Being Smart with the iPhone

[Fabienne]

I want an iPhone. My carrier does not sell iPhone but will give service to an unlocked and jailbroken phone. I know the headaches associated with the current 3.1.2 vs 3.1.3 firmware issues and 3GS. I would love to have a 3GS but the hassles and consequences of ownership at the moment really put me off (one more thing to babysit/worry about). I was thinking that since the 3GS has everything I want, and I am pretty good at foregoing the "latest" like the 4.0 when that comes out, I might be smartest to wait until the 4.0 comes out and the 3.1.3 problem is resolved (by the Dev Team releasing it's phantom jailbreak for 3.1.3 and putting that issue to rest once and for all unless Apple comes out with something really diabolical). Then buying a 3GS from eBay and being content with that.

My major problem is that it would be very foolish for me to change my telephone company to AT&T. All of my business things are using my local coverage, and they are very good. I don't want the trouble of changing carriers, changing my behind the scenes addresses and all that hassle.

What is your opinion, what do you think is a wise thing to do? Right now I have a Blackberry (8320). Maybe I should be content with that and leave the idea of a jailbroken iPhone to people who have the time to keep up with the spy vs. spy stuff. Disappointing but that is the way I am leaning. The BB works like a tractor, it's lightweight, I get my e-mails, take pictures and video, and don't have to worry about tethering or what version of what I am using . But on the other hand, iPhones are the coolest thing, the GUI is wonderful, the thing is beautiful to look at, and there's an app for that.

 

[hellfire88]

If you depend on your phone for business I'd stick with the blackberry. In my experience it just gets email faster/more reliably. I have an iPhone 3G and a Blackberry 9700 and I use the Blackberry 95% of the time since I get my emails in a more timely manner and I kinda just trust the "reliablity" of the BIS/BES more.

Also, if you can wait 2-3 months a new iPhone model will most likely be releases as has been for the past 2 years, and when the new model comes out you may want that for whatever additional features it has, or if anything it will drive down the prices of used/3rd-party iPhone 3GS's by A LOT for all those early adopters wanting to dump their 3GS's for the new one.

 

[1rottenapple]

Yeah if your business depends on your phone, I would least hold on to the blackberry as an emergency. I have had experience jail breaking my iphone from the 1st gen, to 2nd gen, and now the current 3GS, you have to find a currently unlockedable unit. It's more complicated than what it worth when your livelihood depends on it.

Edit: or if you can do big money, buy a factory unlocked unit from the overseas market and you'll have a phone you don't have to worry about.

 

[techound1]

Jailbreaking and unlocking are oh, so much simpler than they used to be (iclarified has a nice brain-free tutorial). You could also consider a service like google voice, which would give you one number and send it to multiple phones.

 

[Fabienne]

Aw gee, you mean it was tougher in the past? Yipes! I have been studying this for over a week and am astounded at all the "do this but look out for that and don't forget the other thing OR ELSE YOUR PET IPHONE WILL TURN INTO A BRICK!" Cripes, it's like going to Hogwarts without the owls!

 

[Xenophon]

With the 3.1.3 release and the updated baseband that cannot be downgraded it's become a nightmare to unlock your phone (jailbreaking can be done, unlocking currently not on a 3GS and only on a small part of 3G iPhones that are on 3.1.3). Unless you really, really, REALLY want an iPhone and nothing else will do I'd steer clear and get either a blackberry or the HTC HD2 phone which is also very good.

Frankly I'm a bit disgusted by the restrictions Apple and the carriers impose and I'm lucky in that my carrier actually agreed to unlock my phone though they had no contractual obligation to do so (my problem is that I spend 9 months out of 12 working in one country, the other in a second country and when there, I want to be able to use a local sim). Unless there's an easy fix for all of these issues (or unless they see the light in Cupertino), my next phone won't have the apple logo on it. Making you pay through the nose for the phone is one thing, imposing all kinds of restrictions on top of that another.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

With the 3.1.3 release and the updated baseband that cannot be downgraded it's become a nightmare to unlock your phone (jailbreaking can be done, unlocking currently not on a 3GS and only on a small part of 3G iPhones that are on 3.1.3). Unless you really, really, REALLY want an iPhone and nothing else will do I'd steer clear and get either a blackberry or the HTC HD2 phone which is also very good.

Frankly I'm a bit disgusted by the restrictions Apple and the carriers impose and I'm lucky in that my carrier actually agreed to unlock my phone though they had no contractual obligation to do so (my problem is that I spend 9 months out of 12 working in one country, the other in a second country and when there, I want to be able to use a local sim). Unless there's an easy fix for all of these issues (or unless they see the light in Cupertino), my next phone won't have the apple logo on it. Making you pay through the nose for the phone is one thing, imposing all kinds of restrictions on top of that another.

same problem here...if u dnt mind sharing...whch carrier are you using..I am on Airtel and these guys are refusing to unlock my phone..even after 1 year of usage!! The fight is on...

 

[Xenophon]

Actually I'm also on Airtel and for me they unlocked it after a year though the process wasn't pain-free. I faxed their nodal officer and after a week of having an assistant call them 3 times a day, every day, they ok'd it in principle, I had to go back to the store where the phone was purchased, they checked a couple of things, called the nodal officer and 2 weeks later I was in Europe, using my local sim without problems.

The thing is, one year ago they mentioned the possibility to unlock it on their site, then they changed their minds and apparently nowadays it's not a routine thing for them anymore.

Come to think of it the entire situation is ridiculous: as a customer you stand in line to pay up for a phone that locks you down and leaves you at the mercy of Apple/Airtel. More fool me, won't happen again in the future. Either they sell it unlocked out of the box or I'm not buying anymore.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

Actually I'm ...

sent you a pm..