Google blocking tethering apps in the market
I suppose its about time, allow me to introduce you to the beginning of the end for Androids “wild wild west” behavior. Is this a bad thing? NO! it is NOT! If you didn’t pay for the ability to tether then why should you be allowed to do so? In the real world this is called STEALING!
It amazes me how some people are actually angry about this. Yet, they still seem to some how get angry when the cell tower they are connected to comes to a crawl because everyone else around them is stealing as well. Good for you google! keep it up.
Source: Androidpolice
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ramontrotman
48 Comments
This is called trolling the commenters, no?
@Surur: the only commenter i see if you. i didn’t make the carrier contracts, laws that govern them neither did i mastermind the morals in play…. so i am not sure how i am trolling you.
care to elaborate?
ramon, I hope they drop you. You dont even proof your own comments.
Are they also blocking Android 2.2 and up? Because if I’m not mistaken tethering, both wifi and usb, is built in. Hang on let me confirm that for you… Settings, Wireless, yup, there’s “Tethering & portable hotspot” right there. Weird having that standard, isn’t it, making a hotspot, something you can’t even do with your phone, paying or otherwise. If this is stealing, is Google a co-conspirator in your view?
Perhaps these apps are redundant and/or crappy. Given that 2/3rds of active handsets have Froyo (2.2) or above I’d say that ending wild wild west behavior with their software, especially after the news of being able to voice and video gtalk trickling down (another blow to carriers), if you’re thinking carrier ass kissing, you’ve got the wrong platform boss.
Let me know if you need help trolling for more than just a couple comments suggesting your trolling.
@rob: +1 to something completely original and relevant to nothing at all.
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/
no surer, i beleive this would be called informing readers of news in the industry… maybe WMPU should try it sometime…
Guys, I’m just joking, but I also assumed the post is a joke. Most readers would not feel happy about having this. I am surprised so few people are objecting.
If I posted the same article on WMPU there would be 200 commenters down my throat.
@Surur: this is the culture of google. They can object all they want, but google will do what ever they feel the need to do.
not to mention, its a huge community where rooting to do what ever or get around what ever is widely accepted and encouraged. So even if they block these app, you can expect a million .zip files to pop up with a bing search (you like that? BING…) containing the .apk file for your favorite tethering app.
And to further the rabbit hole, like simmons said…the ability is already included in the os…so what the hell is the point?
confusing aside, this is the first sign i’ve seen of google trying to tighten up their belt and bring some order to things. Can’t be mad at that!
yea…the crowd here is a bit relaxed…not to mention they’re use to the madness that goes on around here 😉
I must say the comments on Android Police are closer to what I expected e.g.
What a crock. How is tethering any different from just web browsing with your phone?
and
Please stop regurgitating the carriers’ lies and propaganda.
How does it matter how fast I’m burning through my capped allotment? If I hit that limit sooner rather than later it will be my own problem.
This is nothing more than a shameless money grab by the carriers. They are trying to double- and triple-dip for the same service we are already overpaying for.
We should not bend over for this like we are doing with SMS “bundles”. Let’s get this trending on Twitter or something.
Though I own a laptop, since phones have gotten good I’ve pretty much stopped using it altogether. And the only times I’ve used my phone to tether in ages is when teaching a client who lives in midtown (couple blocks from the Apple store actually) how to use her iPad, tethering over wifi through my T-Mobile Nexus S because AT&T is so painfully slow.
In fact I just had Time Warner fire up Internet for her this morning because AT&T sucks too much and I can’t always be over there with my T-Mobile phone that tethers out of the box, wifi hotspot and all.
Returning to my point though, I don’t know about you but my phone has eliminated my need for a laptop and therefore tethering. As time passes and people get better phones I think the demand will go down further.
However if you tether with your home or office computer or whatever and have no other means of Internet for your battlestation, you might want to go with Sprint.
@Surur: Its really sad man…. People feel as if their “right” is being taken away from them. Perhaps the problem was introducing this “right” to them in the first place. Maybe now we know why microsoft refuses to get too close to that tethering topic.
Yeah, because Microsoft is not in a position to get near to that tethering topic.
@Doug Simmons: well…the did make some sort of list for ethics….theres a word that must have never popped up in any google search googled by google o_0
first of all, this is not what i would called a post, at least it wasn’t written in that fashion – it’s an opinion written by the someone with a strong sided opinion.
second of all, you are practically biting that hands that feed this site by openly accusing MD readers who owns android of ‘stealing’. i’m sure, to most, your tone is not appreciated nor did it helped convincing anyone of your point.
third, do you really think a select few tethering user will bring the cell tower to a crawl, how much did AT&T pay you to say some thing so ridiculous? it’s always someone like you who only cares about the ability of your mobile power and pay (or have your parents to) whatever the telecom asked for and never complaint about why this amount makes no sense that makes these telecom so ‘reactive’ to this market meaning they only make adjustment to a situation when its customers complain – but most never do, there’s your problem, all those who bends over and just takes it without so much of making some noise – someone like you.
there are reasons why some tethering apps are useful, 1 of the reasons for some is that even though built-in tethering are great and convenient, they don’t have cross platform support. so that’s when some of these apps come into play.
gaiden2k7’s 100% right.
Ramon, after some consideration, I’m putting you on a two week probationary period during which time a formal reprimand will be drafted. Among the things management will consider is wage garnishment.
@gaiden2k7:
Ah Gaiden, have you ever bothered to read your AT&T contract? It is stealing. You have to separate how ridicules it is from the point that you entered into an agreement with AT&T or who ever when you bought the phone. Tethering is an extra service NOT included with unlimited data.
Now that unlimited data is gone, and we have a 25 dollar 4gb plan only from the death star, I can now officially say they can kiss my ass. If they offered a tethering plan that was unlimited I would get it. Right now as far as I know, if I switched to a tethering plan, I would A) lose my unlimited data forever, and B) be capped at 4gb. I use WAY more than that monthly. I 5-9 GB on my phone. I do not tether anymore as I told them I would not. For some reason I feel more honor bound now. Anyway, I don’t like it, but that is what I agreed to.
@Doug Simmons: LMAO!!!
@gaiden2k7: :: sigh :: really?
1. The button said post, and i press post, so yes it is a post. Is it an article, no! It was simply a blurp i wanted to share with the readers. Is it opinionated, yes. I am just about the biggest Microsoft fan boy here, so most things i write you can expect to see some of that. But i guess you would disagree character in blogging is something that should be done away with, or perhaps we should all have the same opinion on everything? i wonder how that would work.
2. Its so simple. If you continue to use/abuse a service you do not pay for, while ignoring constant “please dont do that” from the service provider…..it is stealing. no? if not…what would you call it?
3. Of all the staff members here i assure you i spend the most money in technology. If there is a device released i will own it. its that simple. There be no hand outs over here. This is not cnet. no one here or any other company in this field pays me. If you want to know what i do for a living and you want to see my lifestyle look me up on facebook. We can get better accented there. Perhaps the very message of your paragraph can be directly applied to you. As you can see her in the post, i dont care who you are and what you do, i will call you out for doing dumb shit. I dont like google at all, but i congratulate them for taking a step in the right direction. I value the reader and people as a whole, but i call you out for stealing. So i am not sure what the basis of your “someone like you” is.
your last comment is an understandable one and would have been much more appreciated than the first 3. and yes, i agree.
Stealing, interesting.
What do you call it when you’re a big stupid carrier that sucks so bad and you charge people about a hundred bucks plus a bunch of hidden surprise fees and don’t provide them with usable service because they live or work in Midtown Manhattan during the era of the iPhone? But you charge them anyway and don’t let them out without stinging them with an ETF that you jacked up not long ago?
What’s the term for that Smith.
Also, what do you call it if you’re that same carrier and in the flagship Apple store where they sell phones for you you rig up a super duper femtocell running around the interior of the store so that your network appears usable leading up to the time of purchase of these phones, but not so much once the customers leave the vicinity?
In addition to testing that myself as I wrote about I got this from Apple employees.
What do you call that?
@Doug Simmons: you came to midtown with the very cause of the problems you have with AT&T. ATT’s network is fine before the iphone and its fine now (if you dont own an iphone….) If youz thing ATT is that bad, i urge you to head on over to tmobile and let me know how that works out.
But lets all ignore the fact that all cell phone carriers do the exact same thing. and they get their morals from each other. Thank you apple!
How would that work out? Funny you should ask:
http://mobilitydigest.com/nyc-drag-race-results-t-mo-tko/
@Doug Simmons: i must admit…i am impressed with your rate of transformation to your new super alter ego iDoug! even faster than iChris…
lets not turn this into a technology company (microsoft) vs ad agency (google) vs coffe maker….eer…i mean consumer company (apple)
the point is…microsoft will rule all! thanks 😉
its called you stuck with them for how long before you realized that? you got noone to yell at but yourself for not leaving AT&T before you had signed that most recent cvontract… whats that called when you know your not happy with a carrier but you sign a contract with them anyway?
@sm0k3ydaband1t: MARRIAGE!!! LMAO!
Yeah well better late than never. Besides, they got all the SWEET WinMo phones first.
@ ramon +1000000000!!! too funny….
Hey, you wanna do a speedtest race right now, you and that Atrix with HSPA+ and me with my non HSPA+ t-mo phone?
I challenge you to a duel.
i dont live in an HSPA+ area and you know that anyway…. however, ill screen shot my speedtest.net test for you if you want to see im running a 3.7 mbps connection on standard 3g technology…
Weird, I thought AT&T had >97% of its network blazed up with HSPA+ last year.
last year AT&T aquired the market im in and they took over from a carrier that had ZERO 3g implementaion and built a 3G network from the ground up to cover over 75% of the state of vermont and they are still working on upgrading it…. vermont isnt even close to 3% of america
3% of americas population***
No need for your screen shot, I know you’re an honorable man. Though if you were to ask me for mine it would show 5518kbps down 1760 up.
And if you asked me if I ever broke 6mbps on vanilla 3G with T-Mobile, the answer would be yup.
@Doug Simmons: Simmons, from your early comment with my name on it, I call that shifting focus away from Ramon’s topic to poor Carrier performance, ridicules payment methods, and inflated pricing to the simple fact that this article was written about tethering and AT&T does NOT allow tethering unless you pay for it. Period.
Like you already did, switch carriers if you don’t like AT&T.
@Doug Smith: and while you’re at it get a windows phone.
And I’ll do it again if I have to, without even looking up how big my ETF is I will pack my bags and hop over to Sprint provided they have the current Nexus which I believe they do or will soon, if AT&T successfully acquires T-Mobile and instead of letting it ride autonomously it interferes with its operations, drops its brand, messes with billing and policies or otherwise degrades its general goodness including performance and customer service. If AT&T infects T-Mobile with its cancer that is unique to AT&T, I’m gone.
For the record.
@Doug Simmons: where will you go? sprint? o_0
yeah, that’s what I meant by “hop over to Sprint”
AT&T has done a bang-up job creating a market for carriers not named AT&T.
by the way, 42 comments, looks like Surur called it and you nailed it — bravo
@Doug Simmons: i wasn’t sure you saw what you wrote. Sir i am no troll. There be a Cave before that troll. And i will be addressed as such!
Sprint’s becoming Google’s new darling it seems with the free Google Voice porting and releasing on May 8th the Nexus S 4G running 2.3.4 out of the box with GTalk (including voice and video) enabled for 3G and 4G. If that keeps up I may move regardless of what happens with T-Mobile, unless Carly can get a little more seductive. But if that girl switches to Sprint herself, that will make my decision even easier somehow.
@Doug Simmons: Yeah but the majority of the comments are from the MD team, and you call me a lot worse in the Staff Email Chaos! LMAO
Jesus! What is the world coming to? I actually agree with Doug on something. The carriers are scum, and I don’t have an ounce of sympathy for them.
If you know how to change apn settings you will always be able to tether for free. Trust me on that.