Consumer Electronics and Other Technology

By Rachel Stine…

A huge rug, with a couple of deliberately-sewn imperfections, hangs on the wall of the UN lobby “to remind us that nothing is perfect.”

The sleek Playbook by Blackberry might be hung next to that rug.

It is a beautiful machine, weighing in at a comfortable .9 lbs (425g) with the clearest display I have ever seen.

In short, it is so perfect that I have to wonder about a couple of imperfections: deliberately built in?

Admittedly, I am a luddite, and a tech device can’t be too intuitive for me. The Playbook is almost perfectly intuitive, and getting it online, which is the one thing I dreaded, took me all of fifteen seconds after I remembered where to find my WEP number. Playbook’s intuitiveness slips up only when I am trying to upload a new book to its reader, known as KOBO, which is a cute enough play on letters: KOBO rearranged spells BOOK. I bought a couple of books using my PC rather than the Playbook itself and tried repeatedly to upload the book to KOBO. I finally figured it out, but being the luddite I am, I know that I will have to repeat the trial and error process next time. I will not remember the steps. This downloading trick may be one of Playbook’s built-in imperfections.

The only other imperfection is the rapid exhaustion of the battery.

All in all, the Playbook is beautiful, fun and I am very proud to have in my house and show off to my friends.