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How many of you are just going to tether to a WiFi iPad 2?

I'm getting the 3G iPad.

I had an iPad with only wifi and it was a hassle to tether.

I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T but even with watching streaming tv (slingbox) on my phone I don't hit 2GB.

Tethering with my iPhone requires me to plug it in so it doesn't die. Tethering drained my battery VERY fast with using the jailbreak method. Then there was the pain in the ass when the app would sometimes crash if I got a call or something.

Another note, I tried to watch my slingbox on my ipad with my iphone tethered and it always would skip and buffer. Worked flawlessly on my iPhone.
 
auero said:
I'm getting the 3G iPad.

I had an iPad with only wifi and it was a hassle to tether.

I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T but even with watching streaming tv (slingbox) on my phone I don't hit 2GB.

Tethering with my iPhone requires me to plug it in so it doesn't die. Tethering drained my battery VERY fast with using the jailbreak method. Then there was the pain in the ass when the app would sometimes crash if I got a call or something.

Another note, I tried to watch my slingbox on my ipad with my iphone tethered and it always would skip and buffer. Worked flawlessly on my iPhone.
Click to expand...

I have unlimted data on my 3g I pad and was thinking of drooping 3g on the new one and tether. I also sling and my 3g I pad handles it well. Not sure how bad the drain on the ip4 will be. Doesn't seem worth the hassle. I'm leaning towards sticking with the 3g.
 
Its not a hassle, just get pdanet. Youll save $130 plus monthly fees and wont have to have a limited lan. Win win win. I hussled as well with mywi and all the other paid crap and couldnt figure out how to ourchase or use cydia until i ran across pdanet.
 
waiting for 4.3 jailbreak on iphone, then using 4.3 hotspot tethering with my unlimited data plan.
 
Stirolak123 said:
Its not a hassle, just get pdanet. Youll save $130 plus monthly fees and wont have to have a limited lan. Win win win. I hussled as well with mywi and all the other paid crap and couldnt figure out how to ourchase or use cydia until i ran across pdanet.
Click to expand...

Hows the battery drain? I'm willing to even pay att for the option but don't want a dead phone in half a day
 
bidwalj said:
Hows the battery drain? I'm willing to even pay att for the option but don't want a dead phone in half a day
Click to expand...

It works even if it goes to sleep. How csn the battery drain be bad when the iphone is asleep? But you have to keep it on the app if your gonns multitadk on both sometimes it wuits the wifi .
 
Stirolak123 said:
It works even if it goes to sleep. How csn the battery drsin be bad when the iphonenis asleep?
Click to expand...

That is not entirely accurate. Using the Personal hotspot feature you can expect to get 4-5 hours of battery life. The question you have to ask yourself is, how often will you be needing to use the hotspot and for how many hours each time.
 
petvas said:
That is not entirely accurate. Using the Personal hotspot feature you can expect to get 4-5 hours of battery life. The question you have to ask yourself is, how often will you be needing to use the hotspot and for how many hours each time.
Click to expand...

That's the concern. I travel for work at times and having to worry about battery drain at an airport can be a issue.
 
You can always buy an external battery to connect to the iPhone plus airports have plugins for chargers.
 
I am tethering to Iphone

People complain about the battery life but when tethering to iphone and I have no issues at all. I can tether from my Jailbroken phone for hours without an issue. Sure my phone will drain some, but better off buying another battery source than giving At&T more money.

No reason to w8 for Jailbreak 4.3. 4.2.1 work just fine and simple to do. Would not use the Iphone without the jailbreak.
 
Has anyone tried any od the jailbreak tethers on international flights? Does it work? And would at&t charge you money for using your 3g on an internstional flight?
 
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)

I'm unlimited on the iPhone so I'll go the tethering route. The added covenience of a 3g ipad isnt worth the extra $170 and another $25 or so a month in a data plan.
 
bob5820 said:
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)

I'm unlimited on the iPhone so I'll go the tethering route. The added covenience of a 3g ipad isnt worth the extra $170 and another $25 or so a month in a data plan.
Click to expand...

Note you will have to lose the unlimited option to switch to hotspot. Will be $15 more to get the 4GB plan. I am in the same boat. I am actually getting the 3g for the GPS, but plan to use my iPhone for the hotspot connectivity and not activate the 3G on the iPad.
 
MacDawg said:
My understanding is, if you are an unlimited iPhone user, and you add the tethering plan... you will lose your unlimited data
Click to expand...

That's correct. I have the $30 unlimited plan on both of my lines (FamilyTalk) and we would have to downgrade to the 2gb for $25 plan + $20 tethering for just my line, so it comes out to just $10 more per month to add tethering as opposed to a separate data plan for 3g iPad.
 
Jemi9OD said:
Wifi iPad, iPhone 4 with mywi and unlimited data.

Yes, I'll miss the GPS functionality on the iPad, but that's what I have an iPhone for. The way I see it, the devices compliment each other; I'm not getting an iPad to replace the iPhone, so why bother trying to replace it's functionality.

32GB Wifi, please!
Click to expand...

Well stated. I will be doing the same. Although I'm under 2gb of data per month, I don't want to lose my unlimited plan. Once you switch from it, there's no going back.
 
Maaz said:
waiting for 4.3 jailbreak on iphone, then using 4.3 hotspot tethering with my unlimited data plan.
Click to expand...

You realize you have to pay your carrier a tethering fee for this, right? It's not an option you just flip on when you feel like it and not pay a dime.
 
MacDawg said:
My understanding is, if you are an unlimited iPhone user, and you add the tethering plan... you will lose your unlimited data
Click to expand...

Correct. I talked to multiple ATT reps and they said any change to your data plan you will loose your grandfathered plan.
 
I am switching to a WiFi iPad 2 and away from the 3G first gen iPad I had. I cannot justify the cost again (and barely could the first time) now that we have the ability for a tethering option, both the upfront and the ongoing data plan.
 
I'm going to do it and I won't jailbreak.

I travel 1/3 of the days of the year and despite free internet in all the hotels I stay in the lack of occasional ability to use my Wi-Fi iPad is annoying. I will upgrade to another Wi-Fi iPad 2 but will change my unlimited use iPhone plane to the 4 GB tethering plan. This makes the net cost of tethering $15, not $20 as I will be dropping from the $30 unlimited to $25 2GB base plan. Compare this to buying the iPad 3G for $130 extra + $120 in savings for 3G service which would allow me to have up to more than 2 GB overage EVERY SINGLE MONTH for a total of 6 GB and still break even.

Right now I use about 1.5-1.9 GB a month on my unlimited plan. 4 GB should be ok for me for now and if I occasionally have an overage (I doubt it) I am still way ahead.

Breakdown:

iPhone Unlimited Plan: $360 per year.
iPad 3G Plan: $300 per year.
iPad 3G initial extra cost: $130.

Total: $790

VS...

iPhone 2GB Plan: $300 per year.
iPhone 2GB tethering Plan: $240 per year.

Total: $540

Savings: $250 or another way to look at it is 25 GB of data overages for a year and still break even.

PS: Obviously jailbreaking saves even more and would keep my unlimited data but I have to deal with the hassle of delayed iOS upgrades and hassle of jailbreaking and the simple fact I am breaking the terms of service with AT&T. I don't want to do any of that personally but if you don't have a problem with it then jailbreaking is a good thing.
 
Last edited:
canyonblue737 said:
I'm going to do it and I won't jailbreak.

I travel 1/3 of the days of the year and despite free internet in all the hotels I stay in the lack of occasional ability to use my Wi-Fi iPad is annoying. I will upgrade to another Wi-Fi iPad 2 but will change my unlimited use iPhone plane to the 4 GB tethering plan. This makes the net cost of tethering $15, not $20 as I will be dropping from the $30 unlimited to $25 2GB base plan. Compare this to buying the iPad 3G for $130 extra + $120 in savings for 3G service which would allow me to have up to more than 2 GB overage EVERY SINGLE MONTH for a total of 6 GB and still break even.

Right now I use about 1.5-1.9 GB a month on my unlimited plan. 4 GB should be ok for me for now and if I occasionally have an overage (I doubt it) I am still way ahead.

Breakdown:

iPhone Unlimited Plan: $360 per year.
iPad 3G Plan: $300 per year.
iPad 3G initial extra cost: $130.

Total: $790

VS...

iPhone 2GB Plan: $300 per year.
iPhone 2GB tethering Plan: $240 per year.

Total: $540

Savings: $250 or another way to look at it is 25 GB of data overages for a year and still break even.

PS: Obviously jailbreaking saves even more and would keep my unlimited data but I have to deal with the hassle of delayed iOS upgrades and hassle of jailbreaking and the simple fact I am breaking the terms of service with AT&T. I don't want to do any of that personally but if you don't have a problem with it then jailbreaking is a good thing.
Click to expand...

I keep going back and forth on this. I have an Sprint EVO with Hotspot capability = $30/mo unlimited. But I can turn it on/off as needed so if I only need it for 3 days, I only pay for 3 days (prorated).

I believe you can do the same with the iPad's plan on ATT. Right?

I am more worried about battery life using the Hotspot. I spend a lot of weekends in the spring and summer in gym's for basketball tourneys and I am not sure I want the headache of making sure my battery is always charged!
 
thebubbatex said:
I keep going back and forth on this. I have an Sprint EVO with Hotspot capability = $30/mo unlimited. But I can turn it on/off as needed so if I only need it for 3 days, I only pay for 3 days (prorated).

I believe you can do the same with the iPad's plan on ATT. Right?

I am more worried about battery life using the Hotspot. I spend a lot of weekends in the spring and summer in gym's for basketball tourneys and I am not sure I want the headache of making sure my battery is always charged!
Click to expand...

I have seen forum posts indicated that an undocumented but real feature of the iPhone myAT&T app on the app store (free) is the ability to turn on and off the tethering and see the prorated costs. I have not seen this confirmed yet. If you have a iPad 3G those plans are a full month at a time, pay as you go. You can NOT get prorated prices for a few days use.

Battery issue isn't major for me as my likely out of a building uses of the iPad are limited to a few minutes at a time. More extended sessions would likely be in a hotel with poor internet service so I can simply leave the iPhone plugged in while tethering.
 
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