a journal of a researcher

Friday, June 24, 2011

RIM and Playbook

We received two more Blackberry Torch and six more Playbook from RIM this week. Our NSERC Engage project goes well. I consider the extra hardware is a support from RIM.

iPhone changed the smartphone market. RIM still did OK, if compared to companies like Motorola. Its Blackberry Torch is compared with iPhone 4. And its OS is considered less error compared to Android. However, Blackberry is not on the top fashion anymore. The carries do not recommend it to the end users as before. The competition is so hard that even iPhone 4 is not the top recommended phone. I got my Nexus S which seems on the top of the list.

The Playbook seems not so welcome in the market. But maybe RIM should check its marketing strategy. For the tablet, I like its size that you can carry it anywhere. I like to check weather before I get up and read a little bit before I sleep. My smartphone is too small and my laptop is too big to bring to my bed. I would like to play with a playbook for these purposes. In addition, playbook can be a professional hand held tool. Then, RIM should focus on applications, more cool applications, for playing and for work.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Playbook, iphone, and google android phone

I am busy in the summer to work for the nserc engage project. We are using RIM’s playbook for a hospital application. At the same time, I am a three years user of iPhone 3 and a new user to Google’s Nexus S.

Playbook: the Hospital has an iphone solution already. But for some reasons, they want the playbook solution. Why? Do not think that once you use iPhone, you cannot live without it. Playbook has its advantage, maybe simply because it is not an iPhone. Many reasons. One of them is that iPhone is too much a consumer device and we need a more serious and professional hand held device in the Hospital. Long live the Playbook. I hope.

iPhone: I agree iPhone is so far the best phone in its usability. All the details are considered for the user to use it without any efforts. The user experience is wonderful. And you can show off among your friends. But if you are software engineer, you know the software design can still be improved.

Nexus S: I took 10 minutes and many tries to open its rear lid to put its battery in! I did not hear the clicks when I type on the soft keyboard. The default setting is vibrating. And the automatic time adjust did not give me the right time (thinking it gets my location correct). Heee, I want my iPhone back. My iPhone was an easy pick-up and use. Why should I go through all the hassles before I can play with it? Cannot you just copy these details from iPhone? But Nexus has a lot of cool apps from google. Even so, I do not see what I want most: I want a piece of software to read the ebooks to me. I also want apps to listen to radios and TV.
And I am building a cool app for the mobile device too with my students. The playbook one is cool. I still have another one.