“BlackBerry maker Research In Motion launched its new PlayBook tablet computer Thursday amid poor reviews and a scramble to make more third-party applications, big hurdles to overcome if it is to compete in the hot market dominated by the iPad.
The Waterloo, Ont., firm is pulling out all the stops to encourage development of apps – the games and tools that tie users to their tablets. Steps include loosening the company’s own strict app-building rules, as well as the recent decision to support applications built for Google Inc.’s Android platform.”
Surely there must be something better to link to? For instance a story with links to the reviews? I mean, it hardly says anything at all.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4266/blackberry-playbook-review
Better?
Thanks. I did in fact FGI, but most of the articles were fluff pieces with no real information.
A very thorough review on Crackberry: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-playbook-review-official
The verdict on that seems to be that it is still rough, yet shows promise.
Edited 2011-04-15 00:37 UTC
QNX is great but the GUI and gesture seems a little bit wonky for me, the lack of application is not an issue right now.
But the biggest negative point for me is the use of a special software for copying file on the device is a big letdown (that leave a big question mark on the linux support).
I guess I’ll wait for the eee pad transformer, or buy a galaxy tab.
They have really put that name on it ? O_o
Reminds me of the Criminal Plus mouse…
Edited 2011-04-15 06:08 UTC
What? You connect it via USB, and it shows up as a standard Mass Storage Controller, just like any USB flash stick.
Or, you enable Wifi Sharing, and it shows up like a Windows network share.
Either way, it’s drag-n-drop file management. No special software required.
However, there’s also the option of using the standard Blackberry Desktop Manager software to sync your PIM data and other files. Thus it acts just like any other Blackberry device.
Which means, you get the best of every world:
* direct USB storage connection (Win, Mac, Linux, other)
* network share (Win, Mac, Linux, other)
* Blackberry DM (Win, Mac)
How can that be a bad thing?
I just worked for like 14 hrs, so a review summary will follow tomorrow
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I have to say, I read the two reviews linked by the comments here and they didn’t seem “poor” at all. Both of them really liked the OS and the device. The only real problem seems to be the lack of apps, especially the (temporary) lack of a mail app, so that all email has to be done via webmail.
For businesses that already has a BES install, and for people already using a BB phone, it’s a no-brainer to pick one of these up. It’s basically a larger screen for your existing BB, with some extra added features that make sense in a boardroom setting (presentations via HDMI, for example).
For businesses and pro-sumers with BIS-enabled BB phones, it’s mostly a no-brainer to get this, as you don’t need to install/learn any new software on your computer to use it (no iTunes!!). And it’s basically a large screen for your BB data, with extra features like being a decent-sized ereader, or video screen, etc. With some nice games in the pipeline to boot.
For the non-BB phone carrier, and the “general consumer”, it’s a bit of a tough sell, especially without mail, contacts, or calendaring, and a dearth of “non-business-oriented” apps. However, give RIM time to build out the first-party apps, optimise the OS and apps, and get devs going on third-party apps, and it may be an option.
The problem with most reviews of the Playbook is that it’s non-business-oriented people looking for an iPad killer. And right now, they are not the target market.
I find it interesting that every fanboi gadget site out there that writes the same paragraph or two about the PlayBook and most without even seeing one in person include the statement that it will run Android apps when it in fact does not, probably never will, and if it does probably badly. When did “tech” journalism become so badly degraded that it basically amounts to press releases for major tech companies?
But that doesn’t stop the silly everything must mention iOS or Android in every article phase we seem to be in now.
Btw, running Android apps is the end of the Blackberry platform. Dumbest idea ever.
Why is that dumb? They’re at a software library disadvantage. Calling it dumb is like calling Wine dumb. Taking away Wine would not bring a native port of Photoshop to Linux.
If Blackberry dies it will be because the CEO ignored the iphone for too long. They still don’t have a good alternative. But they have healthy enterprise profits so I don’t think the end is near.
Because it drives away the developers who write apps for their platform. AKA very dumb. You think people buy smartphones anymore for the hardware quality? No, for the apps someone has convinced them they need.
And I don’t really care how you do it, running any POS app written for another platform in an emulation mode is a recipe for disaster and trumpeting it as a hallmark of your product is dumb. See OS/2. RIM will be Palm in 3 years if they continue down this road and sold off at a fraction of their current valuation.
And not every fking phone has to be the iPhone or scramble to “keep up” with iOS innovations (whatever those are, lolz) There is and will be continue to be a large market for people who think their device is not a toy (even if it is).
Dumbest idea ever.