I _know_ this has been asked before but I have been trying to search the forums (and google) from my phone to no avail, its frustrating. If someone could paste in or linlk me to the info re is it possible to use my 8700 (cingular, but I am up on Rogers right now and paying for $20 ulim int'l data) as a modem ON MY APPLE POWERBOOK - I can't find a definative yes or no or walkthru. I don't care if its usb or bt (doubt bt'd work anyway). Search revealed the PC/win/desktop mgr solution but nothing mac :(

My condo only has landline d.u.n. *shudders* and to that end I don't even carry an rj-11 (this is the first place I have stayed without 802.11 or at least an rj-45 jack) and I really would like to get my powerbook online to download some large image-heavy PDF files for work (I am a graphic designer).

Anyhow I apologize for what _must_ be a repost but please help! If you would even be so kind as to PM me so I get an email response on the BB that would be immensely appreciated!!

Well I don't know how to use a BlackBerry as a modem on a mac... I do know it has to be over USB though; as even on a PC you can't use it over Bluetooth.

But I will warn you about one thing; You said you have Rogers "unlimited". Thats not truely unlimited im afraid; many people have been complaining as there is a cap at some point... most people came up with 25MB being the cap before they basically say "your abusing the unlimited or whatever, and we will now charge you extra". So be careful with that, especaialy when thethering.... you could rack up some serious charges really quick.

http://blackberryforums.com/showthread.php?t=26080 << That thread has a discussion on what I'm talking about.

Heh. I already was aware of that and signed your folk's petition. I say "your folks" because if you re-read my post I am a Cingular customer who happens to be on Rogers as my carrier (nice network btw, other than those billing issues) while up in BC this week...

I too was aware it worked on a PC with usb (again, in my post) - sorry, I am not trying to be caustic or to sound snappy or unappreciative of your reply - not to bite the hand that feeds, but it really didn't offer up anything I wasn't already aware of... Thanks for the warning on Rogers and good luck w/ the petition tho...

hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have a powerbook too and after doing much research on many websites there is no way to tether. what i have read, is that there is just some component of the blackberry that the mac doesnt read in order to recognize it as a modem. there are no applescripts for it and it sounds like there won't be for a long time. i was dissappointed too when i found this out.

It's because you need RIM's desktop manager to establish a tethering data connection between a computer and blackberry.

Unfortunately RIM does not support Mac OS X. So, like you, I'm stuck as well.

Darn. I was dreading (if half expecting) this response. I had hopes after reading that RIM had licensed PocketMac but in reality that was probably a stopgap measure to appease us mac folk... Oh well. Thanks for the replies!!

Btw, I am amazed, even up on top of the mountain here I have great service... I stopped for some coffee cuz its snowing like crazy - got over 10in last night ;). I guess I will be "forced" to wait on work and ski a bit more...

I thought that at one point, someone HAD gotten a BB driver to work through OS X. I am probably mistakening that with my old Nokia. Sorry I couldn't look into this for you Dave :-/

No worries, thanks for trying!!

I just take my SIM out and use my EDGE pc card. If you figure it out, let me know.

Well this is a borrowed PowerBook and I am waiting for an ExpressCard/34 for (soon to be my) a MacBook Pro... I have an older 700 series pcmcia card but did not bring it as it always seemed slow and flakey on the pc and is not one of the newer 800 series which has available Mac drivers...

I think we could figure out how to use the 8700 as a modem if we had a modem script built or some instructions on how to build one......that's basically what's preventing communication between the powerbook and the phone.....

if only everyone supported macs......

Any luck with this? :(

Same question here (although I'm in pre-purchase research mode). Wanting to trade in my Treo 650 for the BB 8700, but it looks like you really can't use it as a modem with a Mac.

Sigh...

You can now - just install Boot Camp and run Windows native - my MBP should arrive Wed and I will have the best of both worlds (well OSX, the best, and the "other world" of XP)

(Apologies in advance for cross-posting this in the several threads on this topic, I want to make sure that those who have expressed an interest in this are able to see it.)

I've started a bounty for the ability to tether a BlackBerry 8700 to a Mac (running Mac OS X). I've kicked in $50 to get things started, I'm hoping that some of you will want to contribute as well.

I've posted the details here:

www DOT alexking DOT org/blog/2006/06/08/tether-blackberry-8700-mac-bounty/

(I still am not allowed to post proper URLs)