RIM, the premier mobile email device company, is going to ship PlayBook without an email client? I can't think of a worse way to introduce your first tablet to the world. DOA.
There is one way worse than that --- introducing your device that lied about enforcing corporate email policies, which the iphone and several android devices got caught of doing.
I wonder what kind of advertising RIM will be running for the Playbook?
Will they be selling against Apple's iPad or will they be selling against Xoom, Tab, and other Android tablets? They certainly can't shout about the extensive software available and they have to mention docking because it's pretty lame without their Blackberries.
Their strong card seems to be Flash. They beat out every tablet on the market. Unfortunately, I don't think the typical Blackberry-user is about Flash. These are the business guys, decisions-makers and king-makers who always have to be texting and emailing, right? They spend their weekends doing spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations? Watching movies is the last thing they want to do.
Pogue lamented the lack of applications for the device, quipping that the PlayBook's motto should be, "There's no app for that."
"Remember, the primary competition is an iPad ? the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps," Pogue continued. "In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, no Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?"
I don't usually like Pogue's reviews, but in this case he nailed it on the spot..
iPad 2 is not limited to mirroring; see Keynote: ?You can view the current and next slides, your slide notes, and a handy clock or timer on your iPad screen."
Didn't you notice, nobody compared the PlayBook with the iPad2 !
Moss is the ONLY reviewer to talk about 5 hours of battery life. No one else reported that number.
Also the battery life for video playing depends a lot on the type of video, the type of codec, the type of codec profile and the bitrate. Anandtech did 2 video battery life tests on the playbook.
I don't know how Moss got his numbers when Anandtech got longer battery life on the Playbook with playing 1080p high profile videos --- which no other tablet can do at the moment.
The other reviewer got 6. Still far short of the 8-10 hours Rim advertises. Also, why would you load a 16GB device with 8GB video files (single movie), just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also anandtech couldn't get near the 10 hour max from the playbook either. They got 9 out of 10 hours where in the same tests the iPad 2 gets 13 out of 10 hours. Even the original iPad gets over 12 out of 10 hours.
I think everyone who might be a customer for one of these ought to be smart enough to realize that buying a product based on what the company promises that it might be someday on some uncertain release date is a real foolish basis for buying a product.
They shipped something very niche, and that might be generous. A less generous way to say that is it's half baked.
I really can't imagine people in their right mind buying a playbook when they're being told "go ahead and buy it overpriced now with half the features and trust us to actually finish it someday and not change our plans or go out of business in the next year".
Moss is the ONLY reviewer to talk about 5 hours of battery life. No one else reported that number.
Also the battery life for video playing depends a lot on the type of video, the type of codec, the type of codec profile and the bitrate. Anandtech did 2 video battery life tests on the playbook.
I don't know how Moss got his numbers when Anandtech got longer battery life on the Playbook with playing 1080p high profile videos --- which no other tablet can do at the moment.
oh, ok, thanks for the heads up.
Having said that when you are using a new device for a couple of days and it "still has a lot of juice" you have probably been scratching your balls instead of using it. No device other than one with eink or an old phone can do that. I ve never actually managed to fiddle around with a device I just bought for a couple of days and have plenty of juice after. It's just bollocks reporting that's what it is at the end of the day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by irnchriz
The other reviewer got 6. Still far short of the 8-10 hours Rim advertises. Also, why would you load a 16GB device with 8GB video files (single movie), just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also anandtech couldn't get near the 10 hour max from the playbook either. They got 9 out of 10 hours where in the same tests the iPad 2 gets 13 out of 10 hours. Even the original iPad gets over 12 out of 10 hours.
that's more like the truth, so interpolating the (crap) tests of anandtech it means that if the ipad 2 gets 13 from specs of 10 and playbook 9/10, it means playbook is more in the area of 6-7 hours in stated specs on the box.
Youre right. Keynote/iPad can do more than just mirroring.
On the main topic, Jobs would never sanction the release of an unfinished product to mass public. I would agree with Apple, better late/delayed rather than selling a crap product. Since this is not Apple (emphasis here is on RIM), they basically saying, meh... we don't actually care about over customer, we are just showing you lot we can make one too and yes, we are done trying. This is the best that we can do for the time being. We gave up. Next!
On second thought, this is also like them saying that here, buy two of our products for the use of one of a similar kind. We can do with the extra money for our next job openings.
My iPhone experience started with an early 3G and frankly it was an unfinished product. Atleast from a software/firmware point of view it was a very unfinished device. Further updates where not all that great either.
Hopefully the rumored iPhone 5 release in the fall is an indication that Apple is sizing up.
Anandtech is one of the few places I trust for tech news / reviews. Their articles are very thorough, informative, technical and unbiased. That said, however, I wouldn't consider them a mainstream source in the same league as NYT or WSJ.
unbiased? not when it comes to intel (that I know of) they are not. I rather dislike that site, it represents all that's bad with people in tech focusing too much on pointless testing and specs than user experience, too much nit picking, too little substance. No wonder it's written by a twenty year old.
I?d say the original AppleTV had unfinished services. They did an odd thing when they demoed the until 6 months before the official demo and 8 months before it went on sale. They didn?t even have a proper name for it. I think that was all geared to get the content owners on board, but that took another year and half and it was too late for that AppleTV at that point. The success of the iTMS did them in because the content owners didn?t want to lose their control to Apple. I?m under the impression that Apple had to buckle to their demands on that one.
I?d say the 1st MBA wasn?t unfinished, but was before its time which is something that has killed many great products. The HW was solid, the OS and apps were the well worn Mac OS X. The problem was the cost of the CULV CPU, it?s power requirements (along with all the 2007 components). Even now I think the MBA doesn?t have adequate duration, but it?s certainly a lot better than before.
I?d say that MM problem was Apple?s inability to realize they aren?t a start-up. Along with MM they also released a new iPhone with ?3G', a new version of iPhone OS that was required to use the new MM services. This was a perfect storm on their servers and one they might have prevented if they had required a CC to sign up for the free trial, which is something they have been doing for a year or two now. Personally, I would have released to select .Mac users and then kept scaling until it was ready for the everyone else. They?ve been doing that with changes to MM for a couple years now.
Good points. They did learn from the mm debacle it seems. And I agree about the air, although the lines between unfinished and before it's time blur, because in a sense if you can't find an adequate component (culv cpu, etc.) and you ship something that requires throttling etc. etc. it is unfinished because it's before it's time. Which of course is far better to it being unfinished because it's rushed to catch up with other people's products as with the playbook.
Pain in the butt tethering process also gives you FREE tethering. Carriers have no way to distinguish data that came from Blackberry email or from youtube video --- because they all came directly from RIM's NOC.
If Moss got 5 hours via simply playing a movie, then this guy who was supposed to use the device elaborately to be able to review it, got "plenty of juice" after more than two days of "normal" use, it seems like that someone was scratching his balls during testing for two days instead of actually using the device. That takes care of the itch of course, but makes for really bad tech reviewing.
yeah, it really doesn't bode well for the device as a whole. I almost used my iPad for 10 hours in the first day I owned it. Could not put it down, and I was just having fun, not getting paid to review it. If he was able to thoroughly test the device in 5 hours, then how versatile can it really be?
If Moss got 5 hours via simply playing a movie, then this guy who was supposed to use the device elaborately to be able to review it, got "plenty of juice" after more than two days of "normal" use, ...
I guess I'm missing what is so poor about 5 hours of video playback. How often is someone going to sit in front of their tablet and watch Titanic and Avatar back to back that "only" 5 hours of video playback is going to matter? I would hardly consider that "normal" use.
Quote:
These 7" devices are to the ipad, what netbooks are to proper slim and light laptops, aka poorly functional crap.
Odd that all of the reviews summarized in the article seem to say otherwise about the Playbook.
Quote:
I like many others have amongst my devices a macbook, an ipad, a kindle and an iphone (replace this with any smart phone if you want), why the hell would I need a pocketable 7" tablet when for anything that needs to be done on the move in a small device I have the iphone?
The argument is ridiculous. If you have one of every mobile electronic device category, then buying another device that falls into the same category as one of them doesn't make sense. How many people actually own all 4 and would seriously be considering adding (not replacing) another device to the mix that only duplicates functionality?
I am worried that all these half-baked tablets will give tablets as such a bad name, and even make people weary of the iPad. It's a bit conspirital, but perhaps some of these companies would not be too unhappy about a few people returning to the PC.
Ahead of the Apr. 19 launch of Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook, the first reviews have appeared, with reviewers recommending that consumers hold off on purchasing the 7-inch tablet due to the "rushed to market" feel of the device.
When RIM originally announced the PlayBook, I said there was no way it would be ready before June. It looks like I was right, but they decided to release it before then anyway.
Comments
RIM, the premier mobile email device company, is going to ship PlayBook without an email client? I can't think of a worse way to introduce your first tablet to the world. DOA.
There is one way worse than that --- introducing your device that lied about enforcing corporate email policies, which the iphone and several android devices got caught of doing.
Will they be selling against Apple's iPad or will they be selling against Xoom, Tab, and other Android tablets? They certainly can't shout about the extensive software available and they have to mention docking because it's pretty lame without their Blackberries.
Their strong card seems to be Flash. They beat out every tablet on the market. Unfortunately, I don't think the typical Blackberry-user is about Flash. These are the business guys, decisions-makers and king-makers who always have to be texting and emailing, right? They spend their weekends doing spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations? Watching movies is the last thing they want to do.
Pogue lamented the lack of applications for the device, quipping that the PlayBook's motto should be, "There's no app for that."
"Remember, the primary competition is an iPad ? the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps," Pogue continued. "In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, no Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?"
I don't usually like Pogue's reviews, but in this case he nailed it on the spot..
'Nuff said, I'd say.
I wonder what kind of advertising RIM will be running for the Playbook?
See Pogue's advice above for the PlayBook's motto: "There's no app for that!"
PS: nice title of your post up there
If they don't change anything I give them 5 more years before they are just a niche player.
iPad 2 is not limited to mirroring; see Keynote: ?You can view the current and next slides, your slide notes, and a handy clock or timer on your iPad screen."
Didn't you notice, nobody compared the PlayBook with the iPad2 !
Moss is the ONLY reviewer to talk about 5 hours of battery life. No one else reported that number.
Also the battery life for video playing depends a lot on the type of video, the type of codec, the type of codec profile and the bitrate. Anandtech did 2 video battery life tests on the playbook.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4266/b...book-review/18
I don't know how Moss got his numbers when Anandtech got longer battery life on the Playbook with playing 1080p high profile videos --- which no other tablet can do at the moment.
The other reviewer got 6. Still far short of the 8-10 hours Rim advertises. Also, why would you load a 16GB device with 8GB video files (single movie), just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also anandtech couldn't get near the 10 hour max from the playbook either. They got 9 out of 10 hours where in the same tests the iPad 2 gets 13 out of 10 hours. Even the original iPad gets over 12 out of 10 hours.
They shipped something very niche, and that might be generous. A less generous way to say that is it's half baked.
I really can't imagine people in their right mind buying a playbook when they're being told "go ahead and buy it overpriced now with half the features and trust us to actually finish it someday and not change our plans or go out of business in the next year".
J.
Moss is the ONLY reviewer to talk about 5 hours of battery life. No one else reported that number.
Also the battery life for video playing depends a lot on the type of video, the type of codec, the type of codec profile and the bitrate. Anandtech did 2 video battery life tests on the playbook.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4266/b...book-review/18
I don't know how Moss got his numbers when Anandtech got longer battery life on the Playbook with playing 1080p high profile videos --- which no other tablet can do at the moment.
oh, ok, thanks for the heads up.
Having said that when you are using a new device for a couple of days and it "still has a lot of juice" you have probably been scratching your balls instead of using it. No device other than one with eink or an old phone can do that. I ve never actually managed to fiddle around with a device I just bought for a couple of days and have plenty of juice after. It's just bollocks reporting that's what it is at the end of the day.
The other reviewer got 6. Still far short of the 8-10 hours Rim advertises. Also, why would you load a 16GB device with 8GB video files (single movie), just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also anandtech couldn't get near the 10 hour max from the playbook either. They got 9 out of 10 hours where in the same tests the iPad 2 gets 13 out of 10 hours. Even the original iPad gets over 12 out of 10 hours.
that's more like the truth, so interpolating the (crap) tests of anandtech it means that if the ipad 2 gets 13 from specs of 10 and playbook 9/10, it means playbook is more in the area of 6-7 hours in stated specs on the box.
Youre right. Keynote/iPad can do more than just mirroring.
On the main topic, Jobs would never sanction the release of an unfinished product to mass public. I would agree with Apple, better late/delayed rather than selling a crap product. Since this is not Apple (emphasis here is on RIM), they basically saying, meh... we don't actually care about over customer, we are just showing you lot we can make one too and yes, we are done trying. This is the best that we can do for the time being. We gave up. Next!
On second thought, this is also like them saying that here, buy two of our products for the use of one of a similar kind. We can do with the extra money for our next job openings.
My iPhone experience started with an early 3G and frankly it was an unfinished product. Atleast from a software/firmware point of view it was a very unfinished device. Further updates where not all that great either.
Hopefully the rumored iPhone 5 release in the fall is an indication that Apple is sizing up.
Anandtech is one of the few places I trust for tech news / reviews. Their articles are very thorough, informative, technical and unbiased. That said, however, I wouldn't consider them a mainstream source in the same league as NYT or WSJ.
unbiased? not when it comes to intel (that I know of) they are not. I rather dislike that site, it represents all that's bad with people in tech focusing too much on pointless testing and specs than user experience, too much nit picking, too little substance. No wonder it's written by a twenty year old.
I?d say the original AppleTV had unfinished services. They did an odd thing when they demoed the until 6 months before the official demo and 8 months before it went on sale. They didn?t even have a proper name for it. I think that was all geared to get the content owners on board, but that took another year and half and it was too late for that AppleTV at that point. The success of the iTMS did them in because the content owners didn?t want to lose their control to Apple. I?m under the impression that Apple had to buckle to their demands on that one.
I?d say the 1st MBA wasn?t unfinished, but was before its time which is something that has killed many great products. The HW was solid, the OS and apps were the well worn Mac OS X. The problem was the cost of the CULV CPU, it?s power requirements (along with all the 2007 components). Even now I think the MBA doesn?t have adequate duration, but it?s certainly a lot better than before.
I?d say that MM problem was Apple?s inability to realize they aren?t a start-up. Along with MM they also released a new iPhone with ?3G', a new version of iPhone OS that was required to use the new MM services. This was a perfect storm on their servers and one they might have prevented if they had required a CC to sign up for the free trial, which is something they have been doing for a year or two now. Personally, I would have released to select .Mac users and then kept scaling until it was ready for the everyone else. They?ve been doing that with changes to MM for a couple years now.
Good points. They did learn from the mm debacle it seems. And I agree about the air, although the lines between unfinished and before it's time blur, because in a sense if you can't find an adequate component (culv cpu, etc.) and you ship something that requires throttling etc. etc. it is unfinished because it's before it's time. Which of course is far better to it being unfinished because it's rushed to catch up with other people's products as with the playbook.
Pain in the butt tethering process also gives you FREE tethering. Carriers have no way to distinguish data that came from Blackberry email or from youtube video --- because they all came directly from RIM's NOC.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4266/b...book-review/12
True if your Blackberry data plan is unlimited and/or free.
If Moss got 5 hours via simply playing a movie, then this guy who was supposed to use the device elaborately to be able to review it, got "plenty of juice" after more than two days of "normal" use, it seems like that someone was scratching his balls during testing for two days instead of actually using the device. That takes care of the itch of course, but makes for really bad tech reviewing.
yeah, it really doesn't bode well for the device as a whole. I almost used my iPad for 10 hours in the first day I owned it. Could not put it down, and I was just having fun, not getting paid to review it. If he was able to thoroughly test the device in 5 hours, then how versatile can it really be?
If Moss got 5 hours via simply playing a movie, then this guy who was supposed to use the device elaborately to be able to review it, got "plenty of juice" after more than two days of "normal" use, ...
I guess I'm missing what is so poor about 5 hours of video playback. How often is someone going to sit in front of their tablet and watch Titanic and Avatar back to back that "only" 5 hours of video playback is going to matter? I would hardly consider that "normal" use.
These 7" devices are to the ipad, what netbooks are to proper slim and light laptops, aka poorly functional crap.
Odd that all of the reviews summarized in the article seem to say otherwise about the Playbook.
I like many others have amongst my devices a macbook, an ipad, a kindle and an iphone (replace this with any smart phone if you want), why the hell would I need a pocketable 7" tablet when for anything that needs to be done on the move in a small device I have the iphone?
The argument is ridiculous. If you have one of every mobile electronic device category, then buying another device that falls into the same category as one of them doesn't make sense. How many people actually own all 4 and would seriously be considering adding (not replacing) another device to the mix that only duplicates functionality?
Apple already ate RIM's lunch in this segment.
Ahead of the Apr. 19 launch of Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook, the first reviews have appeared, with reviewers recommending that consumers hold off on purchasing the 7-inch tablet due to the "rushed to market" feel of the device.
When RIM originally announced the PlayBook, I said there was no way it would be ready before June. It looks like I was right, but they decided to release it before then anyway.
- it crashes regularly
- the software is buggy
- the battery life is half that of the iPad DESPITE having less than half the screen to power
And have they no shame stealing ideas: "apps can be rearranged and removed by holding down one finger on an app icon until all icons begin to pulse".
Hope Apple sues RIM to hell and gone.