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Tethering may physically harm your iPhone

Macman1993

Macman1993

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 23, 2007
337
16
Its the last thing I ever though of but it turns out tethering can physically harm your iphone. I left my phone tethered to my macbook pro last night and after about 2 hours I realized it was really hot. I went to shut it down for an hour to let it cool and noticed that the phones screen was very dark in spots which is because of the heat in the iPhone (I have seen similar things happen to a clock I had when I left a lamp pointed at it for an hour). The screen did go back to normal but this really can't be that good for the phone. This doesn't happen to computers because the screen is not an area that gets hot but the iphone has its screen in the area that gets hot and therefor the screen can get hot and damage the screen.
 
That's crazy. Guess the processing power cranked the heat up too high for the device! :(
 
I frequently leave mine connected for long periods of time and this has never happened to me...
 
Were you downloading a lot? I've tethered for about 3 hours + and haven't noticed a thing. Also did u get the latest update for pdanet? The seem to have fixed the CPU overheat issue.
 
pdanet/Netshare + 2g/3g iPhone = no heat issues (4-6hours total use) with moderate use.

Could just be bad luck?
 
Flhusky said:
pdanet/Netshare + 2g/3g iPhone = no heat issues (4-6hours total use) with moderate use.

Could just be bad luck?
Click to expand...

My Personal Opinion: (Totally Speculation)

I got my iPhone replaced a few weeks back due to cracks and have noticed the volume button is definitely thinner. there was a post here somewhere that confirmed that.

It may have been possible that they may have updated a few minor internals.

Mine does not get that hot while tethered. It may be because of moderate use.
 
ShaunPriest said:
Wow! I never knew you could do this. What application do I need to download in order to be able to do this? Is it free?
Click to expand...

If your iphone is jailbroken then pdanet is available for download in Cydia. Yes it's free. Just don't over use it. You'll use data a lot faster using a computer than you would using the iphone. Make sure to check your data usage and don't go over 5gb a month.
 
I use the fred copy of iPhonemodem, and while plugged in to charge my iPhone definitely heats up. Can anyone give me a quick comparison between iPhonemodem and bdsm?
 
LSUtigers03 said:
If your iphone is jailbroken then pdanet is available for download in Cydia. Yes it's free. Just don't over use it. You'll use data a lot faster using a computer than you would using the iphone. Make sure to check your data usage and don't go over 5gb a month.
Click to expand...

5GB is the limit to Laptop Data Cards. iPhone Data plan has no limit.

When people say don't over use, they mean it in a sense not to give AT&T any suspicion that you are tethering. According to the AT&T terms of service you agreed when you signed the 2-year contract you said you were ok with AT&T not allowing tethering on your device despite it being available for others. Also, the contract says AT&T can terminate your service if you breach the service terms by tethering. (tethering and AT&T not knowing is a big no-no).

So you can use your iPhone over 5GB, its just it will attract AT&Ts attention to you. Using it for emergency surfing or just simple usage is good (email, web, blogging). Using the tether for lots of YouTube time, many music downloads, or simply replacing your home internet service is not a good idea.

The advice is use it, but don't use it in a way AT&T takes notice. (AT&T does count/monitor your usage and if they see a repeated pattern in uploads/downloads of data packages they suspect)

Any questions? just post
 
CocoaPuffs said:
Ya, it's called "read it yourself".
Click to expand...

What a smartass. You try finding a comparison between Zsrelay's iphonemodem and pdanet. Bare in mind I am not talking about the moste widely recognised and paid for iphonemodem which is a completely different piece of kit!
 
PDANet does not use a socks proxy so the connection is global. This to me is a huge advantage. Still have to create an ad-hoc but no socks proxy. Oh yeah, it's FREE and supports VPN....
 
The first time I got NetShare I used it for about an hour or so, and my phone got hotter than I'd ever felt it before. With ONLY 3G and Wifi turned on, it burned through my battery like [metaphor]...

I plugged my phone into my laptop to keep the battery charged so I could continue to use it, but the phone would flat out refuse to charge. It acted very weird, it would give me the 20% warning, start charging, stop charging, warning, etc. It's like the phone would stop itself from overheating to the point where internal parts would become damage....almost like it had its own brain!
 
I also experienced the extreme heat using PDANet but especially NetShare. Your iPhone will display a screen indicating it has overheated and shutdown to protect CPU. I left my iPhone on the dashboard in 90 degree weather and it displayed this warning.
 
ntrigue said:
I also experienced the extreme heat using PDANet but especially NetShare. Your iPhone will display a screen indicating it has overheated and shutdown to protect CPU. I left my iPhone on the dashboard in 90 degree weather and it displayed this warning.
Click to expand...

Wow I've never seen this before. Take a screenshot if you can next time!
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I've surfed the web for hours and hours on my edge connection(not too fun) and my phone has never really gotten that hot. It's def gotten hot but never to a point where I was worried about the phone being ruined.
 
the charging issue with PdaNet has been issued and it seems that PdaNet developers are looking for a fix, something to do with a conflict between PdaNet's driver service and the power manager service within the iphone's OS ... or maybe its simply because the device is drawing way too much power for USB 5v 500Mah to supply... I wish apple would have stuck with Firewire 5-30V power supply support on all their dock-connecting devices.
 
jbrandonf said:
Wow I've never seen this before. Take a screenshot if you can next time!
Click to expand...

I tried. It's in the BIOS or something. No functionality. "iPhone cannot be turned-on please allow iPhone to cool before turning on."
 
Macman1993 said:
Its the last thing I ever though of but it turns out tethering can physically harm your iphone. I left my phone tethered to my macbook pro last night and after about 2 hours I realized it was really hot. I went to shut it down for an hour to let it cool and noticed that the phones screen was very dark in spots which is because of the heat in the iPhone (I have seen similar things happen to a clock I had when I left a lamp pointed at it for an hour). The screen did go back to normal but this really can't be that good for the phone. This doesn't happen to computers because the screen is not an area that gets hot but the iphone has its screen in the area that gets hot and therefor the screen can get hot and damage the screen.
Click to expand...

YOU HAVE A DEFECTIVE iPHONE.

Jeez Christmas Florence, why do people post their definitive laboratory findings without even considering reality first? :eek:


There is nothing wrong with tethering unless:

1. You are trying to DL multiple gigs over 3G ( why would you?)
2. You have a defective iPhone that overheats under high CPU load. (It happens, a lot).


Unhack your phone, go to Apple, have it replaced. And stop thinking you have the one iPhone immune to defects.
 
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