Connecting the PlayBook to a BlackBerry using Bluetooth

There are a couple of reasons that you'd want to connect your

BlackBerry PlayBook

with your BlackBerry smartphone over Bluetooth. The main reasons are to use BlackBerry Bridge or to connect to the Internet through tethering. We'll talk about Bridge in episode seven of this series. For now, let's focus on connecting over Bluetooth and turning on tethering.

As we mentioned earlier in this series, the PlayBook supports Wi-Fi connection but can't connect to the Internet through the cellular network. This makes tethering even more important. Keep in mind though, that not all cellular carriers support tethering, so check with your carrier before trying this.

To get started, you'll need to go into your BlackBerry smartphone's options and turn on Bluetooth. Now, make your phone discoverable. Now, go into the options on your BlackBerry PlayBook and turn on Bluetooth. Next, tap Add New Device and choose to search for a device. Find your BlackBerry smartphone and tap on it. Your devices may show numbers that should match up. Tap Yes on each device to start the connection.

To turn on Internet tethering, you'll need to go into your PlayBook settings again. Go down to Internet Tethering and tap on it. The phone that you're connected to should appear in the list. Tap on that and you'll see that the BlackBerry is asking if you want to accept a connection from the PlayBook. Tap Yes and the PlayBook will start connecting to the Internet. It will now connect to the Internet through the smartphone so long as the device is in range and is connected to the cellular network.