Article: iTether Sneaks Passed Apple and Into App Store

[Phillip Swanson]

Apple’s App approval process baffles once again and once again it is baffled by a tethering application iTether.

Other applications with “secret” tethering options have made their way to the App Store, but something as blatant as the $14.99 iTether seems down right ridiculous. How horrible do you have to be at your job to miss something as insultingly obvious as iTether?

To ge the app up an running users simply need to purchase iTether and install the complementing Mac or PC application, and plug your iDevice into your laptop via the USB cord. There are jailbreak options with more features, and they're easier to use (aka set up wifi hotspots), but that still doesn’t kneecap the hilarity of Apple approving an app named iTether. What do you think the odds are this App last till morning?

Someone name their app iDareYouToBanThis and see what happens.

Source: 9to5Mac

[Senyaichiya]

Does anybody know what the connection shows as?
Regular desktop or mobile version like sneaky PDNet?

[Orby]

I find the second, reversed "t" in the app screenshot particularly hilarious. Seems like someone's flipping a crude gesture at Apple/the purchaser/the world.

The only words that come to mind about this whole thing are "classy" and "smooth."

[NakedFaerie]

the iphone 4 comes with teathering built in so this is useless to all iphone 4 users.
the ipads cant teather their data accounts that I know of so they wont be getting it either.
iPods dont have data so they wont get it.
looks like this is only useful to iphone 3G users. A very limited market at a stupidly high price.

If crApple will remove it for teathering then why approve it in the first place? They really are stupid sometimes.

[Mrteacup]

Dude don't talk when you dont know. It costs like 15$ a month for the built in tethering.

Let me just call this a SIMPLE APP

[nicrfe]

Works well. I just got it running. I hope AT&T wont mess with my unlimited plan as this is not a jailbreak app it's just an innocent app store item. Super off that it made it to the app store.

[dork337]

the iphone 4 comes with teathering built in so this is useless to all iphone 4 users.
the ipads cant teather their data accounts that I know of so they wont be getting it either.
iPods dont have data so they wont get it.
looks like this is only useful to iphone 3G users. A very limited market at a stupidly high price.

If crApple will remove it for teathering then why approve it in the first place? They really are stupid sometimes.

You're an unfit dullard. I have Unlimited data, which AT&T doesn't provide tethering for. Now I can tether without compromising my unlimited data.

[j.eck.art.3d]

Just picked this up, thanks for the tip!

[fatalcrixer]

2 things ... Price should be dropped to less than 5 ... Secondly wish it had support with my iPad 2

[j.eck.art.3d]

My only question, and I hope that somebody with more technical no-how can check this for us, is:
Is there any part of this "system" (iPhone app and both the Windows and Mac clients) that allows this apparently shady company to listen in on your Internet habits? Or worse yet, steal your user names and passwords while you use their tether app?
Many thanks to anyone who can answer this!

[sziklassy]

You're an unfit dullard. I have Unlimited data, which AT&T doesn't provide tethering for. Now I can tether without compromising my unlimited data.

You can certainly tether, but I bet you would still be compromising your data. ATT sees you tethering and slaps you in the face with a 4GB tethering package that you can't do a darn thing about. It's happened with all the Cydia apps, why would anyone think this to be the exception.

My only question, and I hope that somebody with more technical no-how can check this for us, is:
Is there any part of this "system" (iPhone app and both the Windows and Mac clients) that allows this apparently shady company to listen in on your Internet habits? Or worse yet, steal your user names and passwords while you use their tether app?
Many thanks to anyone who can answer this!

Do you mean is it going through a proxy? Probably not... If they were after your passwords, the app likely wouldn't be $15.

[fatalcrixer]

My only question, and I hope that somebody with more technical no-how can check this for us, is:
Is there any part of this "system" (iPhone app and both the Windows and Mac clients) that allows this apparently shady company to listen in on your Internet habits? Or worse yet, steal your user names and passwords while you use their tether app?
Many thanks to anyone who can answer this!

Good point to bring up... But if you are super paranoid or just cautious you should always use a good proxy server just for the sake of your privacy.

[Cer0]

Their site is getting slammed with all the trafic right now so the app will be in and out right now.

[j.eck.art.3d]

Good point to bring up... But if you are super paranoid or just cautious you should always use a good proxy server just for the sake of your privacy.

Would a proxy matter if it were, say using a a simple keystroke recorder that we unknowingly installed with their client software? I'm just a little paranoid because I trust the good guys in the jailbreak community, but shady companies with made up names on the app store is another story.
Thanks for your input.

[sziklassy]

Good point to bring up... But if you are super paranoid or just cautious you should always use a good proxy server just for the sake of your privacy.

Another thought for the paranoid... don't visit password protected sites while you are tethering with apps like this. Everything I NEED to access via password (email, banking, etc.) can be done right on my phone. I am not going to tether my internet and start doing some mobile banking from there. That's just silly.

[j.eck.art.3d]

Another thought for the paranoid... don't visit password protected sites while you are tethering with apps like this. Everything I NEED to access via password (email, banking, etc.) can be done right on my phone. I am not going to tether my internet and start doing some mobile banking from there. That's just silly.

Well, that goes without saying. I'm talking about unknowingly installing a "virus" of sorts or Trojan hidden inside these client applications. In which case, you don't even need to be using their service at the time for them to listen in. Again, I could be being overly cautious.

[keenpois0n]

I think the most amazing part is that it actually describes itself as a tethering app..and as of now it's still up!

[greeneyes5066]

This does not work! I'm on mac with 2011 MBP Lion 10.7.2 with an iPhone 4S... on the phone it says the app licence is expired and I need to register. On mac side it blinks connected for a second then goes on to say that the app is not running on the iPhone. This is a sad and sorry waste of $15 :-(

[diemer]

Would a proxy matter if it were, say using a a simple keystroke recorder that we unknowingly installed with their client software? I'm just a little paranoid because I trust the good guys in the jailbreak community, but shady companies with made up names on the app store is another story.
Thanks for your input.

I'm not sure I'd call them "shady". They've been around for quite a while on a few other platforms (notably the Blackberry and recently on Android). I used them when I had a BB Curve and the software worked quite well.

If they had been slipstreaming trojans into their client, you'd have heard about it long before now. If your AV software does flag it as malicious, I'd be more inclined to believe it was a false positive. After all, they've been wrong before.

[funkydog]

If I'm not mistaken, this is from the same developer of Tether for Blackberry when I was on a berry. Quite reliable actually! Worked pretty well. Don't think that this will get pulled anytime as the it doesn't really go against Apple's terms and conditions, just that it contravenes certain network operator's policy on tethering usage which doesn't much concerns Apple. Where I am in Malaysia, tether is absolutely allowed under fair usage and part of the data plan. But anyone tried it over wifi?