You've worked tirelessly to make your professional life a success. Now, you want to enjoy its fruits. Before you blow your fortune on that tropical island, why don't you play?
If you're a crackberry (people such as US President Barack Obama who can't imagine a life without their trusted Black-Berry), relax. The makers of the email device want you to play as well - with their PlayBook. Obviously, Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the device, have finally woken up to the fact that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".
The device feels solid and the form-factor handy. The rubberised outer coating lends it a tough look. The flip side is that it looks heavier than its weight of about 400 gm. Turn it on - those with chubby fingers might not feel very comfortable with the tiny power switch - and a brilliant display greets you. In fact, the brightness of the device possibly goes a long way in contributing to its readability, both indoors and outdoors. And you'll be carrying this device, trust me, because it's easy to slip into the side pocket of a laptop case or into your handbag.
The familiar ribbon at the bottom of the display is carried over from the BlackBerry OS to this QNX-based device. Tap on an app and a window opens up. Those who have used Android tabs earlier will sorely miss the return button, while iPad users will miss the home button. Tinker around a bit and you'll figure out that the bezel is touch-sensitive. You can swipe down and swipe up to close and open apps. Brilliant, but confusing.
You can add apps to home screens while holding them down (they keep throbbing when you do so) or you can send them to the recycle bin. With a dual- core 1GHz processor doing duty along with 1GB of RAM, you won't face any lag while opening multiple tabs. In fact, we sometimes forgot the number of tabs we opened because the device never showed signs of fatigue.
Since you're off work, what do you play? A music player lets you play media on the tab on the onboard speaker or on the bundled headphones. While the interface is plain Jane, audiophiles won't face any problems while using headphones. For the bibliophile, it bundles the Kobo e-book app for buying and reading books. And gamers will be delighted with the bundled Need for Speed: Undercover game. It also bundles a YouTube app, a weather app, a clock, an app for taking voice notes, the Adobe PDF Reader and Tetris. It also has shortcuts to Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter. Full HD videos also play without any glitches and most common formats are supported. And we were blown by how bright and crisp the PDF pages of this newspaper looked.
If you HAVE to work, RIM bundles Word, Excel and PowerPoint viewers. And the QWERTY touch keypad isn't all that bad - even a hardcore QWERTY user like me was tapping away to glory after a couple of days.
Browsing websites via a Wi-fi link to the Internet is a pleasure if you're happy viewing pages on a 7-inch screen. And yes, the browser supports Flash. It would have been nice if the beefy device supported Skype and wasn't dependant entirely on Wi-fi or the BlackBerry phone to communicate. But the IT team in office loved the fact that it was so secure and the device's hard drive could be shared over Wi-fi. We also loved using the F1 app for BlackBerry on this device as well as competing in the NFS game. And the free piano app we downloaded gave us many hours of pleasure - imagining ourselves to be the next A. R. Rahman!
The PlayBook uses BlackBerry Bridge to connect to your Black-Berry phone. After you've set it up, you can view your contacts, check emails and open tasks and notes. The PlayBook sets up icons so that you have access to them at a single click. But there lies a hitch. Bridge apps tend to work much slower than other apps on the PlayBook.
And you WILL need a Black-Berry phone to use the PlayBook. RIM was bundling a Curve 8520 with the device during the festive season and some retailers still have it. Actually, that's not such a bad deal. But you shall have to decide if you want to work or play.
If you're a crackberry (people such as US President Barack Obama who can't imagine a life without their trusted Black-Berry), relax. The makers of the email device want you to play as well - with their PlayBook. Obviously, Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the device, have finally woken up to the fact that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".
The device feels solid and the form-factor handy. The rubberised outer coating lends it a tough look. The flip side is that it looks heavier than its weight of about 400 gm. Turn it on - those with chubby fingers might not feel very comfortable with the tiny power switch - and a brilliant display greets you. In fact, the brightness of the device possibly goes a long way in contributing to its readability, both indoors and outdoors. And you'll be carrying this device, trust me, because it's easy to slip into the side pocket of a laptop case or into your handbag.
The familiar ribbon at the bottom of the display is carried over from the BlackBerry OS to this QNX-based device. Tap on an app and a window opens up. Those who have used Android tabs earlier will sorely miss the return button, while iPad users will miss the home button. Tinker around a bit and you'll figure out that the bezel is touch-sensitive. You can swipe down and swipe up to close and open apps. Brilliant, but confusing.
You can add apps to home screens while holding them down (they keep throbbing when you do so) or you can send them to the recycle bin. With a dual- core 1GHz processor doing duty along with 1GB of RAM, you won't face any lag while opening multiple tabs. In fact, we sometimes forgot the number of tabs we opened because the device never showed signs of fatigue.
Since you're off work, what do you play? A music player lets you play media on the tab on the onboard speaker or on the bundled headphones. While the interface is plain Jane, audiophiles won't face any problems while using headphones. For the bibliophile, it bundles the Kobo e-book app for buying and reading books. And gamers will be delighted with the bundled Need for Speed: Undercover game. It also bundles a YouTube app, a weather app, a clock, an app for taking voice notes, the Adobe PDF Reader and Tetris. It also has shortcuts to Hotmail, Facebook and Twitter. Full HD videos also play without any glitches and most common formats are supported. And we were blown by how bright and crisp the PDF pages of this newspaper looked.
If you HAVE to work, RIM bundles Word, Excel and PowerPoint viewers. And the QWERTY touch keypad isn't all that bad - even a hardcore QWERTY user like me was tapping away to glory after a couple of days.
Browsing websites via a Wi-fi link to the Internet is a pleasure if you're happy viewing pages on a 7-inch screen. And yes, the browser supports Flash. It would have been nice if the beefy device supported Skype and wasn't dependant entirely on Wi-fi or the BlackBerry phone to communicate. But the IT team in office loved the fact that it was so secure and the device's hard drive could be shared over Wi-fi. We also loved using the F1 app for BlackBerry on this device as well as competing in the NFS game. And the free piano app we downloaded gave us many hours of pleasure - imagining ourselves to be the next A. R. Rahman!
The PlayBook uses BlackBerry Bridge to connect to your Black-Berry phone. After you've set it up, you can view your contacts, check emails and open tasks and notes. The PlayBook sets up icons so that you have access to them at a single click. But there lies a hitch. Bridge apps tend to work much slower than other apps on the PlayBook.
And you WILL need a Black-Berry phone to use the PlayBook. RIM was bundling a Curve 8520 with the device during the festive season and some retailers still have it. Actually, that's not such a bad deal. But you shall have to decide if you want to work or play.
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