Android Froyo introduces 3G tethering

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It’s all go at Google at the moment – erecting a massive plastic frozen yoghurt on the lawn, preparing for next week’s I/O developer event and giving out exclusives on new stuff in Android 2.2.

This morning TechCrunch got wind of a new feature baked into the forthcoming Froyo version of Google’s mobile OS – USB tethering.

That means – in theory at least – that Androiders will be able to browse the web on their laptops and non-3G tablets when they’re out and about just by hooking up a data-enabled phone. It’d also let you set up your mobile as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Good news, but the networks won’t be keen to lose the tasty slice of revenue they get from pimping out data to the mobile masses. So the question remains: will they have the power to do anything about it?

Sadly, the answer’s probably ‘yes’. But we can always dream…

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Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.