I used Tether on my BB Tour and loved it. I got it on sale for $25, but would have gladly paid $50 for it because it worked so well.
I was a little concerned when I got my Inc. and found I couldn't get Tether for it yet. I immediately signed up to be notified when it became available, which I did today.
In the meantime I installed PdaNet on my Inc. and laptop and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works, especially for a free app.
So a few hours ago I downloaded and installed Tether for Android and I decided to do a little "benchmark" testing and compare the two programs using the Speakeasy.net speed test and the Speedtest.net speed test.
I ran the test 3 times on 3 different servers(D.C., Chicago, and Seattle - I live in southeast Virginia - I figured close, far, and farthest) using both tethering programs and both speed test sites.
Well I won't take up the forum space (unless you want me to) with all the numbers, but the bottom line is the results were pretty darn close.
Strangely enough Tether faired better on the Speakeasy test, but PdaNet faired better on the Speedtest.net test.
Tether's numbers, whether better or worse, were much more consistent than PdaNet's. This does make sense to me, because subjectively, it does appear that Tether is a little more stable than PdaNet.
But overall both programs are very adequate and work quite well for me. Speeds are very close to each other and Tether seems a little more reliable. Neither program seems to be outright better or worse than the other.
I was going to test the PdaNet program using bluetooth, but realized it would be moot as the Tether program doesn't offer bluetooth yet. I will be testing this as soon as its available so I can compare the programs again.
I know that when I used Tether via bluetooth on my BB, although I don't remember any exact test numbers, I was amazed at how fast it was especially with my ridiculously cheap bluetooth dongle (literally $1 but works fine). I find that PdaNet via bluetooth doesn't appear to be near as fast, actually its quite slow for me. Not desirable at all, but it works in a pinch.
For the time being I will be using both programs until Tether decides to charge me and I will reevaluate the situation then.
One other thing that may be making me lean towards PdaNet, is the ability to text message on the computer. I love this feature as it helps me attempt to replace my absolute favorite program for my BB, "Blurts". Blurts lets you do lots of things on your BB from your computer including text messaging. I still miss the other things Blurts could do, but this PdaNet text messaging helps fill the void a little.