Comments on: Palm to Hackers: Don’t Tether Your Pre; Sprint Will Get Mad

By: Dwight

Dwight — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:30:00 +0000

My phone, my data! I can only use what the phone can handle and no more. I can’t use both the phone and a tethered laptop on the internet at the same time. Or can I? I can’t justify paying and extra $60 a month for a MiFi to pull up information that will not open on the limited programs on a Palm Pre. Sure it would be nice and it was on the Palm Treo 755 I had tethered to my laptop prior to July. However I never expected to get a robust connection but it did save valuable time for me on occasion. I’m sorry Sprint, but if you can’t move forward we’ll find a way to move on without you. In fact if Sprint would just approve the use of tethering the data they wouldn’t be able to keep the phones in the store for the next couple of years. In fact some folks might consider severing their home connection if they use the internet on a limited basis and that could put Sprint in a position of dominance over the entire U.S. cell phone / Smartphone market (Sprint Power Vision; oxymoron). If I ran Sprint I’d market a program that that allows one device a WiFi connection and market the Hell out of spare batteries, power supplies, and power cables. And better yet, design the software and then leak it out as if it was some mythical rouge program that only the most in tune people even know about (A “Viral Application” if you will). MiFi is a lame marketing ploy; it’s basically another phone, so buy a Palm Pro (as a second phone ; edit Office documents, mail them back to people, and actually open PDF files) and tether away! I’ll stop while I’m still ahead; this kind of proprietary crap just tends to irritate me. Right now I’m considering the iPhone as you can tether 3G right now without issues.

By: alien teknology

alien teknology — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:36:04 +0000

tethering gets you at most 2 down and .7 up. you can get better connections using skyfire on your device with your data plan. if you are only tethering for e-mail or quick site look ups, why not just use the smartphone?

By: Luscious

Luscious — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:49:59 +0000

These “no tether” disclosures are getting ridiculous. For years I paid T-Mobile the 20 bucks extra on top of my voice plan to get unlimited data on my old HTC MDA. Nobody ever gave a hoot if I used the tether feature on the phone to connect with my notebook and surf the web. It was nothing more than a feature of the device – you either used it or you didn’t.

Telco companies are greedy mongrels, they want you to pay $60 for separate broadband when for years the hardware has been available for any phone to connect you to the web. Handicapping technology does nothing more than send development backwards to the stone age. I am sick of these corporate fat-cats telling me what I can and cannot do.

By: NigelG

NigelG — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:29:58 +0000

“US Phone carriers don’t support free tethering as a rule”

EU ones don’t seem to mind.