Thread: Rim Blackberry Playbook

The BlackBerry boys are out and shouting their lungs out - their new baby, the PlayBook is herel Tablets are still evolving and haven't yet reached the stage where netbooks have - the stage where it's difficult to tell them apart. And while comparisons to the Apple iPad are inevitable, it's important to note that RI M has differentiated this slate well and stuck to its core expertise, business usage. And as we found out. it's no slouch in the "play" department as well. Taking the 7-inch form factor, hitherto seen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, this slate is a plain black slab - completely flat and devoid of any hardware buttons at least at first glance. With rounded edges and a rubbery black rear, the monotony is only broken by a subtle BlackBerry logo under the screen and a slightly more flamboyant embossed logo at the rear - this is a slate that won't raise any eyebrows when you swish it out at the airport. It's compact and light enough to be carried easily in your hand, bag or even a jacket pocket. On top, you'll find a play/pause button flanked by volume up/down keys on either side, and a tiny sleep/wake key. The latter is too small for our liking, and is difficult to press.

At the bottom is a micro USB port. along with a port for the optional dock, and a micro HDMI port. The micro HDMI cable is an optional buy as well. Dual cameras are on offer - at the rear is a 5-megger capable of HD video recording, whereas the one at front is a 3-meg effort. In its suited innards lies a 1 GHz dual-core chip, along with 1 GB of RAM. Like the iPad, you can choose from 16, 32 or 64GB of fixed storage, but there is no 3G functionality. Unlike the Apple tablet that has a 4:3 screen aspect ratio however, the screen aspect ratio here is 16:9. Because of this, you will soon realise that the most natural way to hold the PlayBook is in landscape mode. In comparison, the iPad feels comfy in both orientations

The PlayBook runs QNX - an OS that sounds as ominous, or explosive if you may, as RDX, and since flavours of the same OS handle various mission-critical applications and are used in quite a few industrial setups, it is actually believed to be quite bomb-proof. RIM's implementation on the PlayBook is a gesture-driven affair, essentially involving a lot of swipes. Wake the slate up from slumber (an upward swipe from the bottom also works) and what you see is a grid of icons - the built-in and installed list of apps. Tap on an app icon to launch as usual, but now comes the interesting part. The wide frame around the screen is also touch-sensitive~ Swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen to minimise a running app. What you see then is a bird's eye view of all the apps running in the background - live thumbnails that update content as the app continues to do what it does - and then you can scroll sideways though them and tap on the desired app to activate it. To end a running app, you need to minimise it first. and then either tap on a tiny 'x' beneath its thumbnail, or 'throw' it upwards towards the top of the screen with a swipe of your finger - an extremely satisfying action.



You can also scroll through apps by swiping sideways while the app is running. Overall, it's an extremely fluid process, quite intuitive after you first get the hang of it. So fluid in fact. that it had us swiping upwards on our iPads tool App-specific and settings menus for various apps appear when you swipe downwards from the top of the screen. And you can bring up the virtual QWERTY anywhere by sWiping diagonally from bottom left towards the centre of the screen. All these swiping actions aren't apparent immediately, and there's a small learning curve involved. PC connectivity also isn't reallystraight forward. Once connected to the PC via micro USB, you get access to a tiny partition on the tablet that contains the driver software. Once you install this, the tablet's internal storage is mapped as a network drive and then you can transfer files as usual. The virtual QWERTY keyboard does the job, but lacks auto correct - something we would definitely like to see in a future software upgrade.

The webkit browser has full Flash support and displays desktop versions of websites - embedded videos play beautifully, and you can even use the chat box on Facebook.com. However, the 16:9 aspect ratio slightly hinders browsing.need to scroll a fair bit if you hold the slate in landscape mode. The web pages Just appear too small in portrait. Another usability issue is that you may accidently minimise the browser if you're scrolling fast - an upward swipe can do this, remember? As far as the apps are concerned, well. there aren't too many yet. especially if you compare it to iOS or Android. However, Android app support is coming soon and that