

Apple Approves Tethering App For the iPhone - switz
http://tether.com/iphone

======
pheelicks
This will be banned soon. For those of you who don't want to drop $15, there's
an open-source tethering app available:
<https://github.com/tcurdt/iProxy/wiki/> Note you will need to have an Apple
developer account to be able to build and install this on a real device

~~~
siglesias
"We were very clear with Apple what our app did. They asked us a bunch of
questions and then approved us."

<https://twitter.com/tethercom/status/141415159376781312>

~~~
larsberg
That doesn't matter. Back when I wrote my first iOS app (which used private
APIs extensively), I had long conversations with several reveiwers (e-mail and
phone) where they said it was fine.

We all know how _that_ played out...

~~~
Raphael
What was your app?

~~~
larsberg
WiFinder

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URSpider94
I can confirm that it works, however, you do need to keep the app front-and-
center to keep the connection alive. Also, it only works over USB, not WiFi or
BT, and you need to have the custom Tether app installed on your PC. Looks
like it's creating an Ethernet-over-USB interface to the phone, then I can't
tell if the app is contacting network servers directly, or if it's proxying it
all back to Tether.com's servers (traceroute didn't want to run for me).

Interestingly, if I have WiFi active on the iPhone, it routes the connection
over the WiFi network, which could be really nice in certain circumstances
(you pay for a WiFi roaming plan on your phone, but don't have access to it on
your PC).

Speedtest was showing 2.3 Mbps down, 0.9 up over 3G. Not too shabby.

I only plan to use this occasionally, to check emails from the road; I hope
AT&T doesn't try to yank my unlimited data plan...

[I'm posting this comment over the Tether link now]

------
bgramer
I just tried the iPhone app with my Macbook Pro and can verify it works. You
have to keep the iPhone app front and center, not in the background in order
for it to work. It still works when the iPhone is in sleep mode.

Now going to check if it will work with my iPad3G connected to my Macbook Pro.

Hope this info helps confirm/answer questions out there.

~~~
bgramer
Confirmed. This works using my iPad 3G connected to my Macbook Pro.

Now turning on Internet sharing from Ethernet to Wifi to see if I can have my
Mac act as a Wifi hotspot using the iPhone tether.

------
matthew-wegner
More information here, since the site is down:
[http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/29/itether-app-offers-
inter...](http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/29/itether-app-offers-internet-
tethering-on-your-iphone-for-one-time-fee/)

------
ricksta
All the iPhones here in Canada has tethering enabled. Under settings you can
turn on personal hotspot.

~~~
stephen_g
All the carriers in Australia offer free tethering and wifi hotspot as well.

~~~
callumjones
Does Optus still charge for it? I know you can't use it on Pre-Paid.

~~~
stephen_g
I don't know about prepaid but my brother has an iPhone on a post-paid
contract and he gets free tethering.

------
brainfed
I was going to ask what the point of this was, because I can just do it
already on my iPhone. But from the comments I guess they charge you extra for
it in the US? That sucks.

~~~
jsight
I'm curious how much data you get, and for how much money?

~~~
brainfed
Me? I get 5GB of data on my plan which costs $89 AU a month. That includes
unlimited phone calls, SMS, voicemail etc The only thing with a cap of any
kind on it is the data, and I never use even close to 5GB, even with my iPad
and MacBook tethering occasionally.

~~~
jsight
For comparison, here are some US rates:

T-Mobile: Unlimited txt/voice, 5GB data == $89.99 USD (2GB is 10 less, there
is no cost overage after the cap, but the speed drops to less than 2G)

Sprint: Unlimited txt/voice/data == $110

ATT: Unlimited txt/voice, 4GB == $115, 2GB == $95

------
blub
This is one of the reasons I decided against the iPhone after using it for a
week - it leaves a setting that should be under the control of users to the
carriers.

Saying that your carrier allows it for free is missing the point...

~~~
danssig
This isn't an iPhone issue, it's a US carrier issue. Americans need to be
asking ourselves why we let ourselves get pushed around so much more than
other first world countries on these kinds of things.

~~~
nicksergeant
What exactly should the American consumer do in protest? Not buy smartphones
until carriers are nicer?

~~~
danssig
We need better, more efficient regulation. Basically, we need to get back in
control of the government. Big business owns it right now so life is getting
better and better for them at our expense.

~~~
nicksergeant
It does feel a bit like a runaway train, but I'm not sure it's the
government's place to police the carriers on features and price (my biggest
issues with them). What we really need is one solid competitor who aims to do
things differently. We need an Apple / Google in the carrier world.

~~~
andylei
> I'm not sure it's the government's place to police the carriers

> We need an Apple / Google in the carrier world

if the government does not have the solution, and a major competitor to the
big 4 (perhaps soon to be 3) carriers has not begun emerging, what do you
think we should do? continue to wait for such a competitor to emerge? do you
think one ever will?

~~~
nicksergeant
It's an entrepreneurial opportunity. Someone needs to enter the carrier
market, much like what BankSimple is doing to banking and Square is doing to
payments. Those are both huge markets where a startup has entered. The carrier
market is arguably smaller than the banking market (albeit not by much), so
it's not inconceivable to see a startup enter this space.

Obviously the people behind this startup need to have $$ and not have their
heads up their asses (like the other carriers).

~~~
andylei
that's not my point. clearly you and i do not have enough money to start such
a carrier. why do you think such no one else has started such a carrier?
should we wait around for someone to start one? what if we wait 10 years and
no such carrier emerges? or should we push for new regulations?

~~~
nicksergeant
Gotcha. I guess we wait, unless you have contacts / $$.

:)

------
lukifer
There's no question that this will be pulled soon. The question is: will Apple
also disable the app remotely for all those who purchased it, something that
is possible, but (I believe) unprecedented.

~~~
ugh
That seems unlikely. I think there already was a tethering app which Apple
pulled from the Store but didn’t pull from devices. I do think that Apple is
serious when they say that their ability to remotely pull apps is reserved for
malware.

The much more elegant solution for Apple is to make this app silently stop
working with the next OS update.

~~~
timerickson
This is correct. The app was NetShare, and it still resides on my phone.

~~~
ugh
Does that app still work with the current version of the OS?

~~~
Cowboy_X
Yes. I had sporadic trouble with it under ios 4, but it resumed working
properly in ios 5. Never liked uncommon ports, though.

~~~
ugh
That’s very interesting. Wouldn’t it be very easy for Apple to break the app
with an OS update? You would almost expect that an app stops working after so
many OS updates (not because someone purposefully made it stop working but
rather coincidentally).

~~~
xorglorb
Chances are NetShare reused existing code from an open source SOCKS proxy
implementation, which would probably just use standard UNIX APIs. Combine that
with the simplicity of the GUI, and it's very possible that none of the APIs
it is using have changed since release.

------
ben1040
App store link: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itether/id477971193?mt=8>

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sudonim
Site seems to be having issues.

The video suggests you have software on your computer and your phone, and that
handles tethering circumventing the software built in to iOS.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pCocSOgfPxI)

Also, it seems they've targeted it at very non-technical users.

------
Fluxx
I managed to buy the iPhone app last night, but now it looks like it got
yanked from the app store - at least in the US?

Edit. Looks like they did. Glad I got it when I did last night:

[http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/11/29/apple-pulls-itether-
fr...](http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/11/29/apple-pulls-itether-from-app-
store/)

------
kayoone
I was wondering what this is about since iOS has the personal hotspot feature
for a while which turns your iphone into a WiFi Router and works flawlessly.
Seems like US users dont have this ? Thats really bad.

~~~
mwexler
US users do have it, but it's an additional fee on top of the regular metered
data plan on most US carriers. For example, AT&T charges $20 additional per
month to activate it, and adds 2 gb to the monthly allocation as part of the
plan. So, more bandwidth if you tend to use a lot on your phone, but for just
occasional use, it's an expensive option.

~~~
andylei
i've heard that (on AT&T) you can get that activated for a couple days at a
time (say, when you're traveling), and they'll prorate the fee.

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datadon
Seems to have been pulled from the UK app store. It was there this morning but
no longer.

Hopefully a glitch rather than full exclusion, but my gut tells me I should
have bought it this morning.

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edandersen
There is no way Apple will keep this up if it snuck through review.

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iwwr
Other than the US, are there any other places in the world where "tethering"
even exists as a concept?

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nivertech
will it work on iPad?

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bkaid
And its already gone. Nobody saw that coming.

