I can’t get any work done at home. I mean, I simply have too many things to play with and too short of an attention span to be anything close to productive. Therefore, I usually leave the house for somewhere with internet access whenever I want to study, write or whatever. Usually, I’ll end up at a coffee shop or Aberdeen Center but unfortunately, Aberdeen Center is home to one of the absolute worst internet connections on the planet. The Wi-Fi signal is weak and even if you do manage to get full bars, you’re crawling along at a dial-up snail pace. This is probably because it is being throttled due to the operators being morons but either way, there’s decent food around so I usually go anyways. How, if that’s the case, do I manage to get on the internet?
Prior to Wednesday, I had to rely on PDAnet, an iPhone app available only if you happen to jailbreak your phone. While it worked, it was buggy and after awhile, it limited your access if you decide not to pay for it. Now, I would pay for the program…I’m not opposed to supporting software developers but I know for a fact that tethering your iPhone to your laptop can be done without any sort of app whatsoever. Doing so is not easy as it involves actually typing in several commands and modifying a couple files and such but I don’t think I want to pay for something that simply makes that slightly easier. Maybe if the app worked 100% of the time, I might.
However, this is all a moot point as the 3.0 software for the iPhone allows for seamless and easy tethering. How easy? Well, I turned it on, plugged my iPhone into my MacBook Pro and it worked immediately. No more messing around with creating adhoc networks! I’m not kidding…there’s probably something you’re supposed to do when plugging your iPhone into your laptop but since it just worked right off the bat, I’ve decided not to mess with it. I’m sure you Windows users might have a few menus and such to get through but on Mac OS, it was literally plug and play.
Now not everyone is going to be able to do this. I know for a fact that Rogers/Fido restricts tethering to accounts with a 1GB or more data plan so those of you with 500MB plans are SOL. No, there’s no actual good reason why they’ve done so other than to force people to get more expensive data plans. Your results in other countries may vary…since I heard that AT&T down in the States is not allowing it at all at the moment. You poor Americans…
{ 1 trackback }
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
i got really excited when i read your article title, and i realized about half way through reading it that i’m not in canada and most likely you’d be telling me i wouldn’t be able to teather an iphone here. darn. i’m still deciding on a new phone…argh…
I just switched to Tmobile not too long ago and I signed up for the $5.99 “GRANDFATHERED” unlimited T-zones plan
Now my phone is 3G enabled, but sadly it does not support Tmobile’s 3G band since Tmobile is a b*tch that way 
Unlimited internet for $6 a month…steal
It even works for iPhone users!
-Mike
agreed, this is truly awesome! but why cant i send pics straight out of sms? i mean its right there, but no one ever receives the message or text i send. weird.