The BlackBerry (News - Alert) Bridge app is now available for download for AT&T users – after some delays.
The BlackBerry Bridge app “mirrors the existing messages, contacts, calendar, memopad, tasks” and BlackBerry Messenger – which are displayed on BlackBerry smartphones, according to a blog post from BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry Bridge app also provides users the ability to browse the Internet on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using a BlackBerry smartphone’s data connection, the blog post adds.
AT&T (News - Alert) had delayed allowing BlackBerry users to connect to the PlayBook tablet, according to a report from All Things D.
The report explains that BlackBerry users can now access “basic information” being sent to the BlackBerry from a tablet without a having a “paid tethering plan” but users who want to access the Web via a BlackBerry’s Internet connection must sign up for a tethering plan that costs $20 each month.
AT&T okayed Research In Motion’s (RIM) PlayBook tablet, two months after it was launched, according to ZDNet.
The delay and extra fees are of concern to some industry analysts.
“None of AT&T’s rivals Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile (News - Alert) had any trouble enabling the same app back in April, and neither T-Mobile nor Verizon charges for tethering,” ZDNet said. “Irate netizens seem to believe AT&T just needed time to block the Bridge Browser from the non-paying tether users.”
AT&T’s BlackBerry Bridge app is available for download from BlackBerry App World.
RIM said it has shipped about 500,000 of the tablets, according to All Things D.
In other company news, TMCnet reported last month that RIM had made available a free-of-charge BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing app on BlackBerry App World for users in North America.
BlackBerry Mobile Conferencing provides users an easy and fast way to participate in and arrange for conference calls from a BlackBerry smartphone, TMCnet adds.
Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca