The BlackBerry PlayBook is awesome. I’ve said this since it launched in 2011. It has the best user interface of all tablets I’ve tested, incorporating an ingenuous touch-sensitive bezel. It has a blazingly fast processor, good battery life and used to have the best screen on the market until Apple unveiled the new iPad with Retina Display. But despite the PlayBook being a rocking piece of hardware, it had major flaws that prevented me from recommending it to people.

Until recently, when asked what I thought of the PlayBook I would say, “It’s rad. But don’t buy one.”

It had no native email or calendar client. Its app store was like a ghost town. It might’ve had a bitching interface and hardware, but it sucked in every other regard.

That’s changed. A recent update and general improvement in logic at Research In Motion have stacked up to make the PlayBook one of the best tablets on the market. Here are five reasons why I think you should consider buying one.

1. PlayBook OS 2.0
   The PlayBook has always been awesome from a hardware perspective, but its original operating system left a lot to be desired. You  had to connect to a BlackBerry smartphone to do email that and other basic things like calendaring – unless you were happy with web interfaces. The new OS, however, mends all of these problems. It has a kick-ass email client, nice calendar app and no longer makes the PlayBook feel like a smartphone accessory. It also has one of the best user interfaces I’ve ever seen. Much better. Thanks RIM.
2. Price
   After a troubled launch, the PlayBook is now one of the cheapest tablets on the market. In my home country of South Africa you can pick it up for less than R3000 and in the USA prices go as low as $200. For that you get some of the beefiest hardware available on a really well-built tablet that has just had fresh life blown into it with OS 2.0. At prices these low it’s worth buying even if all you use it for is an espresso tray.
3. Accessibility
   File management on the PlayBook is near-perfect; you simply access shared folders on the device over your WiFi network. It makes it really quick and easy to drop a movie file, for example, onto the PlayBook for viewing on the go, without even having to take the tablet out of your bag. It also supports Adobe Flash better than any other tablet platform I’ve tried. While I still find tablets to be a very limited computing environment, and prefer just carrying around my laptop, the PlayBook is less limited than most. The form factor and light weight also make it easier to transport and less cumbersome to use than bigger tablets.
4. Charging
   This might not sound like a big deal, but bear with me. Remember, it’s the small things that matter with tablets. The PlayBook uses an industry-standard, micro-USB connection for charging. This means that not only can you use any other BlackBerry smartphone charger with it – but any other phone charger too, from Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, or whoever. One of the things that drives me crazy about other tablet brands is that they each have a proprietary charger than can’t be shared with my phone – except the iPad. And since Apple has its own connector for iOS devices, the PlayBook is the most universally compatible by far. For someone who travels weekly as I do, being able to carry a single charger is a killer feature.
5. Apps
   The single biggest problem with the PlayBook at launch was a lack of apps. There was no Evernote, Dropbox, Angry Birds or any of the apps that people had learned to love on iOS and Android. But that has changed. BlackBerry App World is now full of awesome apps for the PlayBook including an official Evernote client and, yes, Angry Birds. Twitter was also conspicuously missing from the original PlayBook OS, but it is now incorporated in the universal messaging platform of PlayBook OS 2.0. While the PlayBook still trails way behind Android and iOS and in the apps department it is now way, way better than it was and can actually be used for stuff now.

I own a small menagerie of tablets – an iPad, Motorola Xoom, several other Android tablets and the PlayBook. Out of all of them I find myself using the iPad most, but it has recently started taking a backseat to my PlayBook, especially when traveling. Watching movies on the PlayBook is second-to-none, and that’s mostly what I want to do with a tablet while flying.

If the iPhone was the Jesus phone then the PlayBook is the Lazarus tablet. It was dead and gone, but now lives again – kicking ass and scaring disciples.

Research in Motion (RIM) has released another video for the upcoming BlackBerry 6 operating system. The video clearly displays a touch interface, something which we saw for the first time in April 2010 when the company showed initial glimpses of the new platform at its annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium conference in Florida. I spoke to the company’s CTO David Yach about the interface and he confirmed that touch was a big part of it, but wouldn’t be cornered on what was planned from a hardware perspective. Rumours abound of an announcement of a new device to supersede the Storm platform forthcoming from RIM in the next couple of months. BlackBerry 6 will also be compatible with most of the brand’s current models.

This morning Mike Lazaridis, the CEO of Research in Motion showed us this video during his keynote at BlackBerry WES 2010. It’s a sneak-peek at BlackBerry 6, the new version of the operating system that is expected to be launched by July 2010 for all BlackBerry users.

The new OS is an impressive evolution from the current look and feel of the BlackBerry interface and includes BlackBerry’s new WebKit-based HTML5-supported browser and tight integration with social media via a system called Social Feed that brings together all of your social networks in one, integrated view. The use of pop-up menus is also intelligently incorporated to allow for quick access to functions in an intuitive way.

Search has also been built into the home screen, with the ability to search either the internet or your device.

If the video is anything to go by BlackBerry 6 is going to be a big deal, but I’ll reserve final judgement until I’ve actually used it.

The 9700 is Research in Motion (RIM)’s flagship device sporting a 624 megahertz processor, 256 megabytes of flash memory, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi, a 3.2 megapixel camera and the new mini trackpad for navigation. It’s less bulky than its predecessor and replaces the leather back of the 9000 with a textured pad that is flush with the rest of the casing.

“The BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone builds on the success of the original model with new, top-of-the-line features in a smaller and lighter design,” said Deon Liebenberg, regional director for Sub-Sahara Africa at Research In Motion.

The 9700 also ships with BlackBerry OS 5.0 that offers several enhancements, including faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as built-in integration with Gmail for contacts syncing, an enhanced calendaring application, and other improvements.

I’ve been playing with the 9700 for two days and have been impressed with the speed and responsiveness of the device. The keyboard is great, as was the 9000′s, with the angled-keys that made the Bold ridiculously popular with BlackBerry users.

It’s too early for a comprehensive review, but look out for Finweek Magazine next week where I’ll be running an extended review.

The first Storm was a tad clunky, especially compared to Apple’s iPhone – which still boasts the best touchscreen interface in the market after some two years. The Storm 2, however, is slick and feels more polished than its predecessor. I can actually type on it this time, whereas I had trouble with the original Storm.

I love my Blackberry Bold and am yet to see another model I’d replace it with – but the Storm 2 might be the one.

That said, I must add that my opinion of the Storm 2 is based on less than an hour’s experience with it, so I’ll ice the review until I’ve spent more time with the device.

The Storm 2 has a capacitive touchscreen, which is the same technology as the iPhone. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera that shoots video and offers zoom for stills and 2 GB of internal memory that can be expanded via a MicroSD slot. It also has WiFi, which was missing from the first Storm. And it’s dead sexy.

While the original Storm was available exclusively through Vodafone subsidiary Vodacom in South Africa, the Storm 2 is carried by both MTN and Vodacom. Final pricing has not been announced yet, but I’d expect it to be available as a cash purchase of around R8000, or on similar contract terms as the original Storm.

Deon Liebenberg, who heads up RIM in most of Africa, first showed me the device at a recent industry event and it was immediately more appealing than its predecessor. And with Blackberry AppWorld now available in South Africa this might be the iPhone killer we’ve all been waiting for. I said might.