Why You Can Probably Skip Buying 3G On An IPad 2

When you're selling for an iPad 2, you have a dozen configurations to select from, and a few new discoveries will make this preference ample simpler for you.

To configure your iPad 2, you have 12 options as you confirm on color, storage and, many importantly, information connection - 3G + Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi-only.

It turns out that if you're one of the millions of people who own an Android phone or an iPhone, you do not need a 3G model, that will save you a large lump of cash. Here's why.

All U.S. iPhones (upgraded to the ultimate chronicle of iOS) and the immeasurable majority of Android smartphones right away strictly encouragement wireless-hotspot capability, that turns the handset in to a Wi-Fi connection that may be common with multi-part devices, inclusive the iPad.

So if you go with a Wi-Fi-only model and you wish to bound on a mobile connection, you can trigger the hotspot choice on your smartphone by your carrier, pay $20 per month and link up the iPad to that.

That's not as seamless as having 3G built in to the iPad, but it will save you the additional $130 you'd plunk down on a 3G model. Plus, you'd have to pay at least $15 a month only to use an iPad's 3G connection anyway.

If you're down with getting a small dirty, you can use your Android phone or iPhone as a hotspot without profitable monthly fees by hacking your device.

For Android phones, you only have to base (aka jailbreak) the device with a apparatus called Unrevoked . For secure Android phones, there are without official authorization apps called Wireless Tether and Barnacle, that offer giveaway hotspot utilities. You can moreover spark your device and setup CyanogenMod , a not similar Android skin that includes a built-in hotspot feature. Presto.

For the iPhone, all you have to do is jailbreak with any of the collection out there. (Do note that if you do refurbish to the ultimate chronicle of iOS, you can't jailbreak yet.) Jailbreaking will setup the Cydia app, that gives you access to the subterraneous Cydia app store. There, you can download the without official authorization app MyWi , that expenses a one-time price of $20, and doesn't assign you monthly.

The Wi-Fi iPad doesn't have built-in GPS, but if you wish to use that pleasing Maps app for navigation, you still do not need a 3G iPad, so long as you have an iPhone. It turns out that if you hotspot with an iPhone, the connection transfers the GPS to the iPad .

Just link up the iPad to the iPhone's hotspot, then launch the Maps app, and you'll see the blue dot tracking your location.

(We're not certain if this functions when hotspotting with an Android phone - if you can confirm, let us know in the comments.)

Another astonishment is that if you spin your smartphone in to a wireless hotspot, you can link up to it with your iPad 2 and use FaceTime videoconferencing .

That's engaging since typically you can't use FaceTime over a 3G connection; it's ostensible to only work on a Wi-Fi connection. Because a hotspot shows up as a Wi-Fi connection, you're in essence tricking the iPad 2 in to using a 3G connection for FaceTime.