While US iPhone users are stuck waiting for AT&T to get their act together, Rogers in Canada has stunned iPhone users by not actively trying to screw users right out of the gate as they did when announcing the data plan pricing for the iPhone last year. After a high-profile backlash, Rogers was forced to offer more reasonable data plans for iPhones, and it appears they've learned their lesson this time.

As we all know by now, tethering is built in to the iPhone 3.0 firmware, and as long as you are on a data plan that gives you at least 1 GB of throughput per month, you can use iPhone tethering for no additional charge in Canada until at least the end of 2009. It's unclear what will happen next year, and it seems that Rogers isn't sure yet either. But rather than simply not allow it while they figure it out (as AT&T is doing), they chose to allow it.

My guess is the execs at Rogers are doing a few things here:

1. Looking to increase goodwill after the disastrous data plan fiasco last year
2. Wanting to watch usage patterns to see just how popular tethering turns out to be, to help them determine price points
3. Using the drug dealer method of marketing -- get people hooked, then jack up the price

Of course, this is assuming they will revert to their evil ways; it would be nice to think that Rogers has actually turned over a new leaf and wants to provide reasonable service for a reasonable price. My guess is that most users of tethering are like me in that they want to have access to it for emergencies, but don't actually need it on a day-to-day basis. In that regard, allowing tethering as part of the not-inexpensive <1 GB data plans that Rogers provides makes reasonable sense.

So, does anyone think Rogers will continue to do what makes reasonable sense next year when it comes to tethering, or will the lure of a few extra dollars be too much for them to resist?

While I trashed Vodafone NZ's pricing in a previous post, in at least one way it's far ahead of U.S. telco giant AT&T: internet tethering using the iPhone is already possible over Vodafone's network without resorting to lengthy, kludgy, and unsupported hacks. Who knows how long tethering will stay supported here, or how long it will take before Vodafone remembers to charge extra for it, but for now, tethering is go in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tethering works over both USB and Bluetooth. Using USB to tether simply requires enabling internet tethering in the iPhone's settings, then plugging the iPhone into an available USB port on your computer. The Mac will automatically recognize the tethered iPhone, and your connection will be up and running.

Bluetooth tethering obviously requires enabling Bluetooth on both your iPhone and computer, and then selecting "Connect to Network" from the Bluetooth drop-down menu. Once again, the rest of the setup is automatic -- it really doesn't get much simpler than this.

The speed of the internet connection appears to be comparable to the iPhone's standard mobile speed using USB, but Bluetooth was only about half as fast. I didn't remain tethered for long for fear of gulping down my meager monthly data cap, but for the time I used it, tethering worked with no issues whatsoever.

For my money, having tethering available in little ol' New Zealand long before the U.S. will have it puts AT&T in an even less flattering light -- while AT&T has far more users spread over a much larger area than Vodafone NZ, AT&T also has more towers and more money to pour into their infrastructure.

Any other international iPhone users managed to get tethering working on their networks? Sound off in the comments, and be sure to let us know what network you're on.

Read on for a pictorial guide to enabling tethering over Bluetooth.

Today is Data Privacy Day, a global initiative to highlight information security rights and practices, especially among teens, professionals, corporations, and the government.

As part of the celebration, TUAW (along with our sister blog Download Squad) has seven good ideas for you about how to keep your data safe and away from prying eyes with Mac OS X Leopard. Also, be sure to browse TUAW articles filed under Security for other tips and alerts about keeping your data safe.

1: Turn on your firewall

Leopard, as we all know, comes with a built in firewall to prevent other computers from connecting to internet-facing ports on your computer. But: Did you know it's turned off by default?

To turn on your firewall, open System Preferences, and click the Security icon. Then, click the Firewall tab. Make sure either "Allow only essential services" is selected, or you can choose to "set access for specific services and applications" yourself.

You can also use "Stealth Mode": when enabled, computers that send data to blocked ports won't even get acknowledgement that the data was received. To enable Stealth Mode, click the Advanced button on the Firewall tab of the Security preference pane, and click the check box next to "Enable Stealth Mode."

2: Set a screen saver password

A feature popular with Windows users, Mac OS X can also lock your screen when your computer sleeps or when the screen saver comes on. Simply open System Preferences, select Security, and choose the General tab. Click the check box next to "require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver," and you're all set.

If you have automatic login enabled and click the "require password" check box, Mac OS X will recommend that you disable automatic login. This means you'll have to enter your password to turn your computer on, too; nefarious nogoodniks won't be able to restart your Mac while the screen saver is on to circumvent the need for a password. Good thinking.

Back to Part I: losing all the data on a hard disk, and Part II: the trials and tribulations of paying to get it back. Now we find out what happened, and what you can expect from a data recovery specialist.

Greg, the technician from Iomega Data Recovery, sent back two documents two days later: One was a Word document containing a list of files that were recovered from the disk.

The document had most of my files in it, but some were missing. Many of the files were grouped by file type in an "orphans" folder, meaning that the files were on the disk, but their place in the disk's directory structure was lost. Some files were only named according to their file type, such as "m4p-00195.m4p" and "InDesignCS-00003.indd" because their filenames were gone. I would find out later that some files were copied several times (sometimes as many as six times): once as part of the directory structure, and again in the "orphans" folder. Still: many copies are better than no copies.

They offered to return the data on a new hard disk, but the cost of it is not included in the recovery fee. The second attachment to the tech's email was a price list. I chose the cheapest bare hard disk at the necessary capacity, since I had an enclosure to put it in. They offered (more expensive) USB and FireWire hard disks as options for return as well. So add another $55 to the total price.

Greg also asked for a list of the 20 most critical files that could be used as a test for successful recovery. I emailed him a list of mostly files for work I had in progress during the failure, a brochure for a client of mine that manufactures propellers. He called the next day, walking me through the contents of the InDesign document and its support files. "This one appears to be a picture of a propeller blade. This one has a big headline that says 'simply the best.'" Relief. I was satisfied that everything was recovered, approved the recovery, and thanked Greg.

The next part was the hardest: Paying the invoice. The grand total wasn't as bad as I thought: I was prepared to pay tax on all $1,500, but (in California at least) services aren't taxable. So the only tax I had to pay was $4.54 on the replacement hard disk. The grand total was $1,559.54. I'm writing that off my taxes this year.

Once my payment was processed, which took a day, two drives were overnighted to me: the original (failed) drive, and the new replacement drive. I popped the replacement went into my enclosure, and -- tah dah! -- there were my files.

The most significant casualty of the data recovery, however, was the loss of 10 years of painstakingly collected Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos. Many were videos I had recorded originally on VHS, some had been, uh, acquired by other means -- as youthful indiscretions, shall we say. Thankfully, all my project data and purchased music was safe and sound. Everything that was lost could be replaced.

Files on the replacement disk were painfully disorganized, though, which gave me an idea of just how logically corrupted the volume was. Files that were added to the drive after it had been connected via the AirPort Base Station were mostly in the Orphans folder, apparently scattered hither and yon across the disk's platters. I spent the better part of a day copying files, reorganizing everything, and preparing my new backup strategy that included a brand-new, 1.5TB external disk to use with Time Machine.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I had a good experience, but paid dearly for it.

If this story saves anyone any amount of money for data recovery, then it's done its job. Please: Back up your data. The money you spend on a hard disk for backup is far less than what you'd spend on data recovery.

There is no shortage of stories here on TUAW (and elsewhere) that extol the benefits of backing up your data. Apple even makes it ridiculously easy to do so -- with Mac OS X 10.5, Time Machine, a blank drive, and some spare time, you're set.

Nevertheless, despite your best efforts, there are unforeseen circumstances where you might need to utter those dreaded words: "I need to send this for data recovery." Perhaps your airplane landed in the Hudson river, and your waterlogged laptop was stuck with your luggage. Perhaps an external disk is suffering from a manufacturing defect. Perhaps your backup disk is the disk that failed.

Unfortunately, there is no way to sugar-coat this: Data recovery is a painful, patience-trying, and absurdly expensive process. But if it's the only way to recover mission-critical data, it could be your only option.

It was for me.

Back to Part I of Robert's tale of data recovery. It's a typical geek story: Boy gets data, boy loses data, boy tries to get data back.

Because of my former employer's professional relationship with Iomega, I had sent a disk for recovery to Iomega Data Recovery before, and was confident they'd be able to recover the data. I went to their website, and started a quote.

It's worth mentioning that there are many other services besides Iomega Data Recovery that do excellent work. DriveSavers, for example, had a booth at Macworld where people could walk up, physically damage a disk by scratching it, and -- behold! -- they still could recover the data before your eyes. Other services are available from Total Access, as well as from local technicians who can come to your location.

Starting the quote began with asking for my contact information, along with details about the drive. I tried to be as explicit as possible about how the drive was connected, to see if they would be able to isolate the logical failure that happened on the disk, and recover the data accordingly. They also had an area where you could specify specific files or file types to target for recovery.

Submitting the quote generates a document to print include in the box when you send it to them, and tips for packing the drive securely. I wrapped the drive in foam, put it in a snug-fitting box, and sent it to their lab in Santa Clara, California.

Then, the waiting started.

A technician, the supremely helpful and consummate professional Greg Sabanis, emailed me five days later (there was a weekend in there, if I recall correctly) with an analysis of the damaged drive. He said:

The drive has read errors affecting structures and possibly data files. Based upon this evaluation, we feel that a recovery may be possible. We will have to attempt to manually rebuild the corrupted / invalid file system components, mount the recovered volume(s) and finally determine if some / all of the data you require is intact.

That was something of a relief. Then came the sticker shock: The recovery would cost $1,500, plus tax. The good news (I suppose) was that I didn't have to pay it now: I could see the results of their recovery first, and then determine if it was worth it to spend the money for what they recovered. If Greg couldn't recover any data off the disk, there would be no charge.

Speaking with friends, it's clear that Iomega Data Recovery is average in terms of cost for the size of the disk I sent them. Lower-capacity disks, flash media and removable storage costs less. One thing's for sure: they have you by the huevos, and they're gonna charge you for it.

With client work on that drive, the nascent reputation of my freelance business was on the line. I had no choice but to spend the money. So, I signed their evaluation, faxed it back, and hoped for the best.

Part III: The thrilling conclusion.

It's been under the rumor banner for some time now, but we've been told by a trusted source that the long-awaited AT&T iPhone-as-modem tethering plans (preliminary details in MacBlogz' post from November: 5 GB data cap, $30/month supplementary cost) may be ready for prime time during Macworld Expo this week. The tethering announcement might not rise to a keynote-worthy level; it could simply be publicized as a press release during the show.

While $30 is a steep charge on top of an iPhone data plan, it's still cheaper than the $60 you'd pay for an EV-DO or HSDPA card plan for mobile data; for some users it may make more sense than a standalone device. Granted, you can already tether a jailbroken iPhone, but that may get you stomped on by the traffic cops rather promptly.

Another tidbit from our source lends credence to the MegiPod rumor (a larger form factor for an iPod touch device) floated by TechCrunch last week. No timeframes were discussed, so the late 2009 on-sale date is still in play. It's not clear how the hypothetical unit would achieve this feat, but the suggestion is that it would have "full application compatibility" with currently available iPod touch apps ... puzzling, as it implies either resolution-independence for the apps or some pretty impressive scaling tricks to accommodate the larger screen size.

FileChute from Yellow Mug Software has been kicking around for awhile, but has been pretty much under the radar for most people. Some of our readers mentioned it when we reviewed YouSendIt last January. FileChute is powerful because it can send any size file, as long as you have space on your iDisk, FTP site, or WebDAV web server.

Using FileChute is a really simple operation. Just drag a large file (or a small one) to a target on the application and it uploads that file, allowing you to specify if you want to zip it and provide a short URL. FileChute will automatically create an email with the URL in it, ready to send to anyone. I take a lot of astronomical images, and they won't fit in an email at their native size. So when I want to share the high quality versions, onto FileChute they go and the person I send them to only has to click on a URL to download the file, or see it displayed in a browser, depending on what type of file you have sent. You can send applications, movie files, anything really.

Before Leopard came out Apple was making some noise about providing a similar feature in Mobile Me, but it never appeared, and in the messy launch of Mobile Me I think it was forgotten.

Recently, Yellow Mug added an iPhone and iPod touch version of the application, and it can see your files stored on the web server of your choice, and initiate a file transfer just as if you were sitting at your desktop or laptop mac. It's free for FileChute owners.

Sure, there are lots of ways to transfer files, but this application makes it drop dead easy. I find myself using it several times a week. It's the kind of thing that should be built into the Mac OS, but you can have the feature now for less than 20 bucks.

After the iPhone debuted, I posted this poll on TUAW, where I first got a sense of how much data YouTube videos and Mobile Safari web pages were pulling down through the network.

We're now about two months into iPhone 3G and I thought I'd repeat the exercise. How much data are you using on that 3G iPhone of yours? Are you still at 2.5G/EDGE levels of usage or has the 3G data bumped you up into new territory?

Pop into your iPhone's Settings > General > Usage pane and check out your Cellular Network Data usage stats. Drop a note in the comments and let us know about how much data you're actually using per month. (Assuming you haven't reset your phone, there will be about 2 months of data there.) And if any of you 1st Gen EDGE iPhone users have comparative data for month-to-month usage (rather than your total stats), that would be great to compare with the 3G numbers.

So have at it, readers. How much data are you using?

MacNN reports that Rogers Wireless will be revising its iPhone plans on October 1 to include a new 250 minute plan for $60, among other changes.

The new bundles, MacNN says, would feature a $60 plan with:

• 250 daytime minutes
• 75 texts
• 1GB data
• Visual Voicemail
• three months of unlimited local calling
• a permanent MY5 Local option

A $75 plan may also be available, with 400 minutes, 100 texts, and 2GB data.

Early on, Rogers has had a rocky relationship with iPhone customers, many of whom are unhappy with the relatively high cost of plan rates and miniscule data allowances.

Canadian readers: Is this an improvement, or does Rogers still have a long way to go? Let us know by leaving a comment.

We've all been there. The external disk you bought three or four years ago, which has been working great so far, starts to click. And it's not a good click ... it's the kind of click that gives you the spinning beach ball of death.

Poopie.

Sounds like it's time to get the data off that disk, and toot sweet, if you pardon my French. You buy a new disk, and you start copying. But then what happens? The Finder throws up an error saying it can't copy a certain file or folder, and it's 20 folders deep in an old archive of client data. The Finder stops the copy, and you have to figure out where the problem is buried, fix it, and try copying again. Meanwhile, seasons pass, civilizations rise and fall, and your fingernails start to grow into your keyboard.

Double poopie.

So what do you do? Believe it or not, the Terminal can be your friend to quickly copy damaged data, and power through disk errors. The data may still be damaged, but heck if it won't try to copy it somewhere safe.

After the jump, find out how to recover your data, and fast.