1. Extending BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) to your BlackBerry PlayBook

The BlackBerry Messenger experience on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features an enhanced interface and solid functionality. If you’re using your tablet and a BBM message comes into your BlackBerry smartphone, simply pop open the BlackBerry Bridge folder on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and tap “BBM” to read it. I particularly find BBM via BlackBerry Bridge on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to be useful for viewing photos, voice notes, or files sent to me from BBM contacts.

2. Stay connected without Wi-Fi®

It’s a pretty connected world out there with Wi-Fi at work, home, coffee shops, and airports. When you’re on the move, however, it’s important to stay online without skipping a beat. Thanks to BlackBerry Bridge, my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet comes with me and remains connected the entire time through the wireless radio on my BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Access your smartphone email, calendar, and contacts

With the huge amount of services that we all use (how many email addresses do you have?), unifying access across multiple platforms is paramount. Back-end synchronization of mail, calendar, and contacts is a breeze with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, but you also have the option to view your BlackBerry smartphone mail, calendar, and contact information on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over BlackBerry Bridge on the client side. The perk of this feature is the ability to manage email accounts that you’ve set up on your BlackBerry smartphone on the larger screen and interface of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

4. Remote control using your BlackBerry smartphone

This one is a personal favorite hands down, and never fails to raise some eyebrows in meetings. By activating Remote Control within the BlackBerry Bridge app on your BlackBerry smartphone, you can gain full wireless control of your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using your smartphone touch screen as a track pad and the keyboard for input. When presenting, you can even use the volume up and down buttons on your BlackBerry smartphone to control “back” and “next” functions on the slides being presented from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

This feature is extremely useful for navigating through slides when presenting via HDMI. Walk around, pause for effect, and give a rich presentation all from your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with no need for a laptop.

5. Share photos and videos

The high resolution of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet screen brings photos and videos to life. If I’ve snapped some pics on my BlackBerry smartphone over the weekend and I want to show a few of them to a friend in the office on Monday, I can easily use BlackBerry Bridge to pull them up on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Alternatively, gather the family around the TV at home, plug your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in via HDMI output, and showcase your smartphone or tablet photos in this manner. Using the slideshow function to automatically roll through your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet photos makes this an easy one to set up and use for sharing media.

6. Manage files that reside on your BlackBerry smartphone and media card

I often download attachments to the media card on my BlackBerry smartphone and use the file manager to keep everything organized. If I need to review a document or crack open an excel sheet and would benefit from a larger view, I simply use the File Manager on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to access my smartphone files. With the features of Documents To Go® on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, reviewing, editing, saving, and sending is convenient no matter where I am.

7. Centralize your task list across multiple devices

We all have our habits for staying organized and on top of our responsibilities. The Tasks application on my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone is my sweet spot for knowing what I need to get done on any given day or week. With Microsoft® Outlook® synchronization, it provides me with one space that is constantly updated. This consolidation of tasks extends to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet via the Tasks application in the BlackBerry Bridge folder, enabling my tablet to join the circle of devices that I use to add, edit, and complete tasks. To learn more about synchronizing data on your BlackBerry smartphone, head over to the BlackBerry® Desktop Software website.

8. Open On PlayBook for a rich experience

With BlackBerry Bridge you also have the ability to open links, emails, and files directly onto the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Once you’re connected, you can simply hit the menu key and select “Open on PlayBook” from your BlackBerry smartphone. This is great for utilizing the ultra-fast BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser or for reading long emails that contain images or other media. Ty’s favorite use of this feature is to snap a picture using his BlackBerry smartphone and then quickly preview it on his BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Choosing which screen to display your content on is a fantastic feature and allows you to fully engage with what you’re working on.

9. Browse your corporate intranet and engage with web apps

If your organization has enabled corporate intranet browsing on your BlackBerry smartphone via a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server connection, this extends to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as well via BlackBerry Bridge. Using the BlackBerry Bridge Browser, you can check out the web apps that your company uses, allowing you to enter expenses, check Salesforce data, or engage with workflow approvals on your corporate network from the crisp interface on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This one saves me a lot of time when traveling and lets me skip the experience of having to wait until I’m back at my desk. (Missing the BlackBerry Bridge Browser icon on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Find out why!)

10. Charging your smartphone? That shouldn’t stop you from using it!

Sliding my BlackBerry smartphone into a charging dock doesn’t mean that I have to stop using it. When I leave it to soak up some juice, I just pick up my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and pick up where I left off via BlackBerry Bridge. As long as I stay within Bluetooth® range – which I don’t have a problem with considering the unfortunate size of my apartment – I can continue to interact with my email, contacts, BBM, calendar, and more.

BlackBerry Bridge has been designed to open up a world of possibilities through a Bluetooth connection between your smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The information that can be shared, access to files, extension of connectivity, and utilization of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet screen and interface can provide a real boost to productivity and allows freedom of choice to maximize your experience. It’s really a new way for smartphones and tablets to work together.

How do you use BlackBerry Bridge? Share your most frequent use case in the comments below!

When the BlackBerry® Bridge™ app was first introduced, it allowed BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet owners with a BlackBerry smartphone to connect their devices in a unique way, with exciting potential for the future. With a BlackBerry Bridge app update for BlackBerry smartphones – and the launch of BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 – this functionality has been enhanced, building on the connectivity to bring a whole host of exciting new features and use cases.

Picking up where you left off

Your devices need to work together as smoothly and functionally as possible – it’s that simple. There are benefits to using both a BlackBerry tablet and a BlackBerry smartphone to get things done, but if they can’t share information, then you’re simply crafting two separate areas of mobile work. In this sense, BlackBerry Bridge app allows these two devices to not only open the boundaries of sharing data, but allows them to become something else entirely when working together.

By opening up the BlackBerry Bridge folder on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can access the core apps on your BlackBerry smartphone, presented within the user interface of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. For example, when I receive a BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) message, I simply reach for whichever device is closer. When I’m in a coffee shop, I generally use my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet exclusively to access content that is coming in to my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone.

The “Open on PlayBook” feature coming with the new BlackBerry Bridge app and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 allows you to view email messages, web pages, photos, and more on your tablet. Simply select the “Open on PlayBook” option from your smartphone.

Last night, as I was walking into my apartment building, I received an email containing a YouTube® video link. I simply chose “Open on PlayBook”, took my tablet out of my bag, and took it one step further by popping in the HDMI cable hooked up to my TV to watch the video on my high definition TV. The same use case applies whether you’re viewing and editing documents or browsing company web sites.

• “Open on PlayBook” shows up as a menu item on your BlackBerry smartphone, so you can open messages, address book entries, tasks, memos or calendar appointments on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
• Opening supported attachments with the “Open on PlayBook” feature triggers the corresponding BlackBerry PlayBook tablet application, such as Adobe® Acrobat® PDF Reader, to automatically launch
• You can also launch browser URLs on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using the “Open on PlayBook” feature from your BlackBerry smartphone

Exploring the new Remote Control functionality

At this point we arrive at my personal favorite: the remote control feature of the new BlackBerry Bridge app for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0. Using this feature, I can use my BlackBerry smartphone to control my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, including bezel gestures for multitasking. This functionality extends to the keyboard . Lately I’ve been taking notes in meetings on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet but typing using the keyboard on my BlackBerry Bold smartphone. This way, those around me can view the meeting notes on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet or a large screen that is connected to my tablet as they’re being taken, while I sit back and type them quickly from where I’m sitting.

Here what you can do with Remote Control:

• Supports BlackBerry PlayBook tablet bezel gestures using your BlackBerry smartphone
• Vertical scrolling
• Drag-lock
• Right, left, and middle mouse click emulation
• Dedicated Presenter Mode

Remote Control really shines in a business setting when it’s combined with an HDMI cable to hook your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet into a projector or big screen TV. Presentations take on a futuristic feel for me when I’m using my smartphone to circle examples that are being projected from my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, all as I walk around the room not tied to any device on the conference table. Additionally, when in Presenter Mode, you’re able to split your BlackBerry smartphone screen into “Back” and “Next” buttons. Your presentation appears on the BlackBerry smartphone screen, your speaking notes on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and control of the entire scenario rests in your hands. Clearly these devices work well together, and applied to countless use cases, are changing the way organizations are doing business.

Note: BlackBerry Bridge Remote Control and Presenter Mode require the combination of a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 and BlackBerry Bridge v2.0.

Additional Enhancements

The new functionality certainly doesn’t stop here – there’s more:

• Copy and paste within BlackBerry Bridge applications on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
• Select a different font size for messages in the BlackBerry Bridge Messages application
• Connect your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to the Internet through BlackBerry Bridge without having an active Wi-Fi® connection. In this scenario, both work and personal email will function normally. (Please note that this feature needs to be supported by your carrier.)

Consider new ways of accomplishing tasks and work via the functionality provided by updates to BlackBerry Bridge. There’s a lot to be excited about!

How do you use BlackBerry Bridge with BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0? Share in the comments!