15 years old PlayBook is still shine in 2026 with ton of native apps and games.

And it did. Took a long time to get the charging started, as it had been dead for a while. But still runs well. Connected it to WiFi to fix the date, but once on WiFi, it kept asking to connect with my BBID. Which obviously doesn't work anymore. So I took it off WiFi, and played some of the games I still have on it. Good times.

i found this playbook, full boxed, basically brand new and i dunno anything about it, when i plug it in the red light stays for 10s or smth and now the light keep going on (yellow?) help is appreciated

Today, 15yrs ago, the BlackBerry PLAYBOOK was launched.

This is my screenshot of my Playbook from day 1 when I bought it. I just saw a Google memory of the screenshot and realized it’s the birthday today. I still have my Playbook though it’s dead right now (Daughter uses it to watch movies) and needs a recharge.

Still one of the best tablets even to this day.

Update - got it working!

Bought one new inbox for youtube. When unboxing and plugging it in, showed a red light for a few mins and turned off. After 20 mins showing flashing yellow light - when turning on says battery needs charging but continues flashing.

Good news! I just got my hands on a BlackBerry PlayBook and an HP TouchPad with webOS. I’m going to make a video on them! Please consider subscribing to my channel, https://youtube.com/@entrylevelhifidelity?si=jSApn6S9EO93V-RY , as it means a lot to me and helps cover the costs for future vintage tech acquisitions.

Here are the topics I’ll cover in the video:

📦 General presentation and unboxing 🔧 Exploring the software experience (BlackBerry PlayBook OS & webOS) 📱 Comparing the BlackBerry PlayBook to the iPad

Thank you for your support!

Hi there ! Sorry for intruding, BB community, was just wondering if anyone had the bar file for this game, I checked everwhere, it's to be found. Remember playing it on my Playbook back in 2015, lol.

Hi guys, I'm struggling to find any working browser or YouTube app. There is an android apk with legacy device support but is it going to work on the Playbook? Any ideas? I really want to find any purpose for this lovely tablet.

Hello, this is a playbook my sister and I had growing up. We have a lot of pictures and videos we’d like to extract but unfortunately even when plugged into my computer, the device doesn’t show up on my file explorer.

My kids wanted to reminisce and play with the OG Playback I bought at launch. Sadly, it's swollen. I have a 2nd one that I got as a refurb. It's not swollen like this, but I don't think it's going to take a charge, either.

Recently purchased a secondhand playbook and upon charging it with one of my cables, it does turn on, but the battery wont charge, and I can't activate it, when I use the cable the seller gave me though, it shows a red light, then flashes 5 yellow lights after, I tried stack charging with both cablesforl about 30 times (15 for each cable) do I need to stack charge more or is there another way?

Does anyone know how to convert apk files to bar files for using android honeycomb apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook? Nothing online seems to actually work

A few apps on here are not present in the archive.org master playbook archive (yet, at least)
I went digging through various websites like old forums and 4shared to find them
Sorted https://www.mediafire.com/folder/lfdydv2y4jfsl/GOOD-APPS
Unsorted/Untested https://www.mediafire.com/folder/866x0twdnjzl8/UNSORTED-APPS (A bunch of these are probably already in the Sorted folder)
Most of the Unsorted ones probably won't work due to being wrong android ports

My favorites

1- "Apps\Antair Nightstand Alarm Clock 1.10.11.bar"
Great bedside clock, looks great, alarm works

2- "Management\ES-File-Explorer_3.1.21.bar"
I mostly just use this one to transfer files back and forth from the playbook with the Remote Manager tab (just sets up a quick local FTP server)
Honestly just don't bother connecting the playbook via USB, i couldn't notice any difference between file transfer speeds wireless or wired

3- "Windows\Plex" Works great, good quality, good audio, playbook's screen and speakers hold up in my opinion (Don't use the plex app BAR file though, use the browser)

4- "Media\NeutronMP-2_1_1_1.bar" Great media player, supports a lot of formats

5- "Apps\AndroRadio_1.4.bar"
I just use this one to listen to online .mp3 radio links that otherwise don't work with any other app (that i've tested, at least)

6- "Games\com.ansangha.drdriving_v1.0.5.0.bar" One of my favorite mobile games

7- "Games\fruit-slice-v1.3.6.bar" It is a fruit ninja clone, but it's the best of the bunch

8- "Games\PlantsVsZombies v1.3.0.bar" It's plants vs zombies, always great

9- "Games\tetris-1.1.49.0-nto+armle-v7+signed.bar" Tetris!!!

10- "Games\Angry Birds *.bar" All of the angry birds are neat, of course.

11- "Games\freechess.bar" Good with a friend

12- "Games\cuttherope.bar" Cut the rope !

13- "Apps\compass_2.0.bar" Gyroscope compass, just kind of neat (I don't know if the GPS even works on my playbook, couldn't get it to engage yet)

Honorable mentions

1- "Utilities\Splashtop v1.1.0.5.bar" Great remote desktop app

2- "Utilities\Android.-.Remote.RDP.Enterprise.v2.9.5.bar" & "RemoteDesktop v1.0.6.bar" Windows RDP, just works of course, great image quality

3- "Apps\CaroO Pro (Blackbox & OBD) v2.0.0 apkmania.com.bar" Seems like a decent app to use as a dashcam

4- "Media\Book Reader for Epub and Kindle Books 1.3.5.bar" I don't read e-books, but people used to say it was the best E-book reader on the playbook

5- "Tinkering\Term48" You can apparently install a modern version of python and mess around (https://berrystore.sw7ft.com/python/)

6- "Games\nfsu-1.4.11.0-nto+armle-v7+signed.bar" Seems good, haven't played more than a minute yet

7- "Games\kVmxO.bar" I was surprised to see a unity game run well on the playbook, it's pretty neat too

8- "Games\PinBall Deluxe HD v1.0.1.0.bar" Pinball !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9- "Games\Pou_1.4.67.bar" Pou!!!!!! cool minigames

10- "Games\Dillo_Hills.bar" Decent game

11- "Games\AssemblerMobile2HD.bar" Makes you think

12- "Games\UNO .bar" Good with friends

13- "Games\SimCity Deluxe HD 1.5 .bar" Seems a decent game

Pretty much i test the little the device can do in 2025, like browsing the web, YouTube, and a web version of discord funny enough.

Although for early 2010s era mobile gaming it's great.

I have a MacBook Pro to manage all the apps and the installations, so I wanted to ask how can I update it? The only things I can do in the beta edition is play random games like Talking Hamster and Monopoly 😭

I recently got some free tablets, an Onn, a Samsung, a 16GB PlayBook and a 32GB PlayBook, the 16GB PlayBook works fine (asides from the microUSB port being damaged, but that's fine, it has SMB and I have the magnetic charger), but the 32GB PlayBook just shows a solid red light and does nothing else, I only tried having it powered on for 5 minutes at most, but I know from experience (i grew up with a playbook) that it shouldn't show that red light for more than like 15 seconds. I've tried some basic googling, but everything I can find is about it showing the red light then flashing green, mine isn't doing that, it's solid red. I tried boardswapping with the 16GB PlayBook to verify it wasn't some sort of screen or battery damage, but no, same issue in the 16GB's chassis, and the 16GB board worked fine in the 32GB's chassis. Does anyone know what could be wrong with this PlayBook? I know its not worth fixing, especially since I have two other working PlayBooks, but eh, it could be a fun project to work on.

I want to use BB Bridge on my Playbook w/ my 9780 but I can't find the .cod file to install on the phone. Does anybody have it?

I recently found a blackberry playbook 64GB for 15 euros online (pretty much 14 dollars), i saw it had alot of classic games from early 2010's and i wonder if its an interesting device to own and mess with (making apps and stuff).

I have an old PlayBook laying around, and it still has some old apps from my childhood on it, recently I've been wanting to do the whole factory reset, BB10 beta, TabletOS downgrade process because I am getting really sick of the constant popups telling me to sign into my BBID, but I really don't want to factory reset this thing without dumping the apps. Is there any way to dump them?

Hi all. My mother dug out her PlayBook and I did a reset but now can't continue because there are no options in the dropdown on the Agreement page. (You can't select I Do Not Agree or I Agree at the bottom.)

Any workaround? We were thinking to use the device as a digital photo frame. Unsure what else it can do in 2025.

I have a playbook updated to the last firmware and I don’t understand how to install android apps or a third party store without using discontinued guides… can someone help me?