On OS X just install the app from the link above, enable USB Debugging on your phone,download the Android SDK , and in the “tools” folder run:
./adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080

And you should be setup, now just launch Firefox (or other browser) and set the HTTP proxy to localhost port 8080.

One change that I did have to make  was to set the User-Agent filter to remove within proxoid, I’m presuming Vodafone was picking this up and blocking connections.

For full instructions check out proxoid’s site here: http://code.google.com/p/proxoid/wiki/installation

So far I’ve only been able to use this over a GPRS connection, so sub dial-up speeds, but even that was surprisingly quick and I look forward to trying it out over 3G.

As for terms and conditions? Well, I suspected there would be an issue but after a bit of research it seems that they are ok with it so long as you don’t use it excessively (see here and here).

Obviously I’ve found this out just as Android 2.2 has been released (with tethering support built in). But from what I can see its very unlikely that my “old” HTC Magic will get that update any time soon, if at all!

So, looking through my options on Vodafones upgrade site I could have a free (albeit old) blackberry, HTC Tattoo, and verious other non-smart phones. At £60 the Magic seemed a pretty good deal, so I went with it and was about to hit order to be told that it could only be delivered to my home address, which isn’t ideal as I am currently at uni in Lancaster, so went to ring up to see if the address could be changed and ended up getting the phone for just £30, due to them knocking 300 minutes from my allowance, which I don’t use anyway.

It arrived on Friday, quite impressive considering I had only ordered the day before. I couldn’t get over how small this thing was, making my Nokie E63 look like the brick that it truly is, it has a far sleeker design and feels like it has a far superior build quality (I never thought I would say that about a Nokia).

Due to the awful reception in my room, at first I thought I’d received a broken unit, even to the extent that I was about to return it, but a quick walk around campus brought up excellent 3G reception and all the features working in an instant. The Android OS really does shine when you have a solid internet connection, with Google services being synced instantaneously, and new mail being pushed directly towards you, it is what I imagine Exchange would be like in a business environment.

This is a new toy for me, so obviously I’m playing with it and wearing the battery down at a constant rate! But I can honestly say that I’m not dissapointed or regretting the fact that I didn’t hold out for an iPhone, it is the best phone I have had by a long way.

Just one niggle, why is it not possible to enter a proxy server for WLAN connections? Making it useless for use on the univesrities network, and I can’t get 3rd party apps to work either. Ahh well, so long as I have 3G all is good.

For a while now I have been looking for my next phone, with my previous contract with 3 expiring in May 09 I decided to switch to a sim-only plan to keep me going until I found something that I needed. For many years Apple have won me over with the iPhone, but unfortunately it is one device from the company that just seems too expensive, at almost double my current monthly cost with no extra benefits other than a fancy phone. So my iPhone “dreams” shall remain just that.

Enter Google. I’ve always liked the idea of the Android platform with seamless integration into Google’s services, it seems perfect as I have Google Apps setup for my Email, Calendar, Contacts, and any other services they are willing to throw my way. The trouble is the hardware has always seemed all over the place to me, with so many models to choose from it gets a bit confusing, by November I had narrowed my choices down to the HTC Magic on a £30/month contract with Vodafone. So I went through the signup process looking forward to the prospect of a nice new toy to play with, but it just wasn’t meant to be. It seems as I am a student with no reliable income I failed their credit checks, looking back I suppose it was likely to happen, I just wasn’t expecting it.

I expected that to be the end of that, although the following day I got a call from someone at Vodafone explaining the situation, and offering me sim only deal £10 cheaper, but with same allowances (just no phone). Initially I dismissed this but he then went on to offer me the phone for free in 3 months time, so I’m willing to wait for that.

But, fast-forward just 1.5 months and I’m back to square one. iPhone is available on Vodafone with (for my purposes & uses) a much better priced contract. It’s awfully tempting, although I would want to wait until June for the next generation of the device.

And this brings me onto the Nexus One, I could have one for around £400 within just a few days. Much cheaper than the 3GS, but still quite expensive for an item which I will basically get bored of in 12 months time and start searching out for a replacement. I do think that this is an interesting route for Google to go down, offering a flagship device which essentially markets the true potential of the Android OS, for a lot cheaper than many competing products. And I want it, all those high numbers thrown around in the spec sheets are screaming out, but I can’t help but think I would regret not going for the iPhone, the one that I have always wanted yet managed to resist.

It would be nice to hear some opinions of these devices from real users, rather than just the usual marketing babble, please post in the comments if you have any experience you wish to share!