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BlackBerry PlayBook ReviewApril 30, 2011
Early this week I checked my email and, at long last, got my shipping notification for the free PlayBook offer. The next day at 1 PM there was a knock on the door and a friendly FedEx man handed me the box. To say I was excited would be an understatement.
SummaryThe PlayBook is a delightful device -- the screen is very crisp and bright, the UI is polished both in terms of appearance and function, and the web browsing experience is great. The 7" size works very well, which was my biggest apprehension, and doesn't much deter from the web browsing experience VS a 10" tablet. Webmail works well too, meaning that not having a built in email client is a minor issue. Flash video works as advertised, bringing an end to the annoyance of "you can't watch this" as had on the iPad. And tethering to my smartphone works great, allowing me to browse the web while riding in the car, etc... very cool. Capturing HD video and immediately playing it back on the PlayBook screen is a compelling experience, and being able to "drag and drop" files onto and off of the device over wifi is a thrilling experience. (Even when it's in sleep mode!) I have yet to get a micro HDMI cable, but am eagerly awaiting being able to play back content on our HDTV.
The PlayBook isn't perfect of course -- there isn't a Netflix app yet, the kobo app has some rough edges, my BabyNames app seems to expose a scrolling bug, etc. But these are all very minor things which cannot overshadow what is a wonderful tablet, one which I seem to be more drawn to than my iPad.
Web BrowserThe web browsing experience on the PlayBook is great. The 7" screen is large enough to display web pages well (remember the days when we wished all computers were 1024 pixels wide but most were 800?), the browser renders pages properly, and the UI of the browser is effective. My one UI wish was that there would be a way to open a link in a background tab in the same way you can on desktop browsers, but my wish didn't come true. Just like the iPad, if you open a link in a new tab, it takes you to that tab. (other people could probably care less about this) As for the speed of the browser, I'll call it "good", but let's not kid ourselves, it can't match the speed of a desktop browser. And I'm a nit picker, so one curious thing that I noticed is that the little animation that plays while a flash video loads isn't anti-aliased. Odd.
Browsing over 3G while tethered to a phone is surprisingly fast, but that's probably because my previous 3G experience is on a BlackBerry Bold phone and I think we all know how slow previous generations of BlackBerry phones are in the web browsing department.
Accessing Gmail via the browser works well. It turns out not to be the full desktop Gmail site, but the mobilized site gets the job done well.
TypingTyping on the device is notably better than on an iPad. I end up typing in URLs in landscape mode, and my hands are just big enough to allow my thumbs to reach all of the keys, but if I need to type any more than that, I use portrait mode, which offers a very good typing experience. I consider this to be a significant usability advantage over the iPad, and is a feature that makes web browsing more pleasant.
Nifty FeaturesThe PlayBook has some tricks up its sleeve, and that adds some wow factor for the tech savvy folks. For example, it shows up as a computer on the local area network, even while in sleep mode, allowing files to be dragged and dropped to it in Windows Explorer. You can take a picture or video, press F5 on your computer, and bam, there it is. Very slick. Having an HDMI cable is another one of those sweet features, but as mentioned I have yet to play with that.
App SelectionThere are lots of apps to peruse, and there are a decent number of big-name apps, so that's great. As many others have noted, lots of big-name apps aren't available (yet) on the platform, so hopefully that will change over time. But when people say "no apps" that's pretty silly. I was very happy that the Globe and Mail app is there, which is one of the most-used apps on my iPad. The presence of a great weather app is very appreciated. There is a piano app which works decently, but I found that there is a slight crackle when each note is played, which needs to get fixed before I'd want to use it. The kobo book reading application is nice but has one major, inexplicable flaw: Often when you change pages, a spinning icon appears for a second before the next page is loaded. Why? I can't think of any reasonable explanation for this. Bizarre. Also, pages sometimes flicker when they load. Again, why? These two flaws are kind of silly if you ask me. C'mon kobo people. The iSpeech Translator app is very cool and actually seems to work decently. Kind of amazing. Poynt is impressive and very useful. Readers Digest looks nice and works well. The music app looks nice and works well enough. The Presidents Choice recipe app is simple but is beautiful, has tonnes of content, and kind of knocks my socks off. It even has nutritional info! (Thanks PC!) Hopefully Netflix will show up in the next few months.
BlackBerry BridgeThe integration with your BlackBerry phone works well. The email program is a bit on the bare-bones side of things, and there is a bit of lag while communication with your phone takes place, but overall this works well. Pretty cool.
Battery LifeI haven't done any quantitative tests, but my overall sense of battery life is that it's decent but not great. I'm pretty sure the iPad's battery life is a notch or two better. That said, the PlayBook's battery life is good enough that it doesn't adversely affect the day-to-day use of the device.
Need for SpeedPretty good controls, and nice overall feel. I've heard other people praising the graphics of NFS, but I have to say, they don't impress me. Sure, it looks decent on a great high-DPI screen, but the actual 3D graphics are way beyond 2011 standards. That's not to say that it doesn't look good, but there isn't any "wow" factor for me. I'm sure the next version of the PlayBook will have a 3D processor more akin to the one that's in the iPad 2, and perhaps then it will be capable of pumping out some inspiring 3D visuals.
ConclusionI think RIM did a superb job on the PlayBook, and I hope it sells well. And like many people, I'm looking forward to seeing it grow, and I'm curious to see what directions people will take it.
Wish List  | Be able to open links in a background tab. |
| Wireless media playback onto HDTV. |
| Wireless media sync. |
| Netflix. |
| Video chat. |
| Email client. |
| More big-name apps. |
Anticipation: BlackBerry PlayBookApril 15, 2011
It's Friday and the PlayBook officially launches on Tuesday, just two business days from now. The reviews are out, and they're... pretty mediocre, actually a little negative, which is a marked change from the positive vibes that have surrounded the device these last 7 months. The most noise being made is about the lack of native email client, calendar, contacts, lack of apps, and the power button of all things. Here are my thoughts on each of these things:
Native Email/Calendar/ContactsFirst of all, I agree that RIM ideally would have these things at launch, no question in my mind there. But they don't. So how big of a problem is this?
If we side step the "perception of a problem" as being a problem and think about actually using the device, I still agree this is an issue, but not as big an issue as people are making it out to be. Let's think about how I personally use email... I use Gmail. And how do I access it? Through a web browser. The web UI for Gmail is so good that I've never felt the need to download an email app on my PC. And so I think that's where RIM is coming from when they say their anticipation is that this device will suit webmail users just fine.
Using webmail on a tablet is different than using it on a PC, though. You have less screen area, etc, and so there are opportunities to create a UI that is better suited to the tablet. And of course, using a native app will likely be a bit snappier, and finally, since this is not an always-connected device like the PC, not having an app means that you won't have offline access to your email.
Remember though, that you can just download a third-party email app if these things are important to you. When you add up the webmail and third-party email app aspects, I again say that this argument is being overplayed. I think it somehow becomes more a symbolic argument than a practical one: People feel that the lack of these apps is symbolic of the fact that the tablet is being released on very tight time frames, and that RIM hasn't had enough time to "do it right". If this is the concern, then let's step back a moment and remember what industry this is... every month counts, and no device is ever going to be perfect on every front when it is released. So I think you have to look at these issue not as symbolic but rather in a practical light, and in the case of native email, as I've made my case, I think it's an issue but not a big one. (Calendar and Contacts are essentially the same discussion)
Power ButtonOk, so it's pretty clear that the industrial design of the power button gets a "fail", or does it? I'm not questioning that the power button takes serious effort to push, but what isn't clear in my mind is whether the power button is something that needs to be used on a daily basis. Do I ever use a "power button" on my iPad? Rarely, very rarely. Perhaps I've used it 5 times in the last year. So unless I'm missing something, why are people unhappy with the button being very tucked away? Going back to the industrial design argument, this might actually be seen as good design, because it's going to keep you from accidentally hitting the button, and because it's recessed, it doesn't clutter the perimeter of the device with un-flush adornments. I'm not arguing that RIM made the perfect design decisions here, but I am again saying that I think this criticism is coming off very loud giving how minor the issue is in terms of practical usage of the device, and I think there are some real benefits to the design as well.
AppsThis one is a little bizarre too, because RIM hasn't yet added the thousands of PlayBook apps to the app store, they only have a few dozen in the store to demonstrate how apps can be browsed and installed. So why would Gizmodo create a fancy comic-like graphic with "NO APPS" spray painted on the PlayBook? Seriously?
I fully agree that this is legitimately a big issue... both the iPad and Android have tens of thousands of apps available, whereas the Playbook has about 3,000. But I also don't think this issue is quite the way people are painting it, either.
First of all, the iPad doesn't REALLY have 300,000 tablet apps. Sure, there are hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps out there, and they can technically run on the iPad, but in my collection of 20 or so iPad apps, are any of them iPhone apps? No. I'm not saying that other people don't have some phone apps on their tablet, but the lion's share of apps running on iPads are tablet apps. So I think to be fair, you shouldn't quote 300,000 when talking about the number of iPad apps there are. (The number of iPad apps is 65,000, I believe) And likewise for Android tablets, how many of the available apps are actually tablet apps VS phone apps? If you look at the situation that way, the picture is very different.
Secondly, I don't think 3,000 apps is problematic. That's a lot of apps... remember in the early PC days when the number of apps available at the computer store was < 100? Did that stunt the growth of the PC industry? Not at all. I think a more important consideration is whether the prime-time, popular apps are available on a platform, and that's something that reviewers don't yet know. If these apps are truly missing, and they don't show up in the next couple of months, then yes, I think it's very fair and right to point this out as a flaw of the platform for consumers, but from this vantage point I don't think "NO APPS" is a good or even valid assessment.
My Personal ThoughtsPersonally, I'm very excited about the PlayBook and the platform. There have been many times I've been browsing the web on my iPad and go to watch some video clip on Facebook or elsewhere and groan when I realize it's flash and I can't view it. Ugh. I'm not saying Apple made the wrong decision at the time, but for them not to have Flash working over a year later and making no known efforts to get it working is kind of mind boggling. Given all the criticism of RIM this week, it's kind of curious that consumers don't rant about Apple's lack of flash support.
Being a UI guy, I'm also very impressed with the flow of using the device. I find the iPad to be a somewhat mediocre multitasking experience. Some of that is just the memories of the last year not having any multitasking at all, and so I sometimes forget now that you even can multitask, but in addition to that, the app switching mechanism gets about a C grade from me. On the contrary, I'm happy to give the PlayBook's app switching UI an A or A+. It's fast, it's integral to the design of the UI, and I'll even call it "fun". It has flair -- it kind of draws you into the experience of multitasking. This is an exciting development for tablets.
Something that I have yet to find out is how well the tabbed browsing aspect of "multitasking" works in the PlayBook. That's perhaps my biggest annoyance of the iPad: If you want to open a bunch of links as background tabs to checkout later, I don't know of an efficient way to do that. I don't know whether it's memory limitations on the device or what, but for me it's a big drawback to browsing on the iPad. Maybe the PlayBook solves this problem, maybe it doesn't, so we shall see.
I strongly dislike typing on the iPad. I know Apple's commercials make it look pretty slick, but in my experience it's not. It's too big and heavy to hold, and so you have to put it on your lap, but then it slides off and the ergonomics of typing on it while it's on your lap are mediocre at best. This was actually my biggest question about the iPad before it was released: How would typing work? Would there be some fancy UI that was truly innovative? I think a lot of people were surprised to find out it was just a flat, standard keyboard. So will the PlayBook be better in this regard? It think it will be... it's small enough that you can type with two thumbs when holding it in portrait mode, and I think it's even possible to do that in landscape mode. Is it light enough to make that comfortable? Again, I won't know these things until I actually get to try it out, but I'm hopeful that typing won't be as much of a chore as it is on the iPad.
I'm really looking forward to being able to get internet access on the PlayBook through my phone without having to pay for an extra account. I'd love to have 3G access on my iPad, but there's no way I'm going to pay an extra $15-$20 for it when I already have a data plan on my phone. Being able to do this for free on the PlayBook is a very big feature. Finally, being able to browse the web on long car trips! (And yes, I'm a sucker for "free")
My biggest hesitation with the PlayBook is actually it's size. Having a nice portable 7" device has plenty of advantages, but when you're curled up on the couch or in bed browsing the web, I think anyone would prefer a 10" tablet over a 7" tablet. What does this mean? I think it means that my iPad will remain mostly the bedside browsing device, and the PlayBook will be mostly the mobile tablet that can be used to browse the web while out of the house. So here we are again, only a year after tablets hit the market, and already we're seeing specialized tablets that excel in different use cases. ie. First was the question of "will people buy a second web browsing device to complement their laptop"? It was an uncertain question, but the answer was a resounding "yes"! Now we're faced with another question: Will people buy a second, smaller tablet, that excels at mobile web browsing on a screen that is larger than their phone's but not as annoying to carry around as a 10" tablet? I have no idea, we shall see, but my inkling is that, again, yes, many people will own both a 10" and 7" tablet. The other way of looking at is, in any given house, how many web browsing devices do people want? I think it many house holds, eventually, it will be approx. 2 devices per person, and so in a family with two parents and two kids, I could easily see 8 web browsing devices, some of them PCs, some of them laptops, some of them tablets, some of them smartphones, and in there somewhere quite likely is a 7" screen.
My last comment is a word of advice to RIM: Develop a 10" PlayBook, and do it ASAP. Don't limit people to the 7" mobile experience in the long term, because that's only part of the market, and the pieces that make up the PlayBook would also be beautiful on a 10" device, so why not expand your audience? Surely it can't be hard to expand a 7" design -- I think it would actually be a little easier to do that than to shrink a 10" design.
Consciousness ThoughtsFebruary 6, 2011
EpiphanyLife is a busy endeavour, so perhaps it's not surprising that we don't often stop and take the time to think about our own existence. I have had a few moments in my life, however, when I am struck with an incredible sense of self-awareness. The sensation is unlike anything else I've experienced and usually lasts for a minute or two. It comes on without warning and has sometimes been accompanied by a surge of sensation along the nerves in my body, not unlike a tingling sensation down one's spine. What is most notable about it isn't any physically sensation, though. It is the mental realization, or perhaps comprehension, of my conscious existence. It is like the feeling of epiphany, where suddenly one's mind is able to see some truth that it has been unaware of previously. It is like pulling back a veil or curtain and seeing something surprising, amazing.
Now that I have had this experience several times, I am able to bring myself back to this state of mind to a degree simply by thinking on those feelings. In addition to the feelings of epiphany, some of the other under riding feelings this causes are along the lines of "where am I", "how did I get here", "what am I", "what is going on"? Not in the sense of explicit thoughts, but as vague subconscious feelings. While these feelings are notable, they are not as strong or profound as the root sensation of epiphany. In fact, these feelings are perhaps part of the epiphany, or flow from it.
During my university days, I spent some time thinking on this subject and quickly realized that this feeling of epiphany was simply "seeing" my consciousness, being able to focus on it, without being distracted by other things. To use an analogy, consider what happens when you enter a stinky barn. After 30 minutes, you probably don't notice the smell much at all. Your mind has become so accustom to it being there, that it has tuned it out. Likewise, I think we can go through our days without being awestruck by the sensation of consciousness because it is a constant in our lives. It is always there.
Say What?Something that I have found surprising is that many people have a hard time relating to my experiences with the epiphany of consciousness. Many people simply don't know what I mean by "the experience of consciousness", and trying to explain myself seems to do little to help.
What is ConsciousnessIt fascinating to consider what consciousness is. Sure, we know what it feels like, but what
is it?
PhysicsCan the experience of consciousness be explained by physics or a cousin of physics? The issue here is that consciousness seems distinct from the normal dimensions we think of in our universe: The tree dimensions of space, and the "dimension" of time. Comparing consciousness to these dimensions is like comparing apples and oranges. Consciousness doesn't seem to fit. It is novel. It suggests that there is something far more profound about the universe then we've currently been able to sense using our experimental and theoretical results of physics.
SpritualityHow does consciousness relate to the soul? Our spirituality?
Behavior / Information ProcessingInterestingly there are strong correlations between consciousness and information processing / behavior. Any robot or computer program that is programmed to be intelligent must decide what sensations it will focus on and what information it will choose to ignore. So consciousness has an information processing element, but that information processing element is orthogonal (at a 90 degree angle to) the experiential element.
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