4 ms·

Why carry around two cellular modems? Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to m

Why carry around two cellular modems? Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to my phone, which I always have with me. The only possible issue I can think of is battery life, but if I'm carrying around my laptop I can throw a charge cable in the bag to keep my phone juiced.

raw_anon_1111 1y ago
For tablets, at least with T-Mobile, for $25 you get unlimited data. You only get a limited amount of tethering data.
- leakycap 1y ago
  T-mobile is so scammy, though. Have you been keeping up with all the lawsuits against them in the US?
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    All carriers are scammy in their own way
    - leakycap 1y ago
      So, maybe don't do business with the worst of them? Of the big 3 in the US, T-Mobile is the one I'd avoid right now.
      - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Verizon is overpriced and is the Comcast equivalent of cellular carriers. AT&T is about as bad
        leakycap 1y ago
        Verizon owns most of the value brands in the US and you made no connection between them and Comcast beyond mentioning them in the same sentence. AT&T is "about as bad" as what? You gave no information.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Price, customer service
        leakycap 1y ago
        Based on the type of responses you are giving, I actually do believe you probably call your phone company's customer service regularly. So perhaps your criteria might be different. Have you heard of Consumer Cellular?
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Consumer cellular rate plans are the same price as T-Mobile and they don’t have international roaming included.
        leakycap 1y ago
        That joke jitterbugged right past you.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        You would be surprised how many people on HN will defend crappy products and servjce because of ideals - see Framework laptops, PinePhones etc.
        leakycap 1y ago
        Yeah, those products people are passionate about and really like are total junk. We should mock them while not explaining any of our reasoning, thank you for showing the way.
    - apparent 1y ago
      MVNOs FTW. They know they're competing for price-conscious consumers so have to offer more value. The big 3 know most of their customers are going to go with one of the big boys, all of whom are expensive and not great.
      - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        MVNOs have slower data rates since they buy deprioritized traffic in bulk, don’t have the roaming agreements domestically and especially not internationally, and don’t offer unlimited high speed data.
        apparent 1y ago
        Hm, not my experience. When traveling internationally there was an option I could have used, but I chose to use a local SIM card instead. The data speeds are just fine for me, and I haven't experienced any issues with roaming domestically. But then I don't even care about 5g versus 4g/LTE for the most part, so perhaps I'm just not noticing limits that affect others.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        That’s how MVNOs work, they buy data in bulk at wholesale prices. But they pay for lower QoS. There isn’t anything wrong with that. But they are getting jankier bandwidth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier T-Mobile comes with 5GB of high speed data per month to use for roaming in Canada and Mexico and lower speed data roaming almost anywhere else in the world.
- apparent 1y ago
  True, but don't you have to treat the device as a separate line? If the laptop had cellular I'd have another bill to pay.
  - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
    To be completely honest, I would be fine not having cellular data on my iPad and don’t think I would use more than 40GB of tethering ever if I took advantage if using WiFi every opportunity I could instead of not worrying about it. It’s just one of those things that it’s convenient not having to worry about WiFi when we travel and hotel WiFi depending on how busy they are is often pretty bad. But especially with a laptop, as often as we travel, I don’t think I’ve ever needed to tether to my Mac accept for brief periods of times when our condos shared WiFi went out (I work remotely). I wouldn’t pay for a separate line for a computer. I am sure others would. On another note, I did give my mom my previous iPad and kept the data plan so she doesn’t have to worry about WiFi when they take road trips.
leakycap 1y ago
I leave my setup plugged in, using a low-profile USB-C to lightning cable on the iPhone SE stuck on the back of my screen and wired hotspot on macOS is a great experience. We're discussing a MacBook someday with a built-in phone, the closest I've found is an iOS device wired to my MacBook as a wired hotspot. It's like having fast wifi everywhere. Using my personal phone (that I also use for other things like calls) wouldn't be like having wifi everywhere on my Mac, for example if I walk away from my laptop while on the phone the Mac would lose internet.
themagician 1y ago
The pairing has become almost flawless as well. Years ago, it was slow and inconsistent, but now the hotspot feature is almost perfect and automatic. Honestly, I don’t really think about it anymore.
kondro 1y ago
I want my computer to have an always on cell modem just like my phone does. The Apple Silicon chips all run in a version of always on these days because the efficiency cores are so, well, efficient. Additionally, while you may want to burn the battery in multiple devices and deal with having to manage that, I don’t want to. Apple has been selling cellular iPads since the beginning and I love never having to worry about pairing mine. Tethering to an iPhone or iPad Is much better than it used to be, but it’s still not perfect. Apple makes their own modems these days and even with Qualcomm had a capped per device license fee more than covered by the premium they charge for cellular in, say, the iPad. I know so many people who want this convenience and are willing to pay for it that it just seems like stubbornness at this point that they’re willing to put modems in iPads and not MacBooks.
brailsafe 1y ago
> Why carry around two cellular modems? Why not? If I had both with me, I'd rather just have my phone on Airplane mode preserving the battery and my focus. > Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to my phone, which I always have with me. I'd really really like to be. The amount of dependence I have on the phone being there at all times is insane. I just want to leave with my laptop and be good to go, no possibility of receiving a call or getting distraced with stupid group chats. My phone recently died spontaneously, and if I didn't replace it immediately, I can't work online from cafes or anywhere else without depending on the place having open wifi.
abtinf 1y ago
It’s hard to explain, but having an always-on connection on a tablet or laptop just feels like absolute magic. You sort of have to experience it first hand.

raw_anon_1111 1y ago

For tablets, at least with T-Mobile, for $25 you get unlimited data. You only get a limited amount of tethering data.

leakycap 1y ago
T-mobile is so scammy, though. Have you been keeping up with all the lawsuits against them in the US?
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  All carriers are scammy in their own way
  - leakycap 1y ago
    So, maybe don't do business with the worst of them? Of the big 3 in the US, T-Mobile is the one I'd avoid right now.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      Verizon is overpriced and is the Comcast equivalent of cellular carriers. AT&T is about as bad
      - leakycap 1y ago
        Verizon owns most of the value brands in the US and you made no connection between them and Comcast beyond mentioning them in the same sentence. AT&T is "about as bad" as what? You gave no information.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Price, customer service
        leakycap 1y ago
        Based on the type of responses you are giving, I actually do believe you probably call your phone company's customer service regularly. So perhaps your criteria might be different. Have you heard of Consumer Cellular?
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        Consumer cellular rate plans are the same price as T-Mobile and they don’t have international roaming included.
        leakycap 1y ago
        That joke jitterbugged right past you.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        You would be surprised how many people on HN will defend crappy products and servjce because of ideals - see Framework laptops, PinePhones etc.
        leakycap 1y ago
        Yeah, those products people are passionate about and really like are total junk. We should mock them while not explaining any of our reasoning, thank you for showing the way.
  - apparent 1y ago
    MVNOs FTW. They know they're competing for price-conscious consumers so have to offer more value. The big 3 know most of their customers are going to go with one of the big boys, all of whom are expensive and not great.
    - raw_anon_1111 1y ago
      MVNOs have slower data rates since they buy deprioritized traffic in bulk, don’t have the roaming agreements domestically and especially not internationally, and don’t offer unlimited high speed data.
      - apparent 1y ago
        Hm, not my experience. When traveling internationally there was an option I could have used, but I chose to use a local SIM card instead. The data speeds are just fine for me, and I haven't experienced any issues with roaming domestically. But then I don't even care about 5g versus 4g/LTE for the most part, so perhaps I'm just not noticing limits that affect others.
        raw_anon_1111 1y ago
        That’s how MVNOs work, they buy data in bulk at wholesale prices. But they pay for lower QoS. There isn’t anything wrong with that. But they are getting jankier bandwidth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QoS_Class_Identifier T-Mobile comes with 5GB of high speed data per month to use for roaming in Canada and Mexico and lower speed data roaming almost anywhere else in the world.
apparent 1y ago
True, but don't you have to treat the device as a separate line? If the laptop had cellular I'd have another bill to pay.
- raw_anon_1111 1y ago
  To be completely honest, I would be fine not having cellular data on my iPad and don’t think I would use more than 40GB of tethering ever if I took advantage if using WiFi every opportunity I could instead of not worrying about it. It’s just one of those things that it’s convenient not having to worry about WiFi when we travel and hotel WiFi depending on how busy they are is often pretty bad. But especially with a laptop, as often as we travel, I don’t think I’ve ever needed to tether to my Mac accept for brief periods of times when our condos shared WiFi went out (I work remotely). I wouldn’t pay for a separate line for a computer. I am sure others would. On another note, I did give my mom my previous iPad and kept the data plan so she doesn’t have to worry about WiFi when they take road trips.

leakycap 1y ago

I leave my setup plugged in, using a low-profile USB-C to lightning cable on the iPhone SE stuck on the back of my screen and wired hotspot on macOS is a great experience. We're discussing a MacBook someday with a built-in phone, the closest I've found is an iOS device wired to my MacBook as a wired hotspot. It's like having fast wifi everywhere. Using my personal phone (that I also use for other things like calls) wouldn't be like having wifi everywhere on my Mac, for example if I walk away from my laptop while on the phone the Mac would lose internet.

themagician 1y ago

The pairing has become almost flawless as well. Years ago, it was slow and inconsistent, but now the hotspot feature is almost perfect and automatic. Honestly, I don’t really think about it anymore.

kondro 1y ago

I want my computer to have an always on cell modem just like my phone does. The Apple Silicon chips all run in a version of always on these days because the efficiency cores are so, well, efficient. Additionally, while you may want to burn the battery in multiple devices and deal with having to manage that, I don’t want to. Apple has been selling cellular iPads since the beginning and I love never having to worry about pairing mine. Tethering to an iPhone or iPad Is much better than it used to be, but it’s still not perfect. Apple makes their own modems these days and even with Qualcomm had a capped per device license fee more than covered by the premium they charge for cellular in, say, the iPad. I know so many people who want this convenience and are willing to pay for it that it just seems like stubbornness at this point that they’re willing to put modems in iPads and not MacBooks.

brailsafe 1y ago

> Why carry around two cellular modems? Why not? If I had both with me, I'd rather just have my phone on Airplane mode preserving the battery and my focus. > Are you ever out and about with your computer but not your phone? I've been happy to hotspot my computers and tablets to my phone, which I always have with me. I'd really really like to be. The amount of dependence I have on the phone being there at all times is insane. I just want to leave with my laptop and be good to go, no possibility of receiving a call or getting distraced with stupid group chats. My phone recently died spontaneously, and if I didn't replace it immediately, I can't work online from cafes or anywhere else without depending on the place having open wifi.

abtinf 1y ago

It’s hard to explain, but having an always-on connection on a tablet or laptop just feels like absolute magic. You sort of have to experience it first hand.