Archive for May 21st, 2011

RIM responds to alleged bad PlayBook sales

BGR posted the other day that they had heard from one big retailer that the BlackBerry PlayBook sales were not quite as good as we were led to believe. The post even went as far as saying that 90% of PlayBooks were being returned. RIM have responded to this with the below quote:

The source of the reported comment is anonymous and unknown to RIM, but the comment is certainly inconsistent with the positive feedback we have received from our main retail partners. As previously indicated, RIM will provide a business update on BlackBerry PlayBook results on June 16.

For reference, here is a public statement recently offered by Best Buy:

“Best Buy has had great success selling BlackBerry smartphones in North America, so our sales expectations for the BlackBerry PlayBook were very high. To date, we have far exceeded those expectations and we’re finding that customers are even more interested in purchasing once they’ve tested the PlayBook in the store.”

I didn’t believe the original post so as Matt is in the USA i sent him down to BestBuy to investigate. Not only were BestBuy out of stock of the PlayBook due to good sales but a member of staff told Matt that he had had no returns. Good news for RIM.

Posted by: James

Secret Gingerbread hidden under Honeycomb

Here’s a bit of interesting news for you technophiles that like to monkey around with your tablets. Apparently, their is a "hidden feature" within Honeycomb that allows you to "activate" an experimental Gingerbread interface. This is done by simply changing the pixel density settings of your Honeycomb tablet from 160 dpi to 170 dpi, and voila, you can play with a Gingerbread look to your UI. Here’s a quote from Engadget explaining how the tweak works,

According to modder Graffix0214, all you need for making the jump is one simple tweak in a system file: assuming you already have root access, use your preferred method — Pocketables recommends the LCDDensity for Root app — to change the LCD density value to 170 or higher to emulate a smaller, denser display. After a reboot, you should then see some Gingerbread love as demoed by Graffix0214’s video after the break; and likewise, set the value to 160 or lower to roll back. It sure is nice to have an option, eh?

This seems pretty nifty. Be sure to share in the forums what you think of this if you "monkey around" with it. Here’s a video demo after the break:

Protect your bubble teams up with TagBak to return your precious lost gadgets

Protect your bubble, the gadget insurance specialist, today announces a tie-up with TagBak, the confidential reward and return service, to make sure that Protect your bubble go one step further and actually help return your original gadget if it’s lost.

TagBak is a clever reward and return service that easily rewards taxi drivers, nightclub staff and members of the public for doing the right thing and reporting your gadget as lost. Gadget fans just have to stick a tag on the back of their gadget and register it online. If they mislay their gadget a diligent member of the public just rings the number or visits www.tagbak.co.ukto register they have found the item. TagBak will then arrange the return of the gadget back to its rightful owner. The finder is rewarded by the TagBak team for their help.
Sounds pretty good. Read on for the full details.