Dixons stores knock £150 off RIM PlayBook PC World and Currys have knocked 150 quid off the price of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook in a bid to encourage sales of the 7in tablet. Previously priced at £399, the 16GB PlayBook can now be had for £249. Likewise, the once £479 32GB model is now just £329. RIM BlackBerry PlayBook The cuts come just a few weeks after RIM …
Played with one for a week shortly after launch. Hated the interface and the enormous bezel around the edge. Just couldn't learn to love it. Went straight back to my Xoom as my work machine and the ipad for the house. Gave the playbook to some work mates to see if it was just me but they all returned it within an hour citing terms like 'hateful' and 'useless'. Any blackberry owners or people who bought one blind must have returned it to the shop as I can't find anyone who thinks this is a good device. Its true, people just want an ipad without knowing why but anything that requires you to rtfm upon opening is simply going to fail. Genuinely interested in the qnx v2.0 OS and android compatibility to see if that improves the experience.
Hold out and they will be giving them away soon.
I'd pay the extra for the iPad, maybe consider the Amazon tablet or if the rumours are true we may see a smaller / cheaper iPad in the coming months (and RIM / others probably know / expect it as well so are trying to sell these turkey tablets before they won't be able to get even £99 for them).
"Get a Xoom - Best value 32Gb tablet at the moment."
No thanks - get an iPad = best tablet. I would rather buy an iPad that I expect will still be a great tablet in 2-3-4 years rather than an Android based 'copy' that ages so much quicker.
Android phones often cannot be upgraded - I have one sitting on my desk that is junk now as the operator will not update it as it's now end of life. At least my any year old iPhone 3GS has life left in it - runs iOS 5 just fine.
It was me who posted the Xoom comment, I actually own an ipad2 and fortunately I didn't have to pay for it. I currently have it up for sale (32gb, wifi only, black, offers from idiots ?) so I can buy a Xoom which is a far more capable tablet and lets you use what ever media you want.
The ipad2 proves a fool and his money are easily parted.
Oh and supports for life ? Ask power PC mac owners if that is true.
iPad price tag...
Proprietary OS tied to RIM.
Requires a blackberry phone for some functions to work.
Hardly any apps.
Only 7"
Honestly, how did they ever expect this to fly? If you want to sell tablets, you have to offer comparable specs to Apple while undercutting them on price because Apple is seen as a premium brand...
People won't pay Rolex prices for a Casio, but they're quite happy to buy a Casio at sensible prices.
>I'd rather not have to bother - at least an ageing 3GS can run iOS 5 now with no hassle.
And of course thats all it can run (barely) because thats all Apple will allow. Running alternate ROM's is not something you are allowed to do (or alternate GUI's etc.). Still if you are happy in your pen then nothing I say will make any difference.
Feeling crazy I went and bought one.
It's very good if you've already got a Blackberry. And quite a lot of people have got Blackberries.
The way messaging works if you bridge it to your Blackberry over bluetooth is quite impressive. Whatever you do on one is automatically mirrored on the other. All your contacts, email, blackberry messaging, wifi network details are magically shared. To achieve the same thing with iSomethings or Android involves a bandwidth hogging trip to a cloud. You can even see you phone's photographs on your playbook. There is the usual array of twitter and facebook clients too.
The browser is fab. Proper flash built in to so you get to see web pages as their designers intended. That goes a very long way to making up for the smallish app store. The OS does proper multitasking like it is a full desktop operating system. Impressive, and I'm sure I will find a use for that soon.
There are reports of people successfully putting the beta of the next OS on to playbooks. Amongst other things that gives you Android app compatibility, and hence *all* Android apps. Pay attention, that is going to make a playbook a very serious contender, especially for those who don't need built in 3g.
I've not found much evidence yet of things like magnetic compasses or full 6 axis accelerometers so sky viewing apps look to be off the cards for the moment.
"It's very good if you've already got a Blackberry. And quite a lot of people have got Blackberries."
As long as you keep your Blackberry - can you imagine the toasting people on here would give Apple if you HAD to have an iPhone to use an iPad.
"And of course thats all it can run (barely) because thats all Apple will allow. Running alternate ROM's is not something you are allowed to do (or alternate GUI's etc.). Still if you are happy in your pen then nothing I say will make any difference."
You forget that 99% of people do not want to run an alternate ROM or reprogram their dishwasher or toaster - most people just want something that works well = iPad. If you want to tinker - buy your Playbook or HP tablet - go sit in your shed and have a good tink.
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