I wanted a way to share my phone data plan and still preserve battery life among my devices. All without having to dish out any extra money for an additional battery or 3G connection/plan. With 4GB of data through my current phone plan, why not share that between my Android Tab as well?

Many people have suggested Wifi tethering, which ticks all the boxes, except when it comes to battery life. I found that my phone would be quickly drained having to maintain both a 3G and Wifi connection simultaneously; I ended up in most cases plugging the phone into my Tab’s USB Port to charge it while wifi tethering was active, however the charging power didn’t meet the power requirements and it would slowly, but surely, lose charge which I guessed probably wasn’t healthy for the life of the battery (it ended up getting quite warm).

Then the option of using a USB 3G dongle or dedicated 3G wifi device came to light; however it would’ve still required me to sign up for another data plan, and additionally carry around a dongle. I wasn’t prepared to spend more money on a redundant 3G plan.

As the Iconia Tab has a full-sized USB port, and my phone supports USB tethering, why not just combine the two? I could get the charge from the Iconia battery (which lasts eons longer than my phone, due to physical size, etc..), and still share my data plan between my devices. I can even put my tablet into Aeroplane mode to save even more power 🙂

• Acer Iconia: A500
• HTC Desire (I’m 99% sure that any phone with USB tethering will work; no custom ROM or kernel required)

• My Acer Iconia is using the Taboonay ROM with the richardtrip Kernel. I’m pretty sure only the Kernel is a prerequisite, and it can be flashed to the stock Acer Iconia ROM (the Taboonay ROM may be optional). I might do some testing with the stock ROM at a later date.
• Your Iconia will need to be rooted (using IconiaRoot).
• ADB or something like Terminal Emulator.

1. Flash the richardtrip Kernel, you can find more detailed instructions on the XDA forums for this particular step.
2. Plug the phone into the USB port on the tablet and optionally put your tablet into Aeroplane mode.
3. On the phone, put the device into USB tethering mode. This will differ between devices, however it’s probably in your settings menu near the Wifi tether option.
4. On the tablet, using something like terminal emulator, type the following commands (thanks richardtrip);

su
dhcpcd usb1
setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8

su will give you elevated permissions. This step won’t work without root.
dhcpcd usb1 will ask DHCP to get an IP address from the phone via the USB connection. This step won’t work without the right Kernel.
setprop net.dns1 will set the DNS to point to Google DNS (8.8.8.8 is an easy number to remember!).

Where would I be without this gem! It’s worth the $5.50 AUD!

This app will essentially backup every piece of data on your phone onto the sdcard, ready to be restored as needed. It’s essential for anyone who wants to trial different ROMs on their phone and take their data with them. Alongside ClockworkMod, it’s unbeatable.  It has saved my ass quite a few times, thus why I felt it deserved the paid price, and the praise 🙂

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup

Possibly one of the worst kept ‘launch’ secrets, Google announced the Nexus One back at the start of January, specifically the 5th.

Launched within the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, customers were able to purchase a Nexus One. However, that left Australia and a plethora of other countries without access to the latest Google gadget.

More recently, there have been reports of a “2010 release date” for the Nexus One in Australia. Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) (Vodafone and Three networks) have said “Details relating to Vodafone’s Australian launch of Google Nexus One will be announced in due course.”

This due course may be confirmed by some photos taken during a ‘dissection’ of the Nexus One…

The picture may not seem to reveal much at first, however in the lower left corner appears the ‘A-tick’, a certification of ACMA’s “Telecommunications/Radiocommunications Labelling”.

Being certified by ACMA hopefully indicates and confirms future sales in Australia.

In the mean-time the temptation to import grows, with numerous sites now offering the phone along with warranty with a slightly inflated price…