Droid Incredible’s New Mobile Hotspot Feature
Late last night, a notice popped up on my phone telling me it was ready for the Android 2.2 update. The update, in addition to Froyo, promised 720p video recording and 3G tethering capability, both of which I was looking forward to using. As of now, I’ve only managed to test out tethering, and I’m sorry to say that it’s a huge disappointment.
From what I read on the web before the update, Froyo’s tethering was supposed to bypass carriers’ pesky subscription requirements for the feature. Tethering was accessible to me before the update, but through Verizon, and that meant shelling out extra dough each month. The new feature looks devoid from carrier intervention when setting it up on the phone (which is wonderfully simple), but that all changes when you try and use the connection.
Once the password was in order, the connection was up and running. I proceeded to point my browser to twitter.com for a quick test, and instead of twitter.com, I got this. Prices to use tethering would cost at least $15 extra per month, according to Verizon. I thought this was what the update was supposed to change; is this what Google calls ‘open’? Carriers taking what is supposed to be free and charging for it? ★
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