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A piece by Nick Tragianas in Canada's National Post last week caught my eye and I suspect it's something that many of our readers would find quite interesting. It's about the BatBerry project, one Batman fan's obsessive attempt to recreate a working version of the iconic Batmobile (in this case, the Anton Furst, Art-Deco inspired version from Tim Burton's Batman). What makes the story even more interesting than Tim Neil's obsessive attention to detail, is the fact that — true Canadian patriot and Blackberry employee that he is — he's controlling the car's auxiliary systems using a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphone. Given the fact that BB10 incorporates a great deal of DNA from QNX (which, before being snapped up by BlackBerry was known for building the operating system that powers many automobile infotainment systems), this move may not be as great as stretch as it might sound.
I couldn't post the photo collection taken by the newspaper, but it shows the incredible detail that Tim has put into this project, inside and out. You can (and should) check it out here. He's also tracking the progress on a blog, where you can see a lot of the mechanical challenges that he's faced and overcome. The project has gained enough cred that The Discovery Channel is filming the progress as well, so expect to see it on your TV at some point.
BlackBerry itself isn't officially involved in this project, but one has to think that if Tim Neil's replica Batmobile ends up being half as cool as it's looking right now, a franchise tie-in has got to be a better promotional gimmick than a Creative Director who tweets from an iPhone.
