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iPhone 3.1 Update Disables Tethering
jole writes "The newest iPhone 3.1 update intentionally removed tethering functionality from all phones operating in networks that are not Apple partners. This is not limited to hacked or jailbroken phones, but also includes expensive 'officially supported' factory-unlocked phones. To make the problem worse, Apple has made it impossible to downgrade back to a working 3.0 version for iPhone 3GS phones."
Fuck AT&T. I don't tether currently. I didn't cringe when I got charged $26 per line for "activation". I didn't cringe at signing a 2-year contract to get a phone for $300. I didn't even cringe at an "unlimited" data plan that limits downloads to 10MB files (which, coincidentally, is smaller than most of the apps on the "approved" app store).
Why is Apple sticking with these people. The overall user experience of an "approved" iPhone is significantly worse because of AT&T's behavior as greedy little fucktards.
So the FCC has started looking into unfair business practices of cell providers. This could be a smoking gun. A 100% legal unbundled phone that will only support tethering on a single providers network, that previously did support tethering.
Is the equivalent iPhone plan truly unlimited? Or are you just going off on a tangent here?
Except when they don't want it to.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
So yeah - NONE of these phones are remotely free out of the box. All of them can be hacked to do what you want with them. Pick your poison.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
Windows Mobile isn't Open Source.
If Ms cared, they could shut out tethering any time they wanted. Thankfully for you, they apparently don't care.
You know what, I don't care if it's open source or not, because it does the job I want it to do. Plus, MS couldn't turn it off without disabling all network access for all apps. The tethering is an app just like a browser, a mail client or any of a thousand other OPEN SOURCE pieces of software written for Windows Mobile. Simply because they aren't all available in a handy little App Store doesn't mean they don't exist. You just actually have to do a Google search or two to find them.
Could it be the abusive wireless companies? No... they have shown time and time again that they do not improperly influence or direct Apple to do any of the things they have done lately such as removing the Google voice suite from the App store. Nope! Not a move pushed by AT&T and all the congressional investigations will show is that they didn't do it and/or don't "recall" doing it. That of course depends on the definition of what "it" means.
Cue the Apple apologists and the others who say "well? don't buy an iPhone!"
What about the poor souls who bought one with expected functionality and had it only to have it yanked out from under them.
What is really wrong here is the lines of ownership. Once someone owns something, is it proper for the previous owner to change and manage how you can use it? Sure, users don't "own" the software, but that is a matter of question there as it has been shown in other instances that copyright holders don't always have the right to control how a work is used. (yes, I know there are exceptions such as playing a DVD in a bar/club... but frankly, I don't think that limitation should be allowed either.) With every push like this, the rights of consumers are being trampled and removed. This is a big and growing problem. Consumers need to push back.
I've been doing that for a long time now on Windows Mobile using home brew ROMs.
90% of the road warriors out there are not using and don't want to use home brew for their business needs.
I really hate hearing about all these awesome innovations by Palm, Apple, & Windows Mobile using home brew ROMs that I've been using for years on my Blackberry, but nobody cares because it's Research In Motion (RIM)!
Tethering un-modded for years!
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Actually, if i read this and several other IT sites and their reader's reactions, it's the non-Apple-users who like to see iPhone-customers like that.
I know quite a few people with iPhones (and other Apple gear), and are quite happy with it, but not in your "look at how cool i am" way. It's the rest of the world that likes to apply that stereotype to them.
You may have forgotten, in your rush to insult, that by and large people don't care about things that have no effect on them. The majority of Apple customers aren't hurt by this and therefore have no reason to care. Your argument works for that small percentage of people who scream about software freedom, and of course that opinion gets modded up here so you feel like it's common - but in the real world, it doesn't make that much of a difference.
If you try hard enough you can convince yourself that anything is a good thing and should be protected, look at Scientology for example. It's pathetic and funny, but there's always some gullible people ready to exclaim it. There's one thing to be a fan, to accept it's pro's and con's and love it anyway, to want to see it get better. It takes an extra step to be blind to the short comings and defend stuff that's NOT in their interests using mental gymnastics. What makes it even funnier is Apple's "luxury" price tags, these people are not only defending stuff that's not in their interests, but they're paying a fortune for the privilege. As they say, "a fool and his money are easily parted".