The Gadget Lowdown: Blackberry and the rule of thumb

Hate to return to dozens of unread email? Want to be reached on the move? Can't give up the Qwerty keyboard? Then the Blackberry may well be for you, as Aled Herbert explains...

When humanity developed opposable thumbs it found all sorts of useful things to do with them: wield stone axes to wallop sabre-tooth tigers, create staggering, breath-taking works of art, build empires and play tennis.

But perhaps now it's up to PDA and mobile developers to find a more compelling use for those 'fifth digits'. With the creation of the Blackberry they may have taken an important step down the evolutionary road.

For the uninitiated, the Blackberry in the UK is a GPRS-enabled device offering an 'always-on' email connection. It's similar in size to a Palm or Handspring (11.7 x 7.8 x 1.8cm) and weighs 139g. It has a large monochrome LCD screen, which dominates the device, and a 33-key Qwerty keyboard.

Unlike most PDA devices, the Blackberry doesn't have a stylus. Instead a small track wheel on its right-hand side controls all navigational operations. To select an item you press the wheel. A small button underneath the track wheel acts as an escape or back button. It takes a little bit of getting used to but after a bit of practice you can zip through most operations - and it makes a change not to fiddle with a hard bit of plastic all the time.

The keyboard is small but laid out in such a way that typing short email messages isn't too much of a chore. People with big hands beware though. Try popping into your local mobile phone shop and use the buttons on a small phone like a Nokia 8210 and you'll get an idea of how fiddly it can be.

The interface could do with some fine-tuning and lacks some of the intuitive features of the Palm OS. For example, the icon for turning GPRS on and off (essential to maintain battery life) is an aeroplane - why? In addition, the various email options are a bit confusing and would be better if they were grouped together.

It comes with a cradle for the obligatory synching with a PC and charging and you can do all the usual integrating malarkey with Microsoft Outlook.

Ergonomically it fits nicely in your palm. Some troublemakers - like people lacking thumbs or left-handed users - might have complaints about having all the navigation situated on the right-hand side. Other than that it's cuter than an Andrex puppy and slicker than a greased otter.

Get yourself connected

The embedded wireless modem offers a constant connectivity to a GPRS network which means you don't have to dial in to receive messages.

The Blackberry Enterprise Server Software forwards emails addressed to your main email address. It also compresses, encrypts and then forwards a message to your Blackberry.

You receive alerts about incoming messages through a number of alert tones or through a "discrete vibration".

BT Cellnet's wireless network was having some problems the day we tested the device but it still only took between 20 and 30 seconds for messages to be received or sent.

The main problem with the Blackberry is the battery life. Composing emails and having the device connected via GPRS eats up power very quickly.

The literature claims the battery can power the device for up to three days but that seems wildly optimistic. The device we received for testing was a prototype and it could be that when it hits the market the problem will be resolved.

Top of the wish list, other than vastly improved battery life, is a colour screen. Although not strictly a PDA it's going to need to appeal to the same market and needs to be able to compete.

The Blackberry doesn't offer bad PDA functions but it could do with a little fine tuning if it's going to prove a compelling reason to opt for it as a one-stop solution for personal organiser and communication needs.

Otherwise users are unlikely to be willing to sacrifice the usability of the Palm OS or the hard options of a high-spec PDA like the iPaq or Sony Clie.

But overall the Blackberry is a very neat little device that does exactly what it says on the tin.

It's going to appeal to anyone who needs to be connected via email at all times - mobile workers, salespeople and gadget-hungry executives to name but a few. The technology is already a massive hit in the US where addicted users are referred to as 'crackberries'.

Alternatively, it will appal people for the same reason - the office intruding your life 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The Blackberry switches itself on every now and again to check for messages and just turning the device off is trickier than it seems. There's no escape.

But gadget hounds are going to be slavering over the Blackberry - especially when other features are added.

Canadian company RIM promises it will come with internet and intranet browsing and, most crucially, phone functionality in the "near future". What affect these added features will have on the size of the machine and, of course, the cost, remains to be seen.

The handhelds retail at between £359 and £399 depending on the number of devices purchased. Blackberry Enterprise Software (BES) costs £2,500, a sum which includes the first 20 user licences. Airtime retails at a flat rate of between £29 and £39 per month per user.

It will undoubtedly have a big influence on corporate communications. And as it's here now - well, almost - it could take even more shine off 3G, as other technologies are doing.

Bundle this with a phone option and some internet browsing you could have a device that might prove to be the defining argument of Darwinism. Survival of the connected.