PlayBook and Meetup Search so far

I have 1 review from my Meetup Search application for the PlayBook and it points out that Canadian zip codes don’t work 🙁 , so I need to get the search features updated.  I have made some updates, but haven’t uploaded the changes yet, since I wanted to test the changes directly on the PlayBook, which I received last Thursday.  Hopefully I’ll get the search updates soon and improve my ratings on the App World.

I spent the weekend traveling and the PlayBook came in handy while waiting in airports and flying in the plane.  I was able to connect to wi-fi locations at Raleigh-Durham (RDU) and Atlanta without any issues.  At RDU, I used my AT&T DSL wireless account to connect for free, which was very nice.  Most of the time I had an available power outlet, so I didn’t see how far the battery lasted. I tried BlackBerry Bridge using my sister’s BlackBerry Flip to connect to.  Connection was simple, but due to cell coverage, using the browser was not very good.  I tried using Bridge on my wife’s BlackBerry when I got home and the browsing experience was much better, which leaves me to believe it was the network out in Kansas.  Also, I didn’t realize that Bridge does not connect the internet for the applications ; something that should be done using tethering.  However, according to the article, that might change in the future.

I discovered that GMail voice mail will just download the recording to my music list instead of playing the message from the inbox.  I guess that’s helpful if I wanted to store the message and play it back.

After loading music on the PlayBook, I tried to find radio apps, but didn’t find anything that I wanted to use.  I tried the Slacker Radio application, but apparently there is still something wrong with the app or my setup ( cause it costs $3/month ).  I found a couple of streaming servers that I might try to create a PlayBook app for, they are Audio Galaxy and Subsonic. Both take your music files and stream them on the internet, but one does it via a system service and the other as an application.  The APIs for both look fairly straight forward, so if I come up with a good interface, then it might be possible to use it for both options.  So many ideas, so little time to do stuff.

I tried some podcast downloads on the PlayBook to see what that is all about.  I guess it would be good if you don’t have wi-fi and wanted to listen to something besides the music playlist.   I added BlackBerry Today and downloaded their latest episode.  Heard on BlackBerry Today podcast :   There were 3,000 PlayBooks applications available and 40 – 50,000 PlayBooks (corrected on 5/18 podcast) sold on launch day, which was the most for any tablet launch.   The 6,000 participants at BlackBerry World conference all got a free PlayBook.

Here is the download chart for the month of April for Meetup Search.   Not tremendous, but not too bad.  I think improving the UI and adding search options will help with the downloads.  Also, I need to make the description a little prettier.  I think the form allows for HTML, since I’ve seen others use bullet lists.

About DeanLogic
Dean has been playing around with programming ever since his family got an IBM PC back in the early 80's. Things have changed since BASICA and Dean has dabbled in HTML, JavaScript, Action Script, Flex, Flash, PHP, C#, C++, J2ME and SQL. On this site Dean likes to share his adventures in coding. And since programming isn't enough of a time killer, Dean has also picked up the hobby of short film creation.

About DeanLogic

Dean has been playing around with programming ever since his family got an IBM PC back in the early 80's. Things have changed since BASICA and Dean has dabbled in HTML, JavaScript, Action Script, Flex, Flash, PHP, C#, C++, J2ME and SQL. On this site Dean likes to share his adventures in coding. And since programming isn't enough of a time killer, Dean has also picked up the hobby of short film creation.

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