Newbie to Blackberry Playbook

New to CrackBerry and Playbook. Please direct me accordingly. Have a Torch, a Bold and now 2 playbooks. Do apps use data usage up on wifi in our house? Do you switch it over to something else when you are in the car like bridging or connect to my Torch? Very confusing how all this works. Just wondering if the apps on the playbook use data or part of the internet or are apps "free time" . My son has been playing a racing app and wonder how this is counted in usage? Sorry if not asking properly but confusing. THANKS!

If you're using the PB unbridged and on wifi, it's not using data on your phone account. If you are bridged, it probably is. I personally don't know which signal takes precedence when your phone is on wifi as well as having a good cell connection. I'm sure someone will chime in that knows that.

The PlayBooks use wifi unless you have the 3G version. Their use is paid for out of your monthly Internet Service Provider's bill. You have a contract with them with x amount of usage per month. When you exceed that amount of usage they usually charge you extra per Gigabyte.
Your Bold is on a Telecom Service Providers usually 3G or 4G Service. This service is usually more expensive than the wifi service mentioned above. Your cell phone can usually connect anywhere in the known universe.
Your PlayBooks can connect to the cell phone and use the cell phone signal as a Hotspot for surfing the Internet, email etc but you usually have to have an extra data plan for this to work. In the end it is far more costly to run the PlayBooks through the cell phone service than through your wifi at home. However the kids can play games on them, listen to music, watch movies etc in the car or anywhere in the known universe without connecting to the Internet or insuring extra costs. They can also connect to the Internet at wifi hotspot such as McDonalds, coffee shops, schools, universities etc without insuring extra costs.
Is this clear as mud?

BerryClan,

If you are into keeping cost down look into Comwave EPhone for your Playbook's FREE (USA/CANADA).

Works very well, even in the free wifi spots mentioned by Scooter75.

ePhone VoIP App With calling to almost 60 Countries | Comwave

Unless I've misunderstood, your son playing a game (as an App on the PB?) won't use any internet time at all... unless it's an internet game that you are playing via the PB browser?

Anyhow, the easiest thing is probably to set up Bridge to the PB from each of your BB phones. Install the bridge app on your phones (from AppWorld) and then setup Bridge on each of the PBs - click the gear wheel in the top right of PB to get to the settings... Blackberry Bridge is the ninth setting on the left. Bridging each of your phones to a different PB is probably easier to manage. There's a wizard that guides you through the setup.

Once you've got Bridge setup, the PB pretty much takes care of itself re: internet connections. So you don't have to actively switch things between wifi and bridge.

If you are in a Wi-Fi zone (e.g. at home) it'll use the broadband connection in preference to any other. It'll probably cost you nothing as you'll already be paying a monthly fee to your ISP - and the PB usage isn't (in all likelihood) going to tip you over any typical home broadband limit.

If you are out of WiFi range, your PB will use the BB phone (via bridge) to maintain the internet connection. Any internet use on the PB will go through the bridge and will be charged as if your BB phone was browsing the web... i.e. charged to your Data Plan, so again "free" as you've pre-paid for your BB data plan. (tho' be careful you don't go over the monthly dataplan limit!)

There is another way of connecting to the internet, which rather confusingly looks very similar to bridging in that it also uses your phone, but is called tethering. It uses your BB phone as a modem to connect and that might not be free - it depends on your phone network's policy. If you only setup bridge, but don't setup tether, you'll never be charged by mistake - as you'll be using either your BB dataplan (bridged) or your ISP broadband (wifi) connections which you've already paid.

HTH

Thank you. This is really a nice site. I hope to spend time on this when I can. I've had BB phones for many years and didn't know about this site. I'm going go over all these replies in detail. Thanks again.

Thank you for all the information. A lot to absorb but will read more in detail. I've had bb phones for years but not into apps and things. So an app is okay to play wherever and whenever, doesn't take up data, whether it's a free or paid app?

Originally Posted by BARRYCLAN

So an app is okay to play wherever and whenever, doesn't take up data, whether it's a free or paid app?

99% of Apps can be running on the PB anytime, anywhere and won't use the internet... at all.

The 1% is that there are game Apps that allow in-game purchases (extra levels, extra equipment, etc) and will use the internet, but only briefly while they buy the upgrade from AppWorld. They don't use the internet continuously while playing.

Most utility Apps are the same - they won't use the internet while doing what they do - playing music, editing photos, etc - with obvious exceptions such as Apps whose sole purpose is to facilitate communications over the internet such as Twitter apps, facebook, browsers, email, etc.

And even those internet-enabled Apps are still (probably) using the internet for "free" if your PB is connecting via home broadband, or via a bridged BB phone. ("free"... in the sense you've already pre-paid).

Welcome to CrackBerry and I hope you enjoy the PlayBook.

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

If you're using the PB unbridged and on wifi, it's not using data on your phone account. If you are bridged, it probably is. I personally don't know which signal takes precedence when your phone is on wifi as well as having a good cell connection. I'm sure someone will chime in that knows that.

WiFi always takes precedence regardless of signal strength.

Originally Posted by JeepBB

99% of Apps can be running on the PB anytime, anywhere and won't use the internet... at all.

The 1% is that there are game Apps that allow in-game purchases (extra levels, extra equipment, etc) and will use the internet, but only briefly while they buy the upgrade from AppWorld. They don't use the internet continuously while playing.

Most utility Apps are the same - they won't use the internet while doing what they do - playing music, editing photos, etc - with obvious exceptions such as Apps whose sole purpose is to facilitate communications over the internet such as Twitter apps, facebook, browsers, email, etc.

And even those internet-enabled Apps are still (probably) using the internet for "free" if your PB is connecting via home broadband, or via a bridged BB phone. ("free"... in the sense you've already pre-paid).

Unfortunately I've loaded some photo editing apps and music education apps that won't function unless they have access to the internet. My fault, I should have researched as I usually do. Needless to say I deleted them as I won't use a utility or productivity app that requires a data connection.

Originally Posted by BARRYCLAN

Thank you. This is really a nice site. I hope to spend time on this when I can. I've had BB phones for many years and didn't know about this site. I'm going go over all these replies in detail. Thanks again.

If you are on AT&T, there is one exception about Bridge. You should not use the Bridge app from App World, but the generic one from rroyy.com.