Naturally it’s already been pulled off the App Store, but anyone buying what looked like yet another $0.99 flashlight app for their iPhone was in for an unexpected treat.
No ordinary app
Created by Nick Lee, a 15 year old developer, the Handy Light app looked like any other cheapo flashlight application, with the unremarkable ability to change your screen’s colour by clicking on a palette.
But lurking underneath was a fully fledged tethering application, letting users turn their iPhones into a 3G modem so they could surf the web from any computer wirelessly connected to their handset.
Normally, users would be looking to pay a hefty premium for this ability – in the States you’re looking at an additional $20 per month for AT&T users – but the Handy Light app made it a cinch to get surfing on iPhone connected laptops for free.
Gone, gone, gone
With the app now yanked off iTunes, users will have to look elsewhere but at least those quick enough to download the app when it was available can keep on enjoying its benefits.
Although we warmly applaud Nick Lee’s sterling efforts it does rather raise the question about the possibility of less punter-friendly ‘Trojan’ apps sneaking past Apple’s clearly less-than-studious vetting process.
But for now let us celebrate the young lad’s achievement. Nice one Nick!
[Via]
