How to get “free” 3G on your wifi iPad.
It’s a risk and it will possibly void your warranty on your iphone, but I like living on the edge, so I did it and it works fine. And besides I was really not happy that apple would make me pay $30 per month for something I am already paying for on my iPhone. I mean my iphone can tether my laptop to the internet, so why can’t it do the same for the iPad. It should. And it does. Apple just doesn’t want you to know it does!
So because apple don’t want you to do it, it won’t be something you can just download from the app store. You need to get around their strict screening rules.
What you need to do is ‘jailbreak’ your iphone and install a non-apple approved app called mywi. Mywi turns your iphone into a wifi hub (with wep security) so your iPad recognises it as a wifi connection (you don’t even need bluetooth on). Your iphone then uses 3G. It also gives you an upload and download counter live on screen so you can see how much data is being transferred.
It takes about 5 minutes to do both, you don’t lose anything and it works flawlessly.
Apple don’t want you to do this because they won’t make extra money selling a 3G version but more importantly they won’t get a cut from all the monthly contracts people sign to get 3G to their iPad.
Jailbreak sounds bad but it works like this:
Basically Apple have a strangle hold over their app store. They dictate who or what gets accepted. This is good in that they control quality, security and reliabiity. It’s bad because there are some things that apple purposefully ‘dumb down’ in order to give them more revenue potential down the track – something ‘extra’ they can offer in a future release.
The Canon 5D camera did the same thing (brilliant camera that can do so much more than the manufacturer allowed, so someone made new firmware to give people access to these other features) but that’s another story. 
So what someone did was create an app called Cydia. Cydia sits on your iPhone and behaves exactly like the app store, only it lets you buy apps that have not been approved by apple. Obviously you can’t get Cydia from the app store either.
So you have to get the Cydia app onto your iPhone through a back door and this is called jailbreaking your iPhone.
There is a danger here. From what I’ve heard there have only been 2 instances of a virus reported on an iphone. And they were both jailbroken. The temptation is to get impressed at all the new things you can now do and start downloaing and installing all these new apps. I wouldn’t do that, but the temptation is there.
The bottom line is that you can always reformat your phone and take it back to vanilla iphone firmware and reconnect to your itunes and get all your apps and music back.
All I’m saying is that there is always a risk of dying in surgery, even with the best of intentions and the best doctors.
So having cleared all the formalities and disclaimers…
If you’re still interested here’s what you do…
Presuming you keep your iphone connected to itunes and you have the latest update of your iphone software (3,13) go to this link. At the bottom of the page, click on the download link for PC or Mac. Install the program on your computer and upgrade your iphone. That’s the jailbreak part. You’ll now find an app called cydia on your phone. Go there and look up mywi and download it to your phone. There’s a free trial period or you can buy it for $10 (I bought it). That’s it. Then just go to your iPad and check wifi in the area and you’ll see your iphone. Connect to it and bobs your uncle.
http://www.redmondpie.com/download-spirit-for-iphone-3.1.3-ipad-3.2-ipod-touch-3g-9140718/http://www.redmondpie.com/download-spirit-for-iphone-3.1.3-ipad-3.2-ipod-touch-3g-9140718/
So one more time. It worked for me (and heaps of others), but you take your own risks.
Enjoy…
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