Google restores tethering apps to Android Market, just not in the US
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:16AM
posted Apr 2nd 2009 8:16AM
They're back; Google has restored the tethering applications pulled from the Android Market earlier this week. What, can't you see them? That's because you live in the US. In a statement sent to affected developers, Google says:We inadvertently unpublished your application for all mobile providers; if you like, we can restore your app so that all Android Market users outside the T-Mobile US network will have access to your application.Thanks so much T-Mobile US, Google.
[Thanks, Chris]
Lame.
Agreed, really lame!
Lol t-mobile US trying to be Verizon lite. Plz, just unlock the damn thing and use it on the at&t. Just sayin...
PS yea, yea, yea, I know Edge+ only. So what. WiFi is free...
So tethering apps aren't on the app store, big deal. It's very very easy to download and install apps off the internet. That's the beauty of Android, no need to jailbreak anything.
Now why exactly does the US get the short stick?
-Shaun
Actually, I live in the UK and I can't see them because I don't own the G1.
You're so funny dude!
I bet you gonna be the next Eddie Murphy.
That's quite a euphemism for 'deliberately removed.' Would I 'like' to have my application restored? Oh thank you google, for being so kind and making it very clear that you're the one doing me a favour.
On the other hand, it's in the best interests of customers to keep T-mobile happy, so they don't go off on some crazy filtering project or start charging quadruple for something. Don't bite the hand that feeds (scraps).
Eh, its more that mobile internet abusers put a huge strain on the network, especially if everyone is using a tethering app....It was in the EULA for plugin development and the guy didn't read it.
BALLS, man :(
Yet another example of the ludicrous US cell phone market. As a European who travels (and has lived) in the US, I'm constantly shocked by the measures and policies that US cell phone carriers are able to force onto their customers. You do have choclate covered bacon though. Which is nice.
@ EthanJ
As a european who often travels to the US (even if luckily never had to live there) I think that among all the shocking measures and policies common in the land of the free the ones adopted by cellphone carriers are among the least worring and absurd.
Can a diet that includes chocolate covered bacon have something to do with it?
I'll hear nothing bad said against the American diet. They're the only culture in the world that can out-breakfast my own. God bless your magic land of bacon-covered syrupy french toast. *salutes*
Seriously, though, mobile phones are dire there. At the low end it's absolutely horrendous, you'd think it was an alternative universe where the Nokia 1100 never existed.
That can't be real can it?
*googles*
*throws up*
Oh! Yes, we all sit around and eat chocolate covered bacon and play with our guns.
Kilgore Trout was the creation of an American Author. I do wonder what delicious foods are consumed by your ethnic group.
In any case, I am personally fond of Pho, Bulgogi and Aroz con Pollo.
clearly jealous...
mmmm bacon...
They do have better lemonade than us though. Fuck schweppes.
@Ethan
Home made FTW.
At least you guys got Google Latitude. We have to root if we want that.
WMWifirouter for WinMo ftw!
Just to clarify, tethering is already built into Windows Mobile - just click on the Internet Sharing icon in programs and connect to your PC by USB or bluetooth.
What WMWiFiRouter does is go one step further and let the phone act as a router for other devices to connect to it via WiFi and use its cellular connection to the internet.
If i remember correctly, the built in tethering usually uses a different connection to connect, so the carrier can monitor and charge you for data you tether with. WMWifiRouter circumvents that. Its a truly awesome program, and can also be used to turn your phone into a usb wifi card for a computer.
Well, this is good news. I'm on an ADP in Sweden and I still can't see any tether apps since they yanked them off the market a few days ago. I guess (hope) it just takes a while for the changes to take effect.
Oh, and also: It's a bit unclear if the block is for ALL US G1 owners, or just T-Mo ones? It would be ridiculous if the block was for everyone in US.
I find it odd that Tmobile users are being denied, since in the past when I was on Tmobile (4 or 5 years ago), and my recent memory of friends still using tmobile, they could care less if you tethered your phone or not, just as long as you paid for their unlimited (but capped most likely) data plan. Its ATT that has the draconian ass rape rates for tethering.....
@Jason:
I was just looking at T-mobile's data plans yesterday. They have unlimited data for regular smartphone use (blackberry, WinMo, Android). Although their "tethering" plan, webConnect, costs twice as much and is capped at 5GB. This of course would be in violation of T-mobile ToS, but you could just tether anyway with only the standard data plan. This is just another example of corporate America collectively screwing it's customers. TWC, Comcast capping internet. Fox/NBC not allowing hulu on your TV. Now T-mobile saying wireless broadband is limited, but only for devices that don't have a modem built in?!
Welcome to the bizzaro world. Where technology de-evolves.
T-Mobile's policies seem to be as follows: GPRS tethering is allowed, EDGE tethering is allowed, UMTS tethering is allowed, HSDPA tethering is "NOT allowed".
I love it...Google removes something from their store at the request of the provider...Googles fault. Apple remove something from their store at the request of the provider...providers fault.
You people are not even hiding the bias anymore.
"Thanks so much T-Mobile US, Google."
Gee, that line doesn't blame T-Mobile at all.
@Rollins
Granted, but when it was reversed I don't remember such generous sharing of blame for Apple and AT&T.
You might try looking back at the archive. Every time apple pulls or denies an app there is always a complaint in the quip about their app store policies being so arbitrary. That would be blaming apple
@Gnaget
I did, here's the story: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/31/tether-your-iphone-wirelessly-maybe/
Look at all the highly ranked comments. I'm not talking about Engadget, it's the fanboys who came to the conclusion "data is data" and that AT&T were greedy...but now Google are for complying the same way Apple did. Personally I don't blame either phone manufacturer.
Maybe the comment system is being weird, Tes, but I've read the comments on that article, and there is only one relevant highly-ranked comment, from UnixSystemsEngineer (the "data is data" comment). USE does not appear to be a fanboy at all, and does not state any real defence of Apple. I've also read the comments on this article, and I cannot find anyone blaming Google.
So where exactly are these fanboys who you say, are defending Apple on the one hand and accusing Google on the other? If they exist, they are certainly not getting highly ranked.
This looks to me like another case of phantom fanboys, just like the phantom Engadget bias we keep hearing about (keep hearing about, but never actually see).
Seriously, the US cell carriers need to suck it up. They're more whiny than the auto industry over here.
I'm in Australia, supposedly the worst land in the world for internet, and even I can tether my phone on the 3 network, all out of the box.
Why are US carriers so stingy about the issue?
you probably barily will have content left to browse after your cencor laws have put you back in the dark ages together with china. if china is as hash that is.
Man, the US really does suck when it comes to cell technology. I'm a technical person, I have always known what features and phones were available in other countries, but until the past 2 weeks, I have never had the opportunity to actually use those technologies.
I was recently in South Africa for 2 weeks, with my iphone (jailbroken and unlocked), when I landed and turned on my phone, I got this lovely SMS about me roaming and the rates ($2.50 per min for calls, $0.019 per kb).... talk about bent over and taking it up the ass (I already knew the rates before I left). Fortunately, I popped in an MTN sim card (one of the cell companies there), loaded up on 500 megs of data at R180 ($18) and time for phone calls while I was there. Pre paid in South Africa (via MTN and Vodacom) is so far ahead of the US.
But of course all of the above is off topic, till I mention the fact I tethered my samsung netbook to my iphone, and was my primary use to communication with friends and family back home, mostly to post pictures I took. It worked great, and fuck ATT and tmobile for their lame policies and outrageous rates when traveling.
hahaha you should try data useage here in Canada... Apparently since we are futher north we have no use for money other than data plans?
The below is copied from a table of some data options for smartphones in canada... look at the lowest, and the overage costs
Rate Data allowance Cost for Overage
$15 2 MB $5 per MB for the first five MB and 3¢ per MB thereafter
$25 500 MB 3¢ per MB
$30 1 GB 3¢ per MB
$60 3 GB 3¢ per MB
$80 5 GB 3¢ per MB
And this is actually their nice plans! lets compare to their non-smartphone plans! Unless they have changed since the last time I looked closely at my bill, a standard phone (without data plan) has a data useage cost of 5 cents per kilobyte. That is not a typo, that is what I intend to type, 5 cents per kilobyte.
Something that interests me, however, is that with a proper phone (smart or i) the data overage is 3 cents per MB, but extra minutes are 35 cents. Are they trying to convince me that the audio up and downstream are in the neigbourhood of 11-12 MB per minute??? The whole system here is outrageous and patently offensive, it is the only thing that I regret with regards to being Canadian.
@Benhc911: Rogers is fucking terrible, but if you want to use a GSM phone in Canada, they are the only game in town for the time being. I'm not expecting things to get any better when Bell and Telus switch standards in 2010/2011 either, they're both just as bad.
Jesus Americans can bear arms and network operators still treat you like slaves FIGHT THE POWERful cell networks
Don't you love capitalism - you know, competition fostering innovation? Why is it then that our options here in the US are greatly limited compared to outside. They have cars with better MPG, faster broadband connections, better cell phones, and in this case: better features with those cell phones. Yeah, capitalism is obviously working as advertised huh
Don't worry about it. Despite having the most competitive gas market in Europe, gas prices in the UK are still the highest. Competition laws are just a trick to make you feel happy when governments privatise industries.
What happened with the comment T-Mobile USA guy said at the G1 Launch Event that they would not officially support it, but they would also not do anything to prevent people from adding tethering?
Having it in the market would be officially supporting it. Issuing takedown notices to all the websites that host a tethering APK would be preventing it.
They asked Google to remove it from the market because they don't officially support it. They haven't gone after any website that hosts tethering applications, so they're not preventing it.
So far, they seem pretty consistent to me.
I'm in Spain, with an ADP1 and no T-Mobile, and I still can't see the tether app again. Cache problems? Maybe. But, I have a question: in the article they mention google's response, but not what the developer of this app decided to do. Maybe he declined the offer and that's why we can't see it...
Maybe it's just a way to show how backward cellular providers in the US are.
They're doing a good job, too. In many ways I envy the folks in the US, almost everything's so much cheaper than it is here (Sweden) and the selection available to the consumer is amazing.. but then there's internet and cellular and IT in general, and all of a sudden I'm not as jealous anymore.
Still jealous though, damnit.
umm well i am from the US and i got an update alert this morning that wifi tether (the free App) had an update of which i downloaded fine with no issue.. so im guessing that if u aleady have the app, google will let you download the updates
Well that's how it feels to not be able to participate in Engadget reader contests cos we don't live in the US. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
What blows my mind is that Joystiq allows Canadians (except Quebecois) to participate in their contests. It's the same company! Why can't Engadget expand the possible pool of contestants too?