By Something tells me this one won’t be popular with the masses, but we’ll report it anyway. Tether for Android – the latest tethering option that doesn’t come from Google or your carrier of choice – has been in beta for quite some time but the folks who created it are sure it’s ready for a stable launch now. Their claim to fame over other non-root options such as PDANet and Easy Tether is that it’s faster. Simple as that.
We’re not sure how true that is, but we’ll roll with it. Now how much will you have to fork over for this piece of software? They’ve launched it with a “special” introductory price of $24.99, with the price being bumped back up to $29.99 on November 19th. (And be lucky they’re not asking for the $49.95 that their site currently lists it as.)
Look, we’re not trying to be mean here, but who would want this over any of the free options? What could it possibly offer over the competition to justify its cost? It’s clear that this application was created in a time where Blackberry was the premier app platform and where users on that platform would pay ridiculous amounts of money for anything.
I’m all for buying apps – my plea for the disappearance of disgust against ad-supported apps would tell you as much – but only if the apps offer something unique that you can’t get anywhere else and that go above and beyond to justify their costs. I’m sorry, Tether, you just don’t fall into this category for me, and if I may speak on behalf of the millions of users on the Android market, you don’t fall into that category for countless others.
For the other 1% of you, check their site out now if you’d like to purchase it.
The price is outrageous! Only a fool would purchase this app considering it is not required for most Android users anymore. Froyo has it built in and there are plenty of other options for those not on OS 2.2 yet.
I wish there was a Facebook “Don’t Like” button.
I can’t see myself ever paying more than a buck or two for an app. I can tether for free with my Nexus One.
… and that is the first application trolling on Android.
have to be a joke.
I bet they get a lot of business users to buy this and they will make a killing.
Does the two t’s surrounding the e look a lot like they are flipping you off as you go to pay 25 bucks for this!?????
Yeah that’s a bit steep….Sorry but I gotta go with Tether for the FAIL~!
BAWAHAHAHAHAHA Absolutely ridiculous.. Who in their right mind is going to pay that kind of money for an app? Not me !!! The price is laughable !!!! BAWAHAHAHA Good luck with that..
But doesn’t tethering the “free” way really cost money from the carrier?
I would think paying a one-time fee of $30 is better than paying monthly $10-$20.
right? or am I mis-understanding the whole tethering situation?
You have no idea how happy I am this was released.
No, I’m not kidding, but think of the word kidding: that’s what all the nay-sayers are saying.
I have corporate customers who want this feature. If I send them to a free app, they’ll harass my staff for support.
If I send them to a $4.99 app, they won’t trust it.
A $29.99 app will afford the developer capital for support staff and costs. Well done.
Sadly, Google will likely integrate tethering with future phones anyway. But at least there’s an option today.
Not everyone can use the free option. I’d have to install a different kernel to get the free tethering options to work. If this worked for me id consider it. Doubt it though…
I lold. There’s like 5 of these in the market for free. Not to mention its free with froyo…
Bha!
Go to Android Market and download EasyTether or PDANet.
This news is a joke.
@ Francis
Pdanet is a completely free app that you dont need to change the kernel or anything for it to work. it just so happens that most users of the app are rooted and have modded their phones. I am a user and have so far been pretty happy with it.
@moerderin
In this situation, you’d be buying the $24.99 app AND paying the monthly data usage charged by the carrier. the cost of the app goes to the devs who created it. The data usage is another, second cost charged by the carrier. Unless of course you’re tethering “illegally”, using a phone that isnt supposed to be used as a tethering device, as one normally under an unlimited data plan.
As ridiculous as it is, there will likely be non-techie, corporate types who will actually buy this, and just throw the charge on their expense accounts. I’m sure that’s what the dev is counting on.
@8: No, it doesn’t. It only prevents carrier double-dipping.
@10: There are free/cheap options that don’t require a rooted phone.
Firstly I have been a beta tester for Tether with few complaints. The Software works and is easy to use. I had hoped that their pre would change or I’d be offered a discount. If it were $10 probably.
Secondly, tethering is not free with FroYo, it is just an included option dependent on your service provider.
Short of rooting, there is a shortage of truly free apps.
It looks free to me when I find it on the market.
This company is counting on people’s ignorance to make money. It’s highway robbery. I use PDANet, it’s free, and with my unlimited data plan it costs me nothing per month to use.
LOL.
You have never written about EasyTether.
Man, if you know nothing about that app, which has more than 50thousand paid downloads from Android Market only to say nothing about other stores, maybe you should not write about tethering at all.
This news looks fishy, are you paid for that ridiculous news?
The ‘free’ tethering will still show up on your data usage statistics, if you really go to town you will get a little note from your network provider and probably a $30 charge. You need to hack it to use tethering free and even then your data usage is easily tracked by a network. Yes, the app is free genius, but there is no free actual contiual tethering. I think the free tethering rumor was either started by or not cleared up by google to sell more phones.
Has anyone say cancelled their home Internet and gone full tethering unnoticed by your network?
@John M Fishy? Ridiculous? I even mention Easy Tether as a fine alternative option in this very article. *sigh*
And please try to read the post first before commenting. I’m sure if I were paid for this article, whoever was paying me wouldn’t be happy with the way it’s worded.
Haha, I love running stock Android :)
@Whappyondifferentcomputer:
Just looked at my bill, and there’s no distinction in the data usage. In other words, they don’t seem to know when I’m tethering or not.
Now, this is on a non-carrier phone (N1). Perhaps a carrier phone marks the packets somehow if the data is tethered? Possible, but would imagine someone would’ve found this by now. So a free app should still get you around the carrier disabling the builtin WiFi hotspot.
To your second point, the U.S. carriers do have a “limit” on their unlimited plans, so most folks don’t give up their home Internet just yet. Besides, 3G is still kinda slow compared to cable or the newer fiber services :-)
hmmm…i can tether without rooting…and it has support if i have problems….yea of course i would pay for it. getting free is what you get…half ass…but that’s just my opinion from my experience of th free versions. i used to have this on my blackberry and it was 100% reliable and i can only expect the same on android now that i have the fascinate. its only 25 bucks for me to get support and a reliable piece of software so sorry i am part of that 1% who would..already bought it.
Whappyondifferentcomputer : In my country you don’t need to hack jack, our phone companies don’t modify the software in any way, we get them excactly as they’re made.
And yes, we’re allowed to tether all we want, don’t need a special supscription at all.
By the way I’m tethered right now… And I shut down my ADSL, I’m running mobile data only these days.
I got say, I’m a customer with Sprint here in the US, and although I’m under an unlimited plan, I’m fairly certain they still monitor my data usage since I’m not supposed to be able to tether with my phone (samsung moment). With that being said, have I tethered, yes, but only when I have no access to wifi and am in desperate need to be online for whatever reason. Just because I have the ability, doesn’t mean I go data usage happy. That would surely trigger a response by my carrier and screw me over. Tethering only when needed and minimizing the amount of data usage when tethered is the key.
PRICE FAIL
I have Verizon, and have indeed canceled my internet ( was in the process of switching, but am going to be moving…so no point in hooking up internet now. ) I see in excess of 30 gigs per month for around 4 months now, not a peep out of Verizon, not charged a single penny extra.
I come from the Blackberry world and have been using the BB version of Tether (formerly Tetherberry) for years. I have been using PDANet since I got my Fascinate and have been satisfied with it. They claim that Tether is 2-3 times faster than other tethering apps for unrooted phones. (I’m not rooting my Fascinate until Froyo is released). I ran speed tests at speedtest. net with PDANet and Tether and they are not exaggerating. I was consistently able to get test results 2-3 times faster than PDANet. Plus, since I was a BB subscriber, I got a discount. All in all, Tether saves me money by not having to fork over $10 a night for hotel internet and works considerably better than competing apps.
Well, I was just slightly behind knwoing there were free tether apps. Purchased the Tether for Android for $25 thanks to Facebook. Mark Z. you are welcome. Did not realize there were free apps on Marketplace. I was thinking I could save $45/month on my cable bill by getting rid of the internet. With that said, I installed the program on my laptop and the app on my Motorola Droid. I am getting about 1MB download speeds. The program is seemless and works great. Live and learn. (((DROID DOES)))