So, I have an issue: If a coffee shop doesn’t have wifi, I’m totally screwed and can’t post. As a contingency plan, I’ve used an iPhone 3G with an old version of the iOS software that supports free tethering. However, at some point that felt wrong/was going to bite me in the rear-end, so I switched to a Virgin Mobile mifi device. However, while the price is OK, the device itself overheats and the network is flaky. Now, my hope was to switch my phone service over to Verizon and pay $20/month for the iPhone mobile hotspot thing, but as you’ll see at the link above, they’ve totally made the overage prices unreasonably high. $20 for every extra gigabyte seems really high — especially with a 2 gig starting point, right? Another option is Clear, which has decent prices, but 4G isn’t supported outside urban areas (and their 3G devices don’t support wi-fi, so no iPad), making it lame for long-distance travel. Any ideas? I’m all ears. — Ernie @ SFB
*EDIT*: To clarify, this is for purposes of tethering the device to my laptop and iPad.
This is the sort of thing where Apple needs to play it cool, and act like this is just another carrier. Good news, but not big news. The bottom line from Apple is going to be something like, ‘We’re delighted to add Verizon as an iPhone carrier’. That’s it.Daring Fireball’s John Gruber • Offering some perspective on Verizon’s forthcoming announcement, likely about the iPhone coming to the wireless provider (freaking finally). Truth is, this is a smart move. Back in 2006, Apple had a special event for stuff unworthy of a special event (remember the overpriced iPod Hi-Fi?) and they drew a ton of criticism, creating one of their biggest stumbles in recent memory. By having an Apple special event for the Verizon iPhone, they’d run the same risk. So, handing it over to Verizon gets around the problem entirely. Plus, now Verizon can fight with AT&T without Apple getting its hands dirty. Smart. source (via • follow)
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