Guides

Now that Geohot has released the blackra1n RC3 jailbreaking tool, activating tethering on an iPhone 3G or 3GS is a snap. Many international users already have tethering, meaning they can share their iPhone data connection with a computer. AT&T does not offer this option in the US.

Fortunately it's never been simpler to tether if your iPhone is running the latest firmware (3.1.2). Follow these steps to activate tethering, just keep in mind you are breaking all kinds of agreements with AT&T and Apple in the process.

You may have been lead to believe that your original iPhone was so dated the radio couldn't handle MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) even if if Apple and AT&T wanted it to. The truth is out there, and it has arrived in the form of an app available now via Cydia.

ActivateMMS2G is an application that promises to activate MMS capabilities on your original iPhone. The software will specifically NOT work with the iPhone 3G or the 3GS, which are slated to receive MMS support from AT&T later this summer.

AT&T does not currently allow tethering on the iPhone even though Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 includes the feature. The company is still deciding what a tethering data plan for iPhone would cost and how it would be structured.

Tired of waiting? If you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS running OS 3.0 and a computer running iTunes 8.2 on Mac OS X here's how to activate tethering. You will be able to connect your computer to the AT&T data network using USB or Bluetooth via your iPhone.

A new, potentially terribly useful, third party application for the iPhone was recently released by a Carnegie Mellon University student named Jahanzab Sherwani. This new application, called 'Touchpad for iPhone', allows you to use your iPhone as a wireless touchpad to control your PC mouse. The application is based heavily on VNsea (a graphical VNC client for both the iPhone and the iPod touch) and requires that you have a VNC server installed on the PC you wish to control.

At first, this might seem like a useless parlor trick, but a quick bit of thinking (or reading of Sherwani's suggested uses) quickly reveals a potential for a serious level of utility from Touchpad. Basically, Touchpad allows you full mouse based control over your PC via your iPhone. As Sherwani points out, this means that Touchpad for iPhone can be used to wirelessly perform tasks on your PC such as

As most everyone knows by now, Apple's official stance of not allowing third party software to be developed for the iPhone hasn't done much to stop it. At the time of writing this article, there are already third party IM clients, an iPhone OS X terminal, spanking new GPS software, and much much more. Though third party software packages have been streaming in by the dozens, initially there was little structure to development.

Things are changing. As developers collaborate and as more and more applications are introduced and delivered to users through methods which keep getting simpler and simpler, an informal set of standards is blossoming.

In an attempt to provide structure where Apple has not, Lucas Newman - developer of the first native iPhone game, Lights Off - has just released an Unofficial iPhone SDK. The SDK and guide provide

In the first few post-iPhone launch days, there seems to be a bit of an epidemic. Many technology sites, particularly the iPhone dedicated sites, don't seem to be able to get out of pre-launch mode. I thought I'd give it a shot.