Can you use the iPhone as a modem for a Mac Book?

I am looking for a sort of one size fits all mobile computing device. The Iphone certainly appeals to me, but the small size screen and keyboard are drawbacks. The Mac Book and MBP appeal to me for the size of the screen and the ease of keyboard usage.

Question? Can you marry the two devices and have the best of both? Can the Iphone be your "air card" to connect to the MB or MBP?

Only if you have an unlocked iPhone at the moment. Google it and you should find it.


I'm hoping for some sort of app for this to work with a non-hacked. We'll see.

agreed it would be nice app to have.

Out of the box, no, you can't tether an iPhone to a Macbook. You would need to jailbreak it in order to get that functionality. However, I think it's limited to a physical connection via USB, unlike other phones where you can connect via Bluetooth.

Kash is spot on. Not only is it limited to a USB connection it's just too slow to really do anything useful, like play WoW at work

There are two ways to do it, one is with Tiny Proxy, the other one I can't remember. Personally, I wouldn't waste my time tethering it if your using the edge network.

OhioDude said:

Kash is spot on. Not only is it limited to a USB connection it's just too slow to really do anything useful, like play WoW at work

There are two ways to do it, one is with Tiny Proxy, the other one I can't remember. Personally, I wouldn't waste my time tethering it if your using the edge network.

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Most people who have interest in tethering, probably don't need it to play WoW. Most people I know who use their phones to tether do it for work purposes, Email, IM, or small amounts of web browsing on the fly. GSM/Edge is fine for doing Emails.

I wish there were better ways to tether as well.. the current methods just blow. Quite a few people in my office are staying away from the iPhone just because it wont tether as a modem. I really wish Apple would add this extremely basic function.. even your run of the mill, free, POS phones have tethering functionality.

When I used to tether my 8125 to my Macbook, which also used EDGE, it wasn't that bad for casual browsing and email. Obviously it was much better when I got the 3G enabled 8525, but the point is that EDGE is perfectly usable for tethering.

What about the new 3G iPhone?

So does the new 3G iPhone allow you to "tether" the iphone to your Mac and use it as a modem? I really hope so. That would be great, especially as it seems you are forced to by a over the air date plan with the iPhone.

Still no announcement from Apple on tethering capabilities for 3G iPhones, or software update 2.0. Very disappointing in my book, as Apple keeps overlooking simple functions like this. (cut and paste, tethering, etc)

Thunder82 said:

Still no announcement from Apple on tethering capabilities for 3G iPhones, or software update 2.0. Very disappointing in my book, as Apple keeps overlooking simple functions like this. (cut and paste, tethering, etc)

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What a bummer. In all likely hood I will get the new iPhone, since I am an AT&T customer already and frankly other then the fact that they don't seem to have the coverage that Sprint does (at least with my experience with the two companies) I am happy with them. I just wish I could do the tethering since I will have to add a $30.00 (or what ever it is) data plan to my existing service and quite frankly I could live with the Wi-Fi only access with the phone if the tethering is not allowed over the data plan.

This may be a dumb question, but does AT&T have any phones that allows tethering capabilities? Is this an AT&T issue or is an Apple issue?

Thanks,
Richard

Most of the PDA phones allow it. My 8925/Tilt will allow you to. Works really well to. Ashame the phone is way to effing slow....Oh and BIG

andru1313 said:

Most of the PDA phones allow it. My 8925/Tilt will allow you to. Works really well to. Ashame the phone is way to effing slow....Oh and BIG

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With that being said, then why would Apple not build this feature into the iPhone. I could see AT&T not wanting that option because it would seriously drive up bandwidth usage over their network, but if that feature is available on other AT&T phones, then why not the iPhone.

I wonder if that feature could be added with a 3rd party App using the new iPhone Dev kit instead of having to jail break the phone. Again, why would Apple care and why would AT&T care if they are already allowing it with other phones. Strange???

andru1313 said:

Most of the PDA phones allow it. My 8925/Tilt will allow you to. Works really well to. Ashame the phone is way to effing slow....Oh and BIG

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You have an 8925 and are calling an iPhone big? I have the 8125 and the 8525 and the word "big" in no way applies to the iPhone in comparison to the HTC phones.

As for why Apple doesn't build in tethering, your guess is as good as mine. Could just be that there's not enough demand for Apple to build in that functionality. Could just be part of the agreement with AT&T.

I am wondering this too seeing as how I can currently use my blackberry for internet on my macbook, but I'm considering buying the new 3g iphone.

Thunder82 said:

Most people who have interest in tethering, probably don't need it to play WoW. Most people I know who use their phones to tether do it for work purposes, Email, IM, or small amounts of web browsing on the fly. GSM/Edge is fine for doing Emails.

I wish there were better ways to tether as well.. the current methods just blow. Quite a few people in my office are staying away from the iPhone just because it wont tether as a modem. I really wish Apple would add this extremely basic function.. even your run of the mill, free, POS phones have tethering functionality.

Click to expand...

This is not an Apple problem, it's an AT&T problem. Apple would probably be more than willing to enable tethering out of the box but AT&T is VERY, VERY overly cautious of it's network and they were freaking out when the 3G iphones launched because they weren't even sure the network would handle it. There's no way AT&T will allow tethering anytime soon unless you do it without their knowledge by jailbreaking your phone.

Just get an aircard. There's like $40 a month or something.

One other issue to be aware of -- tethering an iPhone is a breach of your user agreement with AT&T. They do track 3G usage and if there's a major spike indicating you've tethered, they can hit you with a LOT of fees.

PradaMedia said:

This is not an Apple problem, it's an AT&T problem. Apple would probably be more than willing to enable tethering out of the box but AT&T is VERY, VERY overly cautious of it's network and they were freaking out when the 3G iphones launched because they weren't even sure the network would handle it. There's no way AT&T will allow tethering anytime soon unless you do it without their knowledge by jailbreaking your phone.

Just get an aircard. There's like $40 a month or something.

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Can you elaborate on why you think this is an AT&T problem? I've had a BlackJack for two years now and used it extensively in '07 and '08 via tethering to surf the net in the States and Kuwait (tho' the Kuwait thing really hit the wallet hard). AT&T did nothing to prevent that and my data plan covered the browsing done thru the tethered laptop; the only extra charges came while in Kuwait.

Seems to me that the issue is Apple configuring the phone so it can be done. Getting the drivers/software to do it with my BlackJack was a breeze.