I have not tested this myself, so I’m taking the video at face value, but the basic here is you tether by launching a new HTML5 web app for the iPhone that lets you tether your 3G-enabled iPhone or iPad to any wireless-enabled device. Right now you can sign up for a free trial if you use blackberry or Android, $15  a year for iphone.

What makes this interesting, assuming this works well, is that Apple cannot remove this app from the app store because this is a webservice.  I’m sure they will try to find a way to block it, or sue Tether.  Regardless, this is clearly not the end of the story; we’ll keep you posted.  Till then, check out the Vid below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GkbAiRMf40

The work around is to ROOT your phone or put it in airplane mode and download it that way. You can also root your phone and install it.  If you are not in the U.S., then don’t worry about it, you should be fine.  Some posted the direct link to download the .apk if you are so inclined. http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/downloads/detail?name=wireless_tether_2_0_2.apk

I already have PDANet on my Droid so I’m already grandfathered in, but still.  What a pain!  As I’ve written before, one of the main reasons I jailbroke my iphone is to be able to tether, and I’m NOT going to pay extra for it.  That is a clear case of carriers trying to bleed extra money our of us because they can.  And dont give me (its too much load on the system) excuse. You are already addressing this by putting caps on (which does make some sense) but a data bit is a data bit.  Regardless of what that bit is used for. Course, this not the first time we have heard of this.  Remember AT&T’s threatening letters it sent out to people with tethering apps installed?

Something doesn’t sound right about this though… from a legal point of view I mean.  Can AT&T FORCE me to purchase a service I do not want?  We already had the ruling that its not illegal to have jailbroken apps.  Now for a service provider to force me to pay because of how I use my dataplan?  Cue the lawsuits.  When the talk about limiting HOW much data you consume, I was not that riled up.  Yes, if you buy an unlimited account, it should be unlimited, but all future accounts having levels, sure.  But to charge me extra because I’m using the SAME amount of data differently?  No this is all FAIL to me.   I checked the MiWi site and nothing on it yet.

I’ve done some checking around and seems they have been sending text messages and letters.  None of the products are listed by name, but it looks like they are pretty serious about it.  Funny thing, nothing from Verizon yet.

Image from 9to5 mac.

Dear [Name of Account Holder],

We’ve noticed your service plan may need updating.

Many AT&T customers use their smartphones as a broadband connection for other devices, like laptops, netbooks or other smartphones– a practice commonly known as tethering. Tethering can be an efficient way for our customers to enjoy the benefits of AT&T’s mobile broadband network and use more than one device to stay in touch with important people and information. To take advantage of this feature, we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.

Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.

If you would like to continue tethering, please log into your account online at www.wireless.att.com, or call us at 1-888-860-6789 Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST or Saturday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, by March 27, 2011 to sign up for DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering. Here are details on the plan:

DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering
• $45 per month (this gives you 4GB in total, combining both your smartphone data plan for $25 and the tethering feature, $20)
• $10 per each additional GB thereafter, added automatically as needed
• Mobile Hotspot capabilities are included for compatible Smartphones

If we don’t hear from you, we’ll plan to automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB after March 27, 2011. The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.

If you discontinue tethering, no changes to your current plan will be required.

It’s easy to track your usage throughout the month so there are no bill surprises. For example, we send you free text messages when you reach 65, 90, and 100 percent of your plan’s threshold. If you would like to monitor your account more closely, go to www.att.com/dataplans to learn about other ways to track your data usage.

As a reminder, our smartphone data plans also include unlimited usage of Wi-Fi at no additional charge. AT&T smartphone customers can use Wi-Fi at home or on-the-go at any one of our more than 23,000 U.S. hotspots already included in your data plan.

Thank you for bringing your account up to date. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve your mobile broadband needs.

Sincerely,

AT&T

Please update your data plan by March 27, 2011 if you intend to continue tethering

To learn more and update your plan, visit att.com/dataplans

Reach us for assistance during business hours: Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST Saturday 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST at 1-888-860-6789

Instead you have to PAY $20 a month for tethering (hotspot) and if you go over 2G, you pay ANOTHER $20.  Sigh.  This is BS since I only need to tether once a month at best and then for just a few hours. So this begs the question that I brought up in my previous post.  Can we expect that a jailbroken Verizon iphone 4 will support PDANet just as well as the AT&T version will?  I may still pull the trigger on the 3rd and order the phone, but this little bit of news dampens my excitement a bit.  Perhaps I’ll ask this on Quora.

An interesting point though is that I hear on the rumor mill that you get 5G of tethered data included in the $30 month data plan.  Still waiting on that…

I will be keeping an eye out on the subject and you KNOW within 3 hours of the first iphone hitting the pavement it will be jailbroken and someone will be testing data apps.  And I’ll be here watching.. and waiting…

Well, seems like I’m not the only one who has seen this on 3.1.2.  The fix was a pain. I had to uninstall MiWi and do a deep reboot a few times.  MiWi FAIL!.  The problem is that MiWi on 3.1.2 somehow messes up with the network carrior settings, not fully sure what it does, but after I installed and used MiWi, which worked fine btw, I had to turn off and on my radios if I wanted to use them, this means edge, 3G and WIFI.  The fix is to do a  number of reboots, and if that does not work for you, try resetting the network carrier setting.

I ended up reinstalling PDANet and had to reinstall the SBSetting switch for PDANet as well.  Has anyone else experienced this?  Let us know, but for now, if you are 3.1.2 3g or 3gs, you may want to keep away from MiWi and stick with PDANet.  Sure you cannot connect you ipad because the ipad cannot support ad-hoc connections, but else its been a great tool that I have used for years and sits as No. 3 in my top 10 list of jailbreak apps.

YES..   Ok, now ‘why’ its yes..

You do NOT have to jailbreak you iPad to tether.  You only have to jailbreak the iPhone.  (if you are using an iphone that is)  Keep in mind that the connecting device is the device that has the 3G or whatever wireless data transport.  The iPad connects to your device using WIFI.  So the iPad does not know (or care) if its connecting to a phone, a wireless router, or smoke signals as long as it follows the 802.11x protocol. So you have tethering working on your iphone already, then you are good to go with the iPad.

Hope this helps.

Anyway, getting to the point…
Blackra1n is pretty dead simple to use. Go here http://blackra1n.com/ and download.

Plug in the phone, hit ‘make it rain’ and chill for 60 sec or so. Dont touch anything or you will screw it up. Once its down we go to step two.
The following is right from mobile crunches site, so I have not tried it..

# Look for the Blackra1n icon on your iPhone’s homescreen. Open the Blackra1n app
# Tap the label that reads “sn0w”, then hit the Install button in the upper right. This will unlock your phone for use on any SIM-compatible carrier, and reenable the IPCC hack required to enable tethering.. This part should take about 30 seconds.
# Once the unlock is complete, open Safari. Navigate to http://help.benm.at
# Scroll down the page and tap “Mobileconfigs”
# Find the proper IPCC file for your carrier. In the case of AT&T, that would be in U.S.A > AT&T. Tap this file, then hit the “Install” button. Confirm the resulting prompt, alerting you that the file has not been signed. Allow the IPCC file to install, which will take about 10 seconds.
# Close Safari. Hold the sleep and home button until your iPhone resets. This reboot may take a bit longer than normal.
# When your iPhone resets, go into Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering. If you can successfully switch the “Internet Tethering” slider to “On”: Congratulations! Everything seems to have worked as expected.

Good luck kiddies!!

I read through the post and the notes; so a few words of warning…

First off, like anything READ ALL THE STEPS!

• There is a fix if you lose Visual Voice Mail or SMS, so dont panic. look here. http://help.benm.at/help.php
• No one knows of ATT is charging or not for this service.  I’ve heard they are going to charge $50 a month (this site is saying $70) once they get their act together.  So I would use this sparingly until more is known. So far, I have heard of anyone’s bill going up.
• From what I’ve read, this should be reversable. You are only installing some software and updating settings.  Not sure though.

So there you go.  Give it a try and let me know if it works out for you.  As for me, I think I’ll stick with PDANet.

{Update} Seems they do have WIFI for the conference rooms, but it was just down for a bit.  Still, I stand by my post.

Solution?  Tethering!  And what do I use?  Well, No.3 on my top ten list, PDANet.  Again, a life saver.  Now, for those who have been at Moscone Center in San Francisco, the 3G connection for AT&T is not great and spotty at best when underground.  So having numbers instead of bars for reception is critical. I have an article in iphone magazine where I talk about improving reception, but here is how to change bars to numbers.

I’ve written about PDANet before, on how I love it, but this post will have a slight bit of rant to it.

<rant>

I normally use the wifi to tether my laptop to the iphone and that works pretty well.  The only issue is others can jump on it to, causing issues.  I have been meaning to start using USB but never got around to it.  Well, clearly I cannot use WIFI here, so I finally downloaded the (Windows Only) USB client and clicked install …. what???  I need itunes??  FAIILLLL.  Ug.  I hate using itune.  I do not even like it installed on my machines if I can get away with it.

</rant>

Once I installed everything, PDANets client installed and worked smooth as silk. Its great!  So whats going to happen in 3.0?  I dont know.  The SDK shows we can have tethering, but AT&T has been mum on the subject. I’m betting they will have a charge for tethering. (You watch).   Till then, I’m loving PDANet. … yes, I know, I should go work for them and do promotions.