Turn Your BlackBerry Into a Wireless Modem with TetherBerry

Tethering is the act of linking your phone to your laptop for high-speed Internet access. TetherBerry brings tethering to the BlackBerry, effectively turning your handset into a wireless modem.

Palm and Windows Mobile users have long enjoyed this capability thanks to apps like USB Modem and PDAnet, respectively, but this is the first time BlackBerry users have been able to join the tethering party without some serious hackery.

To use TetherBerry, you just download the Windows app to your laptop (alas, there's no Mac version), download the BlackBerry app to your phone, and then connect the latter to the former via USB. (Double-alas: Bluetooth isn't supported, though the developers say they're working on it.)

There are a few caveats here. For starters, nowhere on the TetherBerry site does it mention device compatibility, and because there's no trial version available, you could end up paying for a product that doesn't work on your model.

What's more, using the app could violate your carrier's terms of service, though I'm not sure what the repercussions of that might be. (As long as you don't download gigabytes' worth of data at a time, you should be able to fly under the radar.)

Finally, there's the cost: TetherBerry's introductory price (good only until tomorrow, March 12) is $39.99, and after that it jumps to an even steeper $59.99. Sorry, but that's just too high, even for an app as incredibly useful as this one. (At least there's a 30-day money-back guarantee.)

Because I have no BlackBerry on which to test TetherBerry, I can't say for sure just how useful it is. If you decide to take the plunge, please leave a comment letting us know how the software fared. [via jkOnTheRun]