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Fri, Nov 20, 2009 - 05:09 PM EST  —  AAPL: 199.92 (-0.59, -0.29%)  |  NASDAQ: 2146.04 (-10.78, -0.5%)

RUMOR: Apple and AT&T prepping iPhone tethering plan
Friday, August 29, 2008 - 08:55 AM EST

"According to a pretty legitimate-looking email thread from one of our readers, Steve Jobs may have responded to complaints that, since the pulling of NetShare from the App Store, iPhone-to-laptop tethering is impossible without jailbreaking one's phone," Mark Wilson reports for Gizmodo.

MacDailyNews Note (added: 9:52am): Tethering in this case means using your iPhone as a modem to connect your Mac - or heaven help you, Windows PC - to the Internet.

According to the rumor, an iPhone user sent Apple an email stating that since AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month, he'd be willing to pay for such a service for his iPhone. And, supposedly, Steve Jobs responded via email, "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT."

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Bill" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Roger's already offers iPhone tethering in Canada, so it's possible that AT&T wants to add tethering in the U.S. Perhaps AT&T first wanted to work on getting their network more optimized for the millions upon millions of iPhones hitting it before they will add an official iPhone tethering plan?

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Aug 29, 08 - 07:59 am Comment from: Captain Obvious

Well, there goes NetShare's functionality.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:05 am Comment from: Me Love You Long Time

$30 for occasional tethering while traveling is excessive.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:05 am Comment from: Jersey_Trader

The up coming Mac tablet may have 3G built in and Apple and AT&T;are getting ready for the "Just one more thing".

Aug 29, 08 - 08:09 am Comment from: scottm4321

OK, I'm not up to speed on this, what exactly is tethering?

Aug 29, 08 - 08:14 am Comment from: John Gee

scottm4321

Tethering is when your phone acts as a hub for WiFi. Of course, this uses the cellular network in this case.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:15 am Comment from: Bill

It's letting your laptop (or whatever) use the iPhone as a wireless internet point.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:16 am Comment from: Famous Grouse

@scottm

Tethering means using a chellphone's data connection to provide internet access for a computer. Typically, the cellphone appears to the computer as a modem and the connection process is similar to using a modem. Bluetooth can be used for the phone-computer link, although sometimes carriers limit the connection to cables.

Another way to think of tethering is that it allows a cellphone to act as a data modem rather than requiring a dedicated ExpressCard device.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:18 am Comment from: vanfruniken

@scottm4321, puhleez,

Double click the word "thethering", then right click and select "Look Up in Dictionary", or go directly to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethering

Aug 29, 08 - 08:18 am Comment from: John McCain

OK... but what does acting as a hub for WiFi mean?????

Aug 29, 08 - 08:27 am Comment from: Albert Gore

John, don't worry your pretty little head about it...

just know that I invented it.

Oh, and tomorrow the world will be engulfed in a flood. That is, unless we all stop breathing... and start eating tofu & kelp... and use $50,000 windmills to power our houses. Yeh, that's the ticket.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:29 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

@ vanfruniken,

I don't know what your native tongue is, but "thethering" isn't in any dictionary I own.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:35 am Comment from: NCMacMan

Its a good thing I have NetShare... I will use it only in an event of an emergency, and I currently have the enterprise data plan so my cap is much higher than the "retail" user.

I can do this in a pinch, or I can use VPN and Teleport to log into a secondary desktop in my office. Either way I'm covered...

Aug 29, 08 - 08:37 am Comment from: Nick Fury

Tethering is knocking your ball around your pole until it's so tight it can't move and then you win. Or you lose depending on which ball and which pole.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:39 am Comment from: Predrag

That's because our VanFruniken misspelt the word; it is tethering.

Acting as a hub for WiFi means that with a special app, such as the now no longer available NetShare, yout iPhone can be turned into a WiFi hotspot. Essentially, it shares its 3G internet connection over WiFi, much like what you could do on your iMac by sharing your wired (Ethernet) connection over AirPort.

I am still trying to understand why a user would have to pay extra for tethering from AT&T;. This reasoning used to make some economic sense from the carriers' point of view; users were using little to none of their data plan with their cellphone/smartphone, and when they tether their laptop to the phone, data usage suddenly goes to the roof. However, with iPhone the data usage with a laptop won't make much of a difference on their network.

Once again, carriers' greed rears its ugly head.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:40 am Comment from: Helsinki

Tethering OK here, easy to do with the NetShare app. Use it all the time when I am at the summer cottage .... that is, if I even use my computer.

Aug 29, 08 - 08:48 am Comment from: Jamie

Sixvodkas, this is from the Oxford English Dictionary:

tether |ˈteðər|
noun
a rope or chain with which an animal is tied to restrict its movement.
verb [ trans. ]
tie (an animal) with a rope or chain so as to restrict its movement : the horse had been tethered to a post.
PHRASES
the end of one's tether see end .
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old Norse tjóthr, from a Germanic base meaning ‘fasten.’

Aug 29, 08 - 08:52 am Comment from: extra?!?

Heck, they can't even get the low-throughput iPhone 3G's native traffic to work right on 3G, much less the higher-throughput thethered (that's a soft tethering) traffic of a laptop. With AT$T's current network I don't know that thethering would work well. (AT$T doesn't cause havok with semi-colons and HTML codes like AT&T;plus it seems more appropriate considering $5 extra a month for 200 SMS messages and now $30 extra a month to thether. So I recommend typing AT$T on here rather than AT&T;.)

Aug 29, 08 - 08:56 am Comment from: John Gee

Wow...

Try to help a guy.

smile youse alls is FUNNY

Aug 29, 08 - 08:57 am Comment from: cptnkirk

Even though tether is ok by Rogers here in Canada. The NetShare app is not available to us through the App Store. Kinda frustrating!

Aug 29, 08 - 09:11 am Comment from: Mark S.

I wouldn't want to pay extra for it and won't take it as option if is offered.
ATT is making enough money off me and other iPhone users as it is.

Aug 29, 08 - 09:18 am Comment from: Barak Obama

If I am elected president, tethering will be provided free of charge to everyone.

And I will raise your taxes 50% to pay for it and all the other stuff I promised already.

I'm Barak Obama and I approved this message.

Aug 29, 08 - 09:20 am Comment from: Bunsen Honeydew

Obama: I want to bring change to tethering . . . . . . and socialize it
McCain: I have the experience necessary to tether; I was tethered in Vietnam for years
Hillary: Women can tether too!
Bush: Tethernating is essential to stop nuk-u-lar proliferation
Cheney: Lets rebuild NetShare (contracts)
Gore: I invented tethering
Clinton: I did not have sexual tethering with that woman
41: Read my lips: no new tethering!

Aug 29, 08 - 09:21 am Comment from: bd

should be offered as part of the $45 enterprise plan. no extra charges if you have that.

Aug 29, 08 - 09:25 am Comment from: Nick Fury

To Bunsen Honeydew:

Ralph Nader: Tethering belongs to the people not special interest groups.
Bob Barr: I said tethering is good for America. I meant it's bad. No wait, it's good. It's good to be bad. Are we still on the air?

Aug 29, 08 - 09:33 am Comment from: Barak Hussein Obama

Praise be to Allah!
Change you can believe in, infidel.

Aug 29, 08 - 09:36 am Comment from: Nick Fury

Senator Larry Craig: I have never tethered anyone. No, I am not gay nor am I a bi-tetherer. Tethering is often confused with people like me who have an unusually wide stance.

Aug 29, 08 - 09:43 am Comment from: Illiterate? Write for Free Help.

"Barak"

Holy crap. If you're going to troll, learn how to spell. How high are you right now? And didn't your mommy say that you can't surf the internet until you stop failing your remedial classes?

Aug 29, 08 - 09:53 am Comment from: KenC

won't tethering make the network even more congested leading to more dropped calls?

Aug 29, 08 - 10:02 am Comment from: Rudge

I'm glad to hear that tethering might be possible with the iPhone. We've been hearing complaints about the iPhone's BlueTooth capabilities for months now. It would be great to finally see iPhones able to tether with Macs; a natural fit.

As someone who only has a dial-up account I've heard that tethering is a lot faster connection to the Internet. You're already paying for the data, might as well use it like this if you want to.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:05 am Comment from: Daner

Ted Stevens: How do you tether such a large series of tubes into such a small device?

Aug 29, 08 - 10:06 am Comment from: Barack Hussein Obama

Sorry, I am so excited that I have duped so many of you to support me in my grab for power.
I will make it up to you by offering to smoke a joint with my good friend William Ayres.
Afterwards, we can go to church and see my mentor, Reverend Wright.
After that, we can go hang with my friends Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Islam will rule!

(Get used to it!)

Aug 29, 08 - 10:11 am Comment from: Mark S.

I would be happy if I could just Bluetooth sync my iPhone with my Mac, let alone tether.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:18 am Comment from: Bunsen Honeydew

Tom Cruise: "you don't know the history of tethering; I do.

Ed Colligan: "Tethering guys are not going to just figure this out . . ."

Michael Dell: Tethering should just shut down and give the money back to the people.

Bloomberg: Tethering is dead.

Mike Lanman: The new Verizon Tetherer is going to kill the iPhone.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:19 am Comment from: Bunsen Honeydew

Lets have a great Friday!

Aug 29, 08 - 10:31 am Comment from: Nick Fury

Ellen DeGeneres: I'm tethered to Portia de Rossi right now.

Donald Trump: It's not tethered. It's real hair.

Britney Spears: I had to cut the tether on those kids, y'all. My fans need me.

Bill Gates: Internet Explorer is not tied to Windows. It's tethered.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:34 am Comment from: GOP Operative

McCain picks Sarah Palin to become first woman U.S. Vice President.

Game over.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:39 am Comment from: MidWest Mac

Son of a bitch, I hate election years.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:45 am Comment from: It's over

Upon learning that John McCain had picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, Barak Hussein Obama said simply, "Oh shit. Give me a fuckin' cigarette. Now!"

Aug 29, 08 - 10:48 am Comment from: StarkReality

Screw "Apple and AT&T;."

In the parlance of the cell phone industry, "plan" is a synonym for "RIDICULOUS CHARGES."

It seems that every single day Apple finds a new way to erode their once high level of respect.

Adding charges to what you're already paying for puts Apple squarely in the garbage bin of service companies along with cell phone companies, cable and satellite companies, etc.

It's nickel and dime time at Apple.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:48 am Comment from: iDon't

Tethering is very similar to S&M;.

Aug 29, 08 - 10:50 am Comment from: Illiterate? Write for Free Help.

"Barak Hussein Obama"

Wow. The same illiterate troll is still hallucinating. Aren't you late for gym class?

Aug 29, 08 - 10:54 am Comment from: Nick Fury

"Son of a bitch, I hate election years."

Cheer up. It's only going to get a lot worse. Someone must have handed out MDN's url on the short bus.

Aug 29, 08 - 11:21 am Comment from: Victor Meldrew

Yes, it's over for Obama!

Aug 29, 08 - 11:28 am Comment from: Vacuous Mildew

"Yes, it's over for Obama!"

Because Apple and AT&T are prepping an iPhone tethering plan? Did you forget your medication AGAIN?

Aug 29, 08 - 11:36 am Comment from: MacDave

"Someone must have handed out MDN's url on the short bus."

The way things have been going here recently, it seems like an awfully long bus actually.

Aug 29, 08 - 11:42 am Comment from: Digits McGee

John Kerry: I was secretly tethering in Cambodia with the CIA. They gave me my own copy of NetShare. I still have it. I have it to this day.

Aug 29, 08 - 11:52 am Comment from: Original Shiva

MacDave, you seem to be correct. It is amazing how many people will believe anything they hear and then spout off as though it is the gospel.

If thought is at all possible for the blithering idiot, how does he equate Obama embracing Islam and then blast him for the comments of his long time Christian minister? If someone can straighten the logic give a guy a hand here.

Aug 29, 08 - 12:08 pm Comment from: Coach Dan

" . . . how does he equate Obama embracing Islam and then blast him for the comments of his long time Christian minister?"

He inhales paint thinner and steals drugs from his parent's medicine cabinet. Brain damage is a bitch.

Aug 29, 08 - 12:14 pm Comment from: TB2

I love my iPhone but damn if there isn't a lot of nickel and diming with the 3G upgrade. Data plan price increased. Text messaging, yeah that's extra. Tethering, yeah pony up some more.

Aug 29, 08 - 01:11 pm Comment from: thethirdshoe

A tether with a red vinyl collar... big surprise

Aug 29, 08 - 01:25 pm Comment from: scottm4321

Thank you John, Bill, Famous and others for bringing me up to speed on tethering.

Special thanks to vanfruniken for being an @ss.

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