Apple Allows Free Tethering App iTether, Then Pulls it Hours Later

Believe it or not, Apple briefly allowed iTether, an app that allowed you to tether other devices to your iPhone, in the App Store before pulling it. In the few hours that the $14.99 app was available, it almost instantly became the top grossing app in the entire store. The app was so popular that all the traffic made the Tether website go down, making it impossible to run the iTether app because the app connects to the website on every run. People who got the app before it was pulled will still be able to use the app.

Tether is an application that allows your Mac and PC to take advantage of your smartphone's data plan, providing you access to the Internet on your laptop anywhere there is cellular coverage from your smartphone.


Tether is easy to install, easy to use, works practically anywhere, and is very cost-effective.


To download the PC software visit:
http://tether.com/i/Tether-iPhone.exe


To download the Mac software visit:

http://tether.com/i/Tether-iPhone.dmg

 It is certainly possible that Apple pulled this app when carriers of the iPhone objected to their approval of this app. This seems likely because Apple asked the developers a lot of questions and asked for a demo, so they certainly knew what the app they were accepting was capable of doing. However, carriers have been known to hate free tethering apps. A few months ago, AT&T started to send out text messages to users who had been illegally performing free tethering on their iPhone by jailbreaking it and using apps like MyWi that can only be downloaded on jailbroken phones.

This scene seems almost identical to 2008, when Apple approved a similar app called Netshare that allowed you to tether devices to your iPhone, but very quickly pulled it. In a few years, Apple would allow tethering on the iPhone, but only with additional plans starting at $20/month.