Hacker News Reader

I wonder the same thing about cellular iPads sometimes because I have a hard time seeing a case where you'd have an iPad with you but not your phone to make some connection sharing. My supposition is that this might just for convenience: no need to worry about your phone battery life, for instance. I'm also curious about whether I'm missing something tho.

View on HN

Most people barely understand the differences between WiFi and cellular, and the number that can start a hotspot and connect without it being a 'stressful computer problem' is a lot fewer than you would expect. Like, painfully fewer.

Source: I work in IT

If we're talking about the Apple ecosystem, you don't need to start a hotspot.

When you have an iPhone and MacBook nearby that are on the same Apple ID, the Mac shows a little notification "Connect to the Internet through <phone name>?" with the default button being OK, which instructs the phone to turn on the hotspot and the Mac to connect to it.

The phone also just shows up as another Wi-Fi network in the Wi-Fi menu alongside all the other networks, even if hotspot isn't on, using the same mechanism of letting the Mac remotely configure the hotspot.

It really would be convenient to not have to tether + deal with battery life. Or, have the macbook be the mobile hotspot instead for whatever reason.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com