So iPhone OS 3.0 dropped yesterday, bringing with it such overdue features as copy/paste, MMS, and tethering. Well, not MMS. Or tethering.
See, while the OS is capable of both, these two features have been delayed indefinitely while AT&T apparently tries to get its act together.
Fortunately, you can enable iPhone tethering right now, and without jailbreaking your handset. Here’s how.
(Note that I performed these steps on a system running Windows Vista x64, but the steps are virtually identical for other versions of Windows. Also, standard disclaimer: This may violate your terms of service, tick off AT&T, cause your iPhone to turn green, etc. Try at your own risk.)
- Click Start, type command, and then click Command Prompt. (XP users should click Run, type cmd, and then hit Enter.)
- Copy and paste the following line (quotes and all) into the command prompt: “C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
- Type exit and hit Enter.
- Download this modified IPCC file and save it to your desktop or wherever.
- Now fire up iTunes and connect your iPhone. When it’s done syncing, click your iPhone in the Devices section.
- Shift-click the Check for Update button. Navigate to the folder where you saved the IPCC file. Next to the File name field, click the pull-down and choose iPhone Carrier Configuration Files (*.ipcc). Now the file you downloaded should be appear.
- Click the IPCC file, then click Open. Wait a few seconds and you’re done!
- Disconnect your iPhone, turn it on, then venture into Settings, General, Network. You should see an option called Internet Tethering. Turn it on, then follow the prompts from there.
As you can see from the screenshot, an iPhone can be tethered via USB or Bluetooth. I tried the latter option with an MSI Wind U115 netbook, and it worked like a charm.
So much like a charm, in fact, that I’m sitting here grinning like an idiot. This so enhances the iPhone’s versatility as a travel tool. Now we just have to hope that Apple or AT&T doesn’t tank this somehow, or start charging an extra $70/month for tethering (as has been rumored). That would make me so very angry.
