Tether for BlackBerry Changes the Name of The Game

By: @Hilzfuld

The smartphone market is not what it used to be. Manufacturers and mobile software companies are facing a lot more competition then they used to. Consumers now have a whole lot more selection when it comes to choosing a smartphone. As a result, all smaprtphone makers, both software and hardware, are stepping up their game. Except one. RIM.

RIM enjoys such a clear and indisputable dominance in the market, and not only are their numbers all the way up, the competition is not making them lose sleep at night since most BlackBerry users are not impressed with the iPhone’s hype. How many times have you heard the sentence “iPhones are for people who like games, and BlackBerrys are for heavy email users”? That is the perception of the majority of consumers, and you know what? They are right.

Personally speaking, the BlackBerry email experience is not something I am willing to give up on so fast, no matter how many apps are hosted in the competition’s App Store. However, this post is not about the BlackBerry email experience. I would like to talk about the other difference between iPhone and BlackBerry, namely the apps. Contrary to what you are thinking, I am not going to be talking about numbers, rather the entire philosophy of apps.

The main difference between let’s say iPhone and BlackBerry in regard to apps is where and how they are installed. While the iPhone can have as many apps installed as the phone’s storage supports, the BlackBerry depending on the model, has anywhere between 256MB and 1GB of application storage.

So, if we compare the 16 or 32GBs of app capacity on the iPhone, the BlackBerry has a maximum of 1GB. This is in my opinion the biggest manufacturing error of all RIM devices. The result of this huge disadvantage is that the average BlackBerry user cannot install unlimited apps, and at a certain point (which I apparently reached a long time ago), the device begins to slow down and crash quite often until you start uninstalling apps to free up space.

So, at the end of the day, while my iPod has 50 plus apps installed (the majority of which I have used once), my Bold has only the apps I use regularly. This week, however, I faced a major dilemma. Mark, the brains behind Appboy, sent me a link to an app that I loved from the second I used it, but I had no room to install. So, it was time to say goodbye to an app I liked, to make room for Tether, an app I loved.

Since then, I have been using Tether, and it is now officially one of my top five favorite BlackBerry apps. So what it Tether? While, tethering might be an obvious concept to some, others do not get it, so here is a basic explanation. There are many ways to connect to the internet. There is an ethernet cable, which is old school, and then there is wireless. However, wireless also has many different options, the two main ones being mobile broadband and Wifi W. Mobile broadband is the connection you have on your phone, and depending where you are, you should always be able to connect. Wifi on the other  hand, while it is free, is only available in certain places like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and airports to name a few.

So, what does a person do when they need fast access to the Web from their laptop, but there is no Wifi in the area? They tether their phone. This means they connect their laptop to their phone either using a wire or Bluetooth, and surf the Web on their laptop using their 3g connection.

However, as simple as that sounds, this process is not a simple one. Firstly, not all phones support it, some providers block it, and the setup can get pretty messy. Tether for BlackBerry takes care of it all, and as soon as you turn on the app on your phone, launch the software on your PC or Mac, you are up and running within seconds.

It simplifies the process so anyone can do it, and it provides impressive speeds, which obviously differ based on your mobile broadband. Tether offers a free trial so you can make sure it works for you, their customer support proved to be top notch answering any questions I had, and the app has already saved me numerous time in the last week.

If you still did not grasp the concept of tethering, just understand this, I started writing this post on my Macbook in the car. Obviously, there is no Wifi on the highway (yet), so I tethered my Macbook to the BlackBerry and enjoyed blazing fast internet access in the car. Like I said, this app changes everything for heavy Web users. Just be warned that data costs are expensive, so make sure you  have an unlimited plan when using this app.

So, BlackBerry might have a lower capacity to install apps, but between the Push Mail, the keyboard, and apps like this, I don’t think the iPhone has much to offer us heavy users.

Our Rating: 5/5

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Developer: Tether

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Hillel Fuld

Hillel is a tech blogger at TechNmarketing.com as well as an active Twitter personality @hilzfuld. He writes for many other sites including Mashable.com, Bitrebels.com, and works as the Content Manager of Dailyforex.com.