BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[fvannie]

The issue for me is that I cannot sync my playbook calendar and contacts with my outlook calendar and contacts like I can with my blackberry smartphone. Would be nice to even be able to do that, even if it means syncing to two different devices.

[ceflooring]

I am also blown away by this move. I don't know very many "small" businesses who are in the positio0n to be running MS Exchange server, either and it was pretty presumptuous of RIM to assume that we all had it. I will never have MS Exchange and am really disappointed with their decision. I hope there is a fix coming down the pipe.

[chipstr1]

I think that RIM makes very few decisions without thinking them through, including this one.  In the end, it's apparnet to me that RIM decided that making a decision not to support the ability to converge contacts and calenders for individuals and small businesses would not cost them more than token responses.  They're spending their resources where it matters most to them and this isn;t where it matters.  (Obviously).  RIM knows that most of us will write these postings and seek support amongst ourselves.  Then, we'll figure out a work around on our own and move on.  I for one will just start to load my contacts manually.  What else is there to do.  But...the next time RIM announces the next new thing, I will think twice, maybe even thrice, before I buy another RIM product.

[sohrabza]

You'll get that feature when BB 10 comes out end of this year and Service providers decide to support it...that's my guess...but for now we are all left in the cold....I am not using any of the new features...email/contact are useless to me as well....i just use the calendar to sync my hotmail calnedar to my tablet...

[JSanders Resident Expert]

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chipstr1 wrote:

 Then, we'll figure out a work around on our own and move on.

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Well, there was a work around, from Day One, and many are using a hotmail or gmail account to sync their contacts. But it's just not a great workaround, and it too has its flaws, while the Desktop Software <> Outlook sync for my handheld has worked seamlessly for me for years.

I think there's something larger here, than RIM forgetting or refusing, perhaps some problem in the software -- I just don't know.

But i do know users such as ourselves need some attention paid this issue, quickly.

[scottpm]

Chip >>I think that RIM makes very few decisions without thinking them through, including this one

How thoroughly they thought this through is anyone's guess. If they did think it through thoroughly and hit the point in the chain of events that had them seeing the consumer saying, as you said, "...the next time RIM announces the next new thing, I will think twice, maybe even thrice, before I buy another RIM product" and they thought that was a desirable result, they deserve to go down in flames.

[FunnyGrl]

Good question.  I'm really frustrated.  Seems that the business user has been left behind in favour of the social networker.  My business and personal calendar and contacts are on my desktop Outlook and my bb bold 9900 and i use blackberry exchange server - I was really excited to hear that the pb os2 calendar would streamline all of the various contact and calendar information - imagine my surprise and dismay to find myself out of the loop on that one.  If they don't fix this really soon - and by fix i don't mean that i have to go out and buy more software - i'm abandoning the playbook - as as a business person - it does not add any value.

[jforce]

The lack of integration and synchronization is quite a disappointment. I was really looking forward to full integration with messages, contacts and calendar syncing to my BB and email accounts but sadly, this hasn't happened yet.

My wife decided to bypass the new messages app on her playbook and just use bridge. Sad because there are lots of cool features to the new messages app like social media integration and being able to have multiple composed messages open at once. She simply turned off new message indicators and notifications for the messages app. It works for her needs but I want to be able to use ALL the features available and not have to keep marking messages as read that I've read already on another platform. 

Help us!

[knottyrope]

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FunnyGrl wrote:

Good question.  I'm really frustrated.  Seems that the business user has been left behind in favour of the social networker.  My business and personal calendar and contacts are on my desktop Outlook and my bb bold 9900 and i use blackberry exchange server - I was really excited to hear that the pb os2 calendar would streamline all of the various contact and calendar information - imagine my surprise and dismay to find myself out of the loop on that one.  If they don't fix this really soon - and by fix i don't mean that i have to go out and buy more software - i'm abandoning the playbook - as as a business person - it does not add any value.

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Why can you not connect the playbook to Exchange via Exchange Active Sync? works like a windows mobile phone would

[scottpm]

knottyrope wrote:

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Why can you not connect the playbook to Exchange via Exchange Active Sync? works like a windows mobile phone would

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The sad fact is that If you are an individual or a small business owner you do not have the budget for Exchange.  It blows me away all the people who say... "why not just use exchange", as though it were just some freebie hanging out there. You sort of can tell who pays the bills and who spends the cash...