Eventually I ended up in a place with a fully open wireless network and managed to connect (the PlayBook does not offer a 3G or 4G radio, though it can get access at least to email through a Bluetooth connection to a standard BlackBerry). It was time to check email.

I searched for “gmail” in AppWorld, hoping to find a dedicated client program. Instead, the AppWorld search engine returned a blank screen with no indication that no matching apps were found or that the search was complete.

I tried reading Gmail from the Web browser on the PlayBook. The page is rendered in a layout that I’ve never seen before, either on a mobile phone or a desktop computer browser. I was unable either to delete or reply to messages. Buttons that said “delete” or “send” were presented, but then pressing those buttons did not result in any action or change in the screen content.

Ouch!