Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which is better, 3G or iPhone Tether?

M

md63

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
264
0
I just got my hands on two 64GB iPads (one WiFi and the other 3G.) I have a 3G iPhone (almost 2 years old) that allows tethering with the Benm hack. I haven't upgraded the OS past 3.0 so as not to mess up the tethering. Which is a better option to pursue?

1) Activate with the 3G iPad with unlimited plan now.

2) Jailbreak the iPad and bluetooth tether to my iPhone (is this possible?)

3) Jailbreak the iPhone and use MyWi

Obviously the cheapest option is either 2 or 3 since I would save $130 + $30 per month. I originally planned to get the 3g and just activate usage when needed. I'm not sure what my usage patter would be since I haven't used the ipad yet. With the AT&T rate change I am tempted to activate prior to the plan change date but then I would need to keep paying every month or drop down to the 2GB plan which may not be a problem. Also, I plan to upgrade my iPhone to the 4G model during the next couple of months and I'm not sure how that would effect tethering. My preference would be not to change my unlimited iPhone data plan.

Thanks for your help.

Mike
 
The only reason I did not buy a 3G iPad was I did not want another monthly data bill, in addition to my iPhone data bill. For me, it was simply too high a price to pay for simple convenience. I have WiFi at home and MyWi on my jb'd 3G if I really need access to the Internet. I also bought an iMax external battery for my iPhone which powers it all day long running MyWi.

Based on information in this forum, I am optimistic the next generation iPhone will be jb'd pretty quick after it's available, so I will have the same situation I do now.

If I were you, I'd keep the iPad WiFi and leave everything else status quo and make these changes when the new iPhone comes out. And, no, you can't BT from the iPad to the iPhone running MyWi.
 
If you have a decent data plan and a phone capable of tethering, which is very common now, then I can't see the point of paying extra for an iPad that doesn't look as nice as the non 3G model, costs more and I assume has slightly less battery life and is very expensive to use due to high data costs.

The only things you gain are automatic connectivity and a GPS chip.

If you don't mind pressing a button or touching a screen a couple of times to start a tethering app and have no use for built in GPS then the WiFi model makes more sense.

I have a jb 3GS and use a MiLi powerskin for times when I'll need to do a lot of tethering using MyWi, I then have to launch the app and press the screen to initiate tethering, hardly difficult!
 
As long as you have a good phone signal. The iPhone mywi option is fantastic in my personal opinion. The speed is fine too. It doesn't slow down really tethering with mywi.
I have got a wifi only iPad and I don't regret it. Why pay an extra £100 or whatever it us in $ when you can just use your data plan already on your phone, jail break for free and download mywi for ~£6.70 (exchange rate aprox).
 
Harmush said:
As long as you have a good phone signal. The iPhone mywi option is fantastic in my personal opinion. The speed is fine too. It doesn't slow down really tethering with mywi.
I have got a wifi only iPad and I don't regret it. Why pay an extra £100 or whatever it us in $ when you can just use your data plan already on your phone, jail break for free and download mywi for ~£6.70 (exchange rate aprox).
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
The iPhone tether works well for me for what I need it for but the next time I buy an iPad I will most likely buy the 3G version just for convenience.
 
MyWi turns on just right about 70% of the time. The other 30% requires a reboot.

Then there is the battery drain. Not excessive but battery draining nonetheless.


So I got the 3G version. It will also be nice to use a big GPS without people calling in and dumping me out of the Maps app :D
 
To me using my phone tether is not a desirable option because tethering sucks the phone battery like crazy, and I really need to use my phone to, you know, make phone calls. Having the iPad 3G connection always available "instant on" is sweet, and for 9 consecutive hours even sweeter. Whether that's worth $30 a month or not is a personal finances question. Battery life and connectivity convenience are not. :cool:
 
danpass said:
MyWi turns on just right about 70% of the time. The other 30% requires a reboot.
Click to expand...

I just reboot mine every time I want to use it. I got sick of it not working and then having to waste my time testing, rebooting etc. It seemed to work much less than 70% of the time for me 'pre-boot'... more like 20% of the time.
 
I would think that with AT&T now officially offering tethering, there is a much higher likelihood they they are going to go after people that are tethering "illegally". And don't tell me that they can't tell, they can easily. Whether or not they are going to do anything about it remains to be seen, but I think it's now become riskier to jailbreak and tether. Just my opinion, but seems logical. I mean, if I was them, I would certainly go after people who are, especially now that they are getting a service for free that they should be paying for.
 
md63 said:
I just got my hands on two 64GB iPads (one WiFi and the other 3G.) I have a 3G iPhone (almost 2 years old) that allows tethering with the Benm hack. I haven't upgraded the OS past 3.0 so as not to mess up the tethering. Which is a better option to pursue?

1) Activate with the 3G iPad with unlimited plan now.

2) Jailbreak the iPad and bluetooth tether to my iPhone (is this possible?)

3) Jailbreak the iPhone and use MyWi

Obviously the cheapest option is either 2 or 3 since I would save $130 + $30 per month. I originally planned to get the 3g and just activate usage when needed. I'm not sure what my usage patter would be since I haven't used the ipad yet. With the AT&T rate change I am tempted to activate prior to the plan change date but then I would need to keep paying every month or drop down to the 2GB plan which may not be a problem. Also, I plan to upgrade my iPhone to the 4G model during the next couple of months and I'm not sure how that would effect tethering. My preference would be not to change my unlimited iPhone data plan.

Thanks for your help.

Mike
Click to expand...

I sold my original Wifi only model as I realized i needed 3G access more than expected. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the Spirit jailbreak came out just after the 3G went on sale so i was finally able to JB my iPhone 3GS and install MyWi. I find I only need access to 3G every 2 or 3 days so it's worked out perfectly--only cost is the initial price of $10, installation is a snap, and turns on with a swipe. As mentioned ad nauseum on these forums, it does affect battery life (about 4-5% during 30 mins of heavy use for me) but not too terribly.

If you use either your phone heavily or need 3G data often on your iPad, I'd suggest using the 3G on the iPad. Otherwise, l think MyWi is a great option and will save you the cost of an extra data plan--especially since you can keep your unlimited data on the iPhone. If finances aren't a major issue, get the 3G iPad and start out with MyWi. That way if you discover MyWi isn't sufficient, you can fall back to the iPad data plan.

Also, just to corroborate what was previously said, you cannot tether the iPad to the iPhone using either USB or Bluetooth.
 
I have both wifi and the 3G models, and I have used MyWi on my jailbroken 3G iPhone. In my opinion, the MyWi option is doable, not ideal. As others mentioned, there is the issue with battery life, and the rare reboot. But nevertheless it is something that I don't mind doing on an occasional basis.

On the other hand, when I travel and need regular access to the Internet on the road, I definitely find it impractical to constantly whipping out my iPhone and turning on/off tethering. Hence i got my 3G iPad and pass the wifi to wife. I don't plan to pay the 3G data every month, but only when I travel. I wouldn't worry about overspend the data quota, 2GB is a lot as long as you don't stream movies off 3G.
 
Consultant said:
iPad 3G

Because iPhone requires a number of battery packs to keep up with iPad.
Click to expand...

I am hoping that a combination of the 250MB iPad plan and a JB iPhone 3G will work for me. Tether when in a location without wifi but with power so I can plug in the phone. Save $15/month.

I'll have to try again this weekend. My attempt yesterday was a phone that didn't have cellular signal.
 
Harmush said:
When do you find yourself out of a wifi hotspot nowadays. Even the super market by my house has free wifi now. While you do your weekly shop.
Click to expand...

It only takes one time to make it a pain. There is no contest between wifi and 3G as far as availability. Performance may be another issue, but coverage? No contest.
 
I still had a USB Internet sim that had left 18months of contract on it. And since I can tether my MacBook pro to my iPhone I didn't had much use for it. So I went with the 3G version.
And because I'm a lot on the road it's really nice to have the 3G version. It works fast and reliable and was worth the extra expense to me.

IMHO the 3G works better because tethering will give you only an hour a d something of battery life and the iPad 3G will last some 9hours. Thats pretty impressive. If you only want to check and send some mail twice a day if your not at home, 3G is expensive and myfi et al. is then the way to go.
 
Thanks for your replies. I went with the 3g for a number of reasons. Primarily I wanted a hassel free experience with the iPad and although tethering is not that difficult its not a certainty with the 4G phone or necessarily free if AT&T decides to crack down on people with JB and hacked phones. Also, based on your comments I hadn't thought about the issue of having an iPad with 9-10 hr battery life and a phone that lasts for significantly less time. I also didn't realize that JB phones in many cases need to be rebooted.

I am very glad I choose to lock in the unlimited 3g plan since in my first 2 days of usage (most of which was on WiFi), I've already used over 100MB of cell data usage. The usage came primarily from testing Netflix and Air Video for 10 to 15 minutes.
 
MyWi if battery isn't a concern.

I could have gone with 3G, but the ugly black strip turned me off.

Now I'm really glad. I don't have to deal with all the inane restrictions 3G imposes when I simply WiFi tether. Not one restriction and I save about $400/year in Canada.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back