In his hundred-word inquiry to Steve Jobs as to whether or not the iPad will tether to the iPhone, Jezper Söderlund started by saying, "I'll keep it short." Steve's response kept it really short: "No." Updated: Is Jobs wrong?


OK, Steve's answer hardly comes as a surprise, but I'm always tickled when there's a report of Steve Jobs responding personally to someone's e-mail. I imagine him sitting on the can, flicking idly on his iPhone, and finally deciding to open that massive folder of his inbox where all the e-mail from the plebs gets redirected. Oh, what's this?



I'll keep it short. I'm Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I'm also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question: Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone? Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant. From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible. All the best,

Jezper Söderlund

Whether or not he knew that Jezper was a Swedish DJ of some acclaim (he didn't), King Steve couldn't be bothered to type more than a single word before he rose up off his throne.

No. Sent from my iPhone

What do we learn from this? 1. You won't be able to skimp on an iPad data plan by tethering to your iPhone. 2. There's still the outside chance that someday "sjobs@apple.com" will pop up before your eyes, delivering a disappointingly terse (but change of pants-requiring nonetheless) message directly to your inbox. [9 to 5 Mac]


Update: Assuming his response is the real deal, we're wondering if Steve might be a little bit confused about how his precious gadgets actually work. The iPhone officially supports tethering, just not in the United States. But we can't see any reason why the iPhone shouldn't be able to share its connection with the iPad on international carriers that do support tethering (seeing as DJ Jezper is from Sweden, he could well be a costumer of one of them). In any event, it seems like Steve's answer isn't only short but perhaps just plain wrong.