App Review: Keyboard and Spell Check in BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0

Review: Keyboard and Spell Check in BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 One of the original (yet misleading) complaints with the BlackBerry PlayBook was the lack of spell check, auto-correct, or word substitution. Spell check and some form of auto-correct were actually in the Bridged BBM app. Word substitution, auto-correct, and spellcheck were sort of in the Word to Go app. The browser did support some spell checking as well. But the actual problem was that it wasn’t good enough. The implementation also wasn’t universal. With the OS 2.0 release, the PlayBook now has a new, universal smart keyboard.

The keyboard has really stepped up its game. Your fat fingers can once again always count on having software to bail them out. It’s not the same engine that was used in BlackBerry smartphones– its way better. Suggested words can be selected at the top of the keyboard while typing if you’re feeling too lazy to bother finishing your words. And it’s smart enough to get it almost all the time. If you can’t spell, it’ll most likely know what you’re trying to type and fix it for you. When a predicated word glows blue, the keyboard really thinks it has figured out what you’re trying to type already. It even knows Twitter handles and e-mail addresses that you’ve used before.

In addition, before you even start typing the next word, it tries to predict what you’re going to type. So how does it turn out? Well, I’ve narrowed it down to two possibilities: either I’m very predictable, or this keyboard is damn smart. I’m guessing it’s both.

You can also add words to the PB dictionary. By selecting a word underlined in red in the Messages App, you’ll see a small “+” sign beside the predicted word just above the keyboard. By holding this down, you can add this word to your dictionary. This is great for educating your PlayBook on slang, L33T speak and other languages you may be fluent in.

So where does this keyboard comes from? Well, if you type “Ben” on the keyboard, the first suggestion turns out to be “Medlock”, an easter egg related to the company “Swiftkey”. As one of the popular third-party keyboard developers for Android, Swiftkey is likely to be behind the keyboard wizardry of the PlayBook.

It’s worthwhile to mention that the number keys now pop up when you’re typing out your password (which in many cases contains numbers). This isn’t the flashiest update, but it’s a subtle and welcome. I’ve had to get out of the habit of switching to the symbols keyboard just to type in numbers, but once I got used to having the numbers appear automatically, I felt so productive and it’s something you can really appreciate.

App Use BBM for Customer Service on Your Website with AvailableCSR

Use BBM for Customer Service on Your Website with AvailableCSR BlackBerry Messenger is a very versatile tool for all kinds of messaging. 312 Holdings let us know about their latest app that allows companies to utilize BBM as a means of customer support. With AvailableCSR you can let your website visitors know that you’re available via BBM to take their support questions.

It is pretty easy to setup AvailableCSR:

Install the app and run setup Upload the configuration files to your website Add the code snipet to your web page(s) Set your BBM Status to Available or Busy Your website shows your custom message, using BBM

AvailableCSR can be purchased for $4.99 in BlackBerry App World here.

App BlackBerry PlayBook 3G+ Now in Production; Set to Release in April

BlackBerry PlayBook 3G+ Now in Production; Set to Release in April A ways back we exclusively told you that RIM was working to release a BlackBerry PlayBook 3G+ (not LTE) by April. We later saw some leaked specs on the model to further confirm it was 3G+. Now,  we’ve gotten wind from our source that the PlayBook 3G+ has finally gone to production.

We’re not sure if Quanta Computer company is still the one manufacturing the PlayBook models. What we do know is April definitely sounds like it could be a solid release time-frame. A recap of the specs on the BlackBerry PlayBook 3G+:

1.5GHz dual-core processor 43Mbps HSPA+ Connectivity NFC ready 1GB RAM 32GB Flash Memory

App DJPad MP3 DJ App Released for BlackBerry PlayBook

DJPad MP3 DJ App Released for BlackBerry PlayBook Burns Modular recently released their DJPas MP3 DJ app for the BlackBerry PlayBook, which looks as though it was a WebOS or Android ported app. You can mix and scratch 2 MP3 files at the same time. Features a 3-band EQ, multitouch mixer and crossfader, split output for headphone cueing, waveform view and multi-directory library.

The developer says the app is still under development, but that they will continue to work hard to push out updates. DJPad MP3 DJ app is available for $2.99 in BlackBerry App World here. Check out the demo video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6p1emSaRV4

On a BlackBerry? Click here for mobile YouTube video

via BR

App Sccope App for BlackBerry Adds Wish Lists

Sccope App for BlackBerry Adds Wish Lists Having looked into its users’ browsing habits and their behaviour using the ‘Sccope’ app, Cogenta â€" the business behind ‘Sccope’, has announced the latest release to its application for BlackBerry platform. The free to download Sccope for BlackBerry app now supports multiple wish lists via a pre-populated catalogue. Users also have the option to create their own personalised lists.

Updated version of the app includes a pre-populated version of a suggested selection of lists:

    Starred     My wish list     Christmas     Birthday     Baby     Holiday     House

The option to organise items into lists is easy and intuitive. Items can be distributed into lists by tapping the ‘heart’ item from the actions menu and added to a list or multiple lists, chosen from an existing menu or newly created lists. The app allows indefinite listing and personalisation. New app functionality allows the user to utilise the names from their contact book and personalise the list in such manner.

Sccope BlackBerry app now has improved design, replacing the text call to action buttons with quick navigation icons:

    ‘heart’ â€" for adding items to the list     ‘star’ – for creating price reduction and back in stock alerts     ‘share’ â€" for sharing the product details via social media and email

Once the item is marked with a star, the app automatically adds the item to the ‘Starred’ list for quick and easy reference.

USA users can download the new Sccope app here. UK users can get the app here.

App Review: BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Web Browser

Review: BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 Web Browser Browsing on the BlackBerry PlayBook was already top-notch since launch day way back in April 2011. With 2.0, you’re getting the best tablet browser hands-down. Here are a few reasons why. It supports a very new version of Flash, running version 11.1.121.21. Because of this, Flash animations are generally rendered better on the PlayBook when compared to any Android tablet, and of course, any iPad.

The PlayBook shatters the previous record on HTML5test.com score on a tablet OS with an impressive 354 and 9 bonus points. This shows that the PlayBook’s browser supports more HTML5 features than any other tablet browser (and most desktop browsers too). Even from Day 1, the PlayBook has scored a perfect 100/100 in the Acid3 test, which of course, many other tablets have done as well.

Taking a look the browser with Modernizr, a tool which tells you which aspects of HTML5 are supported. We can see that the PlayBook supports the most HTML5 features when compared to any other native tablet browser. With OS 1.0, one of these missing features was WebGL. I am proud to say that support for WebGL is here with OS 2.0! Just check out Zygotebody.com to see yourself inside out. It isn’t perfect, but for a tablet I’ll let it slide for now.

There aren’t any new settings or options in the new browser, mostly because you had all the necessities to work with already. The browser is also very fluid, much like the browser in iOS, and destroys the native browser in most Honeycomb tablets when it comes to smoothness. Scrolling through web pages is very smooth once the page is loaded. One slight issue would be that the browser occaisionally doesn’t recognize your scrolling input with heavier webpages.

Let’s move over to javascript performance. Running the Sunspider 0.91 benchmark, I get a completion score at a respectable 2244.5 ms which is behind iOS 5 and high-end android tablets. This is a decent showing when compared to the competition, but this is also where the PlayBook could use a little work. With the great hardware on the PlayBook, there should be room for improvement in the JavaScript engine.

Other than that, I’ve noticed that there have been some minor tweaks and improvements to speed things up. This keeps the PlayBook in the running with some of the other faster tablet browsers out there. I still see some checkerboarding with larger websites, and occasionally having to click links twice but it doesn’t happen often enough to really detract from the experience.

One of the less-nerdy improvements is the addition of a “Reader mode”. The goal here is to cut the useless ads on the side of the page so you can focus on the actual written content of an article. For the articles at N4BB.com, it worked beautifully and scrolling was slicker than a used car salesman.

However, if you’re using it to check out longer review articles, you probably won’t see the entire article. It cuts the content short for some reason. You’ll also have to wait for the page to load completely before turning reader mode on. Oh, and it does take a couple seconds to switch the viewing mode…and the “Reader mode” button is a little small. But I’m getting really nitpicky. In any case, it’s a welcome feature that works well for shorter articles, even though it still needs a little more work to make it something that you’ll actually use all the time. It would be nice to be able to use it before the webpage has loaded so you can shorten the load time of the content. And if there was support for multi-page articles, it would be a real win in my books.

Overall, the browser in PlayBook 2.0 is very solid. It is simply a pleasure to use. Some tweaks and bug fixed have improved the responsiveness of the browser as well the rendering speed. HTML5, in general, renders better on the PlayBook than any other tablet. The browser isn’t the fastest one out there, but it’s definitely competitive. If we’re talking Flash, the PlayBook does that as well as (or better) than any other tablet out there. The reader mode is also a welcome addition. Together with all these improvements, the browser is one of the PlayBook’s greatest strengths.