Blackberry Playbook - 16 GB Wi-Fi

The story so far -
Note: I have mostly quoted my posts from Playbook updates thread. Some may be a response to a question that was asked and answered in that thread

Just bought it via a friend at Flipkart - Thanks Manu!!!!!

so its arrived. will try and give a feedback after a full usage today. meanwhile if someone has any specific question can also go ahead...

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just for the record typing using the playbook now

So its been almost a day since I started using it. The UI is pretty smooth. Like the gestures way of functioning. True multi tasking. Browser is good , plays flash and all pretty smoothly. IBF is a bit slow for some reason. Lack of apps is a concern but hoping things change with android player in feb . but you canstill manage with just the way things are. camera is good with hd recording. email client also only in feb. also missing is a good video chat app like skype. but if you want to just browse casually and use it as a decent pmp its very good. the size is a bit smaller than i expected.

The odd thing I noticed is that the paid apps are priced at RS 37 for each dollar equivalent . Example an app at $1 in US is 37 here .$2 is 74 ,$3 is 111 and so on. Wondering if its a mistake in display or conversion or thats based on some taxes or some stuff.

The App needs to be submitted into AppWorld by the actual Android app developer & approved. This needs to be done after testing etc. There might be a lot of issues which may need to be fixed. There is no seperate Android market.Also support is limited upto Gingerbread apps for now

However,
I am hearing though that you can go into developer mode & sideload some Android apps
Also, it had been rooted & Android market also installed

another catch is that not all apps will work on the go - especially if done using non-regular means (sideload/root)

Well we have had a few people @ RIM mentioning it here & there. But here is an official confirmation

RIM confirms BB10 is coming to BlackBerry Playbook | News | TechRadar

But going by their previous history. Need to wait & watch

I am mainly saying for storing content - Apps & data... I had to transfer some videos to my PC & delete from the Playbook... Also I have a few games which are approx 500 MB.. about 3-4 of them, that itself comes to 2 GB & I will be restricted to another 3-4 games like this, because of these limits.

I do not take it outside (Its a Wi-Fi thing, with no phone or 3G) ... Also I have been sideloading like crazy in the last month ( I have about 60-70 Android apps , only 10-15 will be through AppWorld)

Finally found someone had converted the ESPN Cricinfo Android app.. So sideloaded it today. Yahoo Cricket App was already there - But good to have an alternative..

Just noticed Headlines Today launched Playbook native app. Not a big fan of them ,but surprised they bothered. App is ok.

That's what, a port of Android wouldn't have surprised me. NDTV has a port from day one. This came up a day or two ago and its a native app.

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.1 is now out

By the way , I am reading this update is mostly bug fixes... Also Zinio and Tv on the go apps are pushed as well.

The major positive with this update are a better speedier browser, also occasionally Android Player used to hang on some app, and required a restart of the device for it to start working again, a recent workaround suggested which worked was too open as many apps as possible, so that the android player gets shut internally. Now even if there is a hang, within 1 or so min, Android player gets shut internally without using a system restart.

By shut, I mean not running in background, when we close the android player using the standard x symbol, it continues to run in background, now playbook seems to manage it better.

Just noticed a KBC Native App show up in AppWorld today - Nothing fancy, but decent. Nice to see people from India involving in development of Playbook Apps

Unconfirmed:

PlayBook OS 2.1 Launching By Early Summer?

This new build should bring a few new features:

Portrait Email, Calendar, and Contacts
App World Carrier Shelf
Bridge Texting and WiFi Transport Support
Android Multi-Tasking
Camera API and In-app Payments for developers
Over-the-air activation with Mobile fusion
Personal Encryption

RIM Confirms PlayBook Android Player Getting Multi-Tasking & More - BerryReview

"We heard during BlackBerry World about some features coming in PlayBook OS 2.1 but now RIM has confirmed the ones related to the PlayBook Android Player publicly. The only quirk is that RIM says they will be coming with BlackBerry 10 so make of that what you will. "

So.. Maybe not in OS 2.1, but atleast by BB10 - we will have it.

But it talks about getting these things on board by summer... Whereas they said BB10 is expected early next year.. So are we looking at 2.1 as an "in progress" version of the BB10?

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Playbook is assured of BB10

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Actually, I would say its something like BB7 is Gingerbread, Playbook OS2 is Honeycomb & BB10 is ICS....

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So older BB devices may not get BB10 .. just like many Gingerbread phones wont.... Most high-end Tablets will get ICS, so will the new phones

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In fact, checked back & see what I found - I have even posted it here on March 15th!!!!!

Unconfirmed : Forthcoming BlackBerry Bridge update set to bring even more functionality to the BlackBerry PlayBook

Forthcoming BlackBerry Bridge update set to bring even more functionality to the BlackBerry PlayBook | CrackBerry.com

BlackBerry Bridge 2.1 - Now offers you the ability to choose Text Messages as a category from the BlackBerry Bridge folder on your PlayBook.

Bridge Over Wi-Fi - You can now seamlessly connect your BlackBerry Smartphone to your PlayBook over a Wi-Fi connection

Oddly enough, I was facing the problem that the signature used to get reset from none to like dushie above everytime I restarted the playbook, but it seemed to have resolved on its own. I bought the tapatalk 1 for playbook, but somehow more comfortable with the colors in tapatalk 2, which I hear is not coming to Playbook officially due to some APIs not being supported, but sideloading works fine, so not sure what's the problem.

And the next day after I post it, Tapatalk updates the official version to version 2. Anyway glad to be using the updated version officially now.

Another thing, it installed as a separate app, so now I have 2 apps installed - Tapatalk 1 and Tapatalk 2 separately.
Not to mention the unofficial v2, which I will be removing shortly

An official Native App from TimesIndia is released yesterday for Playbook for IPL5, but seems funny they are releasing it so late in the tournament, unless they want to continue having that as their cricket app or it got delayed for some reason for approval at blackberry.

An unofficial port of Android was available for a while though

2.1 Beta Out now

BlackBerry PlayBook 2.1.0 Beta for Developers Launches «BlackBerry Developer Blog

There are three major enhancements to the Android™ Runtime in 2.1.0:

Each Android app will now run in its own window. This greatly improves the user experience and consistency among the other application runtimes.
Access to the Camera hardware is now supported for Android apps, allowing many more application types to work on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet.
In-App Payment is now supported through the BlackBerry Payment SDK, so Android applications can include virtual items for sale in their applications.

For those of you wandering around the rest of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 beta, you’ll notice a few extra enhancements geared towards end users such as:

Portrait support for Email, Calendar and Contacts
Improved folder support including IMAP folder support
The other 2.1 features will come full steam when the new OS is commercially released. The 2.1 Android SDK will be released in beta coinciding with the OS release, and the 2.1 Native SDK will be posted next week, with an update to the Adobe® AIR® SDK to come shortly after.

SHAPE Releases Free IM+ Client for PlayBook! | BBin



Ah, Atlast

Well, if wonders whats such a big deal, with a Multi-protocol IM client free version releasing is that when Playbook was launched the IM+ was the ONLY Multi-protocol client that existed, but it was paid & cost $8 (Rs.292 in India) , couple of ones for Gmail & facebook existed & then a few more guys came up with their free versions for gmail & facebook, but a single app was not there where you could access all. Then after Playbook OS 2, A lot of people unofficially ported Android versions of Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ebuddy, imo.im. Some even ported IM+ free Android version. Eventually ebuddy released a paid ($1) version on App World officially. Hence, the situation with Multi-protocol IM client for playbook was still not cool. Now IM+ have come out with their Android port which works fine. The only concern is that could this have to do with the fact that not many people are paying $8 for their pro native version. But to be fair to a lot of people, asking them to pay $8 for a IM client, which has a free version in another platform, was a bit too steep & hence a lot of people avoid it. For me? Well its just one less reason for people to give a reason to avoid the playbook

Another Beta rolled out for the playbook , now version is 2.1.0.840, downloading about 450 mb now

BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1.0.840 Beta Released - N4BB

And.. its out now

New BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 Update Now Available: 3 Reasons to Download «Inside BlackBerry - The Official BlackBerry Blog