One feature sadly missing from the G1 Android phone was the ability to tether a laptop and use the phone’s data connection. Luckily, the Android community take this kind of thing as a challen.
It is now possible to tether the phone - although it might be more effort than you are willing to go to.
As it stands, the app will require some fiddling with the phone’s settings to allow non-Google-approved apps to run, enabling USB debugging, plus installing the Android development kit on the PC you wish to tether. There may also be a short ritual involving a pentagram and 4cc of mouse blood.
It’s a faff, but it does work - and if you need to tether, it may be worth the effort. Now the principle is out there, of course, things should get easier. Anyone want to guess if this will be the first Killswitched Anfdrod app?
Finally!
One of my biggest bugbears with my Nokia N95 is that all the lovely apps I use to access the internet constantly ask me if I am really sure that I want them to access the ‘net via wifi or 3G.
How many times do you need to be told?!?! I can understand the security implications of not being asked, and when trying out new software it is good to know that an errant app isn’t going to burn up all my data tariff.
Nokia has announced that it is finally going to sort things out. Signed apps will able to carry permissions that will allow them to access your phone’s data connection (subject to your initial approval) and unsigned (e.g. Java) apps can have partial permissions granted by the user.
Nokia will roll out the changes to new 3rd edition FP 2 devices, and is looking at ways to provide the update to some older phones too.
16GB Not enough for your iPhone storage needs? Egnyte may have the solution.
Egnyte offers an online virtual storage service that lets PC & Mac users host files ‘in the cloud’ for access on the road, or wherever. Mobile Drive is a new service designed to let iPhone users access those same drives without installing any extra software.
Egnyte’s servers are accessible via a web browser, so it is possible to send people links to files on your bit of their servers. All you data is backed up, of course, which alone might make the service worthwhile.
Pricing runs from $15/month for 20GB of storage.
Nokia Beta labs have officially released MUPE - Multi User Publishing Environment - a sort of applications framework-cum-social network thing that makes it easier to create multi-user games and apps.
To use it, you just need to install the (Java) client on your phone and you can then download any of the apps that have been created with the MUPE developer tools. So far, most of these seem to be games, but there are a growing number of social apps like Books and Gathering.
MUPE apps can be location-aware (on supported handsets) and this opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, both for local social-networking and location-based games (Nokia laser tag, anyone?)
MUPE has been available as an open-source project for a few months, but now it has been adopted as a Beta Labs product you can expect more developers to join in the fun.
