Worn around your neck with the included lanyard, the battery-powered reader allowed the card itself to remain on the user’s body while still being readable by nearby devices.Ĭivilians will recognize the basic technology from modern “Chip and PIN” debit and credit cards, but we’ve never had to stick one of those into our laptop just to log in. This sleek device was marketed as a portable reader that could connect to computers over USB or Bluetooth. These are used extensively by organizations such as the Department of Defense, where they’re known as Common Access Cards, that require you to insert your ID card into a reader before you can log into a secure computer system.
Though as you might expect, software was available to allow it to work with the BlackBerry phone that you almost certainly owned if you needed a dedicated smart card reader.įor those who might not be aware, a smart card in this context is a two-factor authentication token contained in an ID card. Technically, this little device isn’t dependent on the phones of the same name, but it makes sense that Research In Motion (which eventually just renamed itself to BlackBerry Limited) would market the gadget under the brand of their most popular product. It’s about something that’s even more irrelevant to consumers: the BlackBerry Smart Card Reader. Anyone excited about the new 5G BlackBerry being built by Texas start-up OnwardMobility? Did you even know it was in the works before now? A DoD Common Access Cardīut this article isn’t about BlackBerry phones. Over the last several years they’ve opted to partner with a series of increasingly obscure manufacturers to produce a handful of lackluster Android phones so they still have something to sell to their dwindling userbase. They don’t even bother making their own hardware anymore. For that, the BlackBerry was king.įast forward to today, and the company is just a shell of what it once was. Back then, nobody was worried about watching movies or playing the latest games on their mobile devices, they just wanted a secure and fast way to send and receive email on the go. Years before Steve Jobs showed off the first iPhone, the BlackBerry was already the must-have accessory for mobile professionals.
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