Last month, BGR exclusively confirmed that Apple’s new Personal Hotspot feature is coming to all iPhones with the release of iOS 4.3. In a later piece entitled, You don’t have to wait to turn your iPhone into a mobile hotspot, we also speculated that AT&T might not immediately enable the feature for its iPhone customers. It looks like the pressure of Verizon Wireless’ imminent iPhone 4 launch may have been enough for AT&T to uncharacteristically fast-track the release of the new feature, however. Buried in The New York Times’ glowing review of Verizon Wireless’ iPhone 4 was a mention that AT&T would be enabling Personal Hotspot on February 13th. “[Personal Hotspot is] incredibly convenient. Many other app phones have it — AT&T’s iPhone gets it on Feb. 13 — but Apple’s execution is especially nice,” The New York Times writes. The mention of February 13th has since been removed, however, having been replaced by a note reading, “AT&T says its iPhone will get it soon.” It is highly unlikely that Times tech guy David Pogue simply pulled that date out of thin air — more likely is the possibility that Pogue let slip a tidbit he was briefed on, and later corrected it. In any event, we’ll know for sure in just over a week.
[Via AppleInsider]