Blackberry Playbook
- Thread starter codedivine
- Start date
I have five email accounts four of which do not have BES as an option. I wouldn't mind BES for my main work account, but there is no IMAP option for my other four accounts on Blackberry. I have to use a relay to the BES which basically turns them into POP3 accounts and forces me to hand my passwords to a middleman server.
BES, Exchange and any other proprietary email system just aren't my thing. The worst thing about BES is the centralized push system (most companies don't have their own BES servers and leverage a phone company community server). Why would I want so many hands touching my work emails with confidential information? If I SSL to my own mail server using IMAP there is no man-in-the-middle issue and IMAP IDLE pushes as well as BES.
Looks like those prices are CAD ... http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/category/id/PCblackberryplaybook.aspx
That makes it a little more enticing for me again, knowing I don't have to pay some huge markup from the US price.
They really should have tried to be a bit lower on the pricing, because iPad 2 already has huge mindshare, so you need some other advantage to compete with that. The average person doesn't care about true multi-tasking or anything like that.
That makes it a little more enticing for me again, knowing I don't have to pay some huge markup from the US price.
They really should have tried to be a bit lower on the pricing, because iPad 2 already has huge mindshare, so you need some other advantage to compete with that. The average person doesn't care about true multi-tasking or anything like that.
Considering the Canadian dollar has been above par all year, I would hope we'd get price parity from RIM at least.
I haven't seen Canadian pricing on the ipad 2 yet, but I expect they will still want a premium here.
Considering the Canadian dollar has been above par all year, I would hope we'd get price parity from RIM at least.
I haven't seen Canadian pricing on the ipad 2 yet, but I expect they will still want a premium here.
16GB iPad2 is $520, I think, so only a $20 difference for the cheapest models.
heh I was just going to go back and read the press release and its gone. Wonder if someone jumped the gun.
Crackberry has it here tho
Well the product is just being released.
I thought I reead that they have 25,000 native apps and this ability just adds quickly the number of apps available even if a lot of them are mediocre.
I pretty sure iPad and Android did not have 100,000 plus apps when they first started selling.
I am pretty sure any android decent apps that start to sell will probably encourage developers to move that app to native. If they don't then someone will thank them for showing there is a market for that app and develop it natively for them showing it running better.
Pretty smart move on RIM's part.
I thought I reead that they have 25,000 native apps and this ability just adds quickly the number of apps available even if a lot of them are mediocre.
I pretty sure iPad and Android did not have 100,000 plus apps when they first started selling.
I am pretty sure any android decent apps that start to sell will probably encourage developers to move that app to native. If they don't then someone will thank them for showing there is a market for that app and develop it natively for them showing it running better.
Pretty smart move on RIM's part.
Which is probably fine for 99% of the apps, RIM is going to get paid either way.
I don't see a lot of difference from iPads running iPhone apps in a similarly suboptimal compatibility mode; they're both stopgaps to ensure a healthy selection at launch. Granted, the migration path is a lot steeper porting from Android to Playbook as opposed to iPhone to iPad, but it's a little soon to guess at the impact on native development.
I don't see why not. The apps run in a VM on the Android platform.
I guess the idea is having all these apps available on playbook will help spur sales, and if there are high sales then there is more incentive for people to make native apps. There are a lot of options on the playbook: Adobe Air, Web SDK, Native C/C++ SDK, Blackberry OS phone apps, Android. No matter what, the apps have to be packaged, signed and sold through Blackberry App World, so they would get a cut of any sales for non-free apps. You won't be able to get apps on the Playbook directly through the Android app store, whatever it's called.
I think it is an admission that they know their app store is behind, but I think it's a good way to address that issue. In reality, a lot of apps are multi-platform for the phone world, so this makes it very easy for the Playbook to get in on that action with tablets.
Well, when accessing device specific hardware like cameras and GPS, I'd imagine they'd have to use Android specific API's that'd have to be translated to whatever the Playbook is running. I'm not too familiar with Android's programming model so I can't comment, does one simply make calls to a generic GPS API in Android?
Joe DeFuria
Legend
This has almost solidified my decision to purchase a playbook. My main concern was the availability of apps....but if the "app player" does a decent job of running Adroid apps, that lessens my concern. (Will still need to rely on devs repackaging their apps of course.)
My other main concern is with tethering for non wi-fi internet access. I am a currently a blackberry user, so the WiFi only playbook paired with my phone is of course fine for the time being.
However, if I move to a different phone platform next year...I'm not sure what options I would have for cellular internet access. Can I pair with any bluetooth phone to get internet access? (Provided my phone / plan support tethering?)
Of course, I could limit my phone choices to those that includes WiFi hot-spot capability...
My other main concern is with tethering for non wi-fi internet access. I am a currently a blackberry user, so the WiFi only playbook paired with my phone is of course fine for the time being.
However, if I move to a different phone platform next year...I'm not sure what options I would have for cellular internet access. Can I pair with any bluetooth phone to get internet access? (Provided my phone / plan support tethering?)
Of course, I could limit my phone choices to those that includes WiFi hot-spot capability...
Joe DeFuria
Legend
It also gives the "Blackberry-Android App World" a chance to mature prior to Rim releasing QNX based smartphones (late 2012?) which presumably would also have access to Android 2.x apps.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/223274/playbook_will_need_blackberry_tethering_to_start.html
So it looks like blackberry tethering only for now, but later this year you won't need to tether at all.
