iPhone Credit Check

Mr Gimp · 5 Nov 2007 at 17:40

I've been working in the mobile industry for 3 years now and absolutely detest everything about the way the iPhone has been marketed and is going to be sold. Anyone who buys the phone and then pays £35 a month as well is an idiot. I was going for a Sony Ericsson W960i but it seems that 02 are now delaying its release as to avoid competition with the iPhone :rolleyes:

Things I dislike:

Touch sensitive operation without a stylus. I have played with numerous touch interfaces over the years (LG Prada being the most recent) and still have trouble typing without a keyboard. Unless you have childlike fingers or the dexterity of a brain surgeon then a keypad is a far better alternative for people who don't want the faff of relearning how to type. To Apple's credit, once you do get used to mangling the screen with your ape like sausage digits the software is pretty good at transforming the mess of text into cohesive sentances.

No multimedia messaging. Great.

No sending messages to multiple recipients. Again, great.

Mr Gimp · 5 Nov 2007 at 17:46

Arse double post

Mr Gimp · 5 Nov 2007 at 17:47

Double arse, triple post.

ProOrWhat · 5 Nov 2007 at 19:16

Just wait for the release of pre-unlocked iphones by the French

Plus you're not going to be able to unlock the iphones released on the 9th in the UK as they come with preinstalled 1.1.2 firmware, which breaks all jainbreaks out at the moment.

tom_e · 5 Nov 2007 at 19:30

ProOrWhat said:
Just wait for the release of pre-unlocked iphones by the French

Plus you're not going to be able to unlock the iphones released on the 9th in the UK as they come with preinstalled 1.1.2 firmware, which breaks all jainbreaks out at the moment.

and if Apple thinks this will stop people for any longer than a week or two then they are very foolish

ProOrWhat · 5 Nov 2007 at 19:34

blitz2163 said:
and if Apple thinks this will stop people for any longer than a week or two then they are very foolish

It just means Apple will go even further to ensure their product by possibly implementing an automatic firmware updater; hence those with unlocked iphones won't be able to use iTunes.

tsinc80697 · 5 Nov 2007 at 19:36

Bought one.
Unlocked one.
Selling one.
To me , after using an iPhone, just a fashion accessory.
Looks nice, GUI is nice, but functionality is where it ends.
It just lacks simple things that my Blackberry 8100 does without second thought. I might buy v2 of the iPhone but I just cant be bothered having to pay £300 and unlocked it myself, to wait around for people to develop applications just so I can text multiple people, or copy and paste parts of a text/email(something I found out today which is very annoying).

Christo · 5 Nov 2007 at 23:05

Wicksta said:
At £270 I believe that it IS subsidised, what other 'top' phone could you get from that price without a contract? And Apple stuff is always a more expensive than competitors.

Wait and see how much a real unsubsidised iPhone costs in France.

£270 is unsubsidised - its without a contract - you have to sign up or a contract with that - ie you have to pay 3270 AND THEN an 18 month or is it 2 years contract! Thats the most expensive mobile phone ever! (ok non vertu).

Dolph · 5 Nov 2007 at 23:06

Apple have already bricked phones unlocked in the US with the last software update...

tsinc80697 · 6 Nov 2007 at 00:12

You can use any mp3 as a ringtone, but you have to use 3rd party software.
It does come with mains charger that connects to the dock, you can charge via usb or wall socket
You cant send text to multiple people
No MMS
Can't copy or paste anything, website text, text message or email

ProOrWhat · 6 Nov 2007 at 00:22

tsinc80697 said:
You can use any mp3 as a ringtone, but you have to use 3rd party software.
It does come with mains charger that connects to the dock, you can charge via usb or wall socket
You cant send text to multiple people
No MMS
Can't copy or paste anything, website text, text message or email

keyword: yet!

Wicksta · 6 Nov 2007 at 09:35

aumz said:
the more i hear about the apple phone the more i think it is purely a fashion phone and something that ppl will get bored of and once the gimmick wears off they will be sat there thinking why did i not buy a k850i or an n95/81 etc etc

is it true you can not set mp3 as ringtones without paying for them via i tunes
is it true it does not come with a mains charger only charger via usb
can not send text to multiple recipients
no MMS
unable to copy and paste

please could someone confirm this and also anyother things that it can not do

It comes with a mains charger. Obviously if MMS and sending SMS to multiple people are a major requirement for you then an iphone is not the phone for you. However the web browsing on it is amazing, it truely makes surfing on the phone a joy. Email is also excellent. It is far more than a fashion phone, I thought it was going to be plus I'm traditionally an Apple hater. Using the iPhone changed my mind.

JBod · 6 Nov 2007 at 22:45

The iPhone is such a hunk of junk. I just cant figure out why people are falling over themselves to buy one? Is it just the "Apple Circle Jerk" followers?

Tute · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:42

I don't understand how the contract with the iPhone works now.

So you go into the shop, pay £270, and get the iPhone, take it home and do all the signing up mumbo-jumbo there?

And it comes locked to O2 out of the box right? So what's stopping you putting an O2 PAYG SIM in there and just using it as normal? Can Apple check and stop you?

And what happens if you don't sign up to the contract? Do they send the heavies around?

_PD_ · 7 Nov 2007 at 00:45

So glad I went for the new n95 instead.

Seems the iPhone needs a rethink.

mrochester · 7 Nov 2007 at 08:45

Tute said:
I don't understand how the contract with the iPhone works now.

So you go into the shop, pay £270, and get the iPhone, take it home and do all the signing up mumbo-jumbo there?

And it comes locked to O2 out of the box right? So what's stopping you putting an O2 PAYG SIM in there and just using it as normal? Can Apple check and stop you?

And what happens if you don't sign up to the contract? Do they send the heavies around?

I think, like in the US, the iPhone is locked to accept only iPhone sim cards. So your O2 PAYG sim card probably won't work in it unless you unlock the phone.

Wicksta · 7 Nov 2007 at 21:31

aumz said:
the touch interface is very good but the gimmick wore off in one night

Strangely enough it went the other way for me. I've been using an iPhone alongside my N95 for a couple of weeks now. At first I saw the interface and though it was a gimmick, but it saves so much time browsing the web that using the N95 feels so bad now and I just wouldn't bother.

Shame about the camera though.

Saltank · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:12

I can't stand Symbian OS devices, they're slow and cramped and so on. Windows mobile has gotten boring. Thus I am heavily researching buying an unlocked iphone or unlocking one myself for ... myself and a friend who happens to live abroad.

one of the biggest decisions was data packages. Right now I am with Orange but my contract just expired and they actually offered me the TyTNII for £30 for free (12 months) but i refused because their data package is totally apalling (£7,50 for 30MB).

So now I am researching which provider to switch to and Vodafone looks like the only one. Maybe o2, since their bolt on DATA has 200MB right now, with the possibility of being unlimited!

£5.00 = 1000m = "3"

£7.50 = 1000m = T-Mobile

£7.50 = 200m = O2

£7.50 = 120m = Voda

£7.50 = 30m = Orange

Thanks to everyone who was asking about "can i just buy it without activating" - i was really curious too. Saves me some money because I was about to buy an unlocked 1.1.1 on eBay for £330! ... maybe it's worth the lack of hassle, though.

Also, anyone know if Vodafone has an EDGE network?

Wicksta · 7 Nov 2007 at 22:42

As far as I know only Orange and O2 offer EDGE in the UK.

PinkPig · 7 Nov 2007 at 23:17

Tute said:
So you go into the shop, pay £270, and get the iPhone, take it home and do all the signing up mumbo-jumbo there?

And it comes locked to O2 out of the box right? So what's stopping you putting an O2 PAYG SIM in there and just using it as normal? Can Apple check and stop you?

And what happens if you don't sign up to the contract? Do they send the heavies around?

The unlocking procedure isn't like that on any other phone. You buy the phone for £270 - you take it home and if you want you could just leave it and no one would ever do anything about it, you'd have no contract and nothing more to pay.

The phone, however, comes in a crippled state. You can't use it either as a music player or a phone, and it won't do anything useful with any SIM card in it. The only official way to get it to work is to connect it to your computer with iTunes, sign up to an official O2 iPhone contract online. iTunes then magically unlocks the phone and it works properly.

The unofficial unlock hack basically tries to do the same "magic unlock" as iTunes does but without signing up for a contract, and additionally letting you use other SIM cards in the phone.

So if you tried to use any SIM card in the phone without unlocking it - even an O2 one - it won't do anything useful.