HWZBB

The only BlackBerry community you will want to be in Singapore. Singapore BlackBerry users, unite!

HWZBB - The only BlackBerry community you will want to be in Singapore. Singapore BlackBerry users, unite!

The BlackBerry PlayBook (Note: Comprehensive insight + 2.0)

The BlackBerry PlayBook came with true multi-tasking capabilities and industry leading performance. It did come with quite abit of cutting edge technologies and even highlighted how as current users of the BlackBerry platform, can we leverage on the advantages of our existing devices and bring it over to this device. With the launch of OS2.0, many new features are introduced to this platform which makes the device feel young and new again, thus, I would really recommend, if your looking for a tablet that’s portable, powerful & versatile, look no further – the true BlackBerry tablet is here!

It can be attributed, to the fact that for such industry leading device to be priced so cheap (us$199), many adaptors of this new device may not have or used such platforms and the aim of the new OS is also to cater to this group of people. The largest complain, being a company which built its riches on messaging, was the lack of email client which competitors had offered. Indeed, users could already enjoy emailing on the device if they have owned a BlackBerry smartphone with a BlackBerry plan. This, of course would definitely not satisfy users from other platforms, but this did make sense for a product from this company.

A largely similar device to the BlackBerry PlayBook is the Amazon Kindle, simply due to the fact that it was designed based on it.

Somethings that PlayBook has which most androids lack of (especially Kindle) and something iPad (might be) missing:

  • Dual high quality cameras and a microphone
  • Bluetooth
  • Integrated GPS
  • HDMI out (outputs EVERYTHING, unlike the iPad)
  • Dual stereo speakers which is one of the BEST
  • 1GB of RAM and more internal storage (16, 32 or 64 GB compared to 8GB – compared to Kindle/512mb in ipad2)
  • Seamless connectivity/complementary data with BB smartphone
  • Fast, powerful web browser made even better in the 2.0 update (vs androids, + we can now use their 3rd party apps!)
  • Much nicer user interface (vs kindle, many ‘custom’ android)
  • Rapid Charging solution to complement the MicroUSB
  • Wolfson WM8994 – premium audio capabilities (same as Samsung Galaxy Tab)

With both price similarly in the US (kindle vs PlayBook), its rather brainless that PlayBook is a much better experience as what ZDNET mentioned, “You can get the Amazon experience on the PlayBook, but you can’t get the PlayBook experience on the Kindle Fire.”

Now, just a few days back, RIM officially rolled out the latest OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook, namely OS2.0 worldwide, which gave it many new features. Anyone with a PlayBook can simply download the software upgrade over-the-air just like their standard updates.

The new user interface now comes with a row of apps situated at the top, which can be customized to have your favorite applications or most commonly used applications, something like a “shortcut”. In fact, you can also order the icons wherever you want it to be placed, and even move the icons to the next menu screen. Another new feature of the arrangement is that you can now create folders which can be custom named and have your apps moved customly by yourself to arrange it for yourself.

With a new Native email app, it can render HTML-emails quickly on the go (via BB data or WIFI), and has a unified inbox whereby you can group all messages from your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, in addition to your personal and work email accounts. In addition, emails can now be created it in rich text (from simple text in the Smartphone) and the app even comes with a “tabbed email” feature where you can easily access, edit and compose multiple emails on the go.

Another new app is the Calender. It allows one to see whom they are meeting each day and valuable information from the address book (contacts application) regarding that person. The Calendar features numbers of sizes in different formats, known as “growing numbers”. Growing numbers tells you very quickly when you’re busy and when you’re not – from the size of the day. This is very convenient for many of us, however, for those who are constantly busy, this may be rather irritating with that large calender font glaring at you everyday.

Together with OS2, RIM also launched the BlackBerry Bridge version 2.0, which allows our BlackBerry device to act as both, a mouse AND a keyboard for the BlackBerry PlayBook. However, do take note that with Bridge 2.0, this feature will also be enabled for those running 1.0.8 🙂 In fact, this also allows you to use your blackberry to control your powerpoint if you were presenting a PowerPoint slide show, and the volume keys also allows you to control the slides!
Baked into BlackBerry devices, starting from OS7 (smartphones), Docs to Go premium suite came as a free package. However, in OS 1, Documents To Go was not able to be used to edit PowerPoint Slides, and it was only able to present the slides. Now, OS 2 has also introduced the capability to edit these slideshows.

BlackBerry Bridge 2.0 also allows you to open pictures, webpages, emails on the PlayBook wirelessly, without even requiring the PlayBook to download it. This feature will work with 1.0.8 and 2.0.

In addition to the productivity suite, RIM has also added Print To Go. This is aimed to help users save on printing – you can choose to print your documents, be it Word document or web pages, from your computer or Laptop to your BlackBerry PlayBook. Acting like a printer driver, in order to use this, it would require the end user to download the drivers from BlackBerry before you can use it to “print” to your device. The “printed” document will only be in PDF format – which means, RIM is essentially giving you a FREE pdf creation software, albeit it being required to be retrieved from your PlayBook.

Another improved application, which many will welcome, is the updated browser software on the new OS. This new browser is much faster and better than most browsers out on the market. Hence, it is definitely a big step up from OS 1.0. Check out the full improvements the did HERE.
Just watch the comparison below:

The following were used by Adam@RIM in the above video:

  • Guimark3 HTML5 bitmap drawing test, by Sean Christmann
  • Rubiks HTML5 canvas, by Remy Sharp
  • Origami, by Hakim El Hattab

One good thing to note is that there’s still no NATIVE BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on the PlayBook nor is the twitter application for PlayBook released – this were engineering decision during the building of PlayBook 2.0 as these were not really of a high priority; I kind of have to agree with it – Twitter is already on Android, porting over would be simple, in fact it works very well in the web browser with the unified email, this should not have been a high priority. As for BBM, it is already available on Smartphone + Bridge, so its a great idea. Keeping it as ‘secured’ and simplified, (esp during the Bridge process), this is a very good idea. For users on other Platform, yes you should be using a BlackBerry. 😛

With more QUALITY apps coming our way, and together with the opening of Android applications, the signs are really optimistic.

Note: We are not forgetting the fact that other Tablets offered many such features that was featured in OS2 as well as the fact that RIM did take quite sometime to bake something that should have came at the very initial launch. However, it is still better late than never, with many of such features working as good as, if not, better than competition. However, it is good to note that, afterall, this IS ultimately an BlackBerry device and of course, catering it to these users are still more critical that catering to other platforms.

While there are many more improvements that could still be made, this update would have brought many critical and missing features to this device. If you have not grabbed yours, its time. 😉

Category: News!

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