Seriously, don’t. Why encourage the developer of this sneaky Trojan horse of an app when it’s only going to be pulled from the App Store, whether tonight, tomorrow, or on Monday? Paying $1.99 to a developer who’s fairly obviously hiding tethering features within a app isn’t the way to advocate for a loosening of the restrictions on such features.
The app, called DiscoRecorder, was released today by developer Michael Leatherbury. The screenshots uploaded to the App store (see above) show only a black and white skeuomorphic cassette tape recorder interface and some innocuous recorded voice memos. What the app really does is completely different.
As you can see in the video below, the app is really a way to sneak a restricted activity, tethering your iPhone, past the iTunes monitors. It’s most likely why this app was released this evening, right before a weekend. While it may remain on the store for a couple of days, it will be pulled. What’s the sense in encouraging this kind of app creation when it won’t remain available, and will most likely be blocked in an future iOS update?
As consumers of Apple’s devices and operating system, we would like to be able to do with them what we will. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Apple has every right to block features and activities that it wishes to, and we have every right to complain about it, switch to Android, or jailbreak our iOS devices. But to pay someone to directly hack around the tethering restriction with a falsely advertised app is severely not cool, and doesn’t show much integrity on our part or on the part of the developer.
To keep this sort of stealth app out of the app store requires one thing only – that we refuse to purchase the app. That should send a clear message to the developer that we’re not willing to hide, sneak, and fake our way to a feature that we want clearly and legally.
Via: 9 to 5 Mac
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
42 responses to “Don’t Buy This iPhone Tethering App Before It Gets Pulled From The App Store”
Advertising the app isn’t going to help…
how to Hell it got approved
Uhhh… Show me the law — any law — that forbids installing a piece of software from the Internet that unlocks a capability your phone’s hardware is clearly able to support.
The biggest problem with Apple is they do NOT listen to their customers. Buying this app sends them the message that we DO want to be able to tether. I have some short cut icons to toggle things like BlueTooth for example. Now pulled from the app store I am very happy I downloaded them before they were pulled. Wake up Apple, listen to your users, give us what we need from iOS without having to Jailbreak, we don’t all want to download pirated apps.
10 steps every time you connect. waste of time and $
I’m not sure if this is sarcasm or not, but I took it like it was (and still believe it is) and immediately bought the app. Thanks for the tip! :D
iPhone already has tethering. It has had it for years. .
What is the diff between this and personal hotspot????
i didn’t even know about this app until cultofmac posted this article hahah…..the irony of telling us to avoid and and ignore it.
Why try to illegal tether still? Who wants to pay more to AT&T and Verizon?
By writing this article you have encouraged people to do the opposite of what you are asking them not to do! My first knee jerk reaction was to download this app even thought I have no need for this! CultofMac isn’t some obscure website on a dark corner of the internet. You guys get a lot of traffic and you have brought a TON of attention to the developer and his app that he otherwise would not have gotten! Lol, way to go Rob!!! :-)
I don’t get it… i use tethering everyday and don’t need an app to do it, just my iPhone or iPad options.. am i missing something?
I guess a lot of people are unable to detect sarcasm.
Perhaps you’re new to the planet. Tethering is controlled by the Carrier, not Apple. The functionality is in the phone, the carriers just don’t allow it without paying for it.
Dear American friends, please understand this: The “tethering restriction” on the iPhone that you’re talking about is neither due to any inherent technical limitation of the iPhone, nor is it Apple who wants to impose this tethering restriction on the iPhone. Why would they? It is a limitation imposed by your cellphone carriers in the US. You should turn your anger towards them, not Apple or some third party app maker trying to bypass the US carriers tethering restrictions.
Here in Europe you can use your iPhone for tethering, no problem. It’s all about carrier policy.
fail of a blog post.
Thanks for convincing me to give him my Money!!! :)
Apple is not the problem here. iOS has tethering functionality built-in. Unfortunately, carriers have insisted that Apple permit them to restrict access to this feature because they want to be able to “nickel and dime” their customers on any service they can conceive of, whether they’re actually providing it or not. Just look at FaceTime over 3G.
And sorry, but there is zero justification for downloading pirated apps. Apple certainly isn’t forcing you to screw over developers.
If your statement was correct apple would not block tethering apps from the app store. Apple has enough power to over rule the cell companies.
OK, it all was good until I got to the last step. PearSauce doesn’t show up in my recordings. Folder is empty.
OK, it all was good until I got to the last step. PearSauce doesn’t show up in my recordings. Folder is empty.
OK, it all was good until I got to the last step. PearSauce doesn’t show up in my recordings. Folder is empty.
App: downloaded.
Rob – First of all: saying “don’t buy this app” is kind of like your mother saying “don’t do that”. Of course, I’m going to go do it!
Given that this site is currently promoting “The Best Jailbreak Apps For The iPhone 4S” in the sidebar, the raging indignant tone at violating an Apple or carrier rule is ironic to say the least.
It’s nice that you include the link to the YouTube video, the hint to get the app quickly (this weekend) before it’s taken down, and a shout-out to the developer by name. The only thing missing is a link to the iTunes app directly with an affiliate code so they can get a rev share.
BTW, I’ve been waiting for this app for awhile – it’s actually a pain to build the open source SOCKS Proxy app with the iOS SDK (plus you have to be a $99 dev, and renew the ad-hoc cert every so often), so I found this implementation reasonable.
Thank you!
You need to 1) create a recording, 2) rename the recording by going to the [Recordings] menu, then click on the “music” icon to the left of the recording name, and 3) rename the recording to PearSauce269.asc
You need to 1) create a recording, 2) rename the recording by going to the [Recordings] menu, then click on the “music” icon to the left of the recording name, and 3) rename the recording to PearSauce269.asc
why wouldn’t i buy it? if i want tethering on my phone and the phone software vendor arbitrarily forbids it, I have every right as a consumer to purchase an app that provides that ability. Sorry if the company controlling the phone doesn’t approve of my choice, but why should i need their approval?
It’s not the fact that it’s illegal – it isn’t – it’s the fact that it goes against Apple’s terms by blatantly lying to get approved.
I think the point was to get you to buy the app before it was pulled without actually telling you to…
Ignorant.
No different than someone paying for mywi or tether me…which you guys advocate
Bought and used it…and works.
Rob, your belief of what is right or wrong is irrelevant. Thanks for promoting it. You did us proud.
I tried that, using .aac, too, as you mention in the vid. It says cannot open, no application and if I click on the fan, nothing happens.
but they don’t have enough power to ignore a stipulation in a contract that they signed with a carrier. The carrier can sue them for breaking the terms of the contract. When a company like Sprint commits $20 billion to carry iPhones, they are going to want some revenue protections in place. I’d certainly prefer to be able to tether for free, I’m already paying for the data and I don’t think it should matter on which device I receive it, but it’s not as simple as Apple “overruling” a carrier. Specific contract language must be amended.
Dude, you are douchebag. Base on this article, I’m assuming you are ok with AT&T charging twice for the data we already pay for.
Actually as of now Verizon is the larger network.
Another trick to confuse att that it’s wi-fi. Have they discovered it and fixed it?
Challenge accepted :)
The “law” is that you must obey the contract you agreed to and signed with your cell provider, which will specifically forbid tethering without paying an extra charge.
If you do not obey the contract to which you agreed and signed, you will be in breach of it. Then, depending on the terms of the contract, they can legally apply charges to you, apply fees, stop your service, or even take you to court. That is the law.
Hope that answers your question. :)
do you really think ATT would risk not having the iphone on their network (their biggest selling device, almost 80% of activations) if apple would just say no we want this in OUR device etc.
att would be foolish to do so
the contract just says they can cancel your contract LOL
no legal action or fee.
I just bought an android because it does more and has more features than an iphone. (like tethering, backup to microSD card, back button, search button, status LED., etc., etc.) And googleNow is sooo much better that Siri too.
when did getting a feature thats impeded by apples policies equal illegal?? and is that why it’s ‘severely not cool,’ because apples rules equal the law to you?? i mean i dont necessarily support the app, but i dont follow your logic as to why people should shun someone trying to shoehorn features into the device they should have natively anyway.
why on earth should you pay twice for an internet connection you already have, on a device that supports this feature natively?? i can only see isps and apples greed on this point.