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If you get 500 minutes for $40 and an American gets 300 minutes for $50 but he uses 290 minutes and you use 90 minutes. Who is paying more per minute of use?

I guess it depends how many minutes the European spends receiving calls since they are not charged for. Pointless discussion anyway. There is no absolute better or worse plan unless you are matching against an individuals usage pattern.
 
UK O2 Unlocks

My iPhone was unlocked for free by O2 just a few months after I got it. I'm on a 24 months. O2 don't care if I use a different SIM in my subsidised iPhone because I still have to pay them every month under my 24 month contract - that's why it's called a contract. In Europe being able to use different SIMs is virtually essential for business people as we need to use a different SIM in each country or face ridiculous roaming fees, especially for data. I can't see why AT&T won't unlock iPhones - their customers on subsidized contracts would still have to pay them every month, or face a court case for breach of contract.
 
international Iphone

I purchased my Iphone 4 from Apple Singapore and currently using it with T-Mobile here in the US. I pay $30.00 a month on their pay as you go plan, although Edge is slower than 3G its enough for email and light web surfing. Updates are not problem either. Before I left Asia I used it with carriers in SG and VN with no problems.
 
I can't see why AT&T won't unlock iPhones - their customers on subsidized contracts would still have to pay them every month, or face a court case for breach of contract.

The basic fee for the contract more or less breaks even for the network (there's a slim profit in there, but sales comission and revenue sharing with Apple takes most of that). They need to make money off additional services, and one of the most lucrative revenue sources is roaming fees. Some countries you roam in at £1 a minute the network is getting the connection for 6 or 7 pence per minute.

That's why they won't unlock - it forces you to roam with them (unless you buy an alternate handset of course, but a % of people won't).
 
Screw you Apple. This kind of services proves that there is a demand for unlocked iPhones. Apple, YOU could be the one selling these by the boatload in the US, but no, you keep letting AT&T walk all over you. I guess de la Vega holding Steve Jobs' pancreas hostage is probably more real than I thought.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone Dark: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8F190)

Anybody know if SoftBank unlocks their iPhones?
 
Presumably you're the kind of person who believes the DOJ ruled that downloading pirate software from the Cydia store is legal too.

I'm sorry, what? The Cydia store does not peddle pirate software.

I think what you meant was downloading pirated software from private repositories.

I'm not nitpicking - there is a huge difference.
 
I'm sorry, what? The Cydia store does not peddle pirate software.

I think what you meant was downloading pirated software from private repositories.

I'm not nitpicking - there is a huge difference.

You are nitpicking - it's completely irrelevant to the point I was making - wherever they get it from, they're still downloading pirated software and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the many justifications these people try to give is the DOJ ruling. Most of the other justifications are just as ridiculous after all, and most people's understanding of the DOJ ruling is very poor and misguided.

I'm not a jailbreaking expert. I jailbroke my iPhone for a week about a year ago. I checked out the Cydia store, played around a bit, couldn't be bothered with the hassle of the whole thing and restored it back again.

What I am, however, is a copyright holder of software that has been cracked and is being downloaded for free by some of these people through whatever means they use to obtain it. It is irrelevant to me exactly which repository it comes from, I'm more concerned with the fact that it exists at all.

EDIT: So Cydia hosts the Hackulous package - http://hackulo.us/forums/index.php?/topic/112062-how-to-install-installous/ which they know distributes pirated software (http://smellslikedonkey.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cydia.jpg). Meaning that Cydia is indirectly peddling pirated software which is just as bad. To say otherwise is like saying The Pirate Bay isn't involved in illegal file sharing.
 
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You are nitpicking - it's completely irrelevant to the point I was making - wherever they get it from, they're still downloading pirated software and it wouldn't surprise me if one of the many justifications these people try to give is the DOJ ruling. Most of the other justifications are just as ridiculous after all, and most people's understanding of the DOJ ruling is very poor and misguided.
....
Meaning that Cydia is indirectly peddling pirated software which is just as bad. To say otherwise is like saying The Pirate Bay isn't involved in illegal file sharing.

You are confusing a lot of issues here.

First, for those who travel and want to use a local SIM, jailbraking is a necessity. Similarly for those who wish to tether in a pinch (at an airport, or whatever).

Second, Cydia provides a ton of very useful PAID and free apps, which Apple would not allow in the App Store (including Google Voice, after Apple banned it).

Piracy is not a good thing, but the reality is that with the prices at the App Store, most of those who pirate are either hoarders who would not purchase the product anyway, or testers, who do end up purchasing later.
 
You are confusing a lot of issues here.

First, for those who travel and want to use a local SIM, jailbraking is a necessity. Similarly for those who wish to tether in a pinch (at an airport, or whatever).

Second, Cydia provides a ton of very useful PAID and free apps, which Apple would not allow in the App Store (including Google Voice, after Apple banned it).

Piracy is not a good thing, but the reality is that with the prices at the App Store, most of those who pirate are either hoarders who would not purchase the product anyway, or testers, who do end up purchasing later.

I never said all jailbreakers download pirated apps or that all jailbreak software is pirated. I fully understand the difference. I was referring to those individuals in the jailbreak community who see the DOJ ruling as a carte blanche to do whatever they like and claim it's still lawful.

And please, don't roll out the same excuses for software pirates. As someone who can actually see the effect of piracy on sales, I can tell you this 'tester' idea is a myth. I have a 5 star app in the app store (i.e it's not worthless) and in the past 2 weeks, I've had 2000 downloads of the pirated version and only 1 of these then went on to pay for it. In no way do the almost insignificant fraction of paying pirates make up for the time and money lost on support and backend server costs of the stealing majority.
 
EDIT: So Cydia hosts the Hackulous package - http://hackulo.us/forums/index.php?/topic/112062-how-to-install-installous/ which they know distributes pirated software (http://smellslikedonkey.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/cydia.jpg). Meaning that Cydia is indirectly peddling pirated software which is just as bad. To say otherwise is like saying The Pirate Bay isn't involved in illegal file sharing.

You don't know what you're talking about. Cydia does not "host the Hackulous package." You're not a jailbreak expert - and I wouldn't call myself either - but I understand what Cydia is, how it uses apt and how it is not needed to locate or load pirated software onto a jailbroken iphone. I could agree with you if you just said it facilitates it - it certainly does simplify it - but saying they host it is complete BS.

While it may have been completely irrelevant to the point you were trying to make, that didn't stop you from making and continuing to make false assertions. If I'm nitpicking, you should probably nitpick a bit more.

/thread-jack.
 
You don't know what you're talking about. Cydia does not "host the Hackulous package." You're not a jailbreak expert - and I wouldn't call myself either - but I understand what Cydia is, how it uses apt and how it is not needed to locate or load pirated software onto a jailbroken iphone. I could agree with you if you just said it facilitates it - it certainly does simplify it - but saying they host it is complete BS.

While it may have been completely irrelevant to the point you were trying to make, that didn't stop you from making and continuing to make false assertions. If I'm nitpicking, you should probably nitpick a bit more.

/thread-jack.

You get to Hackulous through Cydia - end of story.
 
Anybody know if SoftBank unlocks their iPhones?

No, they won't. After a 45-minute discussion with both a phone agent and her manager (politely on both sides, and in a mix of English and Japanese), all I got was "I will take your suggestion (to support unlocking) to our next management meeting." Absolutely immovable.

Now looking to find out if it's even possible to unlock a 3G (not 3GS) with 4.2.1. It appears it may not be possible, and I don't have the original blob (whatever it's called, "SHSH"?) required to downgrade to an unlockable version. No sure whether I can jailbreak, either.

Our contract has expired, and we're on a 3-month continuation till May 10, before which I must cancel or commit to 2 more years. Since we're leaving Japan on June 8, 2 years is not an option (ETF is horrendous, of course). 2 phones, for double the expense :(

So it may become an iPod, with a companion pay-as-you-go phone for a month, then buy iPhone 4s in the USA. BTW, a little birdie at the Apple Ginza store told me "if you get it unlocked, buy a SIM from NTT".
 
You get to Hackulous through Cydia - end of story.

Cydia by default does NOT come with Hackulous as an installed repository. The end user has to make a conscious decision to add Hackulous to the list of repositories. Saurik (creator of Cydia) has been very outspoken against the usage of pirated software. Whenever you add a repo that has a history of hosting pirated software there is a warning that pops up and says "This repo has a history of hosting pirated software. Are you sure you wish to add?" (Not a verbatim quote, trying to do it from memory).

I personally do not pirate software, but have used those repos to "demo" the full version of an app before deciding to buy it or delete it. Just bought TuneIn Pro this morning actually, after trying it out for a week to see how I liked it. I also tested out both Navigon and Tom Tom for a month to see which one I preferred (ended up buying Navigon). At the time they were both around $100, and I'll be damned if I was going to pay $200 for a few apps that I may not even like.
/endofftopicrant
 
Strange to hear

I unlocked my iPhone 4 (AT&T) on a visit to Sweden the week before last at www.frimobil.se and its still unlocked and working fine. My wife unlocked her's Saturday 4-23-11 which was a few days after cutyoursim stopped offering the service. Her phone was also locked to AT&T so I'm not sure how they did it. :confused: Probably means that the source was in Sweden and not the UK? Glad I jumped on it while I could since it seems only network unlocks for O2, telia, 3, etc are the only ones that you can do via IMEI submission.

Anyway AT&T can suck #"%&! :mad:
 
My contract is up, I SHOULD have the option to unlock my phone

Instead of Congress holding hearings about the iPhone storing locations, they should force legislation on AT&T to unlock customers iPhones once their contract is completed. It's done in other countries, we too should have this.
 
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