PSA: iOS 4.3's Personal Hotspot Feature Supports 3 Simultaneous Devices, Not 5

Greg Kumparak

Greg Kumparak is the Mobile Editor at Techcrunch. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born just outside of San Jose, and now lives in the East Bay of California. → Learn More

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Oh hoh hohhhh — this one went over just about everyone’s collective head. Ever since Apple announced that iOS 4.3 would pack the MiFi-esque Personal Hotspot feature (essentially turning your iPhone into an on-the-go WiFi router for your laptops and other gadgets), we’ve been under the impression that it would support up to 5 devices at once. That’s not quite the case.

Why would we think that? Well, because it was sort of implied. Every time we heard anyone talking up Personal Hotspot, they’d also drop in that you could get up to 5 devices connected at once through the iPhone. The bit that usually got left out (up until the new iOS 4.3 page went up): only 3 of those devices would be connecting through Personal Hotspot — the other two would have to go through USB or Bluetooth.

Fortunately, this probably shouldn’t negatively affect too many people; even if everyone in your 5 man band all needs the daterbits to flow at the same time, the USB/Bluetooth options make it doable (and the USB connection will keep your battery from plummeting!)

[Via Engadget]

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