A small but brilliant acquisition that should give RIM some much-needed UI design heft as it further polishes its PlayBook tablet and whatever other next-gen QNX-based smartphones it has in the pipeline. For RIM, whose devices have seemed perpetually a generation behind the latest iPhone and Android handsets, TAT’s acumen could be just the thing to strengthen its competitive position and further the efforts of Don Lindsay, its new VP of User Experience (a former Microsoft and Apple hire)–assuming RIM’s willing to take some guidance.