We’re not sure how this one got past Apple’s App Store censors, but the clever kids at Nullriver have released what appears to be the first tethering solution for the iPhone. The $10 NetShare app is just a SOCKS proxy that links an ad-hoc WiFi network to the iPhone’s 3G or EDGE connection — and if we could get it to work, we’d probably think it was a fine, if hacky, solution to a major limitation of Steve’s baby. As it stands, though, the instructions are pretty sparse, and while we can get the app to recognize a connection, we’re not able to actually load anything. We’re not sure how long this one’s going to last — anyone else willing to give it a shot before it gets yanked?

As an iPhone owner, I noticed the above story over at Engadget while at work yesterday. I just put it in the back of my mind as something I’d do a little later in the day, spend the $10 bucks on the Nullriver app that allows my iPhone 3G to do something I’ve been wanting to since I’ve had the thing… connect to it wirelessly via my Nokia N810 or laptop while mobile.

That is until Apple, who had previously allowed and authorized the useful app into their coveted App Store, adding a functionality that’s on most smartphones worth more than 2 cents, as well as jailbroken iPhones as well. For free.

So at the end of the day, what happens? Apple pulls the app. Now who do the geeks with an iPhone that’s honestly lacking a few areas of functionality that other users have had for years get mad at? AT&T or Apple?

Can’t say that I’m surprised though.

Update: It’s back in the Apple App Store. I couldn’t even begin to tell you what’s going on with this; but if you really wanted it, go get it now before they change their mind… again.

Update: And it’s gone again.

My hate for wires still continues - feel free to read my other rant about wires right here. Enter the Digital Signature Mint 220.

Coming in under $180.00 USD, it offers:

• The Mint 220 Digital Music Station offers the highest fidelity digital audio, using Texas Instruments’ PurePath Digital audio amplification for optimal performance.
• Wireless 2.4GHz lossless audio streaming from your Mac or PC with the included Mint USB Wireless Transmitter
• Mint’s Di-Fi™ digital-sound is delivered from your PC or Mac wirelessly, with no loss of fidelity, up to 45 feet or 15 meters
• Careful craftsmanship, acoustic engineering and sealed enclosure design offer precise audio usually found only in much pricier systems
• Two 3.5” full-range Peerless® transducers for big speaker sound and compact, mini-speaker versatility.

What catches my eye is Di-Fi™. I’ve heard of wi-fi, just like everybody else… but Di-Fi is a promise that your already compressed mp3 music - or the uncompressed FLAC type(s) of music filetypes - will sound just as good over the air as it does in your headphones.

Hop down to your local Best Buy or hit up the MintDS (Mint Digital Signature) website for more information.

I hate wires. I really do. They just get in the way, trip you up, might be used to strangle you if you have enemies… ok. I just don’t like wires too well. Enter the Mint 300…

Digital Signature has accomplished these goals by creating advanced digital acoustic designs built using top grade components sourced all over the world. Powered by digital amplification control and wireless transmission techniques created by Digital Signature, the Mint Digital Music Stations offer audiophile sound at an unheard of price. Digital Signature has branded this new approach to audio quality, Di-Fi™.

Digital Signature’s newest system, The Mint 300 Digital Music Station delivers top performance – with >100 dB signal/noise ratio and <0.1% total harmonic distortion – in a package that includes speakers, amplifier with an iPod dock/charger, USB 2.4 GHz transmitter and remote for less than $350 MSRP.

At this price the Mint 300 is the only system that not only promises audiophile performance with iPod docking and charging, but also lossless, plug and play wireless streaming connectivity to Mac or PC for all of your digital sound. A remote control offers the final component of wireless freedom, making the Mint 300 as easy to use as it is to set up.

Not bad at all. I wonder how this competes against the Logitech Squeezebox Duet and other solid iPod audio offerings.

Click here to read more…

Well, after the Google Talk announcement for the iPhone and iPod Touch Mobile Safari browsers yesterday, Gizmo Project - which until my Nokia N810 I had rarely used since all of my contacts were either on Skype or other IM protocols (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ) - announced the ability to use IM via your cellphone. Gizmo Project had added the ability to IM AIM, MSN and Yahoo sometime last year or sometime on the PC, so you could still talk to your Gizmo Project contacts, as well as your AIM, MSN, and Yahoo contacts with Google Talk coming very soon.

Well, now they’re doing it for any cellphone, including the iPhone - just tried it and it works. But here’s a warning… it’s sorta spartan in it’s look and doesn’t seem quite yet ready for primetime.

I know what you’re thinking… launching any cellphone immediately before or after the Apple iPhone juggernaut is unleashed on the (now) entire planet on July 11th is folly. If it ain’t from Steve Jobs, fuggedaboutit.

Well, other cellphone companies sell millions of phones still and there’s nothing wrong with choice. Enter the OpenMoko FreeRunner. Previously released in a developers-only version. Now, ready and prepped for the retail market, it brings the following specs:

* Size and Weight
• 4.75 x 2.44 x 0.73 inches
• 6.5 ounces (185 grams)

* Display
• Touch Screen
• 2.8″ VGA (480×640) VGA Screen

* Speed
• ARM9 @ 400 MHz
• 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration

* GSM
• Tri band 850/1800/1900 MHz
• Tri band 900/1800/1900 MHz

* Power
• Removable 1200 mAh battery

* Memory
• 128MB SDRAM
• 256MB NAND Flash
• microSD Slot

* Input and Output
• Input and Output
• 2.5 mm audio jack
• GPS external connector

* Hardware Highlights
• Wi-Fi (802.1 1b/g)
• AGPS
• GPRS (2.5G not EDGE)
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3axis Motion Sensors (2)

* Software Highlights
• Openmoko GNU/Linux-based
• 100% FOSS on CPU
• GNU/Linux development tools

All for $399 USD. Unlocked, free to use wherever you please. Removeable battery - that’s actually a selling point for me.

Where will you be on July 11th? If you’re a red-blooded gadget hound that’s gotta have the absolute newest thing that’s anything from the mind of Steve Jobs and company, it’s more than likely you’ll find your way into a AT&T store for the very first time for a long time. How much will this new wündergadget really cost you though?

AT&T raised the price of the unlimited data from $20 to $30.
The prices this time are $299 and $199, not $599 and $499 - that’s only if you qualify for an upgrade or bought your iPhone 1.0 before July 11th.
Additional lines in the AT&T Family plans are no longer $9.99 for iPhone lines… it’s now $39.99.

Among other things. The good folks over at Dealnews have put together this article called “iPhone 3G: Is $199 a deal?” and over at Engadget has one article called “AT&T announces iPhone 3G pricing plans“.

Both are good reads.

Students taking a class at MIT this year have been working on developing different applications for Google s Android. Using little-to-no funding, they managed to create a series of seven apps that have the potential to be of interest to the wireless market (or so it would seem considering that representatives from Google, Sprint, Verizon and HTC all showed up at the class presentations to find out what was going on). One of the applications, Locale, was a Top 50 winner in the Android project competition; it s a dynamic settings manager that lets you program the phone to forward calls, go silent or show different screens at specific times throughout the day. Other applications included social networking and geo-location apps as well as an application that lets you control your car from your phone.
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What’s Fido Uno, you ask? Besides probably having one of the coolest entrance pages in internet history - seriously, where else do you see a dog with an afro? I dare you to find a corporate site an afro sporting dog as part of their corporate identity… I might move up to Canada just for the dog mascot alone… c’mon. It’s too cool…

Oh yeah. Fido UNO. Back to the business at hand…

Fido recently launched a Canadian first for the wireless industry with its new service, Fido UNO. Fido UNO works by connecting calls from a specially-enabled handset to a high-speed Internet connection when at home and through the Fido network when on the go. Customers now have the freedom to talk as much as they want on their Fido phone while at home without using up their wireless plan minutes and all the benefits of a mobile when they’re not.

Fido UNO offers plans for $15 / month (unlimited local calling) or $20 / month (unlimited local and Canadian long distance) for wireless calling at home, in addition to the regular wireless voice plan. Existing customers can add the service to a current voice plan with the purchase of a UNO-enabled handset and receive the voice-optimizing wireless router free of charge.

Ok, if you’re in the US, this probably sounds a lot like T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home, doesn’t it? Well, it is invariably powered by the UMA powered phones that seamlessly switch between cellphone to wireless (VoIP) in order to save on those package minutes. The cool thing, the people on the phone will not know when it happens.

Did I forget to mention that this is the first it was done in Canada? Yep… the company named after a dog, with the coolest afro dog mascot ever (for now) brings this new offering to you… in Canada.

Find out more about Fido UNO right here or if you’re looking for a visual way to learn about it, hit up the YouTube video here.

Qwest Communications and Verizon Wireless just announced that they’ve signed a 5-year agreement for Qwest to market and sell Verizon Wireless service beginning this summer. Qwest customers will have access to the full line of Verizon Wireless handsets and devices, as well as high-speed broadband wireless services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services.

Read more about the Qwest and Verizon Wireless partnership right here.

If you’ve ever been in a proper network/IT/server room, you will invariably know the SMC Network brand name. Looks like they’re thinking ahead with two new technologies for faster speeds and for greener products. Nice to know that companies are taking this environment issues seriously.

SMC Networks will announce two new initiatives at the Interop IT Conference in Las Vegas this week.

More on this as it develops.

Fresh off a few trips and I’m a bit late on this one. But this is cool news regardless since I was an older VoiceStick VoIP user before their apparent meltdown when they started to change the rules on their “Next2Nothing” accounts. Guess I wasn’t as much of a user as they needed to cover their monthly costs.

That aside, the company behind Voicestick, i2Telecom has come out with with MyGlobalTalk. With a slogan of “Connect with the World” and “Turn your phone into a world phone”… I’m interested. The announcement follows:

i2Telecom International, Inc. (”i2Telecom®”) (OTCBB: ITUI), a developer of patented and innovative high-quality Voice-over-Internet Protocol (”VoIP”) products and services, today announced that it has licensed U.S.P.T.O. Patent 7,120,606 and U.S.P.T.O. Patent 7,343,349 and all related international rights, including published or pending patent filings in Europe, Canada, India and under the worldwide Patent Cooperation Treaty, from the owner, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Jove Corporation. i2Telecom intends to utilize the non-exclusive license in conjunction with a value-added mobile payment service for its award winning MyGlobalTalk™ platform.

MyGlobalTalk™ enables very low-cost international phone calls from any mobile phone that downloads the MyGlobalTalk™ software. MyGlobalTalk™ is an innovative combination of cellular and VoIP technology that utilizes i2Telecom’s VoIP network and other Internet-based and Session Initiation Protocol (”SIP”) telephony-based infrastructures referred to as Mobile VoIP. MyGlobalTalk™ has recently received a number of awards, including the 2007 INTERNET TELEPHONY(R) Magazine’s ‘Product of the Year’ Award, ‘Best of Show’ at the INTERNET TELEPHONY(R) Conference and Expo East 2008, and the 2007 ‘Product of the Year’ Award by Unified Communications.

“The inclusion of a mobile payment service platform as part of the MyGlobalTalk™ platform represents a natural extension of the MyGlobalTalk™ franchise,” stated Paul Arena, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of i2Telecom International, Inc. “Many international callers also send money overseas on a routine basis, and the mobile payment service makes this possible. Cell phone users will also be able to pay for retail purchases electronically using their cell phone as a proximity payment device instead of using cash and coins.”

Learn more here.

It’s been a long time since the announcement by Starbucks to AT&T wireless was announced; however if you want a taste of it you’re going to have to head to San Antonio, Texas.

Here’s a few facts first though:

AT&T Inc. and Starbucks will deliver AT&T Wi-Fi service at more than 7,000 company-operated Starbucks locations across the United States.
Starbucks and AT&T will offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi offerings at Starbucks stores to meet the needs of both frequent and occasional Starbucks Wi-Fi customers.
The initiative further expands the AT&T Wi-Fi network, already the largest in the United States, to more than 17,000 U.S. hot spots and more than 70,000 globally.

And that’s just the start. As much Starbucks as I drink, and I’m the owner of an AT&T locked enabled iPhone, this should be a good pairing.

More information is over at Alan Weinkrantz’s blog, 3Screens. Check it out.