Playbook Question

[RichardG]

BIS is not slower unless the network of BIS in South Africa is congested and many factos have to be taken into consideration. What is the load in your area user wises let's say over 100 people connecting to 1 tower to use internet will make things laggy for sure..... Time of day, user load plays an important role.......

 

[Dolby]

We established its latency/lag - which is slower

 

[chris2.0]

Don't you have an option of not using BIS for internet? Then you use the Voda or VLife APN? Could be faster? But of course that's not included in your BIS R60 a month costs! Per MB charge would then apply...

So dunno if bypassing BIS is worth it to get higher speeds if your BB supports it?

BTW - had a BB Playbook in my hands the other day... Compared to an iPad I would still get a Android tab... Or HP Touchpad - just too small! And I always though a Xoom was WAY bigger than an iPad - only the width is diffs? THe iPad is wider, as it is a 4:3 screen...

 

[CranialBlaze]

Don't you have an option of not using BIS for internet? Then you use the Voda or VLife APN? Could be faster? But of course that's not included in your BIS R60 a month costs! Per MB charge would then apply...

So dunno if bypassing BIS is worth it to get higher speeds if your BB supports it?

BTW - had a BB Playbook in my hands the other day... Compared to an iPad I would still get a Android tab... Or HP Touchpad - just too small! And I always though a Xoom was WAY bigger than an iPad - only the width is diffs? THe iPad is wider, as it is a 4:3 screen...

Its only the ping time that's slower and in most cases that's barely a second, the speed difference in not using BIS, its literally the few hundred milliseconds as it goes up to EU for the BIS server instead of your providers own data center. The loading speed of the pages is actually faster as the RIM server uses data compression, its just that latency that slows it down as there is no BIS server in SA.

 

[xcpointx]

If those that have it - if you tether your BB to the Playbook and get the phone functionality (ie emails) on it - do the emails stay on when you're not tethered?

So it simply syncs BB > Playbook?

Your email is only visible when your devices are bridged. When they are disconnected your emails and bbm disappear. So you can also use your PB with any BB securely.

Also, just to clarify terminolgy:

With the Playbook there are 2 different options in the menu:
TETHER
and
BRIDGE

Bridging is when you pair your BB phone with the Playbook. This gives you email,BBM (and your contacts,calendar,tasks) on your PB. This is free and uses BIS, same as your phone does.

Tethering is similar in that it uses your BB phone's 3G connection to access the internet.. BUT at your cellular data providers rates (it uses your chosen carriers APN). You would probably use this for browsing.

The obvious difference between the PB and the BB phone is that you cant browse on the PB using BIS (a bridged connection) - well actually you can but its slow.
Im hoping that bridged browsing will speed up (perhaps its throttled by the service provider?) in time. Remember there IS indeed an app called 'bridge browser' so it is meant to happen.. just right now it's slow.