Gizmodo is reporting that one of their readers sent them a pretty legitimate-looking email thread of Steve Jobs responding to a complaint regarding iPhone not have tethering capabilities.
If the email thread that has been published is true then there are chances we could use iPhone for tethering purposes without the need to jailbreak the iPhone to achieve it.
The process of tethering allows your laptop to use your iPhone's data connection to surf the internet, which would have been a treat to use with iPhone 3G rather than the first generation's Edge connection. So it was disappointing to find out that AT&T will not be offering tethering capabilities for iPhone 3G.
iPhone hacking community have already figured out a way to tether a jailbroken iPhone to the laptop.
Gizmodo has published the following email thread that was forwarded to them by one their readers:
From our reader to Steve:
AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month (a total of $60 per month for the BlackBerry+tethering plan).
It seems ludicrous that the same thing is not offered with the iPhone. I understand the desire to prevent tethering with the current data plan, but I am willing to pay more money to allow tethering! With such an advanced device, why can I not do so?
From "Steve" to our reader:
We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.
Steve
Sent from my iPhone
Though Steve Jobs has been known to send out brief email responses, if this is true it seems to be the first instance where he has sent it from an iPhone (as Gizmodo puts it, it either makes the email legitimate or illegitimate).
It will be interesting to see how Apple plans to offer this feature as they had removed NetShare, an iPhone App which basically turned your iPhone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, thus enabling your laptop or any Wi-Fi enabled device to surf the internet using your iPhone's data connection due to pressure from AT&T as they typically charge smart phone users an addition $30 to use tethering applications.
What do you think?
[via Gizmodo]
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That's so retarded. You spend $30/month for "unlimited" data, so what difference should that make to ATT if you tether or not, your package says "unlimited"!!!! But it seems that ATT is afraid of people going over the unwritten limit of "unlimited" and demand additional money while they provide no additional service to you. The process of tethering has nothing to do with ATT and, by itself does not tax ATT to simply tether. They are stingy with their bandwidth and are raping customers with crappy networking speeds for high premiums. The telecoms screw everyone and we're supposed to be happy to pay unreasonable prices for crappy services, and that's why we (the US) is so far behind in Internet connectivity compared to the rest of the civilized world, even though we created it. We are 30th, right behind Slovnia in Internet connectivity. I hate it when people try to tell me that's not true while the average Japanese citizen enjoys 100 Mbps synchronous (100 Megabit up AND down) for a similar price. About a year ago a man installed T3 internet at his grandmother's house for about the same price as normal broadband as a proof of concept to demonstrate how bad price gouging is. But nobody offers a competitive service so we eat our shit with a smile on our faces. It just pisses me off.
I love ATT. I think they kick more ass than the other cell services around here, but I hate their pricing. Unfortunately, like I said, nobody seems to be much better.
Trivial, but has anyone ever tried typing ATT onto their iPhone? It automatically capitalizes and adds the & sign — typing "att" autocorrects into "AT&T".
Weird that Steve Jobs himself would send an email from his iPhone without the little & symbol considering its automatic…
Looks very, very fake. Why would he say "ATT" instead of AT&T. He's a professional, not some kid.
unless Steve considers himself a master touch-typist and turned off autocorrect?
I agree with the first post. 3g isn't everywhere and I'm not gonna pay $60 for the same service my phone already has. Complete rippoff.
When I type att into my iphone 3G it does not correct it to AT&T or at&t. I remember at one time my 2G iphone did. But since ive had this one every time ive had to type in att into my phone and want the "&" symbol in there I had to do it myself.