Mac and PC users are incensed at news that a third-party software solution that enable them to use the iPhone’s 3G connection to get their computers online appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Nullriver (the cool people who developed Installer.app, to all you jailbreakers out there), had its NetShare application available for sale through the App Store yesterday, according to a forum post on MacRumors. The $9.99 software allowed users to share the iPhone’s EDGE or 3G internet connection with a PC, offering a SOCKS5 proxy for the PC to connect to. This is one of the most-requested features of the iPhone. Most mobile phones with advanced data connections can be tethered to a computer for use as a data modem to get online. It’s a feature commonly used by major media outlets in order to file words, images or, in recent years, video reports from remote locations. Absence of such support remains a puzzle, even for iPhone lovers.
Why Apple and AT&T are denying this to customers defies most observers. Of course, it is equally possible the application turned out to be faulty and has been withdrawn from sale pending an update. Neither Apple or Nullriver have explained the situation.
