GadgetReview

Just when you thought your iPhone could liberate you and your laptop from the confines of your home, think again.  Apparently, the latest iPhone OS, 3.0 beta 2 will disable the iPhone tethering hack that required absolutely no Jailbreaking.  Obviously it was just a matter of time before Apple closed this hole, but here’s hoping that all the new features in the next iteration of OS 3.0 are far from pertinent.

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If you’re anything like me you’re not willing to Jailbreak your iPhone for the opportunity to tether the device to your computer for go any where Internet surfing.  Additionally, the folks at iPhone-Dev have yet to figure out how to Jailbreak the iPhone 3GS, although word on the street is that it’s coming any day now.

Well, fortunately there is a work around that requires no Jailbreaking or messy hacking to Tether it up.  Just follow the below instructions and you’ll be tethering with your iPhone 3GS or 3G running iPhone 3.0 software in no time flat.

1. Point your iPhone’s browser to help.benm.at
2. Scroll down to the blue button that says “Mobileconfigs’ and click it
3. Next select your country
4. Then choose your carrier
5. You’ll then be prompted with a profile install which you should do
6. Once that is complete click the iPhone’s Home button>Settings>General>Network>Internet Tethering>On
7. Select USB or Bluetooth (I choose USB)
8. Then plug your iPhone into your computer
9. Those on Macs, your Network settings screen should automatically pop up under system preferences
10. Select the iPhone (called Ethernet Adapter (en2) ) and the system will configure the DHCP info accordingly (this will probably happen after you click apply) and click Apply
11. Surf the net!

Note, we still don’t know what kind of action AT&T will take against those who perform heavy Internet surfing on a tethered iPhone, or any tethered iPhone as it’s completely unsanctioned and may either break the contractual terms or cost you some serious dough.

Update: Many people seem to be having trouble getting this to work.  If you’d like some help please email info [at] gadgetreview.com.

Update 2: A German iPhone user on T-Mobile just wrote in and said this is what he/she had to do to get it working: “you have to install the mobile config, restart, delete the config, install the config, restart and then you can use it!”.  Interesting that you should have to install it twice, but who knows and if it works so be it!

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According to an Information Week source, AT&T is planning on rolling out an iPhone tethering plan sometime in the future, but was remiss to announce an official date or time frame.  On another note, they will launch MMS capabilities for the iPhone later this summer after completing system upgrades.  Apparently, this is what an AT&T spokesperson said:

We absolutely will offer MMS on iPhone 3G S in late summer once we complete some system upgrades that will ensure our customers have the best experience with MMS. These upgrades are unrelated to our 3G network. We plan to offer a tethering plan, but don’t have an announcement to make at this time on that.

In the mean while, we’ll all have to be satisfied with the iPhone 3GS, which launched today for $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB capacities.

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Sprint has updated their site with specs for the highly anticipated Palm Pre.  As previously mentioned, I’m mad at Palm, so I’ve sort of turned a blind eye to them.  So what do we know now that we previously didn’t?  The built-in storage is 8GB, and when all said and done, after the OS is installed you’re left with 7.49GB.  MMS has also been confirmed in addition to the ability to use the Palm Pre as a modem via USB or Bluetooth.

[Sprint via Mobilecrunch]

According to a TUAW source close to AT&T, the service provider will unveil the highly anticipated (and long rumored) iPhone 3G tethering plan at Macworld this week.  The details are still lacking, but for now we’ll still bank on the initial rumor of $30/month and a data cap of 5GB.

Well, guess all we can do is hurry up and wait.

Michael Arrington sat down with AT&T’s Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega at the Web 2.0 summit yesterday.  During the interview Vega confirmed that iPhone 3G tethering would be come official “soon”, but didn’t make any indication of price or options.  In case you missed it, you can already tether your iPhone 3G to your laptop, you’ll just need to go ‘jailbreak’.

[MobileCrunch]

By: Christen da Costa

Hold up! Before you think you can run off to the App store and pick up iPhone Modem, think again. This one’s for jailbreak(ed) iPhones only, that is until Apple approves their app, which has been the ‘approval queue’ since July. To start you’ll need to install the computer app on your machine. Once that’s setup and running, open your iPhone’s settings and under WiFi, join the ‘iPhoneModem’ network. After that, launch the App on the iPhone and you’re in business. 10 seconds and you’re tethering.

Note that the App is shareware, so you’ll probably wanna fork over the $10. As usual, watch your bandwidth usage. AT&T monitors this type of stuff, and if you get caught they can shut you down.

[Modmyifone]

One of the biggest downsides to the 3G iPhone release was the lack of tethering. Now, thanks to the trusty NetShare app, you can do just that through a SOCKS5 proxy (ya, new to me too). Just download and go through the process. Sorry, pay $10 and download and go through the setup. As many folks have pointed out, watch out, because on a 3G iPhone you could suck down some serious bandwidth and get a big fat flag on your account. Yup, AT&T can cut you off if you use too much bandwidth. Course, if you ever wanna get out of your contract this might be a good method.

Update: The app has already been pulled. Big surprise.

Update 2: Ok, it’s now back and I’ve updated the below link since that changed.

NetShare is available here