Archive for the ‘Tablets’ Category

What’s in the bag man?

Posted: May 25, 2012 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Accessories, Android, ATT, Audio / Video Gadget, Battery, dropSKIP? What???, GPS Devices, Headphones, iOS, iPad2, iPhone4s-ATT, iPhone4s-Verizon, Operating System, Personal Communicators, Personal HotSpot Devices, Phones, Power, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung SCH-LC11 4G Hotspot, Tablets, Verizon
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What’s in the bag man?

By Troy Saxton-Getty

Those who know me understand I have a bag & backpack fetish, it’s not some weird OCD thing, and it is based on purpose. (Ok, most of the time!)

20120527-063120.jpgMost friends know me as the always equipped geek that travels fairly regularly, including a long weekly run up and down the west coast as well as some longer multi-week out of the country trips every few months.

I get asked a few times a day “What is in that bag, you always seem to have everything with you…what should I take in my gadget bag?”

I have 3 configurations, regular day to day, Domestic trips and longer international trips. (We will just cover electronics, not the huge set of keys, wallet, passport and other non-tech crap that adds another 10 lbs to my bag)

Let’s start with the favorite bag at the moment, it’s the Tumi black ballistic nylon backpack, their higher end model. It offers a mid-sized backpack format, very strong zippers and plenty of pockets. The bag is laid out nicely with a solid TSA approved back area for the laptop in it’s own quick unzip compartment so you lay the bag open and TSA (and most other countries) accept putting it through the scanner without actually taking it out.

Base configuration (Day to day):

Apple MacBook Air 13” (i7)

Charger for the Macbook with the long stock extended cord (best laptop I’ve ever owned, and yes, you can either boot it to Windows 7 natively or open up Windows while booted to Mac OS if you set it up for it, it’s the best Windows laptop I’ve ever owned as well. This thing is powerful, I use it as a regular gaming machine too, but it has to be the fully loaded i7 version)

Apple iPad3, leather case that can serve as a stand or protective cover and standard 2-amp charger module plus stock cable

Either Bose QC-15 or Dr. Dre Studio Beats over the ear noise cancelling headphones (the Bose are slightly better sounding and a bit better on base, but damn those Red Dre Beats look cool, they take a few years off ya, lol)

Brookstone USB Battery pack (this is the quick and easy pocket-able battery for your mobile should you start running low, plug it in via it’s USB plug and your mobile cable)

Sparq 6000Mah Battery pack (these have flip out power tongs, no cables required, just flip them out and plug them into the wall, OMG these are sweet!)

iPhone4 iBattz extended battery sleeve with two removable batteries (key is quick battery changing since the case used standard Nokia NB-4L 1500Mah batteries, I’ve purchased many of these, this is the best one I’ve used so far)

iPhone4S ATT plus 1-amp stock charger and cable

iPhone4S Verizon plus 1-amp stock charger and cable

Samsung Galaxy Note plus stock charger and cable (My favorite Android phone)

Samsung 4G Hotspot (Verizon) (this is just a great little hotspot for up to 5 devices and the battery works for a few hours without fail)

Western Digital 2TB USB Passport laptop hard disk (Time Machine backup and a second copy of everything, Mac runs the backup automatically, don’t even fool with anything else JUST DO IT!) (Older movie storage as well so you don’t clog the SSD)

Micron 256GB SSD USB (solid state) laptop hard disk (main content storage, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie etc) This thing is fast and it’s perfect for those with a lot of content, specifically photos and music

Spot Tracker II – Personal Sat locator stand alone device (get lost? 911? Or just sending messages to a list of your choosing letting them know you are “OK” with map coordinates

SpotConnect – Personal Sat locator that works with iPhone (same as above, but lets you send special “text” via satellite, regardless of where you are on the globe)

Small Tumi nylon accessory bag (holds all the cables and chargers for the mobiles and iPad)

Tumi International travel adapter and cable kit (this kit is the best I’ve found so far, multi country support is awesome and it works, includes an additional dual USB snap on head for charging two .5 amp USB devices)

Apple international plug adapter kit (this is super cool for Apple users as it snaps onto the various Apple power modules, laptop, iPad etc)

Pel Head light (you have no idea how handy a hands free LED headlamp can be!)

Spare AAA and AA lithum batteries (the sat locators require Litium, but they work well and last a long time if you need them for something else)

Handheld small flashlight (The headlamp is great, but you need a small and powerful handheld too)

Zippo Lighter (I don’t’ smoke but this can come in handy, even when it’s dry on fluid)

I used to always have a Leatherman Multi-tool but TSA thinks you might try to disassemble the aircraft since 9/11 so that is out, so put it in checked baggage, you have no idea how handy this is to have in a country you don’t live in… (I have given so many of them to the TSA for free due to forgetting it in my backpack, they must have a side business running on all the stuff like this they collect thanks to not wanting to try to check it in baggage last minute and wait in security line again)

Domestic trips:

Sparq 6000mah battery (Second one, yea, there is no substitute to having USB Power up to 2-Amps , these units include 2 ports, 1 and 2 amps so iPads charge nicely)

Kindle Fire (battery lasts a really long time and has a second copy of my eBooks and other content just in case)

Galaxy Note extended battery sleeve (It’s nice having an Android phone along, but the power dies quickly on the Note, so the sleeve extends it 1.5x in addition to the included battery)

International multi-week trips:

Mili King 18000 Battery pack (This is the mother of all external battery packs, you can run a small house on this thing, ample USB plug power and it will extend most non-Apple laptops for 2-3x)

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Pogo Sketch by Ten 1 – Unique Stylus.

Posted: December 4, 2011 by Gill Haus in Android, Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, Fun Tech!, iOS, iPad, iPad2, Motorola Xoom realtime review, Samsung Tab, Stylus, Tablets, Windows Mobile 7
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We reviewed the Wacom Bamboo stylus a couple months ago and loved it.  At the time, we didn’t think we really need to look for another stylus.  Then we found the Pogo Sketch by Ten 1.  Why do we like this stylus (other than the great colors)?  For three main reasons:

1. It’s lighter.  It really feels a bit better when writing on the surface of an iPad.  It’s not heavy like those other styli so it feels good in your hand.

2. It’s thinner.  It just feels more natural when you use this stylus.

3. The tip is NOT the standard rubber cone that doesn’t seem to slide as easily.  This one has a different style tip that still works on iOS and glides across a surface (with the same accuracy as other styli).

These three things really made the difference for us and it’s become the stylus of choice (this week, of course).  Oh yeah, did we mention you can find it for under $20 on eBay?  Make it four reasons! :)

 

Blackberry Playbook, still mostly useless…

Posted: October 24, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, dropSKIP? What???, Tablets
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Blackberry Playbook, still mostly useless…
by Troy Saxton-Getty

I pulled the Blackberry Playbook out of the dropSKIP toy box months later in an attempt to find an email client of any type… Still, after all these months, nothing!

The Research In Motion Co-CEO said “By summer we will have an email client”…

Clearly with two CEO’s you would think they could get this simple task done… not only do they not have an email client of any type, the have zero Microsoft Exchange connectivity for even simple things like Calendaring, Contacts and Tasks.

No POP, IMAP or anything, wtf? Seriously? Your web experience isn’t all that good, I couldn’t even get this article written using it on WordPress.

RIM Playbook

RIM Playbook

We are dumbfounded, as former RIM fans, you guys could have played hardball in the tablet space, since the regular Blackberry smart phone usage is dropping worldwide, a great tablet, with a great ecosystem and solid OS could have been a contender. Miss a few basics, make some lame ass excuse about getting it out early so people could use it and then you would come out with the much needed productivity applications is pure bullshit (that’s a technical term).

Seriously guys, who is holding you both accountable?? You committed to the people who bought this device with a forward looking comment about an email client coming in summer, late summer… Well, its starting to snow in some cities and where is it?

Why are we so pissed off? Because basically the Co-CEO of RIM outright BS’ed us all about having the productivity tools needed to make the Playbook a success just down the line from the launch. We are further pissed because RIM actually squashed a few 3rd party developers who had solid email clients just month after launch and RIM decided to sandbag these guys and not let their apps into the AppWorld store. aMail & Early Bird from Pepper.pk. If you go to their sites you will see the “We submitted our app to AppWorld, it’s still in review” message on the main page.

Instead, RIM basically forced these App Developers to use tricky “developer” methods to get their apps loaded, in fact, it’s so difficult that most techies I know just laugh and wonder why RIM would do this. RIM, take a chapter from Verizon who played all these crappy tactics to control the mobile handset software market…

This little hardware device called the Playbook could really be great, but your corporate BS is keeping that from happening… aMail, Early Bird, you guys have been duped by RIM.

More than 6 months later, still nothing… this isn’t how you try to compete, this is how you lose… look at the beating you are taking in the press about this issue!

A lesson from Steve Jobs, “It’s the Bozo Explosion” up at RIM.

Wacom Bamboo Stylus (CS100K) – iPad Thoughts

Posted: October 8, 2011 by Gill Haus in iOS, iPad, iPad2, Stylus
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A colleague of ours has made the transition from laptop to iPad. In fact, it’s all he carries. No laptop. No pad of paper. Just an iPad. This may not seem that drastic to everyone, yet, we were impressed and wanted to see if we could do the same thing.

We faced two challenges in doing so: one, tasks and flagged emails aren’t supported on the current iOS and many of use this feature extensively; two, writing on the iPad is not as easy as using paper. The first challenge is to be addressed in the new iOS release. The second challenge is harder to address because writing on an iPad is just not close to writing on paper…or is it?

We asked ourselves if we could use just an iPad if we had the right tool and app. This is where the Wacom Bamboo Stylus entered the picture. Why? Because there are a good number of iPad apps that allow handwriting, but using ones finger just doesn’t seem to cut it. So, did the stylus help?

The short answer is yes (the long answer is you’ll need an app like Notes Plus to really make this work). The Bamboo stylus was our pick as most iPad ready styluses had wide round tips. This works well with the iPad displays but makes it hard to be precise. This stylus has a much smaller tip (about 25% smaller than most), though not pen fine by any means. The difference was noticeable and the stylus’ weight makes it easy to hold when writing.

20111009-094047.jpg

We also noticed that using the stylus to write takes practice. All of us learned to write with a pen and paper. The motions are the same. The pressure is different. Once we got used to this, we actually picked up speed and quality (yes, my handwriting is horrible normally, so there was only so much improvement to be had).

The Bamboo stylus did help. It felt comfortable in our hands and was closer to normal writing than a finger or thicker stylus. It does come at a price (~30 dollars) and you’ll still need a good note app.

At the end of the day, using the iPad instead of paper is doable but will take practice. Don’t expect it to feel normal at first. That said, typing on our iPhones after years of Blackberry keyboards seemed unusual, too. Amazing! :)

The coolest most useless product we’ve ever tested… Blackberry Playbook

Posted: August 17, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Apps, Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, dropSKIP? What???
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The coolest most useless product we’ve ever tested… Blackberry Playbook
By Troy Saxton-Getty

We’ve been fans or Research In Motion (RIM) since the early days of the RIM 950, as corporate technology leaders we’ve also been responsible for deploying well over 10,000 RIM devices to the corporate citizens we’ve supported. RIM has a track record lasting well over a decade of delivering amazing and incredibly useful devices, until now. Something big has changed at RIM, something that continues to drive their loyal and long term fans away.

When the Blackberry Playbook finally shipped, we picked one up hoping to see RIM getting back into the competitive game, we even gave them some slack for releasing early without several key capabilities being natively on the Playbook which everyone else had out of the box.

Playbook Packaging

Playbook Packaging

Way back in the early days of Playbook we heard their Co-CEO say they would be delivering a mail, contact and calendar client from RIM later this “summer” and with that we cut them a bit more slack. Well, summer is nearly over, kids are going back to school, people are buying tablet computers but I can’t find one technology friend who is buying a Blackberry Playbook for personal use, or to deploy in a company as a connected device. Why?? Because it is the coolest most useless product we’ve ever tested. We love this thing, in fact, we would be willing to say, if it had an open app ecosystem and a mail, calendar and contact client, it might even be our favorite, but it doesn’t and for that it is useless to most everyone buying tablets. Even the few folks we know who bought Playbook have either returned the Playbook or turned it into a digital picture frame. We all joke that every once in a while, we check for a native or 3rd party email, calendar and contact client. People come to these devices for those basic capabilities that untether us from the PC and stay for the extra stuff, you’ve got it all wrong RIM, but worse, you think you have it all right. You are better off putting a big rubber case on it and selling them to kids.

Every day at the shop, faithfully we pick it up, turn it on, open the AppWorld app hoping to see either a native productivity client or one from a 3rd party. Out of the thousands of people we interact with, we only know one likes his Playbook, because he is one of the few who still has a Blackberry mobile phone, if you do, the product will sync up and give the mail, calendar and contact view the phone has natively… Even then, my one Playbook friend tells me he is envious of the Apple, Android and even Microsoft App stores because the Playbook has a small collection of nearly useless apps for the serious or even recreational tablet user.

RIM, you guys are intentionally or unintentionally making yourselves irrelevant in the competitive landscape, the Blackberry Playbook remains the coolest most useless product we’ve ever tested, what a uselessly cool product!

Come on guys, at least make an effort.. let the developers of AMail or one of the other email clients at least have their product available to us instead of blocking them on AppWorld… Someone wise once told me “showing up is half the success battle”, well, you are not even showing up….

Playbook, Still no native email, calendar or contact client….really?

Posted: August 12, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Apps, Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, dropSKIP? What???, Tablets
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Playbook, Still no native email, Calendar or contact manager client….really?
By Troy Saxton-Getty

We had a lot of hope early-on for the Playbook, our test unit has been lugged around for a few months now but it gets the least amount of real world use due to one glaring and primary fact; NO NATIVE EMAIL, CALENDAR OR CONTACT CLIENT, Still!

Research In Motion’s (RIM) Co-CEO promised a native client this summer, we still haven’t seen it. Unless you have a Blackberry linked to the Playbook, you are left only with a web browser email experience. RIM says “Our web experience is so great that you don’t need one…” oh really? I bet you don’t read your work or personal email on the Playbook as your main source. (We can do this on our Xoom, iPad(s), Galaxy Tab etc)

RIM, there is a reason most folks don’t use the email web experience on their desktops or laptops for as their main or regular email experience, they are all very different, they each require logging in, different user names, passwords and navigation. In-the-real-world most people want an email client, same look and feel for one to many different email accounts. If given the choice, most folks prefer to work in a native email client.

Back in early May of this year (2011), RIM demonstrated their own native email client for non-Blackberry users (if you own a Blackberry, it very nicely links up and gives you email, calendar and contacts support) Why is it we don’t have it yet? Did you forget how many Android and iPhone users are out there? Many of these folks could buy a Playbook, NOT!

RIM Playbook

RIM Playbook

 

The more interesting thing is RIM’s AppWorld store has actually blocked a few fairly amazing native email applications from being released, I just don’t get it. I really like the unit, the screen, size and feel, battery life etc., it is really pretty nice, but it is getting zero real-world use from us due mainly to the native client issue.

If you are pretty technical, you can use the “side-loading” technique like a developer and get a great product like aMail loaded. RIM has blocked several completing applications from their own AppWorld store, browsers, calendar tools and email clients so you can’t load them the simple way like everyone else, through the app store.

Open ecosystems win, or at least ones with good judgement to allow competing apps… RIM, this is plain stupid!

We tried using the webmail experiences for Yahoo, GMail, multiple Exchange email accounts and Apple’s MobileMe, while it can be done (except Apple’s MobileMe, forget it, it is totally unusable) it isn’t something you will be happy with for long, as an exception, yes, but regular use, even with short cuts and auto-login, it won’t be the tablet you pick up if you have another choice.

Give us what every other smartphone or tablet has, a built-in native client for email, calendar and contacts, or at least let some creative developers give us another set of choices.

RIM, you have won the dropSKIP official – “YOU SUCK” award…. we want our money back…

Hang in there aMail, you are our only hope Obiwan!

Belkin Snap Shield for iPad 2 – Finally a Case That Doesn’t Ruin the iPad

Posted: July 24, 2011 by Gill Haus in Cases, iOS, iPad2
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We tend to drop things, hence our name. The problem is that we also buy some pretty slick devices. And there is nothing glamourous about buying the latest in high tech and sealing it in a case of bubble wrap.  We’re all for protecting our purchases, but why does so much protective gear completely ruin the feel of the device?  We don’t have a good answer to this question.  We have found an exception to this rule, however, in Belkin’s Snap Shield for iPad 2.
Belkin Snap Shield iPad 2 - Front Cover
One of the best features of the iPad 2 is the smart cover.  Most third party iPad cases neglect this and either have their own cover or prevent the smart cover for fitting.  Not so in the Snap Shield.  This case cleanly fits on the back of your iPad (it’s very thin so as not to drastically alter the form factor) and has a slot that allows the smart cover to attach to the device.
Belkin Snap Shield iPad 2 - Back Cover
The Snap Shield isn’t poorly named, either.  It snugly snaps on to the back of your iPad 2 and prevents scratches and pops off with the right amount of force (say falling on an airport floor) absorbing the force and reducing damage. The Snap Shield also comes in a variety of covers and is reasonably priced.  The version that we reviewed is transparent, showing through the gray metal color of the iPad 2.
Belkin Snap Shield iPad 2 - Inside
For those that enjoy the look and feel of the iPad 2 and want to protect their purchase without reducing its sexiness, you won’t be disappointed with this case.

Belkin Snap Shield iPad 2 - On iPad 2 w/Smart Cover

Brookstone Bluetooth Keyboard w/ Portfolio Case for iPad 2

Posted: June 26, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Accessories, Cases, dropSKIP? What???, iPad2, Keyboards, Tablets
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Brookstone Bluetooth Keyboard w/ Portfolio Case for iPad 2
By Troy Saxton-Getty

We always like taking extended trips because it is the perfect field environment to test new tools, gadgets and fun stuff. Not to mention paying full price in the usually well stocked airport technology stores in most major international airports which have very strong techno-gravity. Today is more of an “I’ and less of a “we” article. Gill is on another plane from the east coast to Singapore and I launched to catch up from San Francisco. (SFO)(KSFO for your pilots!)

I can’t wait to find out what fun gadgets Gill is testing along the way, always great stuff.

I haven’t been into Brookstone in quite a while, I must say, they have really up’ed their game for electronic goodies. Right at the front door I was met with a very interesting iPad2 case which includes a Bluetooth keyboard, I had to test it out! Before I left the store, I had made 2 additional purchases, one at a time, out with the credit card, sign and a valiant attempt to walk out, only to find myself stumbling onto something else that was worthy of an international trip and test in the real-world. (more on this in future articles)

So let’s talk about the iPad2 keyboard and case, at $99USD, I was a wondering if it would be another purchase worthy of the price or would I try it and toss it aside for the next new and cool case. I was also a bit concerned as these smaller keyboards tend to be tough to use with my fairly large hands and fingers and I get frustrated quickly trying to type anything lengthy.

Brookstone Bluetooth Keyboard & Case

Brookstone Bluetooth Keyboard & Case

True test, could I type comfortably for multiple documents both complex and simple using the keyboard with the iPad2.  I have been fiddling with it for the past few hours on the flight and decided to write this article with the new keyboard / case. So far, so good. We have purchased 3 or so Bluetooth keyboards for use with iPads, including the Apple keyboard, which is the gold standard as far as we are concerned, it’s actually the same Bluetooth keyboard that you can use with their computer lineup and it is nearly perfect, just a tad too large to put in the travel backpack.

Brookstone has a previous model for iPad (first generation) which is still being sold in the store, that keyboard/case combo had rubbery type water proof looking keys and the action was quite a bit less than natural, I found it awkward to use for anything lengthy and after a few days I gave it to a friend, only to be out nearly a cool hundy.

In this test I will use the iPad2 keyboard & case for my day to day work and personal stuff and get back to this article after I have survived 10+ lengthy pages of typing, thousands of emails and so on.

Well, I am back and its day 6, I am using the keyboard on the airplane again from Singapore to Chennai India. I’ve used it all week and I must say, I think it is a keeper keyboard and case combination, even with quite a bit of turbulence on the flight I am finding it comfortable to type and I noticed I keep reaching for the trackpad as if this keyboard is on my Macbook Air so my brain must be fooled.

Keyboard with iPad2 propped up

Keyboard with iPad2 propped up

I have used the keyboard for just about everything in my daily life so far, very happy with it, it is a dramatic improvement over the version 1 case/keyboard from the same company.

Case folded & closed

Case folded & closed

My only two gripes are the standard MiniUSB port for charging the Bluetooth radio and the standby mode of the keyboard. After a year or more of buying electronics which have converted fully to the MicroUSB I have to make sure to carry a MiniUSB plug charger again, this isn’t that big of a deal since I tend to carry a charger / battery backup with multiple adapters, but it is just odd that they would have picked the older and mostly outdated plug format for charging. On regular trips I don’t see this as much of a problem as the documentation shows the full charge lasts for up to a month.. so far, so good, I will let it run out since the initial charge and see how well it actually lasts.

My other gripe is that when you are reading over a document or pause for a few minutes the keyboard goes into standby mode (This is probably why the battery lasts so long!) and the on-screen keyboard pops up like a normal iPad without a keyboard attached, not that big of a deal, but if you are using your finger to scroll to edit or move around it makes for a little awkward navigation. It also takes a keystroke to wake it up, which, if not paying attention, you will lose the first character you type after the 40 second stand-by mode. After you get used to this it’s not that big of a deal, if you are reading back over the document using your finger to scroll and 40 seconds goes by without touching the keyboard, it goes into standby, pops up the on-screen keyboard, at this point, simply press any key, wait 1 second and now start typing again. I would have set the stand-by to several minutes and on average use you wouldn’t even notice this wonkiness.

Keyboard up close

Keyboard up close

Overall the keyboard / case combination is worthy of the purchase for the iPad 2, its a high quality leather case, nice stitching, its holds the iPad 2 nicely and doesn’t let it move around, when closed, the keyboard doubles as more protection for the screen and it isn’t to bulky. I have dropped it from waist height a few times and it has protected the iPad 2 well, without anything on the iPad 2 connecting to the floor. I am going to recommend this as a good buy… I am really enjoying it. More to come!

Blackberry Playbook Tablet, Initial impressions…Huh? no email client?

Posted: May 22, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, dropSKIP? What???, Operating System, Tablets
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Blackberry Playbook Tablet, Initial impressions… Huh? no email client?
By Troy Saxton-Getty

So we finally decided to test the Blackberry Playbook Tablet from Research in Motion (RIM)  and so far we are pleasantly surprised. The Playbook has been taking quite a bit of media abuse over the past month, the rumors, folklore and crazy RIM Co-CEO publicity hasn’t helped.

RIM Playbook

RIM Playbook

After a few days and many hours of working it into our usual test rhythm, we are mixed about it but mostly in a positive way.

So let’s explain:

Normally we test a tablet by holding it to the iPad (Gen one) original gold standard, second, we then add all the apps needed for our monthly routine, third, we configure 9 or so different email accounts, setup other social and communications type tools  and finally, force ourselves to use it, day in and day out for an extended period of time.

Here is why we are reporting a mixed initial impression: The unit doesn’t compare to the range of tablets we have tested to date. It is missing several key things you would need in day-to-day work and personal use such as a native email client, contact management and a calendar of some sort.

Huh? How can this be?? This was our initial visceral response as well. So immediately we turned to as many RIM video interviews that we could find on the net with top staff and we found many telling the story and supporting the reason why the Playbook is “without”, out of the box. Not one interview really told the whole story, it took watching 5 full interviews to figure out the story to understand our initial gut check and how to get passed the void.

Yes, if you happened to be one of the 60 million Blackberry users, the Playbook has a special sync mode which pulls in your email, calendar and contacts. No, it doesn’t mean you have to be a Blackberry user to use the Playbook, it simply means, if you have a Playbook sync supported Blackberry, you have native email, calendar and contacts.

We can shed some more light on this: 60 Million Blackberry users don’t all have Playbook supported blackberry units, second, not all of them are hooked to Blackberry Exchange Servers (BES) and not all carriers support the free tethering mode for internet sharing that the RIM marketing department is spouting out, if anything, this rhetoric from them has caused all of the rumors abound” that it’s a Blackberry dependent device.”

Simply put, if you have a Playbook sync supported Blackberry model and you have it sync’ed up, you get more and cool functionality. If you have a corporate Blackberry Exchange Server, you have a very secure, fully integrated Playbook experience with your collaboration tools, aka email, calendar and contacts. We do not have a Blackberry device that supports the Playbook, so we couldn’t test this, but we will update shortly to get a chance to test the experience.

Playbook Packaging

Playbook Packaging

Does this mean its useless? Of course not, in fact, with a simple WiFi connection or a phone with a WiFi hotspot mode, you are all set. Except for the email, calendar and contact management client.

Huh? I know, crazy isn’t it, the device doesn’t come with a native email client, one that supports native Microsoft Exchange, IMAP, or even POP/SMTP. Nope, Nada.. Although we have seen two different 3rd party products in the release process with RIM’s AppWorld store and also we got confirmation from RIM support that a native email client is 60 days or so away from RIM directly, it still offers little here.

So this point alone makes it very tough to compare the Playbook to any other tablet in our lineup. No Calendar, No email client, no contact management, bummer, but thats about the only bummer, although a big one, a few months and it will be a mute point. If someone at RIM just said “Hey, we didn’t have the email, calendar and contact client ready but didn’t want to hold up getting the tablet out there” that would be completely understandable and for most, acceptable, instead, we hear a bunch of corporate speak and double-talk about it, even from both Co-CEO’s. Guys, just say the above line… over and over and it would make you look much better to us consumers and gadget geeks.

Playbook

Playbook

It’s small, fast, well built, has an amazing screen and the camera and video are awesome. it is really surprising how well the Playbook fits into your hands and the overall solid feeling it has.

With a 7″ screen it packs serious resolution, it reminds me of the iPhone’s Retina Display. 1024×600 WSVGA in a capacitive touch screen with multi-finger gesture capability, it is gorgeous! Our favorite so far…

It’s fast, a dual-core 1Ghz CPU with 1GB of Ram, running QNX Technology Blackberry Tablet OS with symmetric multi-processing, a custom built OS which is actually very nicely designed and easy to use. It comes in 16, 32 & 64GB versions, WiFi only at the moment, but 4G options for late summer release.

Full RIM Website details by clicking the link below:
http://us.blackberry.com/playbook-tablet/#!tabletFeatures

The AppWorld Store reportedly has 25,000 apps, that may be true but we found it lacking with only a handful of apps in specific categories. So?? Yes, we found quite a few cool apps but only a few of the regulars we use across multiple OS/Platform types were there, but it’s clear, more and more are coming as Blackberry developers port their native Blackberry apps over to the tablet. We aren’t all that worried.

The web experience:

This is what we constantly heard from watching the Co-CEO video interviews, “We don’t need a native app or email client, most everyone uses webmail anyway and our web experience is so rich it won’t matter.” Well, our thoughts are mixed, if you only use one or two standard webmail accounts like gmail, Hotmail, AOL Mail or Yahoo you are pretty well off, the experience is rich and it works well.

If you try to use MobileMe for your Apple email via web, it doesn’t work with an even tough time trying to reply to a webmail message. If you try to use Outlook Web Access (OWA) it also uses the lighter interface (like all non-IE browsers) and on the Exchange 2007/2010 OWA, the experience is very usable for Calendaring, Contacts and email. (We suspect less useful on Exchange 2000/2003 OWA)

You can save all of these web links as bookmarks or even as icons on the home screen, it makes it easier to load each time, but if you want a rich email experience, you will be waiting for native email clients to appear, of the new stuff coming, none appear to offer a real Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync experience. Which means it will be a while before you can introduce the Playbook to a corporate/work collaborative experience fully sync’ing your email, contacts and Calendar.

Additionally, the included apps are decent and everything else appears to be addressed in some fashion. eBooks, Music and video purchasing are all available from providers such as 7Digital for music, Kobo Books and NFB for video which we have no idea how they stack up to Apple iTunes, Google or Amazon’s offerings. A bit more time with the Playbook and we will know more about the experience with these “other” providers.

Keep in mind, you can purchase from the mainstream non-DRM (copy protection) sources and the Playbook will easily play that content and you can simply connect the Playbook to your computer and transfer non-DRM content or ripped CD/DVD music and video. YouTube is an included app along with Slacker Radio, some games and the basic apps you would expect.

The Playbook’s web experience is probably the best that we’ve seen, although it’s still a mobile browser, it is closer to the desktop experience you would expect on your computer. This is why the company is saying “Use the rich web experience, we fully support native Flash, many video and audio formats right in the browser” and it’s true. Although we’ve been trained to find an app for everything, you can get to most of what you use through the Playbook browser experience. Even things like Pandora, etc. all work well via the browser.

When it comes to streaming video its a mixed bag on sources that work in the browser as of this writing.

Hulu doesn’t work but we found a work-around to view Hulu content, that is a nice touch.. although Hulu Plus is natively available on the iPhone and iPad now as an app and soon on Android, you have to fiddle around to get that content to work on the Playbook web browser.

We read that NetFlix was available for the Paybook, searched everywhere and couldn’t find an app, logged in with our account and it would not allow for streaming playback. Scratch another great win off the list for the Playbook for now.

All-in, we think the app and content markets will open up to the Playbook, it’s a great tablet, fantastic design, speed and form factor.

Only time will tell….

If you don’t care about the personal information management stuff, this tablet is really a nice product.

Clearly they released it before they had enough application and tool support, but we are glad they did vs. holding out for months to wrap up this other stuff.

The RIM Playbook has enough power to compete head to head as well as it will be a viable solution for a few years in this very rapidly advancing product space.

Tablets, can’t live with them, can’t live without em!

Splash Masque Screen Protector Film Matte Clear (Anti-Glare) for Apple iPad 2 2nd Generation

Posted: April 10, 2011 by Gill Haus in Accessories, iPad2
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I’ve never been a fan of applying screen protectors.  Typically, I buy two packs of 3 for one application.  This way when I fail numerous times – which I always do – I can still continue trying until there are no particles or air bubbles.  Now, I do this on my iPhone.  I hadn’t even considered the nightmare of trying this on an iPad.  Let’s all thank my friend Calvin Haden for being our guinea pig.  In his own words:

“Seems like it would be a good product if you could install the thing without dust getting on it before you get it on the iPad.  I cleaned the screen to make sure there were no dust particles but i guess – unless you are in a clean room assembling microchips – you aren’t going to get a 100% dust free application. Even if you clean the screen thoroughly beforehand, you will still pick up particles after removing the backing and bringing it down to the screen.”

There is good news here.  It’s a 3 pack and it’s not much more expensive than the iPhone versions – so you can try numerous times.  Still, I imagine that installing the larger protector is a pain and I’m glad my friend proved this theory (err, I’m sorry he had so much trouble).

You can see all the protector details at http://amzn.to/hklxEt.

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