Anyone playing BBO with netbook computer?

[rgheath]

The new netbook computers with 7 to 10 inch screens and priced from $300 to $450 look very interesting for playing BBO on the road (or in bed). Has anyone tried this and are there any problems in playing BBO on this hardware.?I cannot think of any but thought I would ask the question before laying out the money. Are there any models that menbers can recommend because of any features that support BBO particularly well ?

 

Ron

[Gerardo]

I used an EeePC 1000H (10 inches). Using browser in full screen, web based browser looks OK.

[mrdct]

I use a Dell Mini 9 and it's fine for the windows client but not that great in the flash version.

 

I've also watched vugraph on my iPhone which is great, but again it's only feasible with the windows client and can only be done by VNCing to a windows machine which takes a fair bit of mucking around; but it's great to be able to pull your phone out of your pocket and do some kibitzing wherever you are.

[ochinko]

I have kibitzed on BBO with Asus Eee 1000H, and played against Bridge Baron as well.

 

Afaik, Dell have a 12" netbook. Should be even better.

[mrdct]

I understand that the vast majority (if not all) of BBO's software development effort at the moment is focussed on the Flash version but I think it would be prudent for some attention to be given to the netbook and sub-netbook space as these are rapidly gaining market share and it won't be long before they surpass conventional laptops.

 

With that in mind, it would be very handy in the BBO Flash version to have some more screen layout options to optimise the view on a 9 inch or smaller screen. For example it would be useful to be able to make unseen hands really small but seen hands (mine and dummy's) a bit bigger. It would also be useful if the bidding pop-up size was user-adjustable.

 

Bridge hasn't made it to the iPhone yet (other than back-dooring it via VNC) but poker certainly has and a very user friendly interface has been developed by Live Poker (zynga.com) with 9 players which all fits into the iPhone screen nicely with room for 18 player cards and 5 community cards which isn't too different from the number of cards you would need to display on the screen in bridge.

 

There is talk that iPhones might become Flash enabled at some point in the near future so I guess it's possible that BBO might work out of the box then, but I think it will only be good for watching vugraph in its current form as you really will need a pop-up to bid if you are to avoid a dozen undos per hand.

[fred]

I understand that the vast majority (if not all) of BBO's software development effort at the moment is focussed on the Flash version but I think it would be prudent for some attention to be given to the netbook and sub-netbook space as these are rapidly gaining market share and it won't be long before they surpass conventional laptops.

 

With that in mind, it would be very handy in the BBO Flash version to have some more screen layout options to optimise the view on a 9 inch or smaller screen. For example it would be useful to be able to make unseen hands really small but seen hands (mine and dummy's) a bit bigger. It would also be useful if the bidding pop-up size was user-adjustable.

 

Bridge hasn't made it to the iPhone yet (other than back-dooring it via VNC) but poker certainly has and a very user friendly interface has been developed by Live Poker (zynga.com) with 9 players which all fits into the iPhone screen nicely with room for 18 player cards and 5 community cards which isn't too different from the number of cards you would need to display on the screen in bridge.

 

There is talk that iPhones might become Flash enabled at some point in the near future so I guess it's possible that BBO might work out of the box then, but I think it will only be good for watching vugraph in its current form as you really will need a pop-up to bid if you are to avoid a dozen undos per hand.

We are already working on software that can be used to present bridge on an iPhone (or any other mobile device that can run a web browser). You can see an early version of it here:

 

Link

 

A more sophisticated version now exists and it is reasonably likely that you will be able to see it soon.

 

We haven't done much thinking about sub-notebooks yet, but assuming that these devices continue to grow in popularity (which I suspect i likely) then it is probably only a matter of time before we create a version of BBO that is more comfortable to use on sub-notebooks.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[TylerE]

That's pretty neat. Only suggestion I would make is to use 'X' instead of 'D' for doubles, both because X is of course standard, and D looks too close to P.