Connect Your Laptop to the Internet Virtually For Free Using Your Palm Pre
Getting wireless Internet access on your laptop is a tricky proposition -- if there's no hotspot around, your only option is a cellular connection. But phone companies charge a king's ransom to "tether" your laptop to a mobile phone, with fees running as high as $500/year. If you have a Palm Pre, though, you can now do it for a one-time cost of $15.
My Tether is a homebrew app for the Palm's WebOS which connects your Verizon or Sprint Internet service to your laptop via a Palm Pre. Instead of paying $40/month for tethering support, My Tether costs a flat $14.95. After that, you just install My Tether on your Pre and get e-mail and Web access on your PC, either via a USB connection or Wi-Fi. Your Pre can even show you what devices are using the connection, and you can kick out ay PCs that have tried to latch onto your homemade hotspot without your permission.
Of course, keep in mind that this is an end run around Sprint and Verizon's official policy on tethering, so it's always possible that the phone companies will find a way to block it -- or even track you down and serve you with a violation of service. But until then, it's free Internet!
