A few happy iPhone users were able to get their hands on iTether last year when the app was briefly on Apple’s App Store.
As you may recall, Apple approved the app, only to turn around and pull it from the store the same day.
Essentially, iTether is an app that allows you to tether your iPhone to a computer and use the device as a mobile hotspot without having to pay carrier fees.
Unsurprisingly, Apple was hit with carrier backlash, since providers charge users dearly for the ability to tether their iPhone.
The official reason given for pulling the original app? It supposedly burdened the carrier network. Fortunately, the coders of iTether have come up with a very interesting and innovative fix to bypass Apple’s official app blockade.
The latest iteration of the software is an HTML 5 application accessible via a smartphone’s web browser. The app weighs in at $15 for a year of access if you pre-order, which increases to $30 per year after the initial launch week.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple somehow attempted to block access to the newest version of the app if it gets complaints from carriers again. Then again, with the major carriers moving towards tiered data plans, perhaps iTether won’t be as much of an issue this time around.
“It was clear from our initial application, iTether, there was enormous demand within the iPhone ecosystem,” says Tim Burke, CEO of Tether. “It was unfortunate that Apple decided to remove our application only 20 hours after we launched. However, this caused us to innovate. Our underlying patent-pending technology behind Tether for iPhone is unlike anything on the market.”
The new HTML5 version of the app creates a wireless ad-hoc connection, and it will work with any web connected iPad or iPhone. Tether currently has 500,000 users of its apps on Android and Blackberry platforms as well as a few people who landed the iPhone app before it was pulled.
