Started a new job at the beginning of the year. The company was just transitioning from Blackberries to iPhones. My personal phone had been an iPhone 4S since the day it came out. My wife had an iPhone 4, and our daughter had an iPhone 3G - primarily as "emergency phone call" device. (She played a couple games on it, but not much else. The family also has an iPad Air that my daughter is primary user of.)
At my prior job, there was no company-supplied phone, they gave you a small stipend if you were in a job that required the use of a cell phone, to help subsidize your personal phone.
At this new job, because of the timing of my hire, I got to be in the very first wave of users assigned an iPhone. Obviously, I was hoping for a 5S, but they standardized on the 5C instead. (No color choice - it was random luck of the draw; I got a white one.) *HEAVILY* locked down - no Siri, no FaceTime, custom website-based app store with VERY limited selection of apps. Can't sync to a computer. Built-in iTunes and App Stores blocked, all forms of video blocked (iTunes Match enabled for music, but while the Video app was visible, there was no way to get video in to it!) (Also, all video-watching apps blocked, no Netflix, no Hulu, etc.) No Pebble, no home automation apps for the devices I use.
So, not exactly "good to replace my personal phone". Had to carry two phones around.
Then, a couple weeks ago, they rolled out the new and improved device management system. Instead of being totally locked down, it was generally "open" by default. Standard Apple App Store, with only certain apps blocked, rather than blocking by default. Siri and FaceTime re-enabled, video and video apps allowed. So now, it's pretty usable as a replacement for my personal phone. So I decided it was as good a time as any to try to move to just one phone. Started by swapping my wife for her iPhone 4, and she got the 4S. Slowly started moving my app usage over to the work phone. The plan was to port my personal phone number to Google Voice, and forward to my work phone. Use the Google Voice and Hangouts apps to make/receive phone calls and text messages to my "personal number," while most of my MMS-equipped friends have iPhones already, so those would seamlessly transition to iMessage on the work phone.
So decided to make the commit: I was going to port the number last week, and pass the iPhone 4 to my daughter, so she could have a modern-app-capable phone (for at least another month until the iP4 becomes obsolete...) Only a snag came up: For some reason, Google Voice says my number can't be ported. I don't know why - it's with one of their preferred carriers now. It IS a number I've had for about 18 years now, over 5-6 different carriers. Maybe I've ported it so many times their system is confused? (Although ironically I'm with the original carrier I got the number from again now!)
Well, I had already let my daughter know I was going to give her the iPhone 4, and had transferred 99% of my usage to my work phone already. So I just decided to bite the bullet and give her the iPhone 4, and use my personal number on her iPhone 3G. Once I did that, though, I figured "why bother using the 3G? The only thing I'm going to use it for is the occasional outgoing phone call to people I don't want to have my work cell phone number and for text messaging to people who don't have iMessage-capable phones that will go to my work phone already."
So I decided to go back to my very original, purchased-day-of-launch-2007 iPhone. AKA "iPhone 2G". I'd had it sitting around with Whited00r just to play with for a while, so I went ahead and refreshed it, and am now happily running it. (For those that don't know, Whited00r is a Jailbreak custom firmware that visually emulates iOS 7 on older pre-iOS 7 devices. It looks and behaves about 99% the same as iOS 7 on an iPhone 4; and not much slower than iPhone OS 3 natively.)
So, 7 years after I first bought it, and 6 years since I last used it day-to-day, I am back to using an original iPhone as my primary personal phone.
The only "real apps" I have on it are an MMS-enabler, Twitter, and Facebook. (Installed with Whited00r's "AppTimeMachine", which will install "last compatible" versions of apps.)
At my prior job, there was no company-supplied phone, they gave you a small stipend if you were in a job that required the use of a cell phone, to help subsidize your personal phone.
At this new job, because of the timing of my hire, I got to be in the very first wave of users assigned an iPhone. Obviously, I was hoping for a 5S, but they standardized on the 5C instead. (No color choice - it was random luck of the draw; I got a white one.) *HEAVILY* locked down - no Siri, no FaceTime, custom website-based app store with VERY limited selection of apps. Can't sync to a computer. Built-in iTunes and App Stores blocked, all forms of video blocked (iTunes Match enabled for music, but while the Video app was visible, there was no way to get video in to it!) (Also, all video-watching apps blocked, no Netflix, no Hulu, etc.) No Pebble, no home automation apps for the devices I use.
So, not exactly "good to replace my personal phone". Had to carry two phones around.
Then, a couple weeks ago, they rolled out the new and improved device management system. Instead of being totally locked down, it was generally "open" by default. Standard Apple App Store, with only certain apps blocked, rather than blocking by default. Siri and FaceTime re-enabled, video and video apps allowed. So now, it's pretty usable as a replacement for my personal phone. So I decided it was as good a time as any to try to move to just one phone. Started by swapping my wife for her iPhone 4, and she got the 4S. Slowly started moving my app usage over to the work phone. The plan was to port my personal phone number to Google Voice, and forward to my work phone. Use the Google Voice and Hangouts apps to make/receive phone calls and text messages to my "personal number," while most of my MMS-equipped friends have iPhones already, so those would seamlessly transition to iMessage on the work phone.
So decided to make the commit: I was going to port the number last week, and pass the iPhone 4 to my daughter, so she could have a modern-app-capable phone (for at least another month until the iP4 becomes obsolete...) Only a snag came up: For some reason, Google Voice says my number can't be ported. I don't know why - it's with one of their preferred carriers now. It IS a number I've had for about 18 years now, over 5-6 different carriers. Maybe I've ported it so many times their system is confused? (Although ironically I'm with the original carrier I got the number from again now!)
Well, I had already let my daughter know I was going to give her the iPhone 4, and had transferred 99% of my usage to my work phone already. So I just decided to bite the bullet and give her the iPhone 4, and use my personal number on her iPhone 3G. Once I did that, though, I figured "why bother using the 3G? The only thing I'm going to use it for is the occasional outgoing phone call to people I don't want to have my work cell phone number and for text messaging to people who don't have iMessage-capable phones that will go to my work phone already."
So I decided to go back to my very original, purchased-day-of-launch-2007 iPhone. AKA "iPhone 2G". I'd had it sitting around with Whited00r just to play with for a while, so I went ahead and refreshed it, and am now happily running it. (For those that don't know, Whited00r is a Jailbreak custom firmware that visually emulates iOS 7 on older pre-iOS 7 devices. It looks and behaves about 99% the same as iOS 7 on an iPhone 4; and not much slower than iPhone OS 3 natively.)
So, 7 years after I first bought it, and 6 years since I last used it day-to-day, I am back to using an original iPhone as my primary personal phone.
The only "real apps" I have on it are an MMS-enabler, Twitter, and Facebook. (Installed with Whited00r's "AppTimeMachine", which will install "last compatible" versions of apps.)
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