17-JUN-2009

The iPhone 3.0 software is finally available and for me, one of the most important (and until now uncertain) features is the ability to tether - to use your phone as a modem for your laptop when you are out and about. Your laptop connects to your phone using Bluetooth and then your laptop is able to make use of the phones 3G or GPRS connection to connect to the Internet.

Every Nokia and Ericsson phone I have had since Bluetooth was invented has supported this out of the box but not the iPhone 3G and that was one of the few disappointments back when iPhone 3G was introduced. Now this has been fixed. Still, it was somewhat uncertain if Sonera (the operator I use here in Finland) would take the opportunity to block this ability in the iPhone since Apple offered them this option. In other phones here in Finland the ability to tehter just exists and operators can not block it, but in the iPhone it can be blocked by the operator. For example AT&T in the US has blocked tethering in the iPhone.

Fortunately, Sonera has not blocked tethering and it works beautifully. I just pared the phone with my laptop and chose "connect to network" under Bluetooth on my Laptop and I was connected to the Internet. The iPhone simply flashes a blue banner at the top of the screen indicating that tethering is in use. Compared to how incredibly difficult this was on a Windows Mobile device (see HTC Universal as a Bluetooth Modem), I have to say Apple has implemented this feature perfectly.