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All iPads Anybody carry their iPad/mini around tethered to iphone?

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secretpact

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 24, 2007
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I'm thinking of getting an iPad or iPad mini and carrying it around with me tethered to my phone, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this? I'm specifically wondering if:

-Battery life on your phone is affected too much.
-Problems with connecting after the iPad has been asleep too long.

and any other issues pairing ipad + iphone
 
No
secretpact said:
I'm thinking of getting an iPad or iPad mini and carrying it around with me tethered to my phone, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this? I'm specifically wondering if:

-Battery life on your phone is affected too much.
-Problems with connecting after the iPad has been asleep too long.

and any other issues pairing ipad + iphone
Click to expand...
I would not be carrying around an iPad tethered to an iPhone because per nature iPhone's battery life is inadequate for a long term (hours wise).
 
I carried around a Android phone LG G2 with a iPad Mini 4 tethered to it. Though the inactivity time I set at 10 mins and I mostly did it in the car. I don't drive or know how to. Never wanted to learn.
 
Dude, that will kill your phone's battery. And in the event you actually want to, you know, TALK on the phone, a dead battery is a downer...
 
ZBoater said:
Dude, that will kill your phone's battery. And in the event you actually want to, you know, TALK on the phone, a dead battery is a downer...
Click to expand...

That is why I had my phone plugged in the whole time in the car!
 
secretpact said:
I'm thinking of getting an iPad or iPad mini and carrying it around with me tethered to my phone, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this? I'm specifically wondering if:

-Battery life on your phone is affected too much.
-Problems with connecting after the iPad has been asleep too long.

and any other issues pairing ipad + iphone
Click to expand...
Yes, I used to do this all the time. It's great that Apple added the ability to activate your phone's hotspot from your iPad. It'll disconnect and turn the hotspot off on your phone after a minute or so of inactivity to save your phone's battery life.

Honestly, it's not a bad solution at all if you only plan on doing this for a couple of hours every day. My iPhone 5s used to last over 5 hours on continuous hotspot, so the newer iPhones should last a bit longer. 5 hours isn't very long if you used it non-stop, but with on and off usage where it disables the hotspot while the iPad is inactive, that should be enough for most people.

Not to mention your iPhone won't last longer than that anyway if you were using your iPhone instead of your iPad.
 
Channan said:
Yes, I used to do this all the time. It's great that Apple added the ability to activate your phone's hotspot from your iPad. It'll disconnect and turn the hotspot off on your phone after a minute or so of inactivity to save your phone's battery life.

Honestly, it's not a bad solution at all if you only plan on doing this for a couple of hours every day. My iPhone 5s used to last over 5 hours on continuous hotspot, so the newer iPhones should last a bit longer. 5 hours isn't very long if you used it non-stop, but with on and off usage where it disables the hotspot while the iPad is inactive, that should be enough for most people.

Not to mention your iPhone won't last longer than that anyway if you were using your iPhone instead of your iPad.
Click to expand...

Awesome. I knew this was a feature just couldn't get anyone to say so. I read about it online just can't remember where.

So how do you enable this feature ?
 
max2 said:
Awesome. I knew this was a feature just couldn't get anyone to say so. I read about it online just can't remember where.

So how do you enable this feature ?
Click to expand...
If your iPad and iPhone are logged in with the same iCloud account, you just need to leave Bluetooth turned on on your iPhone. Turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone and you'll see your iPhone's hotspot listed under Wi-Fi settings on your iPad.
 
Just get a cellular iPad. The small price increase will save you a lot of time, hassle and over thinking things. Also resale value is much better with cellular.
 
Channan said:
If your iPad and iPhone are logged in with the same iCloud account, you just need to leave Bluetooth turned on on your iPhone. Turn on Bluetooth on your iPhone and you'll see your iPhone's hotspot listed under Wi-Fi settings on your iPad.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

What about the WIFI only iPad using the iPhone GPS is that possible?
 
username: said:
Just get a cellular iPad. The small price increase will save you a lot of time, hassle and over thinking things. Also resale value is much better with cellular.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say "much" better. You definitely won't get your $130 back over a Wi-Fi model. You'll always get a higher percentage of your money back on the base model of a device than one more expensive.

So while you will get the most money back on a 128GB cellular iPad when new models come out, the difference between the amount you'd receive for selling a 128GB cellular iPad and a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad is much less than the difference you'll pay for the 128GB cellular iPad and a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad. The base Wi-Fi models offer the best return.

max2 said:
Thanks.

What about the WIFI only iPad using the iPhone GPS is that possible?
Click to expand...
Nope. It would be nice if Apple added that feature, though.
 
Although I think Apple charges an obscene amount for Wi-Fi + Cellular models, I buy them. The convenience is important to me. I don't know about resale as I always give them away when I upgrade.
 
Channan said:
I tethered frequently for many years and I did just fine with tethering.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just saying it seems simpler to pay a bit extra and not need two devices to do what you could do with one, especially since it really does use up your phone's battery more quickly.
 
joeblow7777 said:
I'm not saying you can't do it, I'm just saying it seems simpler to pay a bit extra and not need two devices to do what you could do with one, especially since it really does use up your phone's battery more quickly.
Click to expand...
It's not just paying a little extra up front. Wireless carriers charge an additional fee to use a tablet on your plan, even if you're just sharing the data you already pay for. Hotspot is included in many plans for free.
 
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I have the iPhone 6S Plus on T-Mobile's Unlimited Data, I only tether on the train on the way to work, in the car (backseat of course) family trip..etc. battery life hasn't been that effected.
 
I used to do this all the time when I had an android phone. I had it tethered to my original iPad mini and my iPod touch and it worked really well.I pretty much had it on all day. I was able to carry around spare batteries with me so I never worried about it draining the battery. When I switched to the iPhone 6 plus tethering wasn't that reliable so I didn't bother to do it. However when I recently moved home I was without home wifi for a few days so tethered my iPhone to my iPads and macbook air. It actually works really well now. I haven't really used tethering on my iPhone away from home so I don't know how much it would effect my battery life. However I have the 6S plus which has awesome battery life so I think it would be able to handle it.
 
Here's my take:
Tethering has come a long way and Apple has made it super easy to connect iPad to the iPhone. It's a nice feature - if you only want to use it occasionally. I'm on Verizon and I don't get charged extra for a tethering fee. For me, it doesn't affect my battery noticeably (though there seems to be a bit of a lag...).

HOWEVER, if you plan to use it with any frequency, I would go for the Cellular model. There's no replacement for being able to pull the mini out of your pocket and just being able to start doing something online without even thinking about it. I use my Mini on cellular all the time and it's just really wonderful to be able to do. It does carry an extra cost ($10 per month) but easily worth it.

(The only reason I didn't go cellular on the Pro is because I had the mini... I do sometimes regret not going cellular on the Pro.)

Channan said:
Nope. It would be nice if Apple added that feature, though.
Click to expand...

Sort of. I tether my WiFi iPad Pro to my iPhone some times and I can do location-based searches in Apple Maps and Safari on the iPad Pro.
 
bensisko said:
Sort of. I tether my WiFi iPad Pro to my iPhone some times and I can do location-based searches in Apple Maps and Safari on the iPad Pro.
Click to expand...
Yeah but you only get location info from WiFi networks near you. It's not GPS and you won't get any location information when you're out of WiFi reach.
 
Channan said:
Yeah but you only get location info from WiFi networks near you. It's not GPS and you won't get any location information when you're out of WiFi reach.
Click to expand...

I'm getting location info from the Wifi network I'm attached to (my iPhone). Granted, it's not full GPS support (and I don't know why they wouldn't include that), but it's accurate enough to do location-based searches.
 
I do this all the time. I had a cellular iPad for awhile and it just wasn't worth it. Xfinity Wifi is available all over my town and even though I had my iPad set up to just pay for the months I needed cellular data, I never used it. So in the end, I paid extra for a feature on the iPad that I didn't need. In fact, a couple of times, I only bought data for it so that my pay-as-you-go account would not deactivate.

To me it is far more "worth it" to just tether to my iPhone, especially now that we have instand hotspot in iOS. I hardly ever need it, but it's always there when I do. I use it with my rMBP too.
 
bensisko said:
I'm getting location info from the Wifi network I'm attached to (my iPhone). Granted, it's not full GPS support (and I don't know why they wouldn't include that), but it's accurate enough to do location-based searches.
Click to expand...
It doesn't work like that. If you're getting location info on your iPad while you're tethering, it's because you're picking up a Wi-Fi signal from somewhere else. You don't even have to connect to a Wi-Fi network to get location info from it.
 
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