Free Unlimited SMS Messages

[SpinThis!]

Yep - its a law. The phone companies MUST allow you to take your phone number with you, and they can't charge prohibitive fees or take prohibitively long to do the transfer.

Actually the law was intended to allow competition among carriers, not to allow consumers to keep their own number for life—for example, if you move from one geographic location to another. When the iPhone came out, a lot of people experienced problems porting their old number over to AT&T because they had moved. I'm not saying that's fair, it's just reality.

it takes about 3 days to move a phone number from one mobile carrier to another. And mobile-carrier to landline-carrier (and back again) should be quite possible.

When I got my iPhone about a year ago, it took maybe 6 hours for the number to completely port over. Easy. I'm not sure if that's standard or not but your mileage may vary.

eventually the "area code" will also be part of your phone number and can be moved with your number. So, eventually, the area code will NOT indicate where you live, only where you originally were allocated your phone number

Yeh, I forsee in the future new "area codes" being tied to a carrier instead of a certain locale. The whole idea of area codes in general is outdated and will need to be changed to support future growth. I believe the telecom companies see this as a way to charge additional fees (eg if you don't have nationwide long distance and you want to call home).

 

[Jstick]

yes, that's one way. The reason why there's teleflip is just in case you don't know the carrier that whoever you're sending the text to uses.

oh i see....this is pretty stupid then

 

[Shasterball]

Nice tip. But I don't usually go over my text message limit...

 

[VDA]

Sigh. Here we go again. The iPhone 3G hasn't even been released yet and already a hacking tool is published in order to "circumvent the system." Unbelievable.

Ok, so it's not really a hacking tool in the truest sense, but still you get my point. Just be an honest consumer and pay for any and all services rendered, for Christ's sake!!

I think we can all agree that with the wide-open access to the iPhone's software that the SDK has provided (worldwide, mind you) there will be more than a few security concerns shortly after it launches. Apple hasn't been a target because its products haven't saturated the market the way other platforms have, but with the iPhone 3G now being made more mass market-friendly with the "cheap" price, vast availability, and programming code access it's just a matter of time before every hacker, crook and lowlife on the planet exploits it --- especially when you consider how much of the Internet you're able to access with this device.

I hardly think this forum needs to offer additional "tips and tricks" to assist them...in my most humble opinion.

I can just picture it now --- having to install "Norton Internet Security 2009 for Iphone" on my frickin phone!!! That's another $79 charge on top of the near $100 I'll be paying for monthly service!!!

 

[Dakotafan]

Sigh. Here we go again. The iPhone 3G hasn't even been released yet and already a hacking tool is published in order to "circumvent the system." Unbelievable.

Ok, so it's not really a hacking tool in the truest sense, but still you get my point. Just be an honest consumer and pay for any and all services rendered, for Christ's sake!!

I think we can all agree that with the wide-open access to the iPhone's software that the SDK has provided (worldwide, mind you) there will be more than a few security concerns shortly after it launches. Apple hasn't been a target because its products haven't saturated the market the way other platforms have, but with the iPhone 3G now being made more mass market-friendly with the "cheap" price, vast availability, and programming code access it's just a matter of time before every hacker, crook and lowlife on the planet exploits it --- especially when you consider how much of the Internet you're able to access with this device.

I hardly think this forum needs to offer additional "tips and tricks" to assist them...in my most humble opinion.

I can just picture it now --- having to install "Norton Internet Security 2009 for Iphone" on my frickin phone!!! That's another $79 charge on top of the near $100 I'll be paying for monthly service!!!

god forbid people would want to save a few bucks!

 

[GenericUsername]

Sigh. Here we go again. The iPhone 3G hasn't even been released yet and already a hacking tool is published in order to "circumvent the system." Unbelievable.

Ok, so it's not really a hacking tool in the truest sense, but still you get my point. Just be an honest consumer and pay for any and all services rendered, for Christ's sake!!

What's dishonest about sending an e-mail rather than an SMS message? AT&T is willingly going to provide unlimited data service.

I think we can all agree that with the wide-open access to the iPhone's software that the SDK has provided (worldwide, mind you) there will be more than a few security concerns shortly after it launches...

If an iPhone user doesn't get apps from anywhere other than the App Store, he or she should be safe. For one, Apple is supposed to vet all apps submitted for distribution through the App Store. For another, I doubt any malware writers will want to provide identifying information about themselves, which they'd have to do, via registration, to get apps distributed through the App Store.

 

[djdole]

Just be an honest consumer and pay for any and all services rendered, for Christ's sake!!

There is nothing shady, dishonest or 'hacking' about this AT ALL.

Each cell phone already has an email address. Everyone with a cell phone is paying for that service.
That's all this is is making use of a service, paid for (the recipient phone's email address).

All teleflip does is slightly simplify the process by taking care of the translation from their email address recipientnumber@teleflip.com to the carrier's email address for the recipient. (ie recipientnumber@vtext.com etc)

 

[whyamihere]

honesty is a 2 way street

Sigh. Here we go again. The iPhone 3G hasn't even been released yet and already a hacking tool is published in order to "circumvent the system." Unbelievable.

Ok, so it's not really a hacking tool in the truest sense, but still you get my point. Just be an honest consumer and pay for any and all services rendered, for Christ's sake!!

so we used to get 200 messages included with $20 data plan... now we will get 0 messages but pay $30 for the data plan. i'll be an "honest consumer" when companies stop nickel and dime-ing and become "honest" themselves.

 

[BVGuitarPlayer]

T-Zone's internet costs me $4.99 a month (I know, it's $5.99 if you sign up now).

5*12= $60/year
20*12= $240/year

I save $180/year. If I invest $180 in mutual funds every year, and I do way more than that. By the time I retire (I'm 21 now), that will likely earn me between $2000-5000 or more.

T-Mobile makes sense.

 

[autrefois]

Sorry if I wasn't clear: you CAN use the service just (about) like it says in the MR article. You don't HAVE TO sign up for their service. But in that case, there's still the issue of replies -- they just see your email address. I'm a little paranoid, and after testing it with my real email address that contains my full name sent to my iPhone (it worked) I was worried that I had just given some unknown site my name, email address and cell phone number. So I went to their website, and looked at the instructions for signing up for their service, and to SIGN UP for all their services, they require your email password. Since I'm paranoid anyway, just made me more paranoid. (and then the post about their security policy decided it for me -- but that's me. Some people use online keychain services with ALL their passwords including banking) Like I said, it seems for people without email on their phone (but unlimited texting) to get emails as texts.

Yes, it's just as easy iPhone to iPhone to send email, I don't know how the notification will change, though -- text notification is easier to hear and see at the moment, and you can see who sent it without going into the app. People here have posted how to do texts back and forth via email and texting without going through any outside service -- I've never done it.

Thanks for the explanation. I still don't understand why, even if it's just for if you sign up for their service, you would need to provide your email password. I guess it's how their system works, but I wouldn't be comfortable with this. Even if I can use their service without signing up, I'm worried about using a service where they would come out and ask you to supply your email password. But I can understand if someone doesn't have another easy way to get emails on their phone, why they would be tempted to do this.

About sending emails as SMS and receiving them back as emails, I think this would do it:

http://www.txtdrop.com/

It doesn't require you to give your email password, so it might be worth trying it. There's still the same problem of giving out one's email address and cell number, but the only way to avoid this would probably be paying for the SMS.

btw, AT&T is making a ton of money even as they lose landline customers, largely thanks to wireless customers. So why raise data prices AND take away the 200 SMS? The former is defensible, given the new 3G network, but the latter really isn't.

 

[GenericUsername]

Thanks for the explanation. I still don't understand why, even if it's just for if you sign up for their service, you would need to provide your email password.

How can they transmit to your phone, via SMS, e-mail messages that you have received if they can't get into your e-mail account? That's why they need the password of your e-mail account.

(Of course, if your e-mail provider forwards messages to another e-mail address if you so desire, you could forward messages to a Teleflip e-mail address, but Teleflip apparently doesn't offer this. EDIT: If you are able to forward e-mails to a different address, you could just have them forwarded to your cell phone number's e-mail address, without using Teleflip.)

 

[Dakotafan]

not sure if I should go with this or not.