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>> You know what time it is. I'm Brian Tong and welcome to the Apple Byte. It's everything good and bad inside the world of Apple; so let's get to it. The iPhone is the best-selling US consumer handset. Now, Apple's rock star took the top spot during the third quarter of this year, ending Motorola's three-year reign atop the market. Now, a few shows back, I told Steve Jobs how to get to that spot --Free iPhone with a contract, baby -- but obviously, he doesn't have to listen to me. The report does show a real market shift, where four of the five top handsets were optimized for messaging and Internet features. So now might be the time to teach my momma how to text. There are rumblings that the iPhone's 2.2 firmware is just about to drop on us. Some of the features: the ability to download podcasts directly from the iTunes Wi-Fi store, support for emoji icons that are hugely popular in Japan, and Google Street View. None of the core features people keep bitching about have been revealed. And come on now, I know it's fun, but Google Street View? Do you really go to location, then whip out your phone with the street view to make sure you're in that spot while 360 degrees? I don't think you do. And if you do, I'd really like to hear about it. Now, last week, AT&T announced there would be a tethering solution for the iPhone, allowing you use its Internet connection with your laptop. This is nothing new to smartphone users, but it is for iPhone users after a 10-buck app called NetSure was taken down from the app store. According to Mac Blogs, the plan will be thirty dollars per month, with a five-gig data cap similar to BlackBerry's tethering plan. If this is accurate, I'm straight up passing on this. Now, the AT&T network is already loaded with iPhone users galore, and now we're opening the floodgates for more data usage, plus dropping thirty bucks on top of my existing thirty-buck data plan for five gigs? Business users, oh you can have at it, but no thanks for me. Now, do you want to use your laptop to share your Ethernet connection with other friends? We show you how to do it in this week's quick tip.
>> Has this ever happened to you?
>> Hey, what's the Wi-Fi password here?
>> Ah, there is none. It's just wired.
>> Wait. You don't have wireless Internet here?
>> That's what I said. No.
>> Why you little...
>> I'm Wilson Tang, and if you're on a Mac, there's an easy way to share an Internet connection over Wi-Fi. First, plug in your Ethernet connection. Second, go to system preferences and select "sharing." Select "Internet sharing." Where it says, "Share your connection from," select your "built in Ethernet." Then where it says, "To computers using," select "Airport." You're done. Now, you can always change the name of your Wi-Fi network, or even enable basic WEP wireless security. But that does it for me today. I'm Wilson Tang, and this has been a quick tip.
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>> All right. Thanks Wilson, and wow. Way to show me up with the classy threads. Now, on a side note, CNET never endorses a candidate, but I found this pic of Barack Obama, and I had to show you this. Now, if you look closely, he's rocking a Speck see-through hard shell case on his MacBook Pro. I used to work for Speck, and that product was my brainchild. It was my baby. And it started the whole hardshell on a laptop movement with knock-offs and companies having their own spin-offs. For me, it's just damn cool to know that the President of the United States is using a product that I was part of. Just think about that. Now, you know we want to hear from you, so email us at theapplebyte@cnet.com. And if there are any other music apps you'd like me to sing with, hey, send those along, too. I'm fair game. I'm Brian Tong for CNET.com. Thanks for watching and come back next time for another bite of the Apple.
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