Google today launched a new, free DNS service—called Google Public DNS—aimed at making your web browsing experience even faster. Here's how it works:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with DNS (and it's cool if you are—as long as DNS is working, most people never need to know what's going on), Google offers an explanation:

Most of us aren't familiar with DNS because it's often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names - e.g., www.google.com - into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers - e.g., 74.125.45.100 - that computers use to communicate with one another.

Google Public DNS, then, aims to replace your ISP's default DNS with a (hopefully) faster, safer, and more reliable alternative. Google Public DNS isn't the first freely available alternate DNS we've seen. Previously mentioned OpenDNS is an excellent DNS alternative (it boasts keyboard shortcuts, parental filters, and more), but—for better or worse—we're guessing that even more people may be interested in Google's offering.

To set up your computer or router to use Google Public DNS, hit up Google's instructions (they've got specific instructions for Windows, Mac, Linux, or your router).

I swapped my DNS to Google's service earlier today and so far my page loading seems to have a spring it its step, but you know how these things go. If you give it a try, let's hear whether things are feeling snappier for you in the comments.

Update: Reader Manu writes in to share the results of his Google Public DNS testing, and Google's DNS looks pretty blazing—particularly for international users. For folks in the U.S., OpenDNS looks like it may still be a touch faster—at least according to Manu's results.

AT&T has been dragging its feet on data tethering for months now, so if you're fed up waiting for official support and desperate to tether your iPhone's internet connection, weblog MobileCrunch details how to do it on the latest iPhone OS.

The multi-step process isn't all that difficult, but you'll want to set aside a little bit of time. In the brief overview, enabling tethering works like so:

1. Jailbreak your iPhone with blackra1n (available for Windows and Mac).
2. Unlock your phone with blacksn0w—which you can do through the blackra1n icon on your iPhone post-jailbreak.
3. Install a custom IPCC file via mobile Safari.
4. Turn on tethering in your iPhone settings.

The MobileCrunch post walks through each step in excellent detail, so if you're eager to tackle tethering, it's a great guide for accomplishing that. Keep in mind that jailbreaking isn't all that encouraged by Apple, but if anything were to go wrong, you can simply restore your phone and be just fine. (Trust me, I've done it a lot over the past few years.) Also, we can't make any promises should AT&T decide to get all upset over your tethering, but so far we haven't had any problems.