Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

iTether is pulled from App Store

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | November 29, 2011, 8:47am PST

Summary: Now you see it … and now you don’t!

It seems that Apple has pulled the plug on the USB tethering app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that it had earlier approved.

The app was called iTether and is available for $14.99. Now it seems to have vanished from the App Store. No word yet from the developer as to why.

I’m not surprised.

My guess is that there was a backlog of apps to approve after Thanksgiving and it slipped through the cracks. Still, it was so blatantly against the rules that I’m surprised it got through in the first place.

The app hit the #1 top grossing app in the App Store and #3 in the UK shortly after its release.

Tether also makes tethering software for BlackBerry and Android platforms too.

According to a post made on Twitter by Tether, the company got this into the App Store because it ‘played by the rules.’ Hmmm, maybe not.

[UPDATE: Tether's official statement can be found here.]

I told you to get it while you could! Did you get iTether before Apple pulled it? If so, what do you think?

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Topics

Plug, Apple Inc., USB, iTether, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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You poor Apple users have poor taste

kingkong88@... Updated - 30th Nov

I have been tethering my mobile phone before the term tether was invented for this context.

In 1999, I tethered to my Nokia using infrared, and back then it was only CSD, not even HCSD. I bet most people here are too young to even know this acronymn.

Now whenever I am mobile and need to use my notebook, I just connect it via Bluetooth to my phone in my pocket. Cables are so last century man! They reflect the poor tastes of the user. And why suffer the burden of ensuring you have the correct USB cable on your body at all times?

You poor suffering Apple users.

There is a contradiction here. You get a wireless phone to be free of wires and yet I see Apple users on the public commute tied down by all sorts of cables.

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RE: iTether is pulled from App Store

William Farrell 29th Nov

that did not take long

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Untrusted sources

grant@... 29th Nov

Just click the untrusted sources setting and get it elsewhere, right?

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another reason to switch to Android

arctic_dolphin 29th Nov

I don't need Big Brother deciding what apps I can install on my phone.

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communism right here in the usa

dcdavy 30th Nov

central planning, big brother with a big fist, no one is safe

reminds me of 80's in eastern europe

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RE: iTether is pulled from App Store

opcom 30th Nov

Wait for the next 'update' to the o/s that breaks that app or just rats you out for using it. no such thing as a free lunch, but there used to be something that at least looked like one.