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iPhone 3.1 Update Disables Tethering

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the but-i-how-will-i-torrent-from-a-corn-field dept.

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."

5 of 684 comments (clear)

  1. Let me be the first to say by imgod2u · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Let me be the first to say by initialE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      a phone not supported by your carrier

      Listen to yourself. Your carrier is not supposed to support a phone, it is supposed to support a _standard_, whether it is CDMA, iMode or GSM like the rest of the world uses, This makes it possible to bring your phone overseas with you too, you know, and do things like buy a phone without the uncertainty of wondering if it will work where you live. The thing is, you've been in slavery so long that your level of expectation is so much lower than that of everyone else. Yes, you, American.

      --
      Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
  2. FCC may be interested by headhot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:Buy a Pre by CXI · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:I think that by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.