Angry Birds upgraded to buggy version 1.1 on Playbook

When I woke up this morning I could see an upgrade for Angry Birds in app world.

The joy of upgrading it ended pretty soon as I realized its a buggy upgrade. Not something huge but sound goes on and off while playing. And trust me, I love the noise birds make

Hopefully RIM will come up with a corrected upgrade soon.

Anyone else facing such issue???

Playbook for non-Blackberry user???

This is my second blog post on Playbook that I bought about 15 days ago and boy… I just love it.

Many of my friends, who are not using a BB (Blackberry), were curious to know more about my latest craze or rather my latest gadget. My words emit pride as I talk about my Playbook with all the show off!  That was the moment when a thought struck my mind, ‘Would non BB users also choose to buy the Playbook?’

Seriously, the willingness to buy Playbook I have only seen in those who are already using a Blackberry. However what I think is it’s a kind of tablet which anyone can buy who wants to buy a wi-fi only tablet. This is as good as any other wi-fi tab we have in market.

 Then some guys start comparing the specs, my point is what is in numbers? What we should look for is performance. It is pretty amazing to touch, pretty cool graphics, true multi-tasking, flash supported browser etc etc..  I had NFS, Asphalt, Browser and one more game running in background and I couldn’t see any lag in the performance. Now I don’t need to care as to how many GHz CPU I have, I am happy with the performance.

Reading this article on my Playbook

What RIM could have done is, they could have promoted the Playbook for non BB users as well. They are pretty creative with their ads, ‘Do what you Love, Love what you do’. It’s their ads which made Curve 8520 famous amongst the teenagers. I don’t remember a single ad featuring Playbook.  If they had the mindset of launching the tablet as a standalone wi-fi tablet with an extra star for having a BB  for an added advantage to access mail, BBM and browse then I am sure it would have encouraged more people to buy Playbook.

So if you want my call, I strongly recommend the Playbook for non BB users as well. Go for it ! I Say

RIM PlayBook making news again after its launch in April, this time only for good.

Little less than a year ago RIM launched its first tablet named “Playbook” (PB). Many including me thought that ‘Blackbook’ would have been a better name for it. It got a poor response from market and received a huge setback. I had been using a Blackberry (BB) for more than 2 years then; and I too was not very optimistic to buy it either.

Then after 9 months RIM kind of re-launched the tab with revised prices, almost 50% discounted prices this time. May be they wanted to clear the stockpile. And that’s when I got one, as a gift from my wife.

PB running different apps simultaneously

I must say I was pretty amazed with the build quality. RIM has always been good with quality of hardware with high end devices. It fits pretty well in hands, not too big nor to small for a tablet. Great response to touch, true multi tasking ability and bridge capability to connect to my Blackberry. All this bundled in one package at this price is highly appreciated.

What RIM could have done was to promote this discount in a better way so as to attract more non BB users too. (My thoughts on it will be presented in another blog post)

Today what excites me the most was news that came out from RIM in CES last week. Soon we would have OS 2.0 coming for PB, which means native email client, native calendar, android app support and much more to come. Also, now as many people are grabbing their PB am certain that app developers will be more interested in building apps and coming up with more innovative features for the RIM tablet.

Though many said RIM is dying, I am pretty sure it’s not the time yet. RIM still has abundant potential which can take it a long away. All I am waiting for right now is OS 2.0 for PB and launch of QNX BBs as soon as possible. Hope the launch happens in Q3 of 2012.

Right now my confidence in RIM has only increased and am looking forward for more from them. They certainly know to delight their customers on a timely basis regardless of their critics’ view!

BlackBerry PlayBook

While the BlackBerry PlayBook is outgunned by the iPad 2 when it comes to competing for general consumers, there are two kinds of buyers who will love this little 7-inch tablet.

Specifications

OS: QNX, BlackBerry Tablet OS with with symmetric multiprocessing
Processor: 1GHz dual core Texas Instruments OMAP4430
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB internal
Display: 7-inch WSVGA, 1024×600
Battery: Lithium-ion 5400 mAh
Ports: Micro USB, Micro HDMI, 3.5mm headset
Weight: 14.4 ounces (425 grams)
Dimensions: 7.6(h) x 5.1(w) x 0.4(d) inches
Camera: 5MP rear-facing, 3MP front-facing
Sensors: Accelerometer, GPS, digital compass, 6-axis gyroscope
Keyboard: Virtual QWERTY
Networks: LTE, WiMAX, and HSPA+ models later in 2011
Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n; Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
Tethering: Only to a BlackBerry smartphone
Price: $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB), $699 (64GB)

Who is it for?

The PlayBook is not for everyone. If you’ve been longing for an iPad, the arrival of the PlayBook is probably not going to change your mind and make you jump to the BlackBerry tablet instead, unless you are a devout BlackBerry smartphone user or you want a tablet primarily for surfing the Web. If you are a BlackBerry smartphone lover who has never even considered switching to iPhone or Android, then the PlayBook is probably the perfect tablet for you. It is is an excellent larger screen companion for your BlackBerry and expands its strengths to include top-notch Web browsing and multimedia capabilities. Speaking of Web browsing, the Web experience on the PlayBook is so good that I think we’re likely to see plenty of users who will buy one just as a Web tablet. The Javascript and Flash performance are excellent on the PlayBook — in terms of Flash, the implementation is significantly smoother and more stable than the Android implementation of Flash. The PlayBook is the first mobile device that provides something close to the full desktop Web experience.

What problems does it solve?

Based on BlackBerry’s overcomplicated smartphone UI that makes users constantly dig through tons of menus, I didn’t have much confidence that BlackBerry could deliver an excellent user experience on a tablet. But, the PlayBook pulled it off. The user experience is simple and self-evident, with no buttons and two basic gestures — swipe-up and swipe-down. It’s as easy to use as the one-button iPad solution, but without just blatantly ripping off Apple. The other big innovation in the PlayBook is the Web browser, as mentioned above. The page-load times are really quick, the fonts render beautifully, and RIM and Adobe worked together to pull off a Flash experience that virtually seamless. For example, you can take a lot of high quality Flash videos on Web page and throw into full screen mode and they look great and render flawlessly. You can even output these high quality videos to an HD TV via the PlayBook’s HDMI port and they still look great.

Standout features

1) UI and performance – The user experience is the biggest surprise of the PlayBook. It is easy to learn, smooth to navigate, and has some of the best and fastest responsiveness that you’ll find on any smartphone or tablet. It is a completely different experience than a BlackBerry smartphone.
Full-featured Web browsing – As we’ve already talked about, the Web browsing experience on the PlayBook is excellent. The Flash implementation is well-done. Even though I’m not a fan of Flash, it’s still a big part of the Web and will be for years, until HTML5 replaces it. Oh, and the PlayBook already handles HTML5 quite nicely.

2) Usable word processor – One my biggest complaints with the iPad is that there isn’t a decent word processing app for taking notes, writing letters/memos, building basic documents, etc. Apple’s Pages app is a little too complicated than it needs to be and apps like iA Writer are nice but almost a little too bare bones. The PlayBook has the happy medium. Its Word To Go app (see screenshot) is the best word processing app I’ve used on a tablet. It is dead simple to use and has the most important basic features for building a good document. Plus, it’s free and installed by default. This is where RIM’s acquisition of Davaviz — the company behind Documents to Go — has really helped.

3) Brilliant for multimedia – The graphics performance and LCD display on the PlayBook are another big plus — and another pleasant surprise since the BlackBerry isn’t known as a multimedia powerhouse (although its high-end phones have been making strides in recent years). The PlayBook is terrific for watching videos and looking at photos. The images are crisp, the colors are vibrant, and the performance is snappy.

What’s wrong?

1) Email and calendar require a BlackBerry – The thing you most often hear the PlayBook getting dinged for is the fact that it didn’t ship with native email, calendar, and contacts apps (RIM says it will add them later this year). What the PlayBook does offer is the ability to use its Bridge feature to connect to a BlackBerry smartphone and then use its email, calendar, and contacts on the PlayBook’s larger screen. However, the actual data never resides on the PlayBook. It remains locked down in the BlackBerry phone, which is a plus for users that need tight security. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you use Web mail such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail, the Web experience on the PlayBook is good enough to handle light email and calendar tasks.

2) Needs more apps – The biggest problem with the BlackBerry PlayBook when you compare it to the iPad is the the lack of apps. On the iPad, apps extend the functionality of the device in lots of different ways, for business, for personal productivity, for entertainment, and much more. While RIM claims that the PlayBook ships with 3,000 tablet-optimized apps — “more than any of our competitors at launch,” according to co-CEO Mike Lazaridis — the problem is that the iPad has 75,000 apps now and a lot of important partners who are committed to the platform. RIM will never be able to compete with that, but if it can forge partnerships to get key apps like Amazon Kindle, Evernote, Dropbox, and Netflix on to the PlayBook, then it would have a much easier time winning over a larger niche market. However, companies appear reticent to jump on the PlayBook bandwagon. Amazon initially announced that it would release a Kindle app for the PlayBook launch, but is dragging its feet in fulfilling that promise.

3) 7-inch form factor has its limits – The thing that limits the great Web and multimedia experience on the PlayBook is the 7-inch screen. There are times when it’s just a little too small to clearly read Web pages and when some of the details can get lost in videos due to the smaller screen.

Bottom line for business

The BlackBerry PlayBook is the perfect choice for two types of tablet buyers — 1.) BlackBerry loyalists who want the perfect compliment to their smartphone and 2.) people who want a tablet primarily for mobile Web browsing from the conference room, couch, bedroom, and other places where you don’t have a full PC and don’t want to whip out a laptop.

For high security enterprises and government organizations that are already committed to the BlackBerry platform and have employees clamoring for iPads, the BlackBerry PlayBook is potentially an excellent tablet solution to run private apps and intranet services.

Download BlackBerry Bridge for Playbook

BlackBerry Bridge mirrors the existing email, PIM and browser apps that are running on your BlackBerry smartphone, allowing you to view those apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook’s larger display. Blackberry Bridge app is now available in App World to download.

Download Link – http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/19435

If you are not able to see the update, follow this method -

1. Visit http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore
2. Install the App World browser plugin in FireFox or Internet Explorer
3. Click ‘Download’ on Bridge app page here
4. Login with your BBID or create a new one
5. Connect your BlackBerry smartphone to computer via USB
6. Accept all agreements and sync to install Bridge app

After following the steps above, you should have successfully installed the Bridge app. Then, on your PlayBook go to the Bridge settings, select the device to pair with (make sure Bluetooth is turned on), enter the secret keycode into your smartphone that is generated on the PlayBook. After this, you should have successfully ‘Bridged’ your two BlackBerry devices and you will see a new set of icons appear on the PlayBook under the ‘BlackBerry Bridge’ tab.

Source : N4BB