Canada iPhone 3Gs questions

[Virgil-TB2]

The standard apologies if this is a repeat but i've searched for a while and can't see anything but the useless "Canada 3GS thread" which basically is a lot of folks asking "are you gonna buy it?" and "I dunno, are you?" This is intended to be a more helpful thread.

I have some questions, similar to other people and they haven't been answered yet. If anyone knows the answer or has any other good questions, please add them to the thread. If all you want to do is show off or make some personal comment about your "feelings," or have lots of interesting theories you want us to hear about, please use the other thread.

Also, if all you want to do is go on about the price of the thing, then please also use another thread. I already know I want one, I am just looking to gather information so I can go about it in the smartest way possible. If I have to pay full price I really don't care, it's only relevant if there is a cheeky method for *not* paying full price. Just whining about the price is a waste of time.

PS - I'm gonna say "fido" a lot, just substitute their other name "rogers" if that's your carrier.

So my questions are:

1) buy it at a fido store, or can we buy it at Apple store? (to be preferred)

2) buy it at Wireless Wave or some other third party? (always to be recommended over going to fido store if the Apple store is out of the picture).

3) can we buy it online?

4) can we pre-order it online?

5) can I give my old iPhone to my partner or is it locked to me forever?

6) Anyone hear even a glimmer of a whimper of a rumour about "family plans?" (can I get a deal for owning more than one iPhone per family?)

7) (the most important question of all!) If I buy an iPhone 3Gs from some other source (new not hacked or cracked or sprung from jail), can I simply take the sim card out of my current 3G and put it in the 3Gs and can fido tell that I did that?

I say 7 is the most important, because if fido is going to make us pay close to full price for the upgrade (extremely likely at this point), then it would make more sense to buy one from the Apple store at full price and just swap the sims. This is really the fairest and most straightforward way to upgrade IMO but I am pretty sure that the evil combination of Apple and fido will conspire to disallow this.

I'm reasonably sure that the answer is "no" on all of these, but a few of them fido and Apple have been silent on, so I'm asking.

Anyone have any real info on any of this?

 

[RumMunkey]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17)

The standard apologies if this is a repeat but i've searched for a while and can't see anything but the useless "Canada 3GS thread" which basically is a lot of folks asking "are you gonna buy it?" and "I dunno, are you?" This is intended to be a more helpful thread.

I have some questions, similar to other people and they haven't been answered yet. If anyone knows the answer or has any other good questions, please add them to the thread. If all you want to do is show off or make some personal comment about your "feelings," or have lots of interesting theories you want us to hear about, please use the other thread.

Also, if all you want to do is go on about the price of the thing, then please also use another thread. I already know I want one, I am just looking to gather information so I can go about it in the smartest way possible. If I have to pay full price I really don't care, it's only relevant if there is a cheeky method for *not* paying full price. Just whining about the price is a waste of time.

PS - I'm gonna say "fido" a lot, just substitute their other name "rogers" if that's your carrier.

So my questions are:

1) buy it at a fido store, or can we buy it at Apple store? (to be preferred)

2) buy it at Wireless Wave or some other third party? (always to be recommended over going to fido store if the Apple store is out of the picture).

3) can we buy it online?

4) can we pre-order it online?

5) can I give my old iPhone to my partner or is it locked to me forever?

6) Anyone hear even a glimmer of a whimper of a rumour about "family plans?" (can I get a deal for owning more than one iPhone per family?)

7) (the most important question of all!) If I buy an iPhone 3Gs from some other source (new not hacked or cracked or sprung from jail), can I simply take the sim card out of my current 3G and put it in the 3Gs and can fido tell that I did that?

I say 7 is the most important, because if fido is going to make us pay close to full price for the upgrade (extremely likely at this point), then it would make more sense to buy one from the Apple store at full price and just swap the sims. This is really the fairest and most straightforward way to upgrade IMO but I am pretty sure that the evil combination of Apple and fido will conspire to disallow this.

I'm reasonably sure that the answer is "no" on all of these, but a few of them fido and Apple have been silent on, so I'm asking.

Anyone have any real info on any of this?

1) There's a SLIM, chance the Apple stores will be able to sell them this year, but I wouldn't bet on it.


2) No idea...

3) NOt that I've been able to find. You can order some handsets through Rogers.com, but I don't know if the 3Gs will be included in that.

4) Doubtful. It releases in a week and I've seen nothing of the sort anywhere. Hell, Rogers.com had the old 3G up last time I checked (a few hours ago). Not even a single WORD of a new iPhone. Fido.com I heard has a little more information.

5) Damn well hope so.. I plan to!

6) Rogers has Family plans, and you can be on them with any handset (afaik -I don't work there or anything). We'll probably start on one when my wife gets my 3G, since we primarily call each other anyway.

7) Don't think any of us will know until somebody gets their hands on the 3Gs and tells us.

 

[Virgil-TB2]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Safari/530.17)



1) There's a SLIM, chance the Apple stores will be able to sell them this year, but I wouldn't bet on it.


2) No idea...

3) NOt that I've been able to find. You can order some handsets through Rogers.com, but I don't know if the 3Gs will be included in that.

4) Doubtful. It releases in a week and I've seen nothing of the sort anywhere. Hell, Rogers.com had the old 3G up last time I checked (a few hours ago). Not even a single WORD of a new iPhone. Fido.com I heard has a little more information.

5) Damn well hope so.. I plan to!

6) Rogers has Family plans, and you can be on them with any handset (afaik -I don't work there or anything). We'll probably start on one when my wife gets my 3G, since we primarily call each other anyway.

7) Don't think any of us will know until somebody gets their hands on the 3Gs and tells us.

Thanks for the answers.

I guess I should have been more specific with number 6 (family plans). fido has a "family plan" but when you look at the specifics it's basically zero savings over two separate plans. It only allows you to get a cheap handset if you pick one of a small number of cheaper flip-phones, and only for the *third* person on the plan, the first two pay full price for everything.

I see this as a way of getting a cheap flip-phone added to your "family account" so you can give your kids phones and keep them on the same bill which is typical. The parent wants to be in control of the bill in those cases and it makes sense if you have kids I guess.

What I was after is why there isn't a "family plan" for two iPhones that allows you to get a slightly cheaper deal or to share the data package. I get 6GB right now of which I use something like 1/1000th of. Instead of paying a second plan (minimum $70 or so per month) for my partners phone, I am thinking that I should be offered a deal wherein we could share the data or something.

This would be the fair, normal, logical way to go but then on the other hand we are dealing with cell phone companies here.

 

[cere]

So my questions are:
1) buy it at a fido store, or can we buy it at Apple store? (to be preferred)
2) buy it at Wireless Wave or some other third party? (always to be recommended over going to fido store if the Apple store is out of the picture).
3) can we buy it online?
4) can we pre-order it online?
5) can I give my old iPhone to my partner or is it locked to me forever?
6) Anyone hear even a glimmer of a whimper of a rumour about "family plans?" (can I get a deal for owning more than one iPhone per family?)
7) (the most important question of all!) If I buy an iPhone 3Gs from some other source (new not hacked or cracked or sprung from jail), can I simply take the sim card out of my current 3G and put it in the 3Gs and can fido tell that I did that?

1) probably not. Couldn't buy the 3G at Apple stores here. Apple.ca only mentions the 3G on their link for Where to Buy: Rogers and Fido
2) Probably. You could buy the 3G at these locations
3)Again, probably, as you were able to buy the 3G online.
4) Doubtful.
5) Of course. It is not locked to you, it is locked to the carrier. If you buy the 3Gs, put your current SIM in the 3Gs and give your partner the SIM that came in the 3Gs.
6) Rogers actively does everything they can to get additional money from iPhone customers, including automatically removing credits from your account if you buy an iPhone. No reason to expect they would offer to save you money now. Fido was even more aggressive with the credit removal.
7)Should be fine. Even if Fido could tell, why would they care? Only reason it might matter is if you have a SIM that predates your 3G. Some of those had problems with the 3G network for some reason.