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Tablets iPad vs. Playbook
- Thread starter Jackintosh
- Start date
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yep. i also got a playbook at the firesale price. will use it as a basic tablet until ipad 3 comes out and then its being ditched completely. can't believe how bad this thing is..
Well, they didn't. Here's what I got:
RIM announced its third-quarter earnings today, and it's not a pretty picture. The company reported earnings of $265 million 51 cents per share for the quarter, down 71 percent from $911 million from the same quarter a year ago.
The $5.4 billion dollars is quarterly revenue, and that is about 5% down from the year before.
Playbook is a great tablet, RIM just advertised it poorly. Honestly, the PB was just too small for me. But browsing is better than the iPad and it really does have true multitasking like no other device. (one thing that annoys me about iOS is that if I'm on a wep page typing something and I leave the page to go into another app and come back the page will reload sometimes and I'll loose everything I was typing.) obviously the PB will loose in the app game, although it can run android apps.
RIM isn't dead and definitely isn't going out of business. Many companies have huge droughts like RIM is having right now. Even apple did at one point if I'm not mistaken.
RIM isn't dead and definitely isn't going out of business. Many companies have huge droughts like RIM is having right now. Even apple did at one point if I'm not mistaken.
actually, the 'refreshing' page issue is also on the playbook. i assume you probably have to force it into showcase mode to avoid it. not sure as i dont use the playbook browser enough since its buggy as **** and crashes like crazy on beta 2.0 (which i have to be on to use android apps or else this tablet is completely useless).
RIM isn't dead currently, no. but you have to remember that the playbook was supposed to be RIM's big saviour and flagship product that was supposed to lead the way to transition from BB OS to QNX.
obviously it didn't save RIM. if anything, it actually just made it worse as RIMS reputation plummeted massively, cementing the fact that everything RIM keeps trying to release within the past couple of years has been largely underwhelming and consumers generally don't give a crap about them anymore.
yah apple was on a downturn in the past. later on though they released genuine game changers to the market (ipod/iphone/ipad, etc) with much success. you can't say the same about RIM and their attempts right now.
plus, have you seen the new BBX phones? they look SO horrible..
Who knows. Nobody knew about iPods etc before apple releases them. I'm sure RIM is working on something other than just BB10. IMO they look pretty good as renders. Definitely better looking than most Androids on the market. But who knows. I'm no trying to get into an argument. I'm not a fanboy on the Apple or BB side. I use both, and for me I love apple computers and the iPad, but when it comes to a phone BB wins it for me. Keyboard is amazing, blinking LED that I have color coordinated, universal inbox etc.
EDIT: actually I wouldn't recommend the PB unless you have a Blackberry. The playbook is meant to be used to compliment your Blackberry device. This was a mistake on RIMs part thinking that people wouldn't want to use it as a standalone device. But these issues are supposed to be fixed with the new software when it releases officially.
EDIT: actually I wouldn't recommend the PB unless you have a Blackberry. The playbook is meant to be used to compliment your Blackberry device. This was a mistake on RIMs part thinking that people wouldn't want to use it as a standalone device. But these issues are supposed to be fixed with the new software when it releases officially.
You must be kidding. I have both an iPad and the playbook and you can't tell me that the Playbook is as bad as your post makes it seem.
I only paid $99+Tax for mine so its not like I need to justify my purchase but in all reality it is a good device tbat needs a bit of tweeking to be really good.
it is as bad as i say it is mainly because i've been spoiled by the ipad. QNX is a nice OS, but thats really about it. horribly implemented with no real support from RIM or 3rd party devs.
basic things i expect a tablet to do:
1) stream media within your LAN
2) act as a PDF reader
3) play back video locally in various codecs
4) have a good audio player at the very least
the playbook in its current state fails at all of this.
1) there is no air video equivalent for the playbook. all it has is Orb (unusable on the playbook due to completely unoptimized UI) and sonic air which i paid for but is incredibly buggy and therefore useless.
2) adobe reader for playbook is singlehandedly the worst pdf reader for any mobile device i've tried. no ability to bookmark? yeesh.
3) at least on the ipad i have a choice of different media players like flex, vlc (before it was removed), aceplayer etc that can play different video formats. the playbook either shows a black screen and/or no sound for a lot of my videos. my ipad plays them just fine. plus the default video player for playbook has the WORST location scrubber ever. its pretty much impossible to scrub to a specific time because it doesnt have the distance-sensitive scrubbing the ipad does. horrible usability.
4) the media player is the worst. no support for mp3 embedded tags. this brings me back to portable mp3 players from the late 90s which didnt have proper tag support either. horrible.
and these are the very BASIC tasks a tablet initially targeted for the high end market should have or at least made available via apps. don't even get me started on the tons of other deficiencies this thing has.
I tried out the PlayBook multiple times in different stores. While the UI is gesture based, the device doesn't recognize gestures well. 
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The Playbook is pretty bad. It's display is microscopic (you get a headache), gestures are unrecognized half the time, no native email, browser is difficult to use, and everthing just seems haphazard. It does have very good build quality, decent dual cameras, and nice HD camcorder. But this is not enough to overcome the iPad.
I'm amazed over at the Crackberry forum, they talk about ditching their iPads in favor of Playbooks. What universe are they living in?
obviously its RIM biased, but crackberry is by far the worst forum for blatant fanboyism. people are banned left and right for saying anything critical about the playbook. they excuse pretty much EVERY fault on the playbook and basically circle jerk each other off in a desperate attempt to feel good about buying one of the worst tech gadgets of 2011.
Oh it's bad. Bad enough for this:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mobiledia/2012/01/04/rim-to-oust-ceos-report-says/
Though the PlayBook is just one piece of this sad puzzle.
I got the displeasure of using one through work for a product demo through Bell. I cannot even begin to describe how awful the playbook was. They gave us an iPad 2 and a Playbook, I used the playbook first (I own an iPad 2) and I was so disappointed. I found it to be very sluggish and like any blackberry device, slow to power on or off.
I am glad I had the experience of using it, but I would NEVER recommend it to anyone..
I am glad I had the experience of using it, but I would NEVER recommend it to anyone..
ha ha...you guys make me laugh.
Hey what ever works for you and makes you feel better. I like the iPad a lot. I like Apple products a lot. Look at how many i own and enjoy.
That doesn't make me blind to the truth. Its a shame that you guys feel the need to trash on a product to make yourself feel superior. What you guys are saying about the playbook is just not true.
But if you want to believe it thats cool.
Hey what ever works for you and makes you feel better. I like the iPad a lot. I like Apple products a lot. Look at how many i own and enjoy.
That doesn't make me blind to the truth. Its a shame that you guys feel the need to trash on a product to make yourself feel superior. What you guys are saying about the playbook is just not true.
But if you want to believe it thats cool.
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iPad > PB; however, if you can get the PB for $249 or cheaper, then PB > iPad. Sorry, but if I can save nearly $250, then I will. If both are the same price of $499, then of course I'm getting the iPad without a doubt!! Overall, the iPad is much better if price is not a factor.
iPad > PB; however, if you can get the PB for $249 or cheaper, then PB > iPad. Sorry, but if I can save nearly $250, then I will. If both are the same price of $499, then of course I'm getting the iPad without a doubt!! Overall, the iPad is much better if price is not a factor.
The Playbook was a good deal 7 months ago right after its dramatic price drop but there are much better options now.
At this point I'd go with a low cost tablet such as a Nexus 7 or the refurb iPad 2 that jmpnop suggested.
I think ongoing support should also be a consideration. Right now, I would really be worried about RIM's future, and that could mean having an orphaned device if you buy a Playbook today.
This might not've been a big deal for those buying say, an HP Touchpad, but the price was WAY cheaper during the Touchpad fire sale, and the TouchPad didn't rely so much on there being a proprietary infrastructure behind it. RIM's products require RIM to have its backbone up and running to work as intended. That includes RIM's killer app: e-mail (which the PlayBook finally has).
Those who down voted posts about RIM being a "dead company walking" back when this thread began, it's just a bit harder now to ignore that likelihood: A net loss of $518 million, layoffs happening, and talks of "assessing strategic options." Like it or not, smartphone buyers have pretty much spoken. And RIM's whole business model is built on dominating the marketplace, something it simply doesn't do anymore.
This might not've been a big deal for those buying say, an HP Touchpad, but the price was WAY cheaper during the Touchpad fire sale, and the TouchPad didn't rely so much on there being a proprietary infrastructure behind it. RIM's products require RIM to have its backbone up and running to work as intended. That includes RIM's killer app: e-mail (which the PlayBook finally has).
Those who down voted posts about RIM being a "dead company walking" back when this thread began, it's just a bit harder now to ignore that likelihood: A net loss of $518 million, layoffs happening, and talks of "assessing strategic options." Like it or not, smartphone buyers have pretty much spoken. And RIM's whole business model is built on dominating the marketplace, something it simply doesn't do anymore.
I always thought that the Playbook had outstanding hardware. It is a great device. Unfortunately, the software was abysmally bad. While it has gotten better, I would rather have the Nexus 7 or one of the 7" Samsung tablets than the Playbook.
Yup, exactly why i said one works, one doesn't. I used BB for over 5 years and a playbook for over a month and its always the same deal: great hardware, crap software.
I suggest we revive this thread every six months until Dec. 2016 and check if RIM is still there.
I've been getting some use out of mine, namely thanks to the geeks at crack berry, I've got my laptop setup to convert apk files to bar files and grab android apps. Now I can stream video with es file explorer and with the current beta OS, I can run multiple instances of android apps as well.
Add the fact it's the best movie device capable of playing flash, and it's not a bad little device. Out of the box though, it's rubbish, unless you have a blackberry phone.
Add the fact it's the best movie device capable of playing flash, and it's not a bad little device. Out of the box though, it's rubbish, unless you have a blackberry phone.
I forgot all about the playbook.... You don't hear any tech sites ever talk about it. I don't think I've ever seen one, out in the wild.