Comments on: Ideas for Apple: AirPort Mobile Tethering

By: Scooteristi

Scooteristi — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:42:30 +0000

All I know is that I was lucky enough to get NetShare when it was up in August. And when I was at my parents’ house in podunk Tennessee still relying on dial-up it was super sweet to be able to tether my MacBook to surf.

Too bad NetShare only passes data on Port 80, great for surfing, but a pain for email, Back to My Mac, and other web apps.

By: GregA

GregA — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:32:29 +0000

@CCS:
Yeah, I thought the idea was sharing with random Apple-based strangers. Similar to his other article on sharing Airport Extreme.

Otherwise… the idea of tethering a phone to a laptop doesn’t seem worth an article longer than a single line of “please”, does it.

By: airmanchairman

airmanchairman — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:41:49 +0000

When comparing the cellular networks of those densely-populated countries like Germany etc to the USA and describing certain US carrier’s networks as “creaky”, it has to be borne in mind that the USA is vast, humongously vast. This presents different challenges to their national carriers beyond just technology and availability of data options.

After several months of frantic searching, a spotter plane has only just located what may be the wreckage of Steve Fosset’s airplane, lost in a flight between only 2 states, and adjacent to each other.

The USA is frighteningly vast, not to talk of North America as a whole…

By: Realtosh

Realtosh — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:38:09 +0000

@ AlanAudio

Integrated laptops exist. Dell and others have been selling them for some time. Those contracts should be priced identically to expresscard modems that are inserted into the slot on the side of the laptop.

The tethering data options for cellphones are usually a bit cheaper. It’s just more revenue for the same device. The integrated laptops and the expresscard modems are separate devices. You could be using both the cell phone and the separate data device (modem, laptop) at the same time using more network capacity.

Yes, many carriers already have tethering plans for cell phones. Apple just needs to negotiate tethering options for iPhone with ATT & other carriers.

By: AlanAudio

AlanAudio — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:51:00 +0000

Laptops with integrated mobile Internet connections are almost with us. When they appear, they’ll need sensibly priced contracts, just as the iPhone needed affordable unlimited Internet. Whatever arrangement is devised would presumably work equally well for a tethered iPhone.

By: Sean Harlow

Sean Harlow — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:22:30 +0000

“I can’t think of anything I would “casually” do on a laptop that required an Internet connection I can’t do on the iPhone already.”

-Watch any major video site other than Youtube
-View documents outside of a small subset of Office and similar formats
-Respond to an e-mail with more than a paragraph while not killing your thumbs
-Use an IE-only web site

I currently carry two phones and two laptops at almost all times. In both cases, the reason I have to carry two is a feature Apple left out. I can’t complain too much about the lack of a serial port on my Macbook Pro, very few people need them any more and if the USB adapters weren’t crap it wouldn’t be a problem.
The phone though I see as a legitimate complaint. If the iPhone could tether, I’d be carrying a single iPhone 3G rather than a first-gen iPhone and a Sony 3G unit. The problem here is 100% AT&T politics. I can easily make my iPhone use the SIM out of my Sony, at which point it is attached to an account with a legitimate full-on tethering supported data plan. I can get that same plan on any other smartphone and even a lot of dumbphones (like my Sony and its LG predecessor), but for some reason I’m not allowed to pay the same extra on an iPhone.

By: CCS

CCS — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:30:49 +0000

@GregA: iPod Touch? Who’d tether their iPhone to an iPod Touch? Is this just for network sharing, you mean? If you just happen to be near other iPhone users?

By: GregA

GregA — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:36:43 +0000

The pricing looks a bit difficult. I’d also worry about my iPhone power dropping as others use my wifi & 3G connection.

Still it’s something to consider. Even if Apple only shared it to iPod Touch users. Ideally an iPod Touch user would pay a very small fee to AT&T (etc) when they use any iPhone’s 3G and that iPhone would not have the usage counted against it.

By: trainwrecka

trainwrecka — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:43:04 +0000

I can’t think of anything I would “casually” do on a laptop that required an Internet connection I can’t do on the iPhone already.

I think the demand for the tethering thing (and copy and paste) has been blown out of proportion. I’m not against having them, but there are better things Apple could bring to iPhone first.

By: macslut

macslut — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:56:21 +0000

I currently use the PDAnet app for tethering with the iPhone. It works unbelievably well, and is much easier than the other apps. AT&T should offer this for a monthly fee $20 and it should be available for $1 an hour.