Though I’ve always found tethering to be useful, I hate paying any extra fee to carriers for it. I was a big fan of the iTether app until Apple pulled it down last November. Since then I’ve tried out a number of tethering apps but none of them provided the same experience as iTether. And earlier this week, I came to know that iTether is back – albeit as a HTML5 app this time around.
Since it’s a web app, users need not download it from the App Store to tether their iPhone to other devices. The app lets you tether a 3G-enabled iPhone or iPad to any wireless device using an ad-hoc connection. The Tether web app will work across carriers and networks, and it will not require users to reconfigure their devices every time they use the application with a new network or new device.
The new tether.com web app works by setting up your iPhone or iPad as a proxy server, thereby creating an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network. The Tether desktop application then redirects HTTP traffic to your iPhone or iPad device. The HTML5 web page loaded on the iPhone or iPad directly pushes the traffic to the Internet thereby bypassing Apple and your carrier network.
The best part – Apple and your wireless carriers can’t prohibit you from using the new Tether web application. Tether works across multiple carriers all over the world so you no longer need to worry about how to set it up depending on the new carrier network you enter.
The Tether web app costs $15 per year if you sign up before the end of next week. If you miss the early bird promotion, a Tether subscription will cost you $30 per year. However, considering that most carriers charge at least $40-50 for tethering, the tether.com web-based app seems to be a more cost effective option.
Here’s a video that shows the iTether for the iPhone web app in action:
