" account. You have to enter the settings manually, because the wizard doesn't work right (why do these wizards never work right?)... And the manual settings button isn't immediately obvious... But at least you don't have to intentionally do it wrong to make it show up. Once the account is set up it'll pull down my email, calendar, and contacts all wirelessly. No need to plug in at all.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
He did bypass the AT&T problem, so he is better than what you describe. Try going to page 2.
But yeah: There is an insane amount of confirmation bias added on top of several geniune concerns.
I am starting to think of hardware reviews are like pick-ups, without a good opener, the product is destined to crash'n'burn in reviews, and nobody does openers better than Apple.
BES Express is a free product. From an administrator's point of view it's somewhat limited in functionality compared to BES, but from the user's perspective the all the synchronisation and directory integration works as expected.
You need to have your iphone users upgrade to iOS 3.0 or newer. Any firmware newer then 2 years old fully supports ActiveSync and policies. Curiously, not all Android phones actually support ActiveSync Policies. Some models simply tell the ActiveSync server they have features they don't. The password spamming behavior your explaining does not happen.
ViewSonic 10" G-Tablet is $300
Who actually makes it, though? Viewsonic has been pushing a lot of rebranded garbage lately...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The Blackberry Bridge being blocked on AT&T is very ridiculous, but writing this review without Blackberry Bridge is even more ridiculous.
Obviously you failed to read the rest of the review, wherein the reviewer DID install Blackberry Bridge.