Here’s another nifty little accessory for your BlackBerry that was announced a while back. This time it’s the BlackBerry Presenter. This is accessory is for sharing PowerPoint presentations via Bluetooth from your device through the presenter and displaying it on either a monitor or displaying through a projector. Click the link to keep reading.

Setup

The setup of the device is supposed to be simple. I don’t find it to be as simple as its supposed to be. Simply plug the device into a power source, plug it into the display, connect your BlackBerry to the Presenter via Bluetooth, select a PowerPoint to display from your device, and click “Present”. I have installed the application, downloaded the Desktop Manager for Presenter, and done everything I could possibly do to get my PowerPoint to display. I still didn’t have a PowerPoint displaying on my TV. All I could view was the BlackBerry Presenter default splash screen, and I never had a “Present” option in any of my menus. In the “Getting Started Guide” I read that BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 SP 1 or later is required for presenting attachments. It never directly says whether the device only supports Enterprise activated devices, but I failed to get my PowerPoints to display.

Design

The design of this device is very similar to my recently reviewed Remote Stereo Gateway. On the back side of the device is where all of the ports are. You have an S Video and VGA outputs and a microUSB port for the power source. There is also a switch on the back for NTSC and PAL video standards. The Presenter is much chunkier than I expected and a lot heavier too. The Presenter is 3.4 inches long, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.9 inches tall. On the top of the device, there is a single button. This is to put the device in or take it out of standby mode. I’m glad to see they decided to change the touch button they had on the gateway. The outer edges of the Presenter are your, now standard, BlackBerry chrome bezel.

Use

Having not actually getting mine working properly, it’s hard to say how user friendly this device is. But using the user interface from the Presenter application on my BlackBerry, it seems very simple. You find the PowerPoint file that you want to present, click it, and present. It’s a simple click interface, and you can just flow through your presentations as you normally would from your device. You do have the option to freeze what you’re displaying and find whatever else you choose to display next without showing everything while doing so. You also have the option to set the slideshow to loop.

All-in-all, this device is slick. I would love to be able to use it, and I can see multiple practical uses for it. It is a great idea from RIM for their business-side users, not necessarily for their basic consumers. The device definitely extends the mobility of a presentation; it’s lightweight, easily pocketed, and requires no sort of installation. With RIM’s consumer base growing so rapidly, you would think you would see them directing some BlackBerry specific accessories towards them rather than a business based accessory, but the Presenter is definitely a good idea and nifty little accessory.

Pros:

• Nice design
• Solid feel
• Comes with case
• Got rid of touch button used on gateway
• Support for NTSC and PAL
• Has its own application for easier use
• Neat accessory, perfect for business users

Cons:

• Seems to only have support for BES users
• No internal battery
• Not as easy to setup as it should be
• Not very useful for average consumer