Playbook OS 2.0 Released

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday February 22, 2012 @03:54AM from the all-playbook-makes-jack-unproductive dept.

Alt-kun writes "On February 21st, The Blackberry Playbook finally received its long-promised overhaul. Called Playbook OS 2.0, this major upgrade provides native email and calendaring apps, limited support for Android applications (the developer has to repackage the app for the Playbook), and a bunch of other features. There are some fairly positive initial reviews, although one can no doubt expect a lot of too-little-too-late naysaying from various quarters as well. The Globe and Mail article also contains this somewhat interesting note: '...until RIM began deep discounting ... the device languished way behind rivals such as the iPad in terms of market share. One recent report by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, however, pegs RIM's share of the tablet market at around 15 per cent, a big jump after discounting over the holiday buying season.'" ZDNet has some screenshots of the new features, and El Reg has a piece on an interesting bit of the new software.

23 of 90 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Take note by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 03:59 · Score: 5, Funny

10 and a half months after release, the Blackberry Playbook finally doesn't suck.

Much.
1. Re:Take note by Tarlus · 2012-02-22 04:40 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I think they were only leading the industry because their conventional, usable competitors hadn't yet been invented.
  
  --
  /* No Comment */
Thats it! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:03 · Score: 3, Funny

I must alert all playbook owners......owner.....I wonder if Jim even still has it.....
I hate subjects by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

The fact that the Playbook didn't have native email (without tethering to a Blackberry phone) from the start speaks enormously about what's wrong with RIM (or RIM's management, to be precise). The guys in charge thought "this will increase phone sales since people will want email." Not only is that idiotic reasoning considering all the tablet competition, it's a shitty attitude to have towards your customers.
Make people WANT to buy RIM phones, not have to.
1. Re:I hate subjects by Andy+Dodd · 2012-02-22 04:07 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Yup... "native email" as an important update feature is BAD NEWS - because it should have been one of the FIRST features in the initial OS release!
  For critical basic features like this to be missing from the initial release, and to take this long (basically, when the hardware is becoming obsolete), is completely inexcusable.
  
  --
  retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
2. Re:I hate subjects by Nimloth · 2012-02-22 04:20 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  You're looking at it wrong. They didn't cripple it to sell more phones, they developped the product when they still had good market share in the mobile world and wanted to sell PlayBooks into existing BlackBerry accounts. It was a way to bypass IT having to manage another device and piggyback on the already-approved BlackBerries in enterprise (think FIPS approval, etc). They did not expect then that nobody would want BlackBerry devices anymore, and that it would be a major handicap to the PlayBook to not be able to function as a standalone device.
  Short-sighted yes, malicious tactic I think not.
3. Re:I hate subjects by WrongSizeGlass · 2012-02-22 04:22 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  No, that was the power button. They wanted to remove it because turning the device might expose users to a security risk.
  Turning it on would also expose RIM to ridicule.
4. Re:I hate subjects by UnknowingFool · 2012-02-22 04:45 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  No this was their fallback position when the reviews started coming in critical of the lack of email functionality. The fact of the matter was that adapting Qnx to be their OS would take years to do and Apple and Android already had sizable leads. RIM needed to release a product to compete; releasing it incomplete was the option they chose rather than releasing it later but complete (but still behind).
  
  --
  Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
5. Re:I hate subjects by accessbob · 2012-02-22 05:06 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Well, I remember actually going to the developer days before the Playbook was launched, and applying for my free Playbook, and the whole tech presentation was about how it worked as an extension to your phone and why that was good for business.
  The engineers seemed to know what they were making, and what their priorities were. The CEOs and their marketing department on the other hand were living in some strange parallel universe... I note that the CEOs have gone, and they are shopping around for a new Marketing director. I'm not surprised.
6. Re:I hate subjects by spacepimp · 2012-02-22 05:09 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  From what I've read, the use of QNX necessitates an entirely new version (ground up rewrite) of BES server software to be written. So an enterprise will need one BES server for QNX devices and a legacy server for the legacy models. They haven't released a new version of BES yet, so they relented and used active sync on the device. They made a choice not to release the PB with email so they could build a new BES Server. Now the people who bought one could easily have had one with active sync, a year ago but that challenged their sunk costs business model. When companies atart finding reasons not to ship a tablet with email because it conflicts with their interests then they deserve to fail. The RIM backend passthru model of servers it outdated and expensive and will not scale well as people use more bandwidth.
7. Re:I hate subjects by ArhcAngel · 2012-02-22 05:17 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  As someone who has a BlackBerry Torch and a PlayBook I can attest to how well the two are integrated. Once I had Bridge installed on my Torch and paired with the PlayBook you would swear there was a native email/calender/contacts list on the device (as long as the phone was close by). I really don't understand the hate on the device. It is an impeccable mobile device with arguably the best browser of any mobile OS. I haven't needed an app that wasn't available. I have several Android applications installed and they work flawlessly. I guess people need to feel good about their purchase so their put down the device they didn't get.
  
  --
  "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
8. Re:I hate subjects by uglyduckling · 2012-02-22 05:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  No, "native email" means IMAP and POP3 to the vast majority of people. The general public buying a tablet expect to be able to use a desktop-like email client on their tablet.
9. Re:I hate subjects by Pope · 2012-02-22 06:23 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  My understanding is that BES is locked down to one user = one device, so if you already had a BB phone accessing your email with BES, you couldn't "share" that account with another device.
  Made total sense for all the years they've been around, until they decided to create the Playbook.
  
  --
  It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Good app recommendations? by silverpig · 2012-02-22 04:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

I got the Playbook yesterday and love it already. Bridge works great and the UI is very well thought out. There are some features that even to the iPad. When you type in a password field, the keyboard adds a number row to the top for example. That being said what are some good apps? I am using Lemma for my twitter client. Any other little gems?
1. Re:Good app recommendations? by Dzimas · 2012-02-22 05:02 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  First off, try Evernote (cloud note service) and Poynt (location based search). Taptu is probably the best blog/news aggregator for PlayBook. It's actually an Android app that runs within the new Android Player. Magellan Compass is a nice GPS navigation tool that uses Google Maps and integrates Yelp and Flickr. Box is a nice cloud storage solution for sharing files between the PB and other devices and your desktop. I think they offer something like 15GB free storage. GeeReader bring Google Reader to the platform. The free version has a banner ad on the bottom of the reading pane, but it's easy enough to ignore.
  As far as free games go, PewPew is a quite attractive vector graphic shoot-em-up that's a great stress relief at the end of the day. Celestial Slingshot is another free game that's quite addictive if you don't mind accidentally launching dozens of ships into the sun.
  Release of the Zinio reader is imminient, and I'm sure we'll see a flock of Android apps in the AppWorld in coming months. Ignore the wisecracks from the iPadistas - the Playbook is good value for $200.
2. Re:Good app recommendations? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 05:10 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Spent mod points so have to post as AC, check out "GeeReader" if you use Google Reader for RSS, "Remote Desktop" if you want to RDP to your desktop using native MSTSC TCP 3389 with no additional software clients, there is "Telnet/SSH" which is basically PutTY compiled for Playbook OS, "ProInsights" is a very nice eye candy for your LinkedIn account (not very functional, but very cool to show off), "Book Reader" lets you open any ebook, including Kindle... for games - just look at the top rated tab in the new App World. Ok, I think that's it.
In your face! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:26 · Score: 5, Funny

BOOM! Native Email Application! YOUR MOVE APPLE!
1. Re:In your face! by steelfood · 2012-02-22 05:01 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Apple's response:
  Cut and paste.
  
  --
  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
I don't believe this for a second by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:34 · Score: 3, Insightful

One recent report by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, however, pegs RIM's share of the tablet market at around 15 per cent
No bloody way. I'd love to see some actual data on this.
1. Re:I don't believe this for a second by haus · 2012-02-22 05:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  That would be 15% of the tablets owned by members of RIM's executive team.
2. Re:I don't believe this for a second by Nimloth · 2012-02-22 06:58 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  This came out last week. It is based on a survey of 1000 tablet owners in Canada only. I'd say within 2-3% margin of error it sounds about right. I'm in Canada and we have sold a lot of PlayBooks, mostly to people who would have liked an iPad but couldn't justify the 400$ more it cost.
market share by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 04:35 · Score: 5, Informative

One recent report by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, however, pegs RIM's share of the tablet market at around 15 per cent, a big jump after discounting over the holiday buying season.

That's 15 per cent of the Canadian tablet market. One would figure they're doing much worse outside Canada.
Bang for the buck, when discounted by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-22 05:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

I picked up a playbook earlier this month, and am loving it [*ducks*].
But seriously, I had planned on getting a kindle fire for a cheap and light web-browsing, pass-the-time gaming, and music and movies for the kids. Then the playbooks went on sale and for the same price I got twice the memory (1GB RAM vs 512MB and 16GB SSD vs 8GB) plus font and back cameras.
Admittedly the apps aren't there for many people, but there are enough for me. Also, the browser is as good or better than many android tablets I've tried (with exception of Hulu which I can't get to work). I figure the number of apps will grow, but I'm stuck with the hardware (I use stuff until it's beyond repair, so I plan on 5yrs or so) for me it's a better investment.