You may previously have heard about iTether, an app launched last year allowing users to tether their iPhone to a computer and get away with not having to pay any other carrier charges by using it as a web connection. iTether was short-lived in the App Store but it’s back and this time around it’s called Tether for iPhone.
iTether was removed from the Apple App Store after only 20 hours, with Apple claiming that it “burdens the carrier network.” Of course cynics would point out that although iTether was great for those users with unlimited data plans, carriers were not so happy as they lost out on charging for tethering or hotspot capability. The new app, Tether for iPhone, is usable for both the iPhone and also the iPad and the good news is that this is an HTML5 app that negates having to head to the Apple App Store.
Tether for iPhone will be available from next week at a cost of $15 per year and if you can’t wait to get hold of it you can pre-order the app already at this link. After the first week the price will rise to $30 yearly so take advantage of that early offer. CEO of Tether, Tim Burke said that the fact that Apple removed the earlier app spurred Tether to innovate, according to Mashable. The fact that the new app doesn’t need to go through the App Store as it’s HTML5-based and uses an Ad-Hoc mode, will no doubt please many people.
There are already over 500,000 Android and BlackBerry owners using Tether along with the lucky few who managed to obtain iTether before it was dropped from the App Store. With this latest Tether for iPhone it looks very likely that those numbers will soar further. Tether’s CMO Patrick Hankinson also made an interesting point when he indicated that there are other good apps that have been removed from the App Store that could be recreated using HTML5, so we’re left wondering what we might see next.
You can see more about Tether for iPhone and a tour of how it works on the video that we’ve embedded below this story. Will you be using the Tether for iPhone app?