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iPhone 4 screenshots show AT&T Internet tethering in latest beta
Although it was beginning to seem doubtful that Apple and AT&T were planning to offer Internet tethering with the next version of the iPhone, a glimmer of hope has appeared with some new iPhone screenshots. In the latest beta version of iPhone OS 4.0, beta 4, "Set Up Internet Tethering" is an option on the Network settings screen. Tapping it prompts you to call AT&T to set up a tethering plan.
Just last month, AT&T said tethering would be delayed until the network could handle it, but this screenshot suggests that it might arrive sooner than expected. Other improvements to the iPhone OS in the latest beta include better wallpapers, a "utilities" folder that contains apps like Clock and Calculator, and the ability to turn group SMS messaging on or off.
[via Gizmodo]
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsJR RozkoMay 19th 2010 3:03PM
Does this mean it would be a free option, or they may be opening up the option for users to pay-to-tether?
dmorris68May 19th 2010 5:30PM
Tethering has made appearances in iPhone OS before, so I'd argue that this is nothing new. There was a fairly easy modification to enable tethering in 3.0, without any sort of jailbreaking, that a lot of people used before Apple/AT&T eventually released an update to permanently disable it. Point being, seeing it in a preview release doesn't mean they'll leave it enabled in the production release if AT&T still isn't ready for it. But iPhone OS has been equipped for tethering for some time now.
@JR, I'm sure tethering will incur an additional cost as do all of AT&T's tethering plans. Or at least they intend them to -- on Windows Mobile platforms there have always been ways around tethering without paying extra for it, at least as long as your volume doesn't raise enough red flags for them to retroactively bill you for an immense amount of data usage (which has happened, or so I've heard).
billyunoMay 20th 2010 12:38PM
Tethering is far more data intensive, and right now AT&T only offers $60 for 5Gb of usage per month - nothing unlimited at all. I'm pretty sure the same kind of usage limitation will be there for this as well, if it ever gets off the ground. Also the current tethering plans replace your existing data plan, with, for example the Blackberry, so that 5Gb comes out of your normal phone internet usage as well, which I'm sure will be the case here.
KFCMay 24th 2010 4:00PM
If the phone company commits to a certain amount of BW (5GB/month in the case of AT&T and verizon) it really shouldn't matter how it's used. Bandwidth is bandwidth regardless of source. They're just upset because people actually have the potential to live up to the commit, and it demonstrates AT&T's lack of bandwidth and lack of ability to commit to that fixed amount. Plus 5GB is really not all that much over the space of 1 month... It amounts to a 16kbps 95-percentile commitment.