UK carrier O2 has announced a new "Bolt On" option for iPhone subscribers, the Total Connectivity package. The plan combines O2's £9.79, 3GB per month tethering Bolt On with a standard O2 Home Broadband connection, at no extra cost. The deal is explicitly associated with the iPhone 3G however, and will be available only between November 10th and December 31st.
Blackra1n coder George Hotz has released blacksn0w, a new jailbreaking utility that unlocks iPhone firmware v3.1.2 and the latest baseband v05.11.07. The tool now allows users to upgrade to v3.1.2 from older firmware without losing the unlock. The process also enables tethering, allowing the handset to be used as a computer-connected modem even on carriers, such as AT&T, that still block the function.
AT&T's planned tethering support for the iPhone might not arrive until 2010, a a statement from a carrier spokesman suggests. Responding to a claim that tethering would arrive before the end of the year, the spokesman insists that no one at AT&T has ever made such as promise. "We promised MMS by end of summer and ended up being a few days late for that," the statement adds.
American iPhone owners will not be able to officially tether their devices for some time, AT&T has acknowledged. "Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience," a carrier spokesman claims. "For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience."
Tethering an American iPhone should be as equally viable as tethering an Irish one, a developer tells MacNN. While AT&T has not officially opened up tethering in the US, local owners of an iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware should be able to hack their phones to use the technology. The process begins by navigating to the "~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Carrier Support" folder, where users must rename an IPCC file as a ZIP document after creating a backup of the original.
A developer has allegedly enabled tethering with the iPhone 3.0 beta operating system, after "hacking around" with APNs in the Carrier.bundle file, according to MacRumors. A new preference window indicates that users will be able to tether via USB or Bluetooth, effectively turning the iPhone into an external modem for desktop or notebook computers.
In a question-and-answer session following the main iPhone 3.0 announcement, Apple has revealed several facts relating to the new firmware. It will for instance become available in the summer for both iPhones and iPod touches, though as in the past, Touch owners will have to pay $10 to upgrade. Apple has typically blamed accounting rules for the cost of significant Touch software changes.
The upcoming iPhone operating system, version 3.0, could add several long-awaited features such as MMS messaging support and tethering, unnamed sources have told the Boy Genius Report. Although the multimedia message format is relatively commonplace, enabling video and image transfers between phones, Apple so far has excluded the technology from its handset and forced users to download third-party apps as a work-around.
A new statement made by AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph De La Vega at the Web 2.0 summit has the company showing support for iPhone tethering – a hot topic as of late, considering Apple's banning of a utility that provides that functionality from the App Store. Technologizer reports that the move gives users an official path to explore, rather than relying on the now non-existent NetShare, or the contract-compromising iModem, the latter of which requires a jailbroken iPhone.
Apple may be looking to permit tethering iPhones to computers, at least in the United States, rumors suggest. Tethering enables people to treat cellphones as external modems, connecting where Ethernet or Wi-Fi is not an option. While the technology is increasingly popular in Europe and North America, AT&T has expressly forbidden the practice with the iPhone, even though other devices have permission, and the iPhone is offered with unlimited data plans.
After quickly grabbing the iPhone community spotlight, and consequently barred from the App Store, Nullriver's NetShare – an app designed to allow users to "tether" their iPhone to a computer – is again available for sale. While an explanation for the pull was not given, it most likely related to several wireless carriers' objections, since companies like AT&T offer a specific "tethering" data plan, providing users with on-computer data access through a wireless device.
AT&T will reportedly offer an iPhone tethering plan to users, according to an informant for The Boy Genius Report. The alleged tethering plan is mentioned in what appears to be a message meant for customer service representatives or technicians. The report claims that iPhone customers will be required to sign a new two-year contract, but the date will roll back to the original purchase date within 48 hours, echoing issues that surfaced from users upgrading to the 16GB iPhone.
