https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/210018-upcoming-efb

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Hey Everybody-

I think we will begin showing you our universal flight tablet about mid-september-ish. It will have many of the features we use in real life, adapted, of course, to simming in the forum of SimBrief and Navigraph. We are in the process of working through the Operational Performance Tool, being very careful to avoid infringing on the intellectual property of the many real-world vendors providing such capabilities- as this would be easy to do given our familiarity with them from actual operations.

None of what will be provided is "new" to PMDG products per-se, as our P3D product line has implementations of the Class I and Clas III EFBs provided in the 737, 747 and 777 aircraft- so to those who might be thinking "oh this is new territory for PMDG" it really isn't. We have simply decided to move a bunch of our Options and Setup capabilities from the FMS menus to the tablet, and this meant departing from the classic (and very tired) Boeing EFB design that was originally included.

I am just guessing at this point, but I think the tablet will be made operational for you in October or so... Possibly sooner, possibly later... It just depends upon how long it takes to amalgamate all of the performance data once we have the operational flight planning tool implemented in this new format.

I'm really disappointed about the EFB taking so long. On release of the 700 it sounded to me like the EFB was quite ahead in development, now it will be almost half a year after release - even after the last 737 variant (-900) will be released. I really need to stop to believe in that marketing blabla of RSR.
I can't express how much I despise opening my freaking browser to get a metar while flying the 737. That feels like 1999 all over again. Can't wait for that to end.

A lot to unpack with comments there.  While it's been a little bit tough to wait so long for the EFB, it appears he is setting expectations low.  By saying "non of what will be provided is "new" to PMDG

I remember when FSLabs and Maddog came out with their EFB in p3d.  The bar was raised.  They were far superior to the PMDG efb.  Then Fenix in MSFS set the new mark of excellence for EFB.  I'm hoping the PMDG efb will be atleast as good as these others.  

Do the real 737's have EFB's or are PMDG just doing it because everyone now expects an EFB ?

1 minute ago, flyhalf said:

Do the real 737's have EFB's or are PMDG just doing it because everyone now expects an EFB ?

think it varies by operator

There will be flying EFBs by the time they bring their one out.
 

But to be honest I’m just waiting on the 800 and of course the one and only queen of the skies. 

1 hour ago, flyhalf said:

Do the real 737's have EFB's or are PMDG just doing it because everyone now expects an EFB ?

By now I'd say all real 737s have EFBs / tablets.

Frankly it needs to be at a level that matches the Fenix EFB.

That is what is expected by simmers.

Lucky I didn't hold my breath...

1 hour ago, Ridvan Celik said:

There will be flying EFBs by the time they bring their one out.
 

But to be honest I’m just waiting on the 800 and of course the one and only queen of the skies. 

Not to derail the topic but the queen may have a run for her money with the FBW A380. Their just released preview video on their Discord is really looking good. Going to be a ton of Emirates flights with this one.

Edited August 14, 20223 yr by B777ER

3 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Not to derail the topic but the queen may have a run for her money with the FBW A380. Their just released preview video on their Discord is really looking good. Going to be a ton of Emirates flights with this one.

Emirates is the only one flying the A 380 I believe. 

3 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Emirates is the only one flying the A 380 I believe. 

yeah but a lot of people are more than willing to fly either airplane/livery combo's that are now retired or even fictional all together.  Don't assume everybody only flies active planes.  I think since there has never been a quality a380 in any sim, there is pent up demand to fly the plane.  

2 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Emirates is the only one flying the A 380 I believe. 

No lah ! Still quite a few I believe.

Singapore Airlines, Qantas, British Airways, China Southern, Qatar, and maybe Korean Air (or is it Asiana? Both?) 

Cheers,

2Low2Slow

Just now, micstatic said:

yeah but a lot of people are more than willing to fly either airplane/livery combo's that are now retired or even fictional all together.  Don't assume everybody only flies active planes.  I think since there has never been a quality a380 in any sim, there is pent up demand to fly the plane.  

A 380 , airports, really limited by the airports that can handle that aircraft. The 747, on the other hand, is much more versatile.  I remember back in the 80s, when Pan Am flew a 747 into KFLL, landing on 9L ( Now 10L) to see if it was feasible to pick up some passengers, fly to KMIA, fuel and load up, and then to destination. I actually was invited onboard the empty 747, prior to it's departure from KFLL. I went to the flight deck and was amazed to see, looking straight  out the windscreen at the top of the Terminal building at KFLL. That was one huge aircraft. 

Didn't RSR state that the EFB would have features not seen in any other PMDG product?  I thought I read that in one of the last couple of dev updates.  From the sound of this it will be primarily a port...I love the 737 and all but this seems like another instance of hype before sale, reality after.

Now, to be fair Fenix also has yet to release a patch beyond the first one after release but still....MSFS developers all around seem to be trying to outdo each other with hype and have about the same follow through, especially <insert developer name here>...

1 minute ago, badgenes said:

Didn't RSR state that the EFB would have features not seen in any other PMDG product?  I thought I read that in one of the last couple of dev updates.  From the sound of this it will be primarily a port...I love the 737 and all but this seems like another instance of hype before sale, reality after.

Now, to be fair Fenix also has yet to release a patch beyond the first one after release but still....MSFS developers all around seem to be trying to outdo each other with hype and have about the same follow through, especially <insert developer name here>...

Fenix is working on many fixes, and carefully testing them all before releasing a patch. The last thing they want is to release a patch with bugs in it, because some are impatient.