BlackBerry Bridge and AT&T

For BlackBerry users who also happen to have the PlayBook, we get a great method of connectivity. By downloading the BlackBerry Bridge application we get access to a lot of our phones features over bluetooth on our tablets. You can check your email, or BBM easily on your tablet wherever you go. For everyone besides AT&T, you also get access to data for all your other apps on your PlayBook with only a few exceptions. (Kobos, Video Chat, App World) So even away from a WiFi connection you can use your tablet to surf the web, or even share with Facebook and Twitter.

AT&T took plenty of time deciding how they were going to cripple this awesome feature. When they finally approved BlackBerry Bridge, they labeled it as tethering. Tethering on AT&T cost either $45 if you are on the now grandfathered 4GB+tethering plan, or $50 for the 5GB+tethering plan. In my opinion, as well as many others, if you’re paying the per GB rate then you should be able to use it how you please. Luckily the BlackBerry can install apps from the web browser. Thanks to good samaritans you can find the latest version of BlackBerry Bridge (as well as many other Research in Motion produced apps) via the browser. The website I would recommend is http://rroyy.com/ota/

The BlackBerry PlayBook has been updated to 2.0. This brings with it an awesome socially connected email, calendar and contacts. Bride was also updated, bringing with it a heavily requested feature: BlackBerry Remote. This allows you to use you BlackBerry as mouse and keyboard for your PlayBook. (A few astute users found that it can be used with plenty of other bluetooth enabled devices since it uses a standard protocol.) The most used example is to have your PlayBook hooked up to your TV via HDMI and control all functions of your PlayBook on the couch. Another cool feature is the ability to open plenty of attachments, photos, or websites on your PlayBook by selecting “Send to PlayBook” on your phone. I also found that they’ve added a Powerpoint remote to the phone for all your presenting use cases.

When the iPad first burst onto the scene, it was hard to justify the need for an “in between” device for some. It definitely is interesting to see phones and tablets playing a more connected role. Expect to see more of this from BlackBerry moving forward, and don’t be surprised to see similar things from the big competitors.