So there's good news and bad news, and we're not even giving you the option of choosing which you'd prefer to hear first (hint: it's the good). Sprint has dropped the price of its Phone-as-Modem plan (capped at 5GB monthly) to just $15 per month. Now, the rest of the story. First off, you must own a Power Vision phone with connection capabilities to a laptop. Next -- unlike the old PAM plan which ran $49.99 / month all by itself -- this "attachable plan" requires you to have another data plan already on your account. For instance, the BlackBerry Personal Pack ($30 / month) or the Worldwide Data Plan ($70 / month). In the end, it looks as if tethering in and of itself got cheaper, but those newfound strings that are reportedly attached will likely cause some frustration.

[Via phonescoop]

So there's a rumor floating around the internets concerning AT&T, iPhones, and tethering. The story goes something like this: the word tether is mentioned in an AT&T notice about users upgrading to a new iPhone and being forced into another two-year agreement. Apparently, some folks who've only quickly browsed the document made the mistake of assuming that AT&T used the word "tether" the way we all know it best: computer-to-phone, modem-style tethering. Unfortunately, this is a semantic problem -- what AT&T's talking about is using the dock connector to activate the phone, and sync with your computer... not the other way around. So next time you hear someone talk about AT&T's "tethering" plan feel free to set 'em straight.

The lovely, charming, and handsome folks over at DeLorme are all hot and bothered about their company's latest laptop and UMPC compatible GPS unit, the Earthmate GPS LT-40. The little yellow device sports an STMicroelectronics Teseo chipset, which apparently improves upon the heartbreaking and sub-par "satellite signal retention" and "positional accuracy" you've come to expect from other providers. The chip is even capable (they say) of finding your location in hard-to-reach areas, like around skyscrapers, or in a black hole. Additionally, the LT-40 is Galileo-ready, and uses a little something known as "Kalman filtering," which can function well even in high RF areas. The LT-40 will go on sale in April 2008 for $69.95 coupled with the Street Atlas USA 2009 software. Woo!

[Via Navigadget]

The Asus Eee PC isn't missing many must-have specs right out of the box, but there's always going to be a reason or three for some internal Bluetooth. Luckily, the hack really isn't too terribly difficult as demonstrated by tnkgrl -- as long as you've got a basic idea about what you're doing when it comes to a few stray USB wires and a motherboard. It involves a standard USB Bluetooth dongle stripped to its essentials and hooked up to the mini PCIe slot that also hosts the Eee PC's wireless card. The hack doesn't mess with your original wireless, and provides the sweet, sweet Bluetooths to XP and the standard Xandros OS. And speaking of Xandros, someone's also gone through the trouble of getting their WM6 HTC TyTN up and tethered with the Eee -- which seems like a natural next step after you manage the tnkgrl hack, but we're not the boss of you.

Read - Internal Bluetooth hack
Read - TyTN tether

We've seen some pretty wild ideas for space tethers, but it seems like actually executing is a little trickier than people expect -- a joint Russian Space Agency / ESA Young Engineers Satellite 2 mission just screeched to a halt as the deployment of an 18-mile space tether went awry. The project, which was to involve the longest object ever deployed in space, was part of a challenge issued to European university students to safely return an object from space, but failed when the the capsule accidentally released after just 5 miles of tether had unwound. The team thinks the idea still has merit, saying that "they are extremely satisfied and would like to do more mission testing." Here's hoping the next time goes a little smoother.

Read -- NewScientist article on the mishap
Read -- Video of how the mission was supposed to go

Taking a stroll across the moon is one thing, but trying to get your footing on an asteroid is apparently an entirely different beast. Due to the low gravity and granular covering present on such space rocks, the professionals have been unable to get up close and personal, but MIT researchers have devised a method for roping one in so that astronauts can partake in "an in-depth exploration of its composition." Essentially, a "lightweight rope" would be wrapped entirely around a given asteroid after being launched from a "remote-controlled rocket," which would then enable the space walkers to work on the delicate surface without too much fuss. Sounds like the perfect gizmo for the wannabe space cowboy, no?

[Via CNET]

While a number of recent space-based experiments have proven quite successful, it must not have been Ted nor Gadget's day. The daring duo that made up the MAST project was supposed to "test the survivability of a thin, braided tether in space," but due to a glitch in the restraint system that "kept Ted from pushing away hard enough to keep unreeling the tether from its spool," the once hopeful mission has come to an ill-fated close. Rather than reaching a full kilometer, the tether was only able to reach a few meters before coming to a stop, but the team at Tethers Unlimited aren't calling it quits just yet. They did admit to not knowing precisely what caused the costly mishap, but the crew also suggested that they'll try to use the small amount of data they did gather to analyze "how a short tether behaves in microgravity." Don't worry fellas, there's always next time.

Joining the array of GPS systems showing off at this year's CeBIT is MyGuide's Splash S, which doesn't really strive to be different outside of its tethering abilities, but gives us all one more option in the saturated 3.5-inch GPS market if nothing else. Encased in a rugged enclosure that can purportedly resist shocks and extreme temperatures, this navigation system touts a 320 x 240 resolution screen, 300MHz Centrality Atlas II processor, handsfree Bluetooth capability, 64MB of built-in RAM, integrated RDS / TMS traffic information receiver, an SD / MMC card slot, rechargeable Li-ion battery, music / video playback, an image viewer, and a copy of Windows CE to run the show. Per usual, no details regarding price or availability were divulged, but feel free to click on through for a few more snapshots.

[Via NaviGadget]