iPhone 4G?

[Jobydrone]

Maybe I'm missing something. What does it offer that you can't do on your phone already?  

NOTHING that was the entire point.  LOL

Personally, I suppose I imagined that if I had this service, with tethering activated I could have used the wifi to use my iPad in the wild for Netflix.  Obviously not an option the way the plan is structured now.  

For my purposes, I suppose I will eventually look into one of those 4G wireless hotspots that companies like Clear, Comcast, and Verizon offer here in Philly, and see if it would meet my needs better than the current Comcast cable internet I am getting.

My outrage I suppose is fundamentally at paying twice for what amounts to the same service.  $40 a month for home internet and $130+ for mobile internet for me and my wife through the iPhone.  Nobody is holding guns to our head and forcing us to use these services, but we do love them.  

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Unless the tethering has changed with the Wifi hotspots, you cannot connect your iPad to your iPhone.  Jobs made it that way (shouldn't be hard to figure out why either....=\)

King

[Jobydrone]

My understanding is that with the new Verizon iPhones that restriction has been lifted.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

My understanding is that with the new Verizon iPhones that restriction has been lifted.

:blink

Hmm, that changes my plans for the next iPad then....(maybe)

King

[Jobydrone]

That's the point, they don't want you trying to run 5 computers off of every iphone. If you want to have a better connection to the internet, then you have to buy one of the data devices. It makes no logical sense to give out free internet. it's suposed to be a quick way to get on the web, not an alternate service provider for you and you five closest friends.

I guess I don't quite understand the fundamentals of this deal.  I thought you were limited to five devices total, for example for me it could be my iPad, my home computer, my work computer, my laptop, and one other device.  Are you saying that any five devices anywhere can connect to the hotspot if you allow it?  If that is the case then I can begin to understand the data limits.

[X]

That's the point, they don't want you trying to run 5 computers off of every iphone. If you want to have a better connection to the internet, then you have to buy one of the data devices. It makes no logical sense to give out free internet. it's suposed to be a quick way to get on the web, not an alternate service provider for you and you five closest friends.

I guess I don't quite understand the fundamentals of this deal.  I thought you were limited to five devices total, for example for me it could be my iPad, my home computer, my work computer, my laptop, and one other device.  Are you saying that any five devices anywhere can connect to the hotspot if you allow it?  If that is the case then I can begin to understand the data limits.

yes. it's basically a mini router with up to five connections that can be active.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Apparently Verizon got a deluge of customers to their website so much that it froze up for a while today.  \
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/03/iphone-pre-orders-slam-verizon-wireless-website/

Review of the Verizon iPhone VS AT&T's version:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/verizon-iphone-review/

Also, for you Verizon iPhone users, some interesting 3G usage news:
http://engt.co/fgQmh4


Also, for AT&T users, we get 2GB+ if we add on tethering.  This makes me wonder if the 3G iPad will come down in price, as tethering the iPhone with the iPad is now cheaper than buying 3G iPad.  Will have to wait and see.  (Unless you don't buy the iPhone)
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/02/atandt-adding-an-extra-2gb-to-phone-tethering-plans-launching-mob/
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/03/iphone-4-to-get-atandt-mobile-hotspot-capabilities-on-february-13t/

Also, iOS 4.3 will probably be coming out in the next week or so.  (Just guessing from the article above)

I know these are from engadget, but similar ones have been posted on other websites and I'm feeling a bit lazy today :P.

King

[Jobydrone]

That data throttling announcement is bad news for all those new Verizon subscribers.  I guess it's not too long before we see these kind of changes in our home internet services as well.  Comcast certainly has a vested interest in destroying any chance that Netflix and Hulu have of succeeding, as well as stopping people from downloading/streaming movies and TV for free from the darker side of the internet.  I'd guess they might raise their "cap" from 250 gb to something higher and simultaneously announce they throttle anyone that goes over 20 gb a month so that streaming or downloading large files is impossible.

[Rico]

I don't think things like cable internet and DSL service to home is going to change much.  If anything data allowed will increase - because it has to.  The cable networks can handle this type of data better than say 3G or even 4G.  Streaming Netflix to my TV via Comcast is much easier than to a cell phone.  As long as money is being made, they will be happy.

[billybob476]

Also based on what's been happening here in Canada with the CTRC and their crazy metered internet legislation being overturned it seems that "the people" won't take these restrictions much longer.

[Jobydrone]

Why Joe, what are the people doing about it?  I read that stuff about Canada's new data caps and felt the dark side of the force very strongly

[billybob476]

The government basically told the CRTC that the plan as it was laid out is not to go forward. They have to either go back to the drawing board or drop it completely. It was deemed anti-competitive.

[Rico]

One of the issues is the content makers are doing everything in HD these days, so they need a way to get this content to people.  Even watching a couple of hours of HD content should be ok and not incur some type of over limit or penalty.  We also have on the horizon 4K content which is like 4 times the data.  I can see maybe restricting someone who looks like they are streaming 24/7 HD content, but your average user should not be hitting any type of caps.

[billybob476]

The issue here is that ISPs are leading us to believe that high-volume users are causing problems for "normal" users. I've been listening to a loit of discussion about this and the general consensus is that this is not the case. The costly part of this equation is providing the initial connection to users (i.e. laying fibre to the curb, etc). The cost of the data flowing across those lines is negligible at best. ISPs are charging us 1-4 dollars per gig for bandwidth over an arbitrary cap that costs them little more then 1 cent to provide to us.

[Jobydrone]

One of the issues is the content makers are doing everything in HD these days, so they need a way to get this content to people.  Even watching a couple of hours of HD content should be ok and not incur some type of over limit or penalty.  We also have on the horizon 4K content which is like 4 times the data.  I can see maybe restricting someone who looks like they are streaming 24/7 HD content, but your average user should not be hitting any type of caps.

I don't really understand the tech behind streaming HD video, I know the file size involved has something to do with the bit rate and other gobbledygook, but I would guess a very conservative estimate for watching a two hour HD movie would be around 4 GB?  At four movies a week that would put Canadians over their proposed monthly cap in a week and a half.