Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution • Hacker News Board

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#11

Post by shankinson » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:12 AM UTC

Wilya wrote: post #10

The way they do it is elegant, and could be used in many other places than just the iPhone. All you need is a browser that supports websockets. I'm not really aware of that stuff, but I'm a bit curious. Do websockets really work over mobile networks (which are, at least in my experience, transparent proxied, and where anything outside of HTTP-on-port-80/HTTPS-on-port-443 is blacklisted into oblivion) ?

Yes they do. We've tested them on iPhones, BlackBerry browser, and the Aurora browser on Android.

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#12

Post by sev » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:17 AM UTC

Very cool! Too bad the iphone can't lock, and that the wifi-only iPad can't benefit from this.

On a side note, UI related, when I am on this page: http://tether.com/iphone/ and click "Order Now" at the top right, the modal window opens behind the YouTube video.

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#13

Post by shankinson » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:18 AM UTC

sev wrote: post #12

Very cool! Too bad the iphone can't lock, and that the wifi-only iPad can't benefit from this. On a side note, UI related, when I am on this page: http://tether.com/iphone/ and click "Order Now" at the top right, the modal window opens behind the YouTube video.

Thanks, I'll get our web dev guy to look into that.

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#14

Post by mikebabineau » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:29 AM UTC

Looks like a great service, unfortunate that they're subject to the HTML5/browser limitations (can't lock, etc).

Is there another way to distribute their native version besides through the app store?

My company use TestFlight (https://testflightapp.com/) for iOS game development. Is there anything similar, but better suited to end-user distribution?

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#15

Post by smathieu » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:38 AM UTC

For a company that will be handling all of my web browsing, I would have expected them to not store my password in clear text.

Doesn't inspire confidence :(

Great product idea though!

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#16

Post by garindra » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:46 AM UTC

shankinson wrote: post #9

Hey guys. I'm the developer behind this tech. Glad to see it's got you thinking :). It took a lot of brainstorming and testing/debugging to get this up and running. Hope you enjoy it!

It did get me and I'm sure a lot of other people thinking. Would you mind answering this Quora question that I set up so I can sleep tonight?

http://www.quora.com/How-does-the-Tether-HTML5-app-work

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#17

Post by rogerchucker » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:51 AM UTC

Can we expect any way to tether a Wifi-only iPad or iPod touch to this service in future?

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#18

Post by garindra » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 12:57 AM UTC

guan wrote: post #4

robbiet480 wrote: post #2

How! That's what I really want to know. Streaming sockets?

Would everything have to go through their servers? I can’t imagine that HTML5 apps on iOS have permission to open enough sockets to avoid that.

If everything has to go through their servers and then downloaded by the Mac/PC, then it basically defeats the whole purpose of tethering.

The real trick is that they found a way to pipe data from the iPhone to the Mac without going through the internet, all using a good ol' browser web page.

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#19

Post by moonchrome » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 1:10 AM UTC

angkec wrote: post #5

Ok so I went ahead and bought the service. Here's what I found out: You'll have to keep the tether client application running on your Mac or PC. So not gonna work for wifi-only iPads. Then you will need to keep the html5 webpage open in order to receive data. They instruct you to set iPhone's screen lock to "never" so it doesn't automatically shuts the web page down in 1 minute or so. So I imagine you can't take phon…

>So not gonna work for wifi-only iPads

Excuse my ignorance of Apple products but how can tethering work on a device without a internet connection ? You want to go trough a iPad proxy to get to a WiFi connection ? Why not just connect to WiFi with the PC ?

Re: Tether Launches HTML5-Based iPhone Tethering Solution

#20

Post by Wilya » Sat, Mar 10, 2012, 1:12 AM UTC

moonchrome wrote: post #19

angkec wrote: post #5

Ok so I went ahead and bought the service. Here's what I found out: You'll have to keep the tether client application running on your Mac or PC. So not gonna work for wifi-only iPads. Then you will need to keep the html5 webpage open in order to receive data. They instruct you to set iPhone's screen lock to "never" so it doesn't automatically shuts the web page down in 1 minute or so. So I imagine you can't take phon…

>So not gonna work for wifi-only iPads Excuse my ignorance of Apple products but how can tethering work on a device without a internet connection ? You want to go trough a iPad proxy to get to a WiFi connection ? Why not just connect to WiFi with the PC ?

You could want to use the iPad as the client. Ie use an iPhone to give internet connection to the iPad. (I guess that what the GP meant)