Well, that’s sort of a rhetorical question really. By now, reports of successful tetherings of an iPhone running the developer release of iPhone OS 3.0 have blanketed the blogosphere. It certainly isn’t without caveats, but then it IS a developer preview of unreleased software.
On Tuesday, March 16th, Apple’s held it’s latest press release party to show off the iPhone’s next OS to media and developers. Scott Forstall stated, in response to media questions about when Apple was bringing tethering to the iPhone, “We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.”. While no demonstration of this capability was given, the ravenous developer community began looking for hints within the software’s SDK that tethering was in the works.
Not only did they find clues, but apparently fully working components and system controls to manage a tethered connection through the iPhone. The software in the 3.0 firmware will allow connection to be be made using a USB or Bluetooth connection to a computer. Now that we know that the software is there, now we just have to wait for word from AT&T to see how much they are going to bilk charge us for the privilege. Odds favor it will cost around $30 per month like their other tethering plans for other phones. Maybe Apple will go to bat for iPhone users to get the price lowered.
What do you think about tethering and what would you pay? Let us know in the forums.
Well, that’s sort of a rhetorical question really. By now, reports of successful tetherings of an iPhone running the developer release of iPhone OS 3.0 have blanketed the blogosphere. It certainly isn’t without caveats, but then it IS a developer preview of unreleased software.
On Tuesday, March 16th, Apple’s held it’s latest press release party to show off the iPhone’s next OS to media and developers. Scott Forstall stated, in response to media questions about when Apple was bringing tethering to the iPhone, “We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.”. While no demonstration of this capability was given, the ravenous developer community began looking for hints within the software’s SDK that tethering was in the works.
Not only did they find clues, but apparently fully working components and system controls to manage a tethered connection through the iPhone. The software in the 3.0 firmware will allow connection to be be made using a USB or Bluetooth connection to a computer. Now that we know that the software is there, now we just have to wait for word from AT&T to see how much they are going to bilk charge us for the privilege. Odds favor it will cost around $30 per month like their other tethering plans for other phones. Maybe Apple will go to bat for iPhone users to get the price lowered.
What do you think about tethering and what would you pay? Let us know in the forums.