Tethering Is Exhilarating (With the Nexus One) 211
timothy found this link (hat-tip to Tim O'Reilly) to a paean to the joys of tethering. "In a short post, Steve Souders explores the current state of tethering 3G connections via iPhone (on which he basically gives up, for the perfectly decent reason of not wanting to jailbreak his iPhone) and the Nexus One, with which he has great success. His writeup serves as a micro-tutorial ('use PdaNet's Android app') as well as an endorsement."
Yawn (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm not sure which is more boring - the article or the website its on. Seriously, how is this interesting enough to make it here?
Re:Android sucks. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not Surprising (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yawn (Score:2, Insightful)
It might gave been interesting to watch his car being run over by a truck while he was so busy checking his ssh connection at stoplights.
I don't really see what the big fear is. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a particularly interesting article, but I'm eating dinner and my brain is sizzled, so why not?
Then it all came crashing down. iPhone 3.1 came out. I had to choose between visual voicemail and tethering or consider jailbreaking my iPhone.
A search [redmondpie.com] on Google points one to the website which holds mobileconfigs for most global cellular providers. Downloading and installing the appropriate profile enables whatever support is needed. (It's also how one enables T-Mobile's MMS and Internet support rapidly.)
I’m gearing up for some travel so revisited the topic of tethering. I was stunned when I spoke to AT&T tech support two days ago and they told me they support tethering. How did I miss this?! Then the guy said I had to jailbreak my iPhone. It seems weird to have tech support recommend jailbreaking. I guess that’s a result of the AT&T/Apple love/hate relationship.
They shouldn't be telling people that because (a) that doesn't require a jailbreak and (b) jailbreaking is technically a contractual violation. That could get that CSR in trouble. NOTE: I'm all for jailbreaking; my iPhone certainly is. I'm just being pedantic.
I tested it last night at home, but the real test was this morning. I stopped for coffee at Peets, booted up Windows, tethered my Nexus One, opened a ssh session, and drove to work. At every stoplight I verified my ssh session session was still active. I was reading email, surfing the Web.
Reading mail and surfing the web WHILE DRIVING? That almost sounds responsible. ALMOST.
I really don't see what all the fuzz is about in regards to jailbreaking iPhones. Doing so doesn't seem to cause substantial harm to daily operation. In fact, it enhances usability even more since it allows applications that would never make the App Store, but are incredibly useful, to get installed (ex. SBSettings, which makes toggling all sorts of stuff dummy-proof and FAST, MobileTerminal, Veency for remote control, OpenSSH for obvious reasons, etc. et al). It's not hard at all to do (though it does make upgrading more cumbersome; hardly a disadvantage, though --- wait, isn't jailbreaking an iPhone easier than rooting Android?).
Re:Android sucks. (Score:4, Insightful)
No apps. Crappy screen. Violates dozens of Apple patents. OS based on Lin-sux. Why bother?
I always knew that my general distaste for Apple Computer and its afficionados was based in fact. Thank you for the confirmation.
Re:iPhone Tethering (Score:4, Insightful)
Semantics. I can't do what I want with the iPhone. I don't give a shit about which part of the system is broken.
Re:They don't understand jailbreaking (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, I dunno, could be the potentially voided warranty on a $600 item.
Or maybe it's Apple's habit of bricking jailbroken phones with updates?
Not to say that such things aren't possible with Android updates, but given the completely opposite culture the two come from, I feel much safer with my android.
Plus, as has been noted, rooting an android phone takes all of 20 seconds, and it gives less of an advantage for the simple fact that less is locked away from you in the first place.
Mod this guy a troll. (Score:3, Insightful)
I always knew that my general distaste for Apple Computer and its afficionados was based in fact. Thank you for the confirmation.
So you admit prejudice then? Why do you care so much?
Re:They don't understand jailbreaking (Score:3, Insightful)
Except the chance that things will stop working and Apple will un-jailbreak it with the next update, so your constantly fighting the vendor just to get what other phones consider basic functionality.
You shouldn't have to fight your phone in order to get it to do what you want.
Because things go wrong and it's a very expensive device. I don't recommend ordinary people root their android phones because of this (if you're willing to take the risk then good for you but on your head be it). Furthermore Apple is actively fighting you, most people don't want to fight their own vendor.
This is the difference between Apple and Google, Apple will fight you if you do things the non-Apple way where Google will simply ignore you (on some occasions they actually help modders).
Re:Not Surprising (Score:3, Insightful)
The reasoning is that even when the iPhone doesn't do tethering on their network the user *still* uses ten times more bandwidth than any of the other phones. AT&T don't want to give tethering to people who will actually use it.
Re:Not Surprising (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not Surprising (Score:2, Insightful)