Apple to Release iOS 4.3 Today? Personal Hotspot Device Limits Up to Carriers?

Maybe they are worried about taxing their networks too hard on Friday. Starting web orders, starting in store purchases AND iOS 4.3 release for multiple devices all on the same day was a little suicidal.

Thinking back over past software "updates", I wonder what 4.3 will stop my iPhone from doing...

Good thing I installed the GM last week.

Weird. Would be a welcome surprise though.

Im a little confused with apples implementation of tethering (why cant they make it simple?)

So iOS 4.3 can tether devices via wifi, which is fine, but the US providers make it complicated by asking you to pay extra for the tethering? How do they stop you, is the option greyed out until you pay or something?

I am in the UK using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile UK so I am hoping this just works over here without any faff! 3 devices are plenty IMO, any more and your internet speed would crawl along, surely?

what difference does it make?

What difference will it make if an ATT iPhone can share the cellular connection? It would be sharing a lousy data connection that one device can't use, much less three.

Wonder if this will affect buying decisions for some people.....since it will give people time to install and play before Friday.

From everything I've read, iOS 4.3 on the current iPad 1 makes everything feel faster. Safari JS performance is *almost* as fast as iOS 4.3 on the iPad 2. And you'll get all the new features like Airplay and home sharing.

I figure some people, especially those that don't do a lot of gaming, might install 4.3 and realize they don't need to upgrade to the iPad 2.

-Kevin

Stelph said:

Im a little confused with apples implementation of tethering (why cant they make it simple?)

So iOS 4.3 can tether devices via wifi, which is fine, but the US providers make it complicated by asking you to pay extra for the tethering? How do they stop you, is the option greyed out until you pay or something?

I am in the UK using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile UK so I am hoping this just works over here without any faff! 3 devices are plenty IMO, any more and your internet speed would crawl along, surely?

Click to expand...

It won't just work. You'll have to pay the extra tethering charge.

Bgr. Aah the ones who said that the home button will be removed

Undocumented change: Faster load time for camera? (I hope)

I'll believe it when I see it/downloading it.

Stelph said:

Im a little confused with apples implementation of tethering (why cant they make it simple?)

So iOS 4.3 can tether devices via wifi, which is fine, but the US providers make it complicated by asking you to pay extra for the tethering? How do they stop you, is the option greyed out until you pay or something?

I am in the UK using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile UK so I am hoping this just works over here without any faff! 3 devices are plenty IMO, any more and your internet speed would crawl along, surely?

Click to expand...

I have the same set up (unlocked iPhone from Apple with Tmobile SIM) and whilst I can access the tethering option, when I try and connect my laptop it diverts to a tmobile paywall - I suspect the hotspot app will do the same thing unfortunately.

Stelph said:

Im a little confused with apples implementation of tethering (why cant they make it simple?)

So iOS 4.3 can tether devices via wifi, which is fine, but the US providers make it complicated by asking you to pay extra for the tethering? How do they stop you, is the option greyed out until you pay or something?

Click to expand...

Tethering support has been a part of the iPhone for a couple of years now (the wi-fi hotspot is an extension to normal tethering) - they explained it back when it debuted. The short end of things - the carrier settings your phone gets from the provider determine weather or not you can see or use this feature. If you do not have a tethering plan, you phone will not show this feature.

Yeah this is not that exciting of an upgrade. This is more or less for the iPad...

I hope so, the quicker I can view videos on my iPod from my iMac the better!

Tethering sure complicates the purchase decision. Now I wonder if I want the 3G model or if I will just pay for tethering and get the option of using my iPad or my PC from work tethered. The only thing that would make me still go with 3G is if tethering via BT is really flaky or if there really is an actual GPS chip in the 3G model...nothing stated in any apple literature I can find...anyone on these two points?

Also, are there any GPS apps that can pull the GPS location from my iPhone into the iPad and display it on maps?

There was an update to Air Video that appeared yesterday, that said it only worked on iOS 4.3. I wondered if they knew something we didn't?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well, at least I'm at work at that time. Hopefully the servers will have recovered a bit when I get home.

Great news, but is there any point in downloading it if you already have the 4.3 GM?

Stelph said:

Im a little confused with apples implementation of tethering (why cant they make it simple?)

So iOS 4.3 can tether devices via wifi, which is fine, but the US providers make it complicated by asking you to pay extra for the tethering? How do they stop you, is the option greyed out until you pay or something?

I am in the UK using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile UK so I am hoping this just works over here without any faff! 3 devices are plenty IMO, any more and your internet speed would crawl along, surely?

Click to expand...

The implementation is as easy as cake, the problem is having the carriers assimilate it. I just don't understand the reason for the limits; considering the user pays for the data transferred, who cares if he tethers one or ten devices at the same time?

Also, why are the iPhone and iPad the target of this controversy? I have an HTC WinMo phone with T-Mobile for years, and it can tether Unlimited 3G to several devices at once, no extra Tethering fees, etc. Pain and simple. And I know some people who are able to do this on AT&T's network for a long time, free and legally.

Carriers see the iPhone as a Goldmine, and now try to exploit every single opportunity to make money, taxing every feature the users allow them to tax.
So instead of having prices improve (by going down) over time, we now ended up paying more for data than before.
Just as a recent example, AT&T's bait-and-switch Month-to-Month Unlimited Data Plan, a clever scam to sell tons of iPads and force users to pay every month to avoid loosing their Unlimited Plan.
Great business strategy for them, but not great at all for the end users.
Now look at Verizon's pricing. Even higher than AT&T, just because we allow them.
How can we force the to bring their prices down?

And considering that in some areas, AT&T's 3G service performs as slow as a dial-up modem, rendering it useless to use LogMeIn, and other apps that require the promised bandwidth improvement of 3G, they should be more concerned with making the service work properly.

troop231 said:

Great news, but is there any point in downloading it if you already have the 4.3 GM?

Click to expand...

no

RADumas said:

What difference will it make if an ATT iPhone can share the cellular connection? It would be sharing a lousy data connection that one device can't use, much less three.

Click to expand...

AT&T's data on 3G has always been good and now that we have a Verizon iPhone we are seeing more reports supporting this. In my own personal experience AT&T data rivals some people's home internet speeds here in the US (a sad state for sure). Still, I think the issue isn't their speed, but rather in some spots IF you can get a signal.

I hope they fixed the App-Store issue.

Works well with Rogers In Canada

Been running 4.3 for a few days, and personal hotspot work great on the Rogers network in Canada. A little bit of latency, but at least 3 Mbps down and almost 1 Mbps up.. Excellent feature. Takes away the requirement for a 3G iPad...