Staying tethered all day?

[WannaApple?]

I am getting an ipad next week and plan to tether my iPhone 4 to my iPad during work. I am an outside sales rep and work on the road, in and out of customers all day.

I was thinking more about tethering and instead of turning it on and off every 15-30 minutes do you think I could just keep my phone and ipad tethered for most of the day? I am only on the road about 4-5 hours daily.

I guess my main concerns are:

1) Could this cause my phone to overheat or cause any problems? I plan to try to use iTether instead of mywi to save battery life, and I also have a car charger, so Im not TOO worried about my battery

2) I have an unlimited data plan with AT&T and Im not sure how much data I would use on a daily basis, but do you think this would cause any problems or raise any red flags with AT&T?

Pls let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

 

[Carlanga]

w/ sbsettings it takes less than 3 seconds to turn off/on tether and bluetooth

 

[IrishVixen]

Even iTether (and TetherMe, you have to JB the iPad too in order to tether via Bluetooth) uses a fair amount of battery power from the phone. I did some heavy tethering for a few days while on a trip, and frankly the phone was either plugged into a wall source or an external battery for much of that. It would be one thing if I hadn't needed it available as a phone, but I did. The battery dropped a good deal faster than I had thought it would using iTether, and the phone got surprisingly warm even in shorter stints of 30-60 minutes, and even with the screen turned off.

Seriously, if I were going to actually need to tether all day, nearly every day, I'd bag the idea and spend the extra money to get the 3G iPad. Tethering works, but speed tests on my tethered wifi iPad versus my husband's 3G show my setup is significantly slower than his. Add in that the connection between devices drops randomly, and my own concerns about what it does to the phone hardware, and I just don't find it an optimal solution for heavy use.

Just my experience, though, I'm sure others will disagree. For my relatively light usage, going the iTether/TetherMe route has gone fairly well. I just wouldn't feel comfortable using it heavily.

 

[WannaApple?]

w/ sbsettings it takes less than 3 seconds to turn off/on tether and bluetooth

I have SBSettings, but havent downloaded iTether/ Tetherme yet since I dont have my ipad yet, but is that all I have to do to tether is hit the bluetooth button in SBsettings to tether on my iphone, or do I have to also go into network on my ipad to connect? Or, does the ipad also have a toggle in SBsettings via iTether to do the same? Please advise so I know how it works, but that would be great if its that quick!

 

[Carlanga]

I have SBSettings, but havent downloaded iTether/ Tetherme yet since I dont have my ipad yet, but is that all I have to do to tether is hit the bluetooth button in SBsettings to tether on my iphone, or do I have to also go into network on my ipad to connect? Or, does the ipad also have a toggle in SBsettings via iTether to do the same? Please advise so I know how it works, but that would be great if its that quick!

no idea from the ipad side if the tetherme toggle is working now...

from the iPhone side you need to turn on the toggle for bluetooth and the toogle for tethering and this two I can tell you that they work perfectly when doing the tethering at least for me to my Mac...

 

[Creepus]

I use mywi and it works like a charm. I had the phone tethered to my ipad nearly all day at work today and the ipad stayed connected with no lapses (on a train ride in it it will get booted off when you're in a tunnel).

I have an unlimited data plan as well, but I doubt I use any more data than I normally would with my iphone since I'm essentially using the same news apps and checking email...all things I would otherwise be doing via the phone. I imagine if you are downloading or streaming movies, or doing heavy web surfing while tethered then your data usage will spike, but if you are using apps on the ipad that you would otherwise be using on the iphone I doubt it would raise any red flags.

As for heat and battery life, yes the phone gets hot and yes the battery drains quickly, but if you have it plugged in and possibly sitting on something that will conduct the heat then you should be ok.