No, I have not lost my mind and bought one. I was asked if I could get it to connect to a Wi-fi network. The answer.. yes and no. I couldn’t get it to connect at the client location, but it connected to my wireless network in seconds. I have some work to do at the client location.

So, it’s small and black. If you are OCD, the finger marks on the screen will drive you over the edge. The power button is to scale, miniscule and with virtually no travel. Unless you are looking at the front face, it is not easy to know if it has been depressed enough. Overall, build quality looks good and the feel is nice.

On the reverse side, there is a camera lens, and the unit takes some very crisp shots. On the front, the edges are touch sensitive but I have not worked out which edge does what. Powering up is a little slow and the default wallpaper is NOT nice. The screen is bright and sharp.

Swiping and typing is difficult, having been brought up on full size keyboards and mice. The ‘apps’ are ok, but getting into app settings is not intuitive by any means, especially when one has no idea if the swipe should be up, down, to the left or the right. I wouldn’t like to have to type stuff into he browser while on the move.

I can’t imagine replying to email on it, but sitting quietly in a Wi-fi hotspot with a coffee, doughnut and screen wipes to remove doughnut marks, I could maybe see myself surfing for info on ‘this and that’, product reviews before maybe purchasing something. Unfortunately, I rarely have time for coffee and Wi-fi spots, and that seems to me to be half the value of the Playbook.

Apparently, the Playbook requires a link to a Blackberry phone to be of use to the business community. I don’t have a Blackberry phone. Mine is a cheap, folding LG model. Smart it isn’t, but I talk on phones, not text.

If somebody was to give me a Playbook as a gift, I would undoubtedly find some use for it. I would certainly try to remember to take it out with me on the off-chance that I did end up in a Wi-fi hotspot, and I would play with it for a while, but I am not sure how long that interest in what is essentially only a viewer would last.

I find it scary that people these days change cellphones for the latest models at the drop of a hat. Those same people are going to do the same with tablets. This one in six months will be worth nothing. It will have become an embarrassment, notwithstanding the problems that RIM has and the fact that the playbook may be a discontinued product. But the same applies to all of the other tablets, iPads and whatever. What a waste!

If anybody reading this has an ‘embarrassment’ on their hands, and is looking for a good free home for it, email me from this blog, and I will supply a mailing address of a good home I just happen to know.. 

Please note that the above is a quick ‘take’ and personal opinion only. By the way, finger marks on it are driving me over the edge already and I am not OCD..