Are the blackberry tablets any good? Pc world are selling this one at a good price and i havnt really considered Blackberry before but at this price with a good memory it might be worth a look? http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/blackb...47931-pdt.html
Blackberry tablets
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I'm writing this on a BB Playbook now.
It all depends on what you want to use it for. It's no iPad killer and the lack of apps is limiting but for £169 it's a powerful little tablet for the price.
It all depends on what you want to use it for. It's no iPad killer and the lack of apps is limiting but for £169 it's a powerful little tablet for the price.
I've just got one and it's excellent, especially for £169. Very smooth touch features and good OS. It feels very well built and has a classy look.
The reviews all said it was much better at multitasking, etc, than the iPad, and the hardware was good, but was let down by the lack of Email client in the software as well as basics like Calendar & Messenger, unless Bridge was used.
However, they are worth picking up, as the prices have dropped big time and BB are said to be rolling out a new OS fixing the issues
However, they are worth picking up, as the prices have dropped big time and BB are said to be rolling out a new OS fixing the issues
Originally Posted by Microkorg:
“The reviews all said it was much better at multitasking, etc, than the iPad, and the hardware was good, but was let down by the lack of Email client in the software as well as basics like Calendar & Messenger, unless Bridge was used.
However, they are worth picking up, as the prices have dropped big time and BB are said to be rolling out a new OS fixing the issues”
“The reviews all said it was much better at multitasking, etc, than the iPad, and the hardware was good, but was let down by the lack of Email client in the software as well as basics like Calendar & Messenger, unless Bridge was used.
However, they are worth picking up, as the prices have dropped big time and BB are said to be rolling out a new OS fixing the issues”
The BB Bridge works pretty well - but, of course, that requires you to have a Blackberry phone.Otherwise, Gmail works well for email and calendar but it would be nice the have an offline email offering in the next O/S update.
The preview looks good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4of1jfKASlU
I have a Playbook and wouldn't be without it. Tried a droid and iPad too but really not for me.
Big software update coming out i Feb for the Playbook, native email and BBM and if you have a BB phone, you can use it's keyboard wirelessly as the Playbook keyboard
Big software update coming out i Feb for the Playbook, native email and BBM and if you have a BB phone, you can use it's keyboard wirelessly as the Playbook keyboard
Originally Posted by Andy2:
“I've just got one and it's excellent, especially for £169. Very smooth touch features and good OS. It feels very well built and has a classy look.”
“I've just got one and it's excellent, especially for £169. Very smooth touch features and good OS. It feels very well built and has a classy look.”
£169 ? that s a good price. Pc world 32gb was £259
Originally Posted by gazzaboy:
“£169 ? that s a good price. Pc world 32gb was £259”
“£169 ? that s a good price. Pc world 32gb was £259”
The 16GB model was available in PC Word for £169 in the Boxing Day sales but it seems the price has gone up again. Now the 64GB one seems to be the best value as it is only £20 more than the 16GB model
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/blackb...-criteria.html
Originally Posted by gazzaboy:
“£169 ? that s a good price. Pc world 32gb was £259”
“£169 ? that s a good price. Pc world 32gb was £259”
Sorry, I should have pointed out that mine is the 16 Gig one. Memory size doesn't matter much to me as I don't use it for videos or other huge files. Mainly PDF's and text files, maybe a bit of music and a few photo's.
I think the £169 price was a Christmas special.
Originally Posted by John_Elway:
“I have a Playbook and wouldn't be without it. Tried a droid and iPad too but really not for me.
Big software update coming out i Feb for the Playbook, native email and BBM and if you have a BB phone, you can use it's keyboard wirelessly as the Playbook keyboard”
“I have a Playbook and wouldn't be without it. Tried a droid and iPad too but really not for me.
Big software update coming out i Feb for the Playbook, native email and BBM and if you have a BB phone, you can use it's keyboard wirelessly as the Playbook keyboard
”
I purchased on when they first came out last year and, to be honest, for what I need a tablet for it is perfect.
Having a BlackBerry phone helps in that respect because a lot of the short-comings don't affect me so much because my phone takes care of things like e-mails and I'm not interested in "collecting" apps!
However the R2.0 release next months promises to address many of the issues, so it should make the Playbook even better.
Personally this is what I would like to see added:
[LIST=1][*]In-built e-mail support.[*]Microsoft/Yahoo Messenger client.[*]The ability to map network drives to the Playbook.[/LIST]
Then it would be pretty close to perfect for me, as it is my wife & I use it every day already!
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“[*]The ability to map network drives to the Playbook.[/LIST]”
“[*]The ability to map network drives to the Playbook.[/LIST]”
Actually, I can do that already with the current software. I have a P: drive on my desktop which connects, via WiFi, to the Playbook. The only catch is that it has to be mapped by IP address as there's a current bug in the Playbook o/s which prevents name resolution.
The only problem is that it doesn't work the other way. I cannot browse my computer from the Playbook. That would make it an ideal media playback device
Originally Posted by LostFool:
“Actually, I can do that already with the current software. I have a P: drive on my desktop which connects, via WiFi, to the Playbook. The only catch is that it has to be mapped by IP address as there's a current bug in the Playbook o/s which prevents name resolution.
The only problem is that it doesn't work the other way. I cannot browse my computer from the Playbook. That would make it an ideal media playback device”
“Actually, I can do that already with the current software. I have a P: drive on my desktop which connects, via WiFi, to the Playbook. The only catch is that it has to be mapped by IP address as there's a current bug in the Playbook o/s which prevents name resolution.
The only problem is that it doesn't work the other way. I cannot browse my computer from the Playbook. That would make it an ideal media playback device”
What I mean is to be able to map a Network Attached Drive for playing music and look at photos, etc. I've not worked out a way to do that yet.
Originally Posted by Glawster2002:
“What I mean is to be able to map a Network Attached Drive for playing music and look at photos, etc. I've not worked out a way to do that yet.”
“What I mean is to be able to map a Network Attached Drive for playing music and look at photos, etc. I've not worked out a way to do that yet.”
Ah, yes, that seems to be impossible at the moment out of the box. What the Playbook needs is DNLA support so that it can be used with network media devices.
It might be possible to do this with a 3rd party solution which runs a web interface such as Tversity - but I haven't tried it.
Originally Posted by Andy2:
“I think the £169 price was a Christmas special.”
“I think the £169 price was a Christmas special.”
The PlayBook is now back on sale at Currys and PC World...
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/blackbe...47929-pdt.html
I've just grabbed myself one at that price, I was going to wait for the Kindle fire but the PlayBook seems better especially with the OS 2 update coming in Feb.
Originally Posted by LostFool:
“I'm writing this on a BB Playbook now.
It all depends on what you want to use it for. It's no iPad killer and the lack of apps is limiting but for £169 it's a powerful little tablet for the price.”
“I'm writing this on a BB Playbook now.
It all depends on what you want to use it for. It's no iPad killer and the lack of apps is limiting but for £169 it's a powerful little tablet for the price.”
Dont be put off by the lack of apps as os 2.0 release is just about to arrive any time niw. It will bring a wealth of Android apps to the app store. RIM have got a lot of developers onboard now. They are being very proactive right now. I would say go for the playbook. The OS is slick and smooth, browsing is fantastic videos look great and multitasking is amazing.
For the price you are getting a very solid and stable tablet which is about to get a whole lot better.
www.crackberry.com is a great site to do some research with. Worth checking out the forums to see what users are saying about the playbook.
After reading the 'iPad2 and your TV?' thread, I'd like to add that with a £3 cable from eBay, I am able to connect my Playbook to my TV without any issues.
At the low prices that Currys are offering, it was an excellent purchase.
At the low prices that Currys are offering, it was an excellent purchase.
Originally Posted by slick1two:
“Dont be put off by the lack of apps as os 2.0 release is just about to arrive any time niw. It will bring a wealth of Android apps to the app store. RIM have got a lot of developers onboard now. They are being very proactive right now. I would say go for the playbook. The OS is slick and smooth, browsing is fantastic videos look great and multitasking is amazing.
For the price you are getting a very solid and stable tablet which is about to get a whole lot better.
www.crackberry.com is a great site to do some research with. Worth checking out the forums to see what users are saying about the playbook.”
“Dont be put off by the lack of apps as os 2.0 release is just about to arrive any time niw. It will bring a wealth of Android apps to the app store. RIM have got a lot of developers onboard now. They are being very proactive right now. I would say go for the playbook. The OS is slick and smooth, browsing is fantastic videos look great and multitasking is amazing.
For the price you are getting a very solid and stable tablet which is about to get a whole lot better.
www.crackberry.com is a great site to do some research with. Worth checking out the forums to see what users are saying about the playbook.”
Everything as above
I don't have a blackberry phone, is it just calendar and email client that are missing, or are there other features on the Playbook that require a blackberry phone to work?
Just lacking the native email client and calender oh and apps. just waiting for that update to finally drop. rumour has it that OS 3.0 is in the works already. Looking for good things to come for the playbook in 2012.
Originally Posted by slick1two:
“Just lacking the native email client and calender oh and apps. just waiting for that update to finally drop. rumour has it that OS 3.0 is in the works already. Looking for good things to come for the playbook in 2012.”
“Just lacking the native email client and calender oh and apps. just waiting for that update to finally drop. rumour has it that OS 3.0 is in the works already. Looking for good things to come for the playbook in 2012.”
Reading a few of the BB technical blogs it seems that getting full email support into the Playbook has been a massive engineering task. Internet email is easy to implement but the problem was with the enterprise BES email used by corporates. There was a fundamental design limitation in BES of one device per account.
Of course one solution would be to kill BES and use Microsoft ActiveSync but RIM make a fortune from BES service fees.
Cannot wait for 2.0 and it's good to see than RIM hasn't given up on the Playbook and are still actively developing for it.
Don't forget to check out the cloud storage from Box (in appworld) - Playbook owners get 50Gig online storage for free, as opposed to the usual 5Gig. Offer is limited, but was still running last week.
You also get offers to invite others to have the 50Gig storage, so my wife now has 50Gig for her Samsung Galaxy Tab.
It's not as functional as DropBox or SugarSync, but who's gonna argue with 50Gig?
You also get offers to invite others to have the 50Gig storage, so my wife now has 50Gig for her Samsung Galaxy Tab.
It's not as functional as DropBox or SugarSync, but who's gonna argue with 50Gig?
Having used the iPad for a couple of days, I've decided as much as I like it, it's too heavy for me. So I'm thinking about a 7" tablet and the Playbook looks pretty decent. I'm just a little cautious as I read that it does not have access to Android's app store (or that an update is due). Can anyone clarify this for me? My other alternative is a no-name tablet on Amazon for £110 that by all accounts is all-singing and dancing and has rave reviews...I'm a little torn.
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