iPhone 3.1 Update Disables Tethering 684
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."
Buy a Pre (Score:3, Insightful)
Palm Pre (and Pixi) has a Homebrew community with a FREE tether program.
WebOS phones are Open Source OS phones, so the Tether capability can't be disabled as it's based on Open functionality, not a closed API.
in the US, a Sprint Simply Everything plan (includes Unlimited data use) is around $1000.00 cheaper a year to have.
So, you can have an Open Source phone with a real Homebrew community, a cheaper unlimited plan and have your Tethering program UNBLOCKABLE. Sounds like the Pre is a better deal all around.
Unless you are an isnob, of course.
the iSheep.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Let me be the first to say (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.
Wait for 3.2 (Score:1, Insightful)
For the authentic Apple experience.
FCC may be interested (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.
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, 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 $300. I didn't even cringe at an "unlimited" data plan that limits downloads to 10MB files (which, coincidentally, is smaller than most of the apps on the "approved" app store).
Why is Apple sticking with these people. The overall user experience of an "approved" iPhone is significantly worse because of AT&T's behavior as greedy little fucktards.
If you read the article you'll see that it's not just AT&T that Apple did it for. It's across all providers even if they have a legally unlocked phone and approved tethering in their contracts. I can only hope Apple gets a ton of bad press and negative feedback on this one and puts tethering back.
Especially since they are now effectively committing fraud: http://www.apple.com/iphone/iphone-3gs/tethering.html [apple.com]
I remember... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:5, Insightful)
Is the equivalent iPhone plan truly unlimited? Or are you just going off on a tangent here?
Apple. It just...works? (Score:5, Insightful)
Except when they don't want it to.
Re:I think that (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple customers are always good for a laugh. Week after week there are more restrictions and they still buy Apple. My theory is that Apple customer either love complaining or abuse. It's a good thing, though. We'd lose a lot of entertainment without them supporting Apple.
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:2, Insightful)
I've homebrewed WinMO phones too. The major difference is due to the fact that it's an M$ product it's APIs aren't open, they're buggy and overall the devices run slower and are less customizable.
The end result is a phone that I spent a lot of time hacking whereas my iPhone basically did all that my xv6700 did. It only took 3 days to get to that point where I spent 6 months to get the xv6700 to a point where it was even usable, nevermind another year and a half hacking around.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no freedom on smartphones (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Buy a Pre (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.
What could possibly have motivated this? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:3, Insightful)
An expensive one too if you can't be bothered to ever calculate the costs of anything. ;)
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:3, Insightful)
You see there's this stuff called the fine print, and it explains that "unlimited" means unlimited time, as opposed to how the ISPs used to work - which was to bill $5 per hour of use and/or limit customers to XX hours per month (like Netzero does). A lot of customers make the false assumption it means unlimited gigabytes, and I suspect marketers LIKE that misinterpretation, but that isn't what your contract states - at least that's not what my Verizon contract states.
Back to article -
Anything amusing, clever, useful is on Apple's kill list. Makes the famous 1984 ad ironic - Apple has become Big Brother. OOPS AN APPLE FANATIC IS HOLDING A GUN TO MY HEAD - What I meant to say is that Apple releases these frequent updates in order to improve the user experience, and if they turn-off certain services, it's because they believe the users will be happier without them. (cough)
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:There is no freedom on smartphones (Score:4, Insightful)
The difference with Android, versus the other two options, is that the hardware manufacturer and the OS implementer are decoupled.
Android supports root just fine. However, device manufacturers offer no official means to get to root and no official means to flash root-enabled system images. This is no different than Linux supporting root but TiVo not exactly enabling it on their DVRs.
What Android needs is some manufacturer to step up and offer root-capable devices, with limited muss or fuss.
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:3, Insightful)
No, my original statement is IN ERROR, which I pointed out in a later comment: http://mobile.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1367713&cid=29413387 [slashdot.org]
It was only a few posts down from my original comment, would it have been THAT much trouble to read down a bit?
Re:Uh. y'all sure its been disabled? (Score:2, Insightful)
Virgin Mobile here in .au are both official Apple partners and allow tethering [custhelp.com], so it would have been pretty unusual if it had been disabled.
Re:I think that (Score:3, Insightful)
As a fan of the Green Bay Packers, after watching what happened with Brett Favre, I can tell you with almost complete certainty that Apple customers do not love abuse or complaining. In their blind adoration of Favre, err, Apple, they believe that Apple can do no wrong and any notion to the contrary is heretical. Their basic argument often follows this line of thought: "If it wasn't for everyone else trying to undermine what Apple is trying to do, they wouldn't need to take all of these measures. Apple only does this because they want to create the best experience for their customers."
Re:Not news (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I think that (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:There is no freedom on smartphones (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't about pleasing Slashdot or nerds with strange entitlement issues it's about selling a device for profit to a community (the general public) that cares about coolness, usability and enjoyment and not whether or not they can run some homebrew application they whipped up in java that requires root access and the ability to seamlessly switch carriers.
Re:Buy a Pre (Score:2, Insightful)
Well Windows Mobile sucks, so yes, nobody cares.
WinMo got to where it is because for a number of years it had 0 competition. PalmOS was too 90s, Linux wasn't ready, Symbian wasn't advanced enough.
That has changed now, and I think people are trying to get as far away from WinMo as possible. There is real innovation going on in the mobile world whereas MS hasn't had a single major change to their interface since 2002.
Re:I think that (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I think that (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.
Re:I think that (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I think that (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, I try not to show the iphone in public places, preferring to keep it in an inside pocket and use a bluetooth. No reason to tempt the snatch and run hoodies around here.
But the parent post is far too dismissive of the rampant fanboy-ism among apple users. Inspite of a dated interface, lock-down restrictions, and abusive corporate policy, they continue in their cliquish behavior in social settings, pretty much dissing any other phone that is not from Apple, while gushing over the latest fart app.
Its embarrassing. So much so, that rather than join this cabal, I keep the iphone in a pocket and try to change the subject. I'm happy with the phone, but embarrassed by the behavior of most iPhone users I meet in social settings.
Re:I think that (Score:1, Insightful)
Until it either explodes or melts.
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:3, Insightful)
"If you buy a phone not supported by your carrier..." What the heck? There is a reason why we have standards such as GSM and WCDMA. It SHOULD not matter what kind of a phone you have.
Re:I think that (Score:3, Insightful)
ACtually I only use my iphone because it is the best smart phone on the market. I tried all the others, Windows GUI isn't designed for small screens, so there goes every windows mobile device. and competitors like android and the pre only came out after Apple showed the world that to sell a smart phone to a non business person they needed to make it easier to use. I do have a small number of issues, but tethering isn't one of them. AT&T after all wants to charge you another $30 a month to allow it anyways. Look at AT&T's turn by turn navigation software. $10 a month extra, and less functionality than is already included. My issues include the inability to easily turn on and off bluetooth after receiving a call among little annoyances. however there is a reason why the iphone web browser visits more web pages than any other mobile browser. It is the only one that is usable on such a small screen.
Are apple products perfect nope, not at all, however at the end of the day they work better than just about everyone else's, for the same price. MSFT forced hardware to be standariesed. Apple is the only example left of the old school groups of doing hardware and software on one machine. SGI, is gone, Sun is fading, IBM is moving to more software. Apple is the last of the combination hardware software vendors.
Re:Let me be the first to say (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.
Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:4, Insightful)
Tethering has only been disabled in 3.1 for providers that don't officially support the iPhone. That sucks, certainly, but let's not engage in hyperbole. If you buy a phone not supported by your carrier, you run the risk of this sort of thing. That's true with any phone, not just the iPhone.
That is completely not true. If I buy an unlocked phone I have the expectation that every feature supported by the phone will work unless the operator doesn't specifically have that feature (like an MMS server).
Tethering is totally different in that regard. The network can't tell if the bits come from the phone or a device using the phone as a modem. So it is completely artificial to limit tethering and Apple had no right to disable it for all non-partner networks. Whether I can use tethering is between me and the mobile operator. Apple has nothing to do with it and this.
This sort of action is so completely in line with Apple current practices though and I hope their asses get nailed to the wall because of it. It might teach them a lesson.