Hasta La Gadget!

At last, it seems that AT&T will allow you to share your iPhone’s internet data connection with other devices. The screen captures you see above come from the newly released iPhone OS 4 beta 4, and show the option to enable internet tethering. This would allow you to share your connection to either your computer (over USB) or an iPad or other mobile device (via Bluetooth).

Huge, right? Especially as AT&T promised us the option to tether would be available by the end of last year. But not so fast. We’ve been here before, over a year ago in fact. When iPhone OS 3 was in its beta stages, developers found that they could switch on tethering and use it. When the final version was released to the public, it was gone.

All iPhones have the software for tethering built in. It is then up to the individual carriers if they will support it. AT&T doesn’t, yet, but pretty much anywhere else in the world you can share your data as you like. While the screen-grabs above are almost certainly legitimate, having a feature flash up in a beta release is not the same as having it actually launch to the public. I’m skeptical.

Apple Releases iPhone OS 4 Beta 4 and SDK to Developers [MacRumors]

See Also:

• Pictures: iPhone 3.0 USB Tethering Already Activated