Developer manages to Tether with iPhone OS 3.0 over USB and BT

Apple stated in their iPhone OS 3.0 preview special event that the OS update is fully compatible with tethering, or sharing your iPhone’s connection with a computer, on the client side. All that’s keeping you from tethering iPhone OS 3.0 is an agreement between you and your cell phone provider. Well, unless you’re a developer and don’t mind hacking a little bit. Steve Troughton-Smith, a developer, managed to do just that, and isn’t shy about letting the world know about it.

Steve doesn’t give any details about how another developer (someone with access to iPhone OS 3.0 right now) might replicate this hack, but he did provide pictures in his tweet about tethering.

The hack involves making changes to some carrier files in the new OS, and that’s where the instructions end. Steve succesfully tethered his iPhone 3G to his notebook over USB, and the Preference pane shows that it should work over Bluetooth as well. He’s also admitted to using NetShare for quite some time, so he’s accustomed to tethering already. If you don’t recall, NetShare is an app that was pulled form the App Store fairly quickly because it lets you tether your iPhone to a computer without a monthly plan from your carrier. Still, I’d be a bit worried about AT&T calling me up to find out why I’ve been using my data plan so much.

This is a fun hack, but the reality for all of us is that AT&T will likely tack an additional fee on to the monthly plan of anyone who wants to tether. I tend to think they’d sell a lot more iPhones if they offered this feature for free (you are paying for the data once already after all), but I’m not holding me breath. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this before June.

Via [MacRumors]