With my recent purchase of a MacBook Pro, I set out to find a way to tether my iPhone 3G. My primary reasoning is two-fold: I don't have the ability to hook up the MBP to our domain AT&T has drug their feet rolling out their own tethering functionality. Needless to say, I found a solution.

There is 3 steps to setting this up and it can all be done from JUST THE iPHONE! As a disclaimer, I initially had issues with my visual voicemail not working, but after several attempts I'm almost 100% sure I figured out how to keep it from being disabled. I have tried my latest method 7 times and each time it's worked perfectly.

NOTE: This has been tested on a non-jailbroken iPhone that is on the AT&T network.

Early numbers are suggesting that the iPhone 3G S alone, outsold the Palm Pre by a staggering margin. Analysts put the number of iPhone 3G S sales around the 750 thousand units, while Apple has since claimed that number is actually over 1 million.

As for the Palm Pre's launch a few weeks ago, it sold roughly 50 to 100 thousand units. Official numbers have not been released, but Sprint did confirm the Palm Pre broke all previous sales records.

While many considered the Palm Pre launch a success, it is obviously still in the shadows of Apple's iPhone. Outselling a competitor by 10 fold is not something that can be easily overlooked. Having played with the Palm Pre briefly, my impressions were positive aside from the sharp points at the bottom of the phone. Although I can't say I'd trade my iPhone in for one.

My futile attempts to get an iPhone 3G S for the fully subsidized price of $199 has come to pass. I did what any desperate, impatient, early adopter would do...beg and plea.

First, I decided to just call AT&T and ask a customer service representative (CSR) if they could adjust my upgradability date. I got the idea from an Information Week article. This however was unsuccessful. I was extremely pleasant on the call and you could tell the CSR was appreciative of this. She genuinely sounded like she wanted to help, but after researching all possible solutions, my hopes and prayers just weren't enough.

The iPhone 3.0 software has been released and those of us within the US are without 2 of the most wanted features: MMS and tethering. At this particular juncture, I think it's safe to say tethering is going to be at a premium. I've read some reports predicting that it could cost an additional $65/mo.

What about MMS? In today's world of smartphones and even your average flip phone, carriers and their plans don't really discriminate between SMS and MMS. If that's the case with AT&T and the iPhone, why the delay? AT&T all ready offers this on a variety of other devices and is simply bundled in the messaging plan. This is why I'm starting to believe MMS is going to cost us.

After several months of being without an iPhone, I'm back. Actually I've had my current iPhone 3G for about a month and a half now and all I can say is it is simply the best option out there for what I want and need in a mobile device. I'm not going to call it a phone, because let's face it...it's much more.