This one came directly from a friend and fellow iPhone user I met in Columbus, Ohio last weekend. At the moment, AT&T doesn’t officially support tethering. They have a seperate 3G USB adapter product that costs an extra $60/month. However, with the latest 3.0 OS release, somebody over at BenM.at figured out a way to modify the default carrier profile to enable the feature (already built into the new OS).

It doesn’t require jailbreaking or a funky SIM/Service hack, it’s 100% reversable and on U.S. carriers, doesn’t seem to affect IMs. You can turn it on/off via a config interface under Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering.  It supports both USB and BlueTooth connections (after pairing with your laptop, look for a new network adapter).

Of course at some point, I’m sure AT&T will try to squash this hack. We already pay for “unlimited” data service via the iPhone interface so I assume that as long as people keep their tethering usage to a minimum, not much will happen until AT&T figures out how to trap and charge people for the service.

Not much new to report, just trying to get re-acclimated to the oppressive heat during the Georgia Summer while watching Maddie grow up.

• Madeline has pretty much given up crawling and is now walking almost full time!
• Apple just announced the new iPhone 3G S is set for release on June 17th – looking over the hardware changes … meh, I’ll keep my 3G and not worry about it. I don’t need a better camera, I don’t need more memory, I don’t need a compass and I really don’t care too much about voice control. It’ll be interesting to see what the performance differences are though.
• In conjunction with the new hardware platform, the 3.0 software set launches on the same day. This is what I’ve really been waiting on.
• Melissa’s birthday is coming up fast!
• I really like the Luminox 3000 Navy SEAL dive series but I like the Traser H3 P 6500 Type 6 even better. (Traser happens to license the P 6500 design directly to Luminox)

FYI: Leave it installed. Otherwise you’ll spend 20 minutes trying to figure out why your iPhone/iPod/iTouch won’t sync or kick into charge mode. A little more important than say, Bonjour.

Which btw, is a completely useless discovery protocol that CAN be safely deleted off your Window’s network as long as you don’t run anything related to Mac OS X or a handful of applications like Tivo desktop.

Every couple of weeks I browse through the iPhone App store hoping something catches my eye. 3rd party app development has really taken off – everybody with the SDK and a Macbook is hoping they’ll strike it rich with the next virtual fart machine, beer glass, etc. Sifting through all that useless crap can take some time but occasionally you stumble on a useful or productive application that enhances your iPhone.

This isn’t one of them. In fact, this app is the anti-christ of productivity. Simple to play, addictive and relatively cheap. Three components that make it easy to waste a couple hours staring at your iPhone screen.

Apple just dropped their latest firmware update for the iPhone. The 2.1 firmware update apparently addresses some issues with the 3G network, text messaging, application installations, iTunes backup speed, battery life, etc.

I never really had any trouble with applications crashing or dropped calls when using the 3G network but I have noticed a marked improvement on response time when opening Contacts. It would take roughly 3-5 seconds for my Contact list to “activate” prior to 2.1. Now my Contacts are usable almost immediately. Not sure what effect this update will have on my battery life but I’m turning 3G back on full-time as a test over the next 24 hours.

Oh yea, still no Flash support or cut&paste. Ah well, at least Apple is actively working on improvements.

Another year - another birthday come and gone (8/22/72).   The unfairness of it all – the older I get, the quicker each year seems to fly by.  I guess my accelerated return to the diapers from whence I came is balanced by getting to watch my little girl grow up – I can’t believe she’ll be a year old in less than 4 months!

Anyway, this year’s birthday was perfect – dinner with M&M at a small hole-in-the-wall resturant somewhere in the bowels of Poncey-Highland, icecream cake at the house, and a couple of cool gifts in no particular order:

1. A pair of shirts from [The Longboard House]
2. Apple’s [ iPhone Bluetooth Headset]
3. Factory Renewed [Tivo HD DVR]
4. Contour’s [iPhone Hardskin case] – Mel convinced an Apple employee to let her buy one before general release!
5. A pair of [PMAGs by Magpul] for my AR15

Yup. A great birthday indeed.