Quick Note: Lotus Traveler works with Blackberry's Playbook!!

It seems everyone is using either a iOS or Android device these days. So much so that my company will be dropping support for its Blackberry Enterprise Server by February next year. As we use Lotus Notes as our email platform, this means we will have to rely on email forwarding. 

Not an issue for me, since I've been using forwarding instead of BES since I got my first Blackberry in 2010. 

However, as part of a new system for filing Breaking News stories, our writers will need to use Lotus Traveler to send in their write-ups for our website. This creates a problem for those who simply do not want to use iOS or Android devices, especially since the company does not pay for them (well, at least not yet). 

I was quite disappointed by this, and a subsequent email to the IT support department drew no response. So short of complaining to the higher-ups, I decided to go seek my own solution. 

It turns out that while IBM does not officially support the Blackberry Playbook for its Lotus Traveler platform, there is a work-around. 

Blackberry Playbook to my rescue. Photo: Research in Motion

Here are the steps required: 

1. Set up Lotus Traveler access for your email account; you will need to check with your IT department for this. 

2. Once that is done, go to the Accounts tab under your Playbook's settings, and choose Add New Account. 

3. Choose Email, Calendar and Contacts, and then tap on the Advanced Setup tab. 

4. Choose Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (I'm not sure why this works). 

5. Give your account a description, leave Domain blank and fill in the Username, Email Address and Password slots. 

6. The last item, Server Address, is the tricky one. In general, it should be (server URL)/servlet/traveler. The server URL is the same as what's used by iOS and Android in your IT department's setup instructions for those users. So in my case, to give an example, I typed in something similar to pushmail.xxxx.com.xx/servlet/traveler. 

And that's basically it. 

I'm relieved that I found a solution, and that the Playbook has proven useful once again even though it's hardly the most popular tablet device around. 

Hope this mini-guide helps you too.

Thanks to Gray on the Crackberry forums for his guide.