8 ms·

Theres really no great need in 4g for macbooks? I mean you can activate your wifis hotspot with handoff directly from your macbook without ever touching your ip

by tpetry 7y ago

Theres really no great need in 4g for macbooks? I mean you can activate your wifis hotspot with handoff directly from your macbook without ever touching your iphone.

ilogik 7y ago
assuming you have an iphone, and it has plenty of battery...at one point after using the hotspot for a while my iphone showed a temperature warning, and I had to wait for it to cool off before I could use it again. Having the laptop battery and cooling would be much better
- toxik 7y ago
  And internet sharing makes a lot more sense FROM a computer to a handheld than vice versa
  - samdoidge 7y ago
    You need the modem within a mobile phone, but now you're adding it to a laptop in addition. It isn't clear it makes more sense to me.
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      You could argue that perhaps the computer shouldn't have built in WiFi either - after all, it could tether to a phone (via a cable or Bluetooth) to use wi-fi. Except WiFi modems are cheap because there is lots of competition and most of the patents are easy to license, so everything has WiFi now.
      - samdoidge 7y ago
        For me to have 4G access, I need to connect to a network, and for that I need to pay. I currently do this through my phone which I need to be connected when there is no wifi more than my laptop. Is the price of 4G access low enough to have this on my laptop in addition to my phone? Not currently.
        scarejunba 7y ago
        On Google Fi it’s no additional charge.
- ubermonkey 7y ago
  Man, I use the hotspot function of my iPhone all the time and never have heat issues. I wonder why?
  - tw04 7y ago
    Probably a combination of what surface you have it sitting on and which case you use (if any).
    - freehunter 7y ago
      And ambient temperature and air movement. Anything that impacts heat dissipation. I was in Phoenix AZ last week when it was 115F and my phone’s hotspot shut down because the phone got too hot.
      - ubermonkey 7y ago
        You were outside? I mean...
        freehunter 7y ago
        Not exactly outside, but in a building without air conditioning yes. Yes it was awful.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Probably because you're close to whatever tower it's connecting to and the radio bits are not having to spend a bunch of energy screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard by the tower. Even plastic clad android phones will get hot if you try and make a long phone call from BFE.
  - ce4 7y ago
    also the Mac may detect it as a metered mobile connection and defer/throttle background usage (updates, etc).
- pier25 7y ago
  > assuming you have an iphone Any phone can do that, not only iPhones. How often are you on the move without a phone? Also the battery argument is not so definitive since a laptop on 4G/5G would also consume battery. If you can connect your laptop to a wall outlet you can connect your phone too.
drbojingle 7y ago
Assumes you have wifi hotspots in range and an iphone that's configured correctly with adequate battery.
- pbalau 7y ago
  the phone would be a wifi hotspot, sharing it's 4g connection with the laptop, via wifi.
  - ninkendo 7y ago
    Or if you don't have much battery, you can kill two birds with one stone by plugging the phone into the laptop and tethering over USB while charging it.
    - drbojingle 7y ago
      or you could buy a laptop with 4g :P
georgespencer 7y ago
Apple has investigated this over the years, even getting as far as building a red board prototype 3G MacBook Pro in 2007: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-wants-its-3g-macbook-prototype-back/ https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-wants-its-3g-macbook-prototy... (Green and blue boards tend to be for production-ready prototypes, red is fairly hacked together.) I believe the objections are 50:50 software-related and battery. How do you set suitable data usage thresholds on a Mac which is running over a 3/4/5G LTE network? The thermal performance of MacBook Pro is already weak at the high end and battery life suffers. I would be surprised if, when Apple switches to its own power efficient chipset in its portable Mac line, they don't offer a BTO option which includes cellular capabilities through a built-in SIM.
- swiley 7y ago
  It’s not hard to write something that kills an interface shortly after the transmitted data crosses a threshold (I’ve done it multiple times for myself.) I’m still surprised apple has refused to add this to any of their OSes.

by tpetry 7y ago

Theres really no great need in 4g for macbooks? I mean you can activate your wifis hotspot with handoff directly from your macbook without ever touching your iphone.

ilogik 7y ago

assuming you have an iphone, and it has plenty of battery...at one point after using the hotspot for a while my iphone showed a temperature warning, and I had to wait for it to cool off before I could use it again. Having the laptop battery and cooling would be much better

toxik 7y ago
And internet sharing makes a lot more sense FROM a computer to a handheld than vice versa
- samdoidge 7y ago
  You need the modem within a mobile phone, but now you're adding it to a laptop in addition. It isn't clear it makes more sense to me.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    You could argue that perhaps the computer shouldn't have built in WiFi either - after all, it could tether to a phone (via a cable or Bluetooth) to use wi-fi. Except WiFi modems are cheap because there is lots of competition and most of the patents are easy to license, so everything has WiFi now.
    - samdoidge 7y ago
      For me to have 4G access, I need to connect to a network, and for that I need to pay. I currently do this through my phone which I need to be connected when there is no wifi more than my laptop. Is the price of 4G access low enough to have this on my laptop in addition to my phone? Not currently.
      - scarejunba 7y ago
        On Google Fi it’s no additional charge.
ubermonkey 7y ago
Man, I use the hotspot function of my iPhone all the time and never have heat issues. I wonder why?
- tw04 7y ago
  Probably a combination of what surface you have it sitting on and which case you use (if any).
  - freehunter 7y ago
    And ambient temperature and air movement. Anything that impacts heat dissipation. I was in Phoenix AZ last week when it was 115F and my phone’s hotspot shut down because the phone got too hot.
    - ubermonkey 7y ago
      You were outside? I mean...
      - freehunter 7y ago
        Not exactly outside, but in a building without air conditioning yes. Yes it was awful.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Probably because you're close to whatever tower it's connecting to and the radio bits are not having to spend a bunch of energy screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard by the tower. Even plastic clad android phones will get hot if you try and make a long phone call from BFE.
- ce4 7y ago
  also the Mac may detect it as a metered mobile connection and defer/throttle background usage (updates, etc).
pier25 7y ago
> assuming you have an iphone Any phone can do that, not only iPhones. How often are you on the move without a phone? Also the battery argument is not so definitive since a laptop on 4G/5G would also consume battery. If you can connect your laptop to a wall outlet you can connect your phone too.

drbojingle 7y ago

Assumes you have wifi hotspots in range and an iphone that's configured correctly with adequate battery.

pbalau 7y ago
the phone would be a wifi hotspot, sharing it's 4g connection with the laptop, via wifi.
- ninkendo 7y ago
  Or if you don't have much battery, you can kill two birds with one stone by plugging the phone into the laptop and tethering over USB while charging it.
  - drbojingle 7y ago
    or you could buy a laptop with 4g :P

georgespencer 7y ago

Apple has investigated this over the years, even getting as far as building a red board prototype 3G MacBook Pro in 2007: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-wants-its-3g-macbook-prototype-back/ https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-wants-its-3g-macbook-prototy... (Green and blue boards tend to be for production-ready prototypes, red is fairly hacked together.) I believe the objections are 50:50 software-related and battery. How do you set suitable data usage thresholds on a Mac which is running over a 3/4/5G LTE network? The thermal performance of MacBook Pro is already weak at the high end and battery life suffers. I would be surprised if, when Apple switches to its own power efficient chipset in its portable Mac line, they don't offer a BTO option which includes cellular capabilities through a built-in SIM.

swiley 7y ago
It’s not hard to write something that kills an interface shortly after the transmitted data crosses a threshold (I’ve done it multiple times for myself.) I’m still surprised apple has refused to add this to any of their OSes.