tethering

While we're still waiting for AT&T to announce when tethering will be available here in the U.S. (let alone how much it's going to cost), the lucky bastards fortunate people of Australia will get to sink their teeth into tethering at no extra charge, starting right when the iPhone 3GS launches there on Friday, June 26, courtesy of Vodafone. The offer is their attempt to beat the competition, Optus, which also will be carrying the 3GS.

An iPhone app site posted information from "a source" earlier today stating that AT&T would be offering tethering for an extra $55 a month on top of the standard unlimited data plan. Now AT&T is saying that the rumors are false, though they offered no numbers to replace the ones they debunked.

So that super easy "hack" to enable tethering on the 3G we posted totally works on the 3G S. Simply open this link on your iPhone 3G S (same link we posted before) and install the profile. Boom, tethering!

Of course many have asked about enabling MMS and there's a solution for that too! The only caveat is that it requires a bit of actual work on your part. You'll need to tweak an iTunes preference file and a GSM phone with MMS capabilities. Aaron Krill has all the details on enabling MMS + tethering on both iPhones, so check that out and be sure to let us know the results!

Clever folks with clever tricks have once again found a way to enable tethering on iPhone 3.0. The workaround allows AT&T subscribers (among others) to enable tethering without hacking or paying a fee. It works by tweaking the carrier settings with an iPhone configuration profile. After installing the profile, tethering is automagically enabled! Rumor has it that you can enable MMS in the same manner, although the file currently available doesn't seem to enable it. We've heard that it might disable Visual Voicemail, although we haven't tried it yet.

Earlier today Apple announced that iPhone OS 3.0 would add tethering functionality to existing and future iPhones and would be available on 22 carriers at launch. Now Engadget claims to have word from an AT&T representative saying that they can confirm tethering will be available on the device at some point, but they can't announce any specifics like an availability date or pricing.

According to MacRumors, developer Steven Troughton-Smith has managed to enable data tethering in iPhone 3.0. The discovery was made after the developer altered carrier settings in an attempt to enable MMS. Once the preference was discovered, tethering was found to work over both USB and Bluetooth. Enabling tethering initially caused the phone to crash, although screenshots (shown below) later show that he did get things working.

At the iPhone OS 3.0 preview event today, Apple announced the inclusion of Copy & Paste in the upcoming 3.0 software update. MMS will also be coming in an update to the SMS app, which has been renamed to "Messages." Additional features such as multi-photo emailing, landscape email, notes syncing, and Spotlight searching will also be included. The update will be available in the summer.

Since its announcement yesterday, there's been quite a bit of speculation about what new features iPhone 3.0 will bring. BoyGeniusReport claims to have some concrete info which points to MMS and USB and Bluetooth tethering as two features which will definitely be included in the new software.

MacRumors believes that we'll see background processes in iPhone 3.0, which we've previously reported.

More details about a data tethering plan for the iPhone 3G in the US have been uncovered. MacBlogz says they were contacted by associates at AT&T with more information about the plan. They say AT&T is currently considering a $10/month price for the plan, significantly less than ones for other handsets on the network.

Apple rumor site MacBlogz is claiming to have details on the iPhone tethering plans that were announced by AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega last week. Not surprisingly, the plans for the iPhone are in line with the data plans they offer for other 3G devices. The source, which they claim is from within the company, says it will be an additional $30/month for 5GB worth of tethering for iPhone users. Plans with the tethering option built in may debut in the future as well. More details after the break.