Thanks to the latest XE9 over-the-air update, Glass Explorers will no longer need to enable tethering on their smartphones while away from WiFi. As soon as the XE9 OTA update rolled out, we immediately noticed that the icon for the MyGlass app in the system tray had changed. The icon now sported two small arrows indicating data was being transferred. Little did we know that this meant that the MyGlass app was the one transferring data over Bluetooth and that Glass was no longer using Bluetooth tethering for an Internet connection.
You can easily test this yourself by going into your phones tethering settings. You should see something similar as to the screenshot below. Just uncheck Bluetooth tethering and you’re set. Then, while away from WiFi you’ll notice that Glass is functioning just fine and the MyGlass app notification icon will have the two little arrows beside it indicating that data is being transferred to Glass without WiFi and without Bluetooth tethering.
This is great news for the upcoming release of the consumer edition of Glass. Not everyone’s mobile data plans include tethering. Some carriers charge $10 a month or more to add tethering capabilities to your current plan. Speaking of carriers, I wonder how they’re going to feel when they realize el Goog just circumvented one of their current schemes to screw customers by charging them twice for the same data connection?