So, I need help. I have come to regret not ponying up the extra 100 bucks on my iPad for the 3G model. I am now in the market for a personal hotspot #NIYKWIM. Thots?
I have a Verizon MiFi. It gets great reception and has fairly decent coverage, even in a relatively large house. Battery life is at least on par with an iPhone. I’ve had it over a year, so newer models might be even better.
OTOH, the 5-gig-a-month bandwidth limit can come up on you fast, particularly since the iOS 5 update and its constant accessing of “the cloud”. And, as usual with mobile devices, sometimes service disappears or slows to a crawl for no particular reason.
Thanks man. Exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for. I am not looking to replace my home network connection, but only use on the train when away from Wifi connections. Anyone else?
What about turning your iPhone into a mobile hotspot? Are you ruling that out and if so why?
I use my iPhone as a hotspot and it’s great. I would prefer not to carry a separate device around if I don’t need to, personally.
Excellent question. My answer is that I am Grandfathered into unlimited data which they can pry from my cold dead hands.
Seriously tho, I haven’t done the deep dive analysis that I should to see what my utilization is, but as a general principle I have a hard time with giving something up so I can pay more for a service I should already have.
I also have the unlimited plan, so I jailbroke my iPhone and installed MyWi. It’s $20 and lets me set up either WiFi or Bluetooth tethering and works great. I use it all the time so my WiFi iPad can connect via my phone.
Yet another reason to jailbreak.
I guess that’s a good question. As I swapped sides from Android to the iPhone I’ve lost the ability to “tether” my laptop. I know with Verizon I can simply turn on the local wifi hotspot on my iPhone for $20 or $30 more a month and not lose my unlimited data plan. The reason I don’t know whether it’s $20 or $30 is that I have not done specific research. For most people I’ve heard the charge is $20, but for us Verizon users that have been grandfathered with our unlimited data plans I’ve heard (not confirmed) that our monthly hotspot charge is $30. I will be looking into it though because I tend to be a heavy streaming user while I am on business travel.
Also, a little pet peeve I’ve discovered yesterday with my iPhone. When Chuck released GWC #295 and MG #14 I tried to download them to my iPhone via iTunes while I was roaming (i.e. no WiFi). Even though they were showing up in iTunes and I could stream them and listen but I could not download them as saved files to my iPhone iTunes because the file size was too big. I did not try a direct download solution but I’m calling bogus on that one. I have unlimited data. I should be able to download it via 3G.
If you jailbreak do you lose the ability to download/install/upgrade to the next iOS 5.X.X version?
Nope, in fact I upgraded to iOS 5 last night. I’m ‘semi-tethered’, meaning that if I reboot my phone, I lose some functionality until I can hook it up to a laptop for a minute to re-jailbreak, but otherwise it’s working great. I’ve also got My3G which allows me to trick apps into thinking they’re on WiFi. This means I can do Facetime out on the road (works great, btw) as well as download big podcasts via 3G (to address Shooter’s concern).
I also have a problem with jailbreaking as a general principle, not because it is unethical but because I don’t like the idea of an unknown third party having access to all of my personal information (including my location, all my contacts, banking, etc).
Solai,
I had a few free minutes so I went in to my verizon account online and noticed that the only way for me to turn on the hotspot was to sign up for a limited data plan with the hotspot included, the cheapest was for 4 or 5 GB and ran for $50/month. I’m not sure if I would have a different result if I called them directly. I’m bummed about this. Without tethering my unlimited plan is useless. I doubt I will be downloading or streaming enough on my phone alone to make the unlimited data plan worth it. This stuff is getting expensive.
~Shooter Out
Quick update: I finally did thorough research on my data usage on my iPhone. I consider myself to be a power user and would be a heavy data usage hog. As it turns out in two years I have never exceeding 1 gig usage in one month. Ever. I was shocked.
That may be the straw that breaks this camel’s back. Any thoughts as to why I shouldn’t give up my grandfathered unlimited data plan?
Why would you give up your grandfathered unlimited dataplan? Just jailbreak, buy MyWi for $20, and tether off your phone without changing plans.
Solai,
Just a thought but if you turn on your iPhone hotspot, your usage might exceed 2GB pretty fast.
~Scott
Thunderscreech, you must have missed my prior comment. I have enough worry about the applications I install transmitting personal information, allowing a third party to add their own layer to my phone completely comprimises all pretense of security. Do you do banking on your phone? Access confidential information? You have left a backdoor open to an unknown party by jailbreaking. I know I am sensitive to this sort of thing from my computer consulting background, but I take it very seriously. I respect you and your choice, that is yours to make. I choose not to open this door
I’ve thought about that. Walk with me: The incentive to get the hotspot is do access the internet through my iPad for the two hours I spend on the train. As I already do this on my iPhone I am simply trading one point of entry for another to do the exact same things: Twitter, Forum, Email. Even if I realized the worst case scenario of doubling my usage I still wouldn’t exceed 2 gigs a month.
I’m actually a security professional myself with 15 years IT experience, a decade in firewall development and testing plus my current job involves (among other things) doing IT security work for the US military, but no worries. The method MyWi uses to create the tether is documented and has been thoroughly audited, but I respect your decision as well. I don’t mean to engage in an eSword measuring contest, but I didn’t want you operating under any misconceptions about the technology.
As for jailbreaking itself: If you do any banking on your PC, then you’ve exposed yourself to the same family of ‘risks’. The only thing Jailbreaking does is allow you to run software of your choosing on your phone instead of just that which has been digitally signed by Apple. As an iPhone developer, I also know what the real job of Apple’s app-submission process is, and it’s not to perform security audits.
BTW, if you’re not banking over SSL, better start watching those balances! 
Damn you and your subject-matter expertise!
:oops:
Thank you for your insight. I freely admit my view was based on knee-jerk reaction, more gut than fact based. I still don’t like the idea but accept your view that it isn’t a blatent security hole.
ps: my sword is way longer than yours
Don’t get me wrong, your caution is a GOOD thing. Just wanted to offer an alternative that would keep that delicious, delicious unlimited data plan! 
ps: hahaha
Might want to wait a few months and check again. Siri is apparently a bit of a data-hog.