Questioning the iPhone: Is it true the iPhone can't be used as a modem for your laptop?

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July 11, 2007 02:44 PM

Categories: Phones, Smartphones, and PDAs

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Jeff Block

Member
Joined: 12/14/2004

What question? What are you talking about?

The Apple iPhone was released on June 29th, amid a flurry of press coverage, hype, and strong opinions. Long time TechLore member and super gadget geek Steven Jones frothed at the mouth, and published a three-part Ode to the iPhone in the process. Read his rants at:

Why I want an iPhone - The "I'm a hopelessly expectant Apple fanatic" article
The first 40 hours with my new iPhone - The "What have I done? Oh yeah, I'm a fanatic!" article.
Things I didn't know I'd love about the iPhone - The "Yep, I was right, it's awesome" article.

Eric Brandt, a newer member, harshly countered Steven's iPhone fervor with a list of questions, which I've broken out into the forums. This is question #5. I wanna hear what you think.

Eric's Question

Is it true the iPhone can't be used as a modem for your laptop?

He writes...

How many of us have been using our internet capable phones (and the expensive internet access we pay for) as a modem for laptop surfing – in airports, or cars or wherever we like? Is it true that this basic ability was left off the iPhone?

What's your answer?

Okay, Techlore people... I want to know what you think! What's your answer?

"I'm just jazzed to be on the show, man."

Discussion:

Michael Czyz

Member

member since: 01/10/2005
rank: 486 of 36090
4 articles authored
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13 comments

July 17, 2007 5:26 PM

nope - no data path through the phone. edge is too slow for that anyhow. and the data rates would have likely been much higher. (evdo costs more on its own)

you also can't dial via bluetooth from your mac. not the same problem of course, but i rarely dialed on my razor when using my mac. 4-5 keystrokes in quicksilver and the phone made the call remotely. the iphone offers no visible bluetooth services when paired with my mac.