Palm intros Mobile Hotspot app, guaranteed to make your router jealous
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 7th 2010 2:46PM
posted January 7th 2010 2:46PM
posted January 7th 2010 2:46PM
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A) Will this also be available on Sprint? The coverage of keynote did not make it clear - it looked like it was tied in with the Verizon release.
B) Damnit. I just paid $15 for the homebrew MyTether program (no, I didn't want to root my phone since I lack the sophistication to do so).
@Anders unclear also, though precentral is reporting it as Verizon only. Also i wouldnt count on the Official tether app coming free, and the MyTether will probably be just as stable. I wouldnt get upset over your purchase just yet.
@Anders
everything pre said it's VZ only... mytether lives on (i hope) though i've gotten my $15 out of it easily in the past few months
@theattack
MyTether is great, I would just rather have a program that I didn't have to "patch" every time I wanted to use the router function and also lose my camera.
Also, although I've showed my wife all the steps on how to patch and unpatch, when an update comes out I have to make sure she is aware not to install anything until she verifies that her phone is no longer patched. A patched phone + update = brick.
An official app would be much easier to deal with (at least for my wife).
@Anders
A patched Pre + update does not equal brick.
I've personally updated my Pre without uninstalling all my patches before by accident and been just fine.
And my girlfriend has updated hers without uninstalling patches and even without uninstalling her theme with no brick.
If you forget to uninstall before an update just uninstall/reinstall everything after the update, and you should be fine. I have been multiple times.
developer of My Tether here, i'll repeat here what I posted on the official forums of My Tether:
Mobile HotSpot, I believe is only for Verizon Pre's, i'm kind of excited by it because it means Palm has to keep their drivers working with wifi broadcasting now, even if they only compile those drivers on the Verizon Pre, it can be copied over to the Sprint Pre to make My Tether keep working.
The official solution might cost a monthly fee, and My Tether is a one-time. The launch of Mobile Hotspot actually should give us even more confidence that My Tether will not die from Palm's efforts to break it, as now they have to keep some sort of wifi broadcasting functionality included into their firmwares, which we can use/abuse for My Tether
@Anders i will be surprised if vz (or any other carrier for that matter, but vz esp..) doesnt charge for this app (or app with a service?? awaiting details) for it to enable tethering for 5 devices!
@aonic
@aonic
Why after the 1.3.5 update does MyTeather not work in Wi-Fi mode? I reinstalled and All I get when attempting to patch for the first time is " download from vz.aonic.net failed" Since it's your app, could you please tell me how to correct this??
Thanks!
@tonyslife are you using 2.0.4 of My Tether? email me: raja at aonic [dawt] net
@aonic
Fair enough, and thank you for developing the program. If it is VZ only, then it is a valuable tool.
@aonic Yes, running 2.0.4, Sent you an email...Thanks
Getting. Pre. Plus. On. Verizon.
Can't. Stop. Talking. Like. This.
Ok I can. Great job Palm.
@Jonathan K Still, a device with a bigger screen (i.e. Nexus One/ HTC HD2) would've been nice...
Oh well. At least Palm has the capacity to launch more than one phone at a different time of the year.
hint, hint...
@Jonathan K PALM FAIL!!! nice job trying to push year old hardware as "innovative" and "new" palm.
i had high hopes for you.... and you failed HARD!
@PalmIsGarbage I wouldn't say fail. The hardware is (as far as I know) equal to the iPhone 3G[S]. Except for the RAM, which is double.
And those games look nice, as well. Easy on the fail-trigger there.
Bye iPhone, bye Mifi.
@Leindurstit
Yeah we believe you. You have an iphone.
Not for long.
@Leindurstit
Good for you.
Yeah, it's really unclear whether this is an exclusive thing to the Verizon Pre Plus or not.
I used to use WMWifiRouter on my Treo 800 and Treo Pro to make them wireless routers, it worked really well. I hope that this isn't Verizon only. It would be ironic for a phone on Verizon to have MORE features than on other characters. :-)
@JerkyChew - Err, "Carriers", not "characters".
Where are the hidden fees? I dont think any carrier will just let you tether for free.
@Cg006 hence the lack of a cost announcement by VZ
@Cg006
The hidden fees are most likely hidden.
according to precentral it is exclusive to verizon
11:42 dieterbohn:
New application excplusive to pre plus and mpixi plus
11:42 dieterbohn:
mobile hotspot
@badjokes not cool. Either there is really a hardware change to the pre plus or i don't see why this shouldn't be possible with the old pre... I don't want to buy the pre plus. Also i like the silver flashing ball-button on my old pre.
verizon does not give anything for free. There will be a fee for sure.
I wonder if Apple are monitoring all this. Me thinks that on Jan 27, other than the rumoured slim and sexy something, they may announce a software upgrade for the iPhone / iTouch that allows not only multi-tasking (for 3GS phones that have the power) but hotspot sharing.
It's all about value proposition.
@Oflife Why do you think they wait until after CES to do their little announcement events?
@Oflife Given AT&T's hesitance to even offer tethering via the iPhone (to a single device), why do you think they'll suddenly offer WiFi sharing, at a time when AT&T's data network is already crumbling under the strain of iPhone users?
@Brad Hubbard
Agreed. ATT cant take the current strain, but they would allow more strain? Not likely. Infact this would make no sense given ATT may start tier data pricing for users
I've been using my jailbroken 3GS as a hotspot for a while now with the MyWi App. I was wondering when an official phone would support this. Good on Palm.
Verizon will charge for this....in some shape or form.
@TheRogueFFAngel
As expected or else some people would go crazy with it .... but if i was going to i guess steal internet or get it cheaply i would just steal my neighbor's WiFi.
verizon will charge $60 data im sure for the tether, hackers to save the day ? :)
Hopefully:
A) This will be available on Sprint and
B) This will be included in the data plan on the phone already.
I know I'm dreaming when I hope that it's included in the data plan price if it does come to Sprint but it'd be really cool since Sprint has been trying to position themselves as the best value in the mobile market recently
i already do this on my se x1 with wmwifirouter
@007
That's sweet, dude.
Hey, that's great, Palm users. But what's the big news? For Symbian devices, there's been an app called JoikuSpot, which does the same thing, available for ages.
Question... if you use your device to tether a laptop/PC.. how much data can you use before your carrier (in my case Sprint) gets on you for using your phone data plan excessively when they of course want you to pay for a separate data-card plan or something like that.
Can you go through 1-2 GB a month no problem.. what about if you want to download some movies i.e. 10+GB a month, what have your experiences been?
@Foci
I don't remember the exact number it was back in the WinMo SERO days, but the basic rule of thumb was not to do stupid stuff (like running torrents or downloading movies) and you would be fine.
@Foci I've been tethering on my Sprint phone for years (back to when you had to run PDANet instead of just hitting the "Internet Sharing" button). While technically they have a 5gb/mo cap, I've never run up against it in real-world situations, and here's why:
Despite that my phone is fully "capable" of acting as an internet connection, it's not exactly a good one. I'm not talking speed and quality (which is just fine), I'm talking simultaneous connections. I've never been able to effectively torrent because the little phone can't handle having a hundred connections open at once. And that's even with a high-end WM device (TouchPro). So it's fine while travelling, but it doesn't replace a home connection, certainly not for multiple devices. Also, it's got some pretty bad latency, typically ~250ms.
@Brad Hubbard
Sounds like an application or OS limitation, then. The actual processing power required to deal with NAT of hundreds of active connections at 3G speeds is... on the order of 486 speed or so.
Joiku Spot on s60 devices BTW
don't expect to make phone calls while your using the internet.
@funkyp56 The following responses apply to your regurgitation of an attack ad featuring a made-up shortcoming:
• Don't expect to make phone calls OR be on the internet with your iPhone!
• My phone downloads my email ahead of time. I don't need to be online to read it.
• Wanna share your phone's WiFi with your other devices? There's an app for...oh, wait.
• You don't have to defend a product you bought a year or two ago just because something has a new feature.
Troll elsewhere.
@funkyp56 Look at how your last 10 pro-apple posts have gotten down-ranked into oblivion. If the shoe fits...
If you're using your cellphone as a Wifi router, why would you be using it to make calls at the same time? Just get a MiFi (or one of the new WiMax/CDMA pocket routers) and run that, or run Skype. Then you can use your ample data connection to have a wifi spot in your pocket at all times, and make all the calls you want.
And if you'd like to do it with your Droid, just run the Fring app there. That doesn't make a call, it runs VOIP data only, so you can still use the internet.
http://www.fring.com/blog/?p=1735
@Brad Hubbard I scrolled back to this post just to make the same comment funky did. One of the implications of the article was that this could effectively turn the phone into a mifi. Funky's point is that it would make a very poor one using EvDO. Not only would you be unable to use the shared Internet connection if you made a call, but since voice calls interrupt data (thankfully one of the best parts of the upgrade from 1xRTT), even unanswered calls will wreak havoc. This will be awesome on a HSPDA network and will be okay for occasional use, but is definitely not a mifi replacement.
Your last 10 are pro-everything but apple. I am starting to see a trend here. Have you ever owned an Apple product? Did you know they "Just work"?