When it comes to buying stuff  I have, in hindsight, made some none mainstream choices, my Psion 5MX was one of my best, alas, now confined to being no more than a curio, mostly down to it not being able to connect with modern computers which lack serial ports. I am still partial to using my Nokia N9, but now mostly as an MP3 / Podcast client and GPS running tracker.

One of my favourites though is something that is used daily, was massivly misunderstood and therefore under valued and which, in the end, died a very quiet and lonely death. The BlackBerry Playbook is a tablet computer running Blackberrys own O/S, with it’s own user interface, it’s own logic and it’s own philosophy. It was excellent. However, the vast bulk of the consumer tech’ press missed the point and spent 80% of their column inches complaining that there was no native email client.

email and keyboard
Email with the excellent virtual keyboard.

The Playbook was never intended to be a standalone device, for email. Email on the Blackberry devices was the most secure email available, and thanks to the corporate implementation of the BES [Blackberry Enterprise Server] is still the most secure. The Playbook was intended to be added to a Blackberry device, using the secure features of the ‘phone to handle the email traffic and, using the Blackberry Bridge, would be a monitor, or large screen for email. Once the Bridge was disconneted, email on the Playbook was gone, once again available on the secure Blackberry device. Inspired, secure and, as it would turn out, ignored. Native email was introduced in version 2.0 of the O/S which, along with some heavy discounting allowed RIM to sell significant volumes. Eventually.

The rest of the device was based around RIM’s own O/S and User Interface, which was, is still, simple, clean, untuitive and works. It has 64 gigs of available memory for user storage, excellent sound quality, in large part becuase of the widely spaced stereo speakers and build quality that, even now, six years after I bought mine, still looks like new. It is used every day, mostly as a portable music player.

Some of the other features that were excellent on the Playbook were the well-designed calendar and Contacts programmes, the ability to create MS Office compatible documents [Word and Excel mainly], HDMI output, the excellent Playbook to Playbook Video feature [a video version of the BBM, BlackBerry Messenger] and the excellent, and in my mind, still probably the best, virtual keyboard.
Blackberry Playbook Tablet
The excellent BlackBerry Playbook

The truth is, the Playbook was behind the technology curve almost as soon as it was launched, with the main processor not being required to handle email. When native email was added, and tablets like the Google Nexus came along, the Playbook was smooth, efficient, intuitive and percieved to be slow. It did not have the instant response that people thought they needed and the device was quickly over taken by cheaper, faster, less well built and more disposable Android offerings. The days of the Playbook were numbered and it was discontinued some time around the end of 2013.

I still use mine, occasionally for writing email, a small amount of web browsing but mostly as an MP3 player. Not for what it was intended but it lives.