Tethering Gone From Sprint Pre Specs 14
It would appear our beloved "Phone as modem" feature has vanished! Engadget has just brought to our attention that a new "Connector" field has taken the spot of the lovely tethering.
What does this mean? Well, it could mean nothing. It's possible Sprint just didn't want to advertise tethering anymore or that they wanted to add more information about the actual device rather than a service plan feature. Interestingly, it also appears from the old screenshot that the "Connector" information has mistakenly been jumbled into the "Phone as modem" part, suggesting that Sprint may have just decided the quickest way to fix that would be to remove the tethering information rather than having to go deeper in their web code and add a new row.
However, it could be that Sprint has removed tethering support all-together. That would make sense given Sprint's new Simply Everything + Mobile Broadband doesn't cover tethering, only data transferred via their USB adaptor. Doesn't really seem like a very smart decision however, as Sprint is banking on this device being their saviour and really needs a home-run device.
This website change could be nothing, or it could be a subtle hint of what's to come.
14 Comments
I'm of the impression from the various demos I've watched that there is more to it that just PAM. Correct me if I'm wrong but both bluetooth and USB cable can be used to provide data/net connection to a PC/laptop etc. So PAM is sort of obsolete because it appears to me anyways that you aren't dialing a service but using the pres data connection be it EVDO or wifi to provide a connection for PC/laptop etc. Again this is my impression and would explain the change to the page because PAM is not needed if this is indeed how the pre works. My guess is originally the page was coded based on other smartphone info which uses PAM to provide data/net connection.
I'd like to mention it's very much possible that the tethering ability IS still there. Palm's website DOES still show Bluetooth tethering as a feature.
Wow. Every week since the Pre has been announced seems to bring more troubling news- and the thing hasn't even been released yet!
No expandable flash memory, no emulator, small battery, and now possible removal of tethering (at least reliable USB)? You'd think Palm would have had he sense to offer at least the features available back in the circa 2003 Treo 600!
More and more it's seeming like just an iPhone with a keyboard grafted on. Hope Sprint supports the Treo 755s for a long, long time....