BlackBerry Planet Glossary - P

PDF - Portable Document Format

Adobe's widely used format for storing printable documents.

Personal Communicator

A term devised in 1991 by Toronto engineer Robert J. Fraser with Rogers Wireless VP David Neale, to describe a new handheld device that would provide always-on, wireless connectivity to a nationwide, packet-switched communications network. It would give users mobile information retrieval and online transactions (banking, stock market, reservations, weather, etc.) as well as appointment calendar synchronization, messaging and e-mail. It would also provide daily personal information manager applications such as contacts and to-do lists.

PIM - Personal Information Manager

A type of software application that lets the user input various type of textual and graphics information and link them in a useful way. Typical BlackBerry PIMs are the Calendar, Address Book, Tasks and Memopad.

PIN - Personal Identification Number

A unique eight digit number hard-coded into each BlackBerry; used to send messages, receive pushes and access the BES.

PNG - Portable Network Graphics

A public file format for lossless image compression; a typical PNG image is 10 to 30% more compressed than a GIF one.

PTT - Push-to-Talk

A two way radio feature which has walkie-talkie like functionality; available on BlackBerrys that use the iDEN network.

PTB - Plazmic Theme Builder