Free Tethering
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ClockworkMod Tether serves free Android USB tethering, no root required
Not content to provide us with ClockworkMod Recovery and other fine hacks, Koush just made a free USB tethering app available for Android aptly called ClockworkMod Tether Alpha. While it's not the first app to bypass paid tethering plans, it supports unrooted phones and works with Linux, Mac and Windows computers. Just enable USB debugging on your phone, download the appropriate installer for your desktop OS of choice, then connect both devices via USB and you're all set. The installation process creates a virtual network adapter on your computer and pushes a matching APK to your phone. A proxy is used to avoid detection by the carriers. We tested the app on a late-model MacBook Air running OS X Lion and an AT&T-branded Samsung Captivate Glide -- along with a couple other handsets -- without much success (as documented in the screenshot above). Then again, based on the discussions following Koush's Google+ post (source link below), the app appears to work for many folks and continues being tweaked on an hourly basis. Clearly your mileage will vary, but let us know in the comments how it's working out if you've installed the app.
Carriers crack down on Android tethering apps, rain on our mobile hotspot parade
Well everybody, it looks like the free ride is over: carriers in the US have started to seriously crack down on Android tethering apps. Head on over to the Android Market site and try to install an app that turns your smartphone into a WiFi hotspot -- there's a pretty good chance you'll be told, "this item is not available on your carrier." We checked out a number of different tethering options and they were all blocked by T-Mobile and AT&T, which isn't entirely new. Verizon has also joined the party and, while it missed at least one that we spotted, we're sure they'll all be gone in short order. Only Sprint has decided against banning such apps... for now. It looks like you might have to finally cough up for that tethering plan you've been desperately trying to avoid.
Rogers customers get to keep free tethering and get offered a paid nav app
Our Canadian friends have a couple of new products to look at if they have an iPhone. The first is Rogers Navigator, powered by TeleNav. For $4.99 a month Rogers' iPhone customers get a full featured turn-by-turn solution with spoken instructions. The app includes real time traffic alerts and rerouting, online pre-planning with the ability to send destinations from the web to your iPhone, iPod integration and an extensive POI database. The app is similar to the AT&T Navigator app, and has the same feature set. An even bigger deal is that Rogers has continued its introductory free tethering plan. Rogers customers who subscribe to a data plan of 1 GB or more a month get tethering included at no extra charge. It was expected that Rogers would start charging for tethering, but the company has decided to continue to offer it for free. Are you listening AT&T? Didn't they say many months ago that tethering was coming soon? You can bet it won't be free. [Thanks to many of our Canadian readers for the tethering info]
