[whatsanipad]

Some background: I'm a technology consultant who works with C and D level IT executives at F200 companies. I have 35 + years in IT and for the last 30, have been on the cutting edge of technology.

I had an iPad, which I sold after two weeks (seemed to be mroe of a plaything). I have a Xoom, which I bought on the first week of release. I do not use a BB...had various ones for 5+ years, and now use a Droid (my second, actually).

I purchased the PB as second tab, as I wanted a smaller platform, for portability, to carry in addition to my laptop..something to whip out in airports, on planes and in hotel rooms, when I don;t want the bother of the laptop.

I do not believe a tablet is suited for replacing a laptop, but is good as an adjunct. For myself, I need screen landscape to be able to review and modify contracts and presentations...it is just too hard on tablets using virtual keyboards which consume screen landscape (especially on a 7 inch screen), too easy to overlook mistakes; a fatal concern when selling $1+ million projects. The Docs To Go products are nice, easy to review email attachments from the office, but are not a suitable replacement for the full desktop/laptop versions of Office.

With that said, I like the native browser; Mobile browsers do not work for me (I also teach business and management at a graduate school via internet...the school classroom interfaces do not operate correctly in any of the mobile browsers). If I choose to keep it, it would be for that alone.

However, the lack of SKYPE/VOIP is a huge problem...as when I travel overseas, that is my preferred method of communication back home. W/O, I might as well just use my laptop.

I've been playing with charging...I find the charge quite good actually. I had a full charge, intentionally left WiFi on, and used the tab throughout the day, including watching 2 hrs of TV via network TV sites (it's also quite comfortable in bed). I was able to sustain 14 hours on the charge...took me 3 hours to recharge using the portable charger from 18%. Acceptable.

The mini-USB charging port is a strong plus.

Lack of Kindle app is a strong minus. It would be ideal for the tab to replace my MP3 player and my Kindle...as I prefer to keep my music/books/pictures off of my laptop. Without, I still have to drag along the Kindle.

Lack of email/contacts is not an issue for me...work emails go on my work laptop; Personal emails onto my home desktop and during my travels, I read all four accounts via webmail anyway. Forward/backward integration to Andorid would be an advantage, however.

The network connection could be stronger...but works fine; Again, I streamed two hours of TV from browser network stations with only intermittent gaps.

PB memory is not cleaned, so the OS has some growing to do...failing that, let's have an app to clean out program residue...I suspect some space leaks, not rare for V1 of an OS. I have tried each of the memory settings and still encounter space issues.

UI, screen resolution and clarity is fine..no complaints there. Actually, I like the UI a great deal (I ran usability labs for commercial software in a past life...published articles on usability design and process and believe RIM has done quite well).

I would not yet recommend to my clients or others in my office (we have sales folk using iPads) and I' have recommended the Xoom...more mature business platform over the iPad, with Docs to Go available through marketplace....yet, dependence on mobile browser is a problem.

Will I keep mine? I have 12 more days to decide...I'm leaning to yes, but as yet undecided.

I could not recommend until memory mgmt is resolved; VOIP is available and there is better integration with Android phones, either through Bridge, gmail signons, creation of accounts or other.

I invite discussion and debate; However, I would ask you respond in mutually respectful manner, as opposed to the rather insulting "trash talk" all too pervasive on other sites.

Anthony

[lesarmitage]

Originally Posted by whatsanipad

Some background: I'm a technology consultant who works with C and D level IT executives at F200 companies. I have 35 + years in IT and for the last 30, have been on the cutting edge of technology.

I had an iPad, which I sold after two weeks (seemed to be mroe of a plaything). I have a Xoom, which I bought on the first week of release. I do not use a BB...had various ones for 5+ years, and now use a Droid (my second, actually).

I purchased the PB as second tab, as I wanted a smaller platform, for portability, to carry in addition to my laptop..something to whip out in airports, on planes and in hotel rooms, when I don;t want the bother of the laptop.

I do not believe a tablet is suited for replacing a laptop, but is good as an adjunct. For myself, I need screen landscape to be able to review and modify contracts and presentations...it is just too hard on tablets using virtual keyboards which consume screen landscape (especially on a 7 inch screen), too easy to overlook mistakes; a fatal concern when selling $1+ million projects. The Docs To Go products are nice, easy to review email attachments from the office, but are not a suitable replacement for the full desktop/laptop versions of Office.

With that said, I like the native browser; Mobile browsers do not work for me (I also teach business and management at a graduate school via internet...the school classroom interfaces do not operate correctly in any of the mobile browsers). If I choose to keep it, it would be for that alone.

However, the lack of SKYPE/VOIP is a huge problem...as when I travel overseas, that is my preferred method of communication back home. W/O, I might as well just use my laptop.

I've been playing with charging...I find the charge quite good actually. I had a full charge, intentionally left WiFi on, and used the tab throughout the day, including watching 2 hrs of TV via network TV sites (it's also quite comfortable in bed). I was able to sustain 14 hours on the charge...took me 3 hours to recharge using the portable charger from 18%. Acceptable.

The mini-USB charging port is a strong plus.

Lack of Kindle app is a strong minus. It would be ideal for the tab to replace my MP3 player and my Kindle...as I prefer to keep my music/books/pictures off of my laptop. Without, I still have to drag along the Kindle.

Lack of email/contacts is not an issue for me...work emails go on my work laptop; Personal emails onto my home desktop and during my travels, I read all four accounts via webmail anyway. Forward/backward integration to Andorid would be an advantage, however.

The network connection could be stronger...but works fine; Again, I streamed two hours of TV from browser network stations with only intermittent gaps.

PB memory is not cleaned, so the OS has some growing to do...failing that, let's have an app to clean out program residue...I suspect some space leaks, not rare for V1 of an OS. I have tried each of the memory settings and still encounter space issues.

UI, screen resolution and clarity is fine..no complaints there. Actually, I like the UI a great deal (I ran usability labs for commercial software in a past life...published articles on usability design and process and believe RIM has done quite well).

I would not yet recommend to my clients or others in my office (we have sales folk using iPads) and I' have recommended the Xoom...more mature business platform over the iPad, with Docs to Go available through marketplace....yet, dependence on mobile browser is a problem.

Will I keep mine? I have 12 more days to decide...I'm leaning to yes, but as yet undecided.

I could not recommend until memory mgmt is resolved; VOIP is available and there is better integration with Android phones, either through Bridge, gmail signons, creation of accounts or other.

I invite discussion and debate; However, I would ask you respond in mutually respectful manner, as opposed to the rather insulting "trash talk" all too pervasive on other sites.

Anthony

No trash from me although you lost me on the memory settings; please elucidate as to what they do and where they are. Apart from that - thank you.

[alphasports]

I too am in the tech bizz but more directly in the TV bizz (live sports) but forced to use a lot of different platforms where up until now iPads and even iPhones have got some productions out of the occasional jam. I've had my PB for a couple weeks and am quite happy with it in fact.

Your review is brief but reasonably thorough; many of your "cons" are issues that have already been acknowledged as being imminent fixes (Skype in particular, YAY!), so let's hope the rapid eveolution of the QNX platform continues. I'm heading over to USA tomorrow for the week and am not bringing a laptop (gulp!), but I am bringing the BB & PB....and unfortunately the iPad & iPhone as well. We'll see which combo gets the most use!!!

Cheers

[lesarmitage]

Originally Posted by alphasports

I too am in the tech bizz but more directly in the TV bizz (live sports) but forced to use a lot of different platforms where up until now iPads and even iPhones have got some productions out of the occasional jam. I've had my PB for a couple weeks and am quite happy with it in fact.

Your review is brief but reasonably thorough; many of your "cons" are issues that have already been acknowledged as being imminent fixes (Skype in particular, YAY!), so let's hope the rapid eveolution of the QNX platform continues. I'm heading over to USA tomorrow for the week and am not bringing a laptop (gulp!), but I am bringing the BB & PB....and unfortunately the iPad & iPhone as well. We'll see which combo gets the most use!!!

Cheers

Enjoy the US as I'm just back in blighty. You're okay with the PB and BB in my view. Happiness is a PB: I think!

This PB is vastly underestimated once you've got over a rebirth

[whatsanipad]

I would be very interested in your views after spending the week with only the PB. I've been trying to emulate using "only" the PB while at home this week...it has been difficult, without my keyboard and mouse.

On the lesarmitage memory management question: As we initiate a program, it gets loaded into memory. If we terminate the program, then the memory consumption of that program should be freed up as well. If the program goes into a sleep state, some memory should be consumed, but only enough to restart the program, when awoken.
I find that bouncing in and out of programs, at some point, the tablet stops responding...memory has become crowded with leftover bits of programs still consuming memory. If I do a hard reboot, all is well....if I don't, the PB is stuck on one screen. I could be wrong, but I believe that to be the result of poor memory management (same thing happens on to me on both XP and Win 7 Pro, btw).
I've decided to keep the PB btw...I am supportive of QNX and would like to see it evolve as well.