Happy new year 2012! As I prepare a Firefox 9 based release which is already available in daily builds for testing, lets introduce a feature I failed to document on Webconverger 10 release, USB tethering in this 10.2 change.

When you plug in a suitable USB network device that comes up as usb0 and has a simple dhcp mechanism, like the Android USB Tethering feature, Webconverger will detect and use this network interface.

This can unfortunately be a little fiddly since Android disables the USB tethering if it doesn't detect the USB connection, for example when a kiosk is turned off. Therefore on Android you need to turn on the tethering feature everytime on booting Webconverger. Other USB dongles might have a better experience.

Nonetheless with a USB stick with Webconverger, a microUSB cable & an Android phone (with a data plan) you can setup a kiosk pretty much anywhere. Think outdoors during a public fête, a local community site could be introduced from a laptop.