The Playbook is New Again



I thought I'd start this blog with the Official Video from Inside Blackberry.

As I watched this I became more excited about the potential of the Playbook being finally unlocked. As you know since I've purchased the devise I have been amazed by the power and the great things I can do with it. The camera is great and I've started to incorporate the devise in my daily work environment. At the same time I've been aware of the deficiency of Playbook. The lack of native email, contacts and calendar has held me back and I have felt the lack of them.

The good news is, that is ending. With the coming of Playbook OS 2.0, there will be all that and more. What I liked about the video is the incorporation of the social with the functional. It has to be said, Web 2.0, if we still use that term is all about the social networking ability of the web. We are no longer involved in one way communications, but two way and it's good to see RIM is understanding this and making the effort.

I like how the calendar is going to operate and use. The fact the numbers change with the appointments in each day will be vital to planning the month. I do notice there are a few days in which meeting tend to multiply. Likely when someone asks me about getting together on a day, I can just look at the number on the calendar and get a quick understanding of what is happening on that day, and whether or not I can squeeze one more meeting.

I will be interested in using the email application, can I tie my work email, as it suggests with the personal email. I don't think I'm going to be glued to that app and find out what is happening at work, but it might be nice to know on the weekend, since at my work, there are a few people who like to send out the late Friday afternoon emails. Seriously you send me an email at 4:30PM on a Friday. Perhaps because they don't have a life doesn't mean I'm not interested in starting one.

From the videos I've watched, the calendar, email and contacts are right at the top, which is where they should be. As I mentioned in a past blog, I'm using a Dell Axim X3 for my work. I use the calendar, contacts and various office programs on a daily basis. It is useful, especially when I'm at a meeting and can call up all sorts of statistics. Yet I am aware of the age of the hardware- with all the additions on the Playbook I can now carry it around and call up all those same statistics and bring together my contacts and calendar.

Now I should talk about the apps. From what one article I read mentioned there are going to be thousands of native apps, as well as the ability to get android apps.
However what is interesting is that Blackberry is pumping out the apps for the Playbook.

Your favorite apps plus thousands more - many exciting new applications
built for the BlackBerry PlayBook will be made available on BlackBerry
App World with the availability of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. From
gaming and lifestyle to business and productivity, RIM is showcasing
some of the latest apps available for the BlackBerry PlayBook at CES
2012 including Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Groupon, Thomson Reuters,
Zinio and many more.
-- Video store - a catalog of thousands of movies and TV shows will be
available through the integrated BlackBerry Video Storefront(i) with new
releases to be made available for purchase or rent the same day they
come out on DVD. Users will be able to begin watching media as soon as
they start to download the file, so users won't have to wait for the
entire file to transfer before they can enjoy great entertainment on the
tablet's high resolution display, or on an HDTV via the BlackBerry
PlayBook tablet's HDMI output.
-- Enhanced web browsing - the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 browser also
includes a new reading view, which is designed to make web sites even
easier to enjoy by eliminating page clutter at the touch of a button.
What's left is a cleaner format that is great for reading online news
articles, blog posts, or websites that contain heavy amounts of text.

I can see the video store as a big selling point as well. With that amazing high def screen, people can watch with the crispness they expect from their high def TV`s.

The apps interest me, if they continue to develop some great photo editing and sharing tools, this will be wonderful. I enjoy taking photographs on my devises. On my iPod Touch I have 11 photo sharing and editing apps. Yet the camera on the ipod Touch is woefully under powered. With the Playbook I have a 5megapixel camera on the back and a 3megapixel on the front, this is a powerful devise to record life on. So with some very excellent apps, this will only get better. yeah you know I`m talking about Instagram, among others- I`m becoming an Instagram fiend. Between Isabelle and the cats, it keeps me going.

With these changes, and even PCWorld is giving positive reviews of the upgrade, the Playbook will become a very viable tablet.


So I am looking forward to February when the upgrade comes out and is free to all Playbook owners. It`s going to be great and I can hardly wait.