Blackberry Playbook – first impressions 03 - More missing pieces
First of all, we're not normal users. At least not during the working day. We use computers to create and manage rather than simply consume content.
We also provide general and specific consulting services to corporate clients who count on us to try to figure out the safest way through the consumer electronics minefield where misinformation tends to outweigh accurate, reliable intel.
We use a mixture of software that ranges from open source to very expensive. We use a mixture of online services that range from free to very expensive. Think of it as a hybrid of home made and world class. Yet they all have one common element: we believe they are the very best software and services we can find and afford for the task(s) they perform.
In simple terms, it's what I call the Swiss Army knife approach: Want to whittle a point? Knife. Take something apart? Screwdriver. Opening a bottle of wine? Corkscrew.
In other words, pick the right tool for the job. Yes, you can open the wine with a screwdriver. Spit. Gag. Don't you love Chardonay with squishy bits of floating cork?
So what are these missing applications that would be difficult to live without?
VNC - Remote control software that lets us take control of a remote computer. We use this for technical support, both inhouse and for clients. VLC - A great cross-platform media player. There are so many a/v codecs and file formats floating around that stump common media players. If anything can play an audio or video file, it's likely going to be VLC. RDP - Remote Desktop is one of those applications that we use nearly every day to log into our desktops remotely, whether that's from a laptop or a mobile phone.
We haven't tried all of the Playbook apps that are out there, but we're grinding our way through them one by one. What we have noticed is the lack of some very basic functionality in many of them, and the surprisingly common spelling and grammatical errors that accompany many of them in the Blackberry app store.
For instance, there's a potentially useful app called 'Teleprompter': the idea is that you can use your Playbook to scroll through text, just like a TV studio teleprompter that costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars. But it doesn't have the ability to paste text into the application or to import a file. Huh?
And the time tracking applications are few and far between, rudimentary at best and completely lacking in the ability to export the data short of retyping it. Might as well just use a little notebook and a pen from the start. It's about $450 cheaper.
-g
PS - Managed to completely drain the battery. On purpose. Now seeing how long it takes to full recharge using AC. We'll do another test plugged in via USB to see how the two methods compare.
