Smartphone Tethering

[guncrasher]

AT&T doesn't have an unlimited data plan.  And...  Hotspot is a $30 feature.  Using a third party app to bypass their charge is most definitely stealing.

actually it is not stealing, it's violating the terms of the contract.  stealing is a criminal act while violating the terms of the contract is not.


semp

[Vulcan]

That is certainly my experience with most salespersons.

Yeah do phone salesmen rank lower or higher than used car salesmen?

[PR3D4TOR]

I don't think "rank" plays a part in this. A salesperson can provide a necessary service, or be a parasite that tries to rip you off, like in most other trade crafts. However, they rarely possess an in depth knowledge of the product they sell. For that you need to do your own research and dig up info from other users etc. ... Why am I typing? You know this.

[Shuffler]

You guys are probably right....  I just sell phones for a living; I don't actually know anything about them.

lol well many that work in the cell phone places are really not much on phones.

[sluggish]

Granted it is hard to keep up.  If many of you presented the same attitude with me in my store as you have here I would probably fein ignorance too.

[Shuffler]

Granted it is hard to keep up.  If many of you presented the same attitude with me in my store as you have here I would probably fein ignorance too.

I found that the same folks that make my burgers seem to also sell me phones. I can understand that the folks who go into those phone stores can be the same type. lol

[Ardy123]

Granted it is hard to keep up.  If many of you presented the same attitude with me in my store as you have here I would probably fein ignorance too.

Who do you work for? I work in that industry too, I don't work for a carrier though, more on the engineering side of content delivery.

[Shuffler]

Who do you work for? I work in that industry too, I don't work for a carrier though, more on the engineering side of content delivery.

The carriers are the ones who put all that overhead on a phone. Stuf many folks do not want or use. AT&T tech told me I have to root my phone to remove it.

[sluggish]

Who do you work for? I work in that industry too, I don't work for a carrier though, more on the engineering side of content delivery.

I manage a small electronics store that also handles three of the major carriers.

The carriers are the ones who put all that overhead on a phone. Stuf many folks do not want or use. AT&T tech told me I have to root my phone to remove it.

That tech support guy is risking his job by even mentioning the "r" word...

[sluggish]

To respond to a few of the things I've seen in this thread..

I'm running Android 2.3.3.

I've seen PDAnet and the other apps but don't really want to go that route. It pisses me off that they the carriers charge to enable tethering but I don't think those apps are the way to go.

It's only $20 more a month to tether and my data limit doubles to 4GB. I'll pay $45 for 2-3 months before I commit to 2 years @ $50/month.

Today was a busy day, and I had to work some overtime, so tomorrow I'll drop by the AT&T store and see how it all works. I'll post what I find out for future reference to anyone who wants to know.

Yes chaser... This is the best and most honest approach.

[2bighorn]

That tech support guy is risking his job by even mentioning the "r" word...

Might be, but it's perfectly legal. There was a law which specifically allowed that, and last year it was added to DMCA exemptions as well, after Apple lost legal battle.

If tech loses his/her job over jailbreak suggestion, it can sue the hell out of employer.

[Ardy123]

I manage a small electronics store that also handles three of the major carriers.

That tech support guy is risking his job by even mentioning the "r" word...

Might be, but it's perfectly legal. There was a law which specifically allowed that, and last year it was added to DMCA exemptions as well, after Apple lost legal battle.

If tech loses his/her job over jailbreak suggestion, it can sue the hell out of employer.

Ironically, when debugging issues with in-market devices, many OEMs (when carriers were present in the meetings) have suggested rooting devices with the plethora of tools on the internet.

At their core, there are all ARM based devices (mainly Cortex a8/9s) where almost all of them have 1 of 3 of the most common boot loaders. You could install your own OS on them if you wanted to. Furthermore, many still have the holes/pins on the board for a J-TAG connection... A few try to lock it with 'efi' locks, all of which can be circumvented.

The carriers are the ones who put all that overhead on a phone. Stuf many folks do not want or use. AT&T tech told me I have to root my phone to remove it.

That's only a half truth.
Many apps are developed to either be a showcase of the hardware or the carriers service. The carrier does have the final say, but often doesn't care and the white-labeled app will be burneded in from both OEM and Carrier. BE CAREFUL what apps you run, many of the carrier provided apps are 'opt out' deals, where if you run the app, you are entered into a trial period which then automatically turns into a monthly paid subscription which is tacked on your bill, unless you specifically contact your carrier and 'opt out'. Carriers love this as they get +30% of that cut and most people don't realize they are paying for it.


I have not tested it, but I bet you could do this on android...

get the android sdk tools and usb phone drivers...

from a shell type

>adb remount
>adb shell
>cd /data/data
>ls
This will list all the 'apps' installed on the device, from here you can just delete them.
> rm com.I.hate.this.preloaded.app (or whatever)

[guncrasher]

Might be, but it's perfectly legal. There was a law which specifically allowed that, and last year it was added to DMCA exemptions as well, after Apple lost legal battle.

If tech loses his/her job over jailbreak suggestion, it can sue the hell out of employer.

actually he cant sue his employer.  most likely he lives in an "at will" state, meaning he can be fired for any reason or no reason at all as long as it isnt discriminatory.  I have a rooted phone and in my book it's ok but if i was his manager I would fired him only because people having rooted phones are not in the phone companies best interest.  having said that, if I was the manager I would have my phone rooted too  .

may sound like a hypocrite but at work i do what I am paid to do and that includes having my employer's interest at hand whether i agree with it or not.  and if it comes to my employers interest's are not right then I will quit as I have done before.


semp

[2bighorn]

actually he cant sue his employer.

He can. State he lives in does not matter. Proving that he was fired because he did something what's specifically allowed under federal law, is another matter.

[chaser]

Can someone explain what "rooting a phone" is/does?