My modem broke Saturday, but as a well established geek I had backups. Not only do I have a 3G USB modem, but my iPhone also supports tethering – and it’s awesome.

I’ve have two devices I’ve used for tethering in the past – the NetCom USB 3G modem (made by Huawei) and the Nokia E51. Both require some less-than-stellar software to be able to be used for Internet access on a computer; the Huawei modem requires some special NetCom software that isn’t very good and tend to suddenly disconnect the modem, and the E51 requires Nokia Suit (or at least the tethering part of it) which is frankly the worst piece of software ever created. With that experience clear in mind, I wasn’t thrilled to use the iPhone as a modem since I figured it would be hell and then some in iTunes to make it work. God was I wrong.

NetCom (my service provider) activated tethering on August 3 via a network operator update in iTunes, which added an option for Internet sharing in the iPhone settings. I found it, activated it, and it told me to plug it into the USB cable. Idid, 5 seconds went by, and Vista asked me how to classify the network (home/work/public). That was it. It automatically did everything else and that pop up is only the first time around for Vista users. It needed no software, no running iTunes, nothing seemed to be installing – I just plugged it in and it worked. This is how every device doing tethering should do it – kill the retarded software!

As I type this I’m still connected with my iPhone and it hasn’t shown any sign of getting hot, crashing, or otherwise complaining. The phone is usable with a blue bar appearing on top letting you know you’re sharing your Internet connection and that’s about it. I haven’t tried with Bluetooth but if it’s anywhere as easy as with USB it shouldn’t pose a problem to anyone.

it’s things like this that make me forgive Apple for locked down systems and somewhat slow feature implementations – when they do something, they do it right (with the exception of Bluetooth audio, but that’s another story). The tethering feature on the iPhone is simply perfect – it requires less work than connecting a WiFi network, is as stable and it couldn’t ever be any easier or faster to get working. I’m simply amazed it’s possible and keep wondering why the hell these dumb ass companies like Nokia need to make it such a nightmare experience.