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iPhone Tethering App Released, Killed In 2 Hours
tjhayes writes "The iPhone App Store released an application called NetShare that allowed the iPhone to tether a laptop to the internet. It was priced at a $10 one-time fee. After being available for approximately 2 hours, the application has disappeared from the apps store. What exactly are AT&T/Apple trying to accomplish here?" They are trying to prove what is wrong with DRM, and demonstrate why hackers want to jailbreak the iPhone.
The queue is really lagging. The app is back up and still for sale. Come on, Slashdot mods, stay current!
You don't like their terms, don't use their product.
Exactly. And in order to ensure that as many people as possible know about Apple's restrictions and the consequences of those restrictions before they get locked into a contract, we keep talking about it.
Incidentally, any of the S60 Nokias, many Palms and many Windows Mobile phones have no restrictions on tethering. They're also cheaper than the iPhone. And the Nokias use the same web browser as the iPhone.
Now, what exactly are you trying to say?
I was quite shocked, but knowing apple, I shouldn't have been.
I was shocked to learn this about the original iPhone, since it was only since I switched to OS X that I started regularly using a phone for Internet access via Bluetooth. Apple made it really easy to set it up (there's a little Bluetooth wizard that does everything for you), and by not supporting this on the iPhone they have made sure that pretty much any other make of phone integrates better with their OS than their own phone.
My old (cheap) Nokia phone can sync calendars with iCal, sync contacts with Address Book, and be used as a modem, all via Bluetooth. The iPhone needs a cable to do any of these (and can't do the third one even with a cable).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Tethering is not against AT&T rules in general. Tethering is supported on AT&T if you have a plan that allows it. In the past, all data plans allowed tethering, and that's the kind I have. Nowadays their data plans for PDA phones come in two levels, with and without tethering. The difference does not seem to be strictly enforced from what I have heard, but if you are caught tethering on a no-tether plan you may be subject to big extra charges.
I do not have an iPhone, and lack of tethering support is one of many reasons why. I occasionally tether with my Treo 750 and it works well.
Whatever the issue is with tethering on the iPhone, it would seem to be Apple and not AT&T. Many AT&T phones support tethering, but not the iPhone.
So what makes Apple better or different? It's how people FEEL about Apple. If you disagree, instead of modding me flaimbait, how about citing some *objective* examples of where I am mistaken?
You're wrong. I don't know what you expect in terms of "objective" examples, but you're missing the point entirely. People don't like Apple products because of how the fell about Apple, they like Apple because of how they feel about Apple's products. And it's not really the "Oooooo shiney!" factor either.
I've always been a gadget freak. I've bought an inordinate number of computers in my life, some of which I didn't need at all (most of which I've built from parts). I've owned a number of Palms, and have been assigned Windows-based phones and Blackberries for work, and have serviced all of those devices as a helpdesk tech. With each of those devices, I was really excited to get them, and then over time I found myself leaving them at the office because, once the novelty wore off, they weren't really worth the trouble.
Lets start with Palm. I stopped bothering to keep up with their development a few years back when it became clear that there was no development going on. The OS is outdated, flakey, and slow. The web browser stinks, and is the definition of why people don't want to use a "mobile browser". Their e-mail client isn't much worth talking about, and instead of syncing with the email/calendar/contacts of the programs you use, they try to get you to use their crappy Palm Desktop.
Blackberry was a big step forward. It synced with Exchange, but needed some kind of specialty software to accomplish that (desktop redirector or Blackberry server). That was ok, though, because nothing else really provided that functionality at the time. The email client was plain text, but honestly I didn't mind much. Web browser wasn't anything much to speak of. So to sum up, it was the best PIM of the time when it first came out, but don't expect anything other than the PIM functions to be worth anything. Also, your Blackberry could be working and your Exchange server could be working, but there was always some kind of service in between coordinating between the two. If anything in there lost its connection (which it frequently did) then you stopped getting updates.
So when Windows-based phones started syncing directly with Exchange, I was eager to try those out. Sure enough the syncing was much more reliable, but the devices were slow and unreliable. They would crash frequently. I only used those on Verizon, so the upshot there was they were always loaded up with Verizon crap, and their tech support was always pushing us to use their syncing service instead of Exchange's native sync-- which caused us loads of problems. They also had a tendency to just stop working, the solution to which was to reset the device and set it up all over again.
The iPhone came out and I got one. I used to carry around a Windows mobile device, another cell phone (because I hated with Windows mobile device), and an iPod, and the iPhone replaced all 3. It was definitely less feature-rich than Windows (which has been fixed by the new firmware for everything I care about), but everything it did, it did without problems. I set up IMAP e-mail, and it worked without crashing and without fiddling with it. When e-mail came to my account, it came to my phone. There were no intermediate servers to worry about. The web browser was actually useable for normal websites. The PIM stuff synced through the cable to Outlook, and now it syncs over the air. AIM works fine.
The only problem I've had with the iPhone is that occasionally the battery runs out really quickly, but I've had that problem with every cell phone and laptop I've ever owned. Oh, and on the day the 2.0 firmware was launched, I was one of those unfortunate enough to upgrade right away, only to find that I had to reactivate my phone and the activation servers had crashed.
But other than that, it's been really
This is why AT&T offers a better phone, the Tilt, that allows tethering.
I will now run away and hide.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
There are basically three buttons: YES, MENU, and BACK. It's much more modal than a touch-screen enabled device, but also much more usable for the simple tasks of phone, email, contacts, and scheduling. The whole device is very email orientated, and if that's what you do a lot of (and it is what I do), it's simply the best device on the market. The browser capabilities are roughly in line with IE for mobile, and the Google Maps application is a joy to use. Battery life is near infinite, even with a lot of constant email checking. There are also numerous shortcuts for power-users.
In comparison with the iPhone (I've used both), the iPhone is a lot slicker and has better font handling -- assuming you like your fonts smoothed. It's much better for showing pictures and video, and with GPS, the google maps function might actualy be more useful now. The iPhone has a better browser. But, battery life is far, far worse, and if you actually use your smartphone for work, that needs to be a real consideration. The soft keyboard, while "you can get used to it," and have it be "not too bad," is objectively inferior to a real keyboard for the portion of the population that has thumbs (eg most of humanity).
Bottom line, the iPhone is slicker and prettier, but the UI of the Blackberry enables users -- especially business users -- to do just as much, usually much faster, and for much longer, than the iPhone.
(And just for the record, I'm typing this on a MacBook -- I'm not a hater, the phone just isn't that great for me.)
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Just an official reply from Nullriver.... We're not quite sure why Apple took down the application yet, we've received no communication from Apple thus far. NetShare did not violate any of the Developer or AppStore agreements. We're hoping we'll get some feedback from Apple tomorrow. Sorry to all the folks that couldn't get it in time. We'll do our best to try to get the application back onto the AppStore if at all possible. At the very least, I would hope Apple will allow it in countries where the provider does permit tethering. We'll keep everyone posted. Thanks!
First of all... the iPhone IS special. What it is doing in this app and in the link I'll provide below for jailbroken phones is not something lots of phones can do, if any others.
Second of all, this app was NOT a tethering app. AS you say, tethering is done by either BlueTooth or USB cable. What this app did is create an access point by sharing the cellular network over wifi. You don't "tether" your laptop to a wireless router, do you? Now that we're clear on that, I guess we have to live with everyone calling it tethering.
iPhone 3G as a wifi access point
The Admin and the Engineer
Government force should be met with force if necessary. But contracts entered into voluntarily are the basis of civilization. You're advocating a return to the day when contracts couldn't be enforced, which would destroy the availability of the very services you hope to steal. Your position is not only irrational and immoral, but short-sighted.
actually if you provide the 'last mile' in the USA, YOU are responsible for CALEA. Look it up, it's a damn scary law. If the first hop to the Internet is through you, it falls on your shoulders. This includes neighborhood wifi projects, the local coffee shop that offers free wifi, etc. Forget if it's infeasible and expensive, forget that some wifi gear is impossible to do what they ask (Meraki, I'm looking at you), it's the law and you're responsibility. Not the ISP you're connecting to, but YOU. What's this mean?
Big Brother exists and is able to tap everyone's intenet at the snap of a finger.