iphone strategy

BTW Straight Talk has very bad reviews on the web. whats your experience.

+1 for the Tmobile plan.

My friend went to Straight Talk with his iPhones when his plan was up. I am not 100% sure on what the issue is but she is quite upset that she can no longer send picture texts. He who payith the bill can live without pic texts to save the $90 a month.
So id check into if you can send pic texts over ST with your iphone (if thats important to you).

owenscott said:   My friend went to Straight Talk with his iPhones when his plan was up. I am not 100% sure on what the issue is but she is quite upset that she can no longer send picture texts. He who payith the bill can live without pic texts to save the $90 a month.
So id check into if you can send pic texts over ST with your iphone (if thats important to you).

Thanks to Apple, an owner of an iOS device is not able to change certain addressing as required when switching to a prepaid carrier such as Straight Talk. The iOS phones will have to be jailbroken to gain access to the area which you'll need to change the addressing to allow for sending MMS messages. Google it, the instructions are out there.

As far as service goes....Straight Talk is a reseller of At&t, Verizon, and Sprint. We all know certain carriers have better service and coverage in certain areas. If you had traditional At&t mobile service and you switch to a Straight Talk sim, the coverage will be the EXACT same. The only difference is that you cannot access the 4G network from your Straight Talk sim'd phone. Only 3G data speeds. It will not affect voice service as 4G is an redundant overlap to 3G coverage any way.

Buy a good unlocked 3G/4G (At&t/T-Mobile) Android device, get a Straight Talk sim, $45 flat for the works each month. Simple as that.

This one from Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875100045 is good for $659 unlocked. The refurbish ones are $499 but they're locked to ATT.

lordoffire said:   bumping twice in 2 hrs instead of editing doesn't help....

use Tmobile prepaid $30 cards with SIM card, make more calls over wifi

Thank you for letting me know about the tmobile plan.

1) I believe if i have to go with this option, i need an unlocked phone in stead of any GSM iPHONE if i go with Straight Talk
2) $30 plan is interesting as it has 1500 mins. Are the calls between two prepaid tmobile numbers free like in family plan?

I heard before that if you buy an iPhone refurbished and get it jailbroken then you can't get any further os/security updates. Is there a workaround to that?

sideout said:   You can make calls on wifi with the iPhone?
with free/cheap programs you can...

VAIndigo said:   Thank you for letting me know about the tmobile plan.

1) I believe if i have to go with this option, i need an unlocked phone in stead of any GSM iPHONE if i go with Straight Talk
2) $30 plan is interesting as it has 1500 mins. Are the calls between two prepaid tmobile numbers free like in family plan?

I heard before that if you buy an iPhone refurbished and get it jailbroken then you can't get any further os/security updates. Is there a workaround to that?

It may be more expensive, but I think it's worth having more options....and cheaper ones.

I haven't tried Tmobile...I don't believe it's free anymore.

RadioShack is selling iPhone 4s for 149.99.

robby69 said:   sideout said:   You can make calls on wifi with the iPhone?

Skype, Google Talk etc....

But you have to be careful with doing this on Tmobile. I'm on the Tmobile $50/month prepaid unlimited everything plan (with the first 200MB of data at 4G, then capped to 2G beyond that) and I can't even get 3G speed. Apparently, they run their 3G data on a different frequency than the other carriers, so if you have an iPhone, the best data speed you can get is 2G (= ~2x 56kdialup, at best). On the upside, that means that you have "unlimited" data at 2G speed and it doesn't affect you after you pass 200MB. It's fine for checking email, but making voice calls over data (which was my my original plan) can get very distorted and/or drop, depending on your reception. I tried getting the $30/month prepaid plan, but was told I can't because it is for new customers only.

Also, using Google Voice to call does use phone minutes unless you call through a 3rd party app like Talkatone. But, I probably get better call quality on a poor data connection when I use Skype.

VAIndigo said:   lordoffire said:   bumping twice in 2 hrs instead of editing doesn't help....

use Tmobile prepaid $30 cards with SIM card, make more calls over wifi

Thank you for letting me know about the tmobile plan.

1) I believe if i have to go with this option, i need an unlocked phone in stead of any GSM iPHONE if i go with Straight Talk
2) $30 plan is interesting as it has 1500 mins. Are the calls between two prepaid tmobile numbers free like in family plan?

I heard before that if you buy an iPhone refurbished and get it jailbroken then you can't get any further os/security updates. Is there a workaround to that?
1) yes
2) No
3) WiFi calling with Skype uses cell minutes

I bought a refurb 4s from Newegg.com and use Straight Talk/sim kit with my google voice number. It works fine after you manually set the APN for the data connection.
The part I don't like is how they send constant text message reminders to sign up for the auto-renew plan. And when you sign up, they still send too many "free text messages" to me. But its $45 a month for everything, and shows up as "4G Home" as the network.

It works 1000% better than my 4S did on Sprint. My phone runs for almost a week a charge instead of a day and a half like it did on Sprint.

claire_boston said:   I don't like the refurbished items from Apple, am a loyal fan but have had problems with them. It's like admitting there was something wrong with the item in the first place (which there was) and offering it for less because of that. And the iPhones are buggy to begin with, or at least mine is.

The OS makes the phone, all phones are buggy because no software are perfect.

DarthEnol said:   "I heard before that if you buy an iPhone and get it jailbroken AND UNLOCKED then you can't get any further os/security updates. Is there a workaround to that?"

To my knowledge, no.

There is a solution for the wifi calling question: Bobslead, which is offered by TMobile. The catch is (at least for me): one needs to be running iOS 4.2 or higher to use it. The jailbreak/unlock I use on my 3GS only works up to iOS 4.1, so I'm SOL.

If any FW'ers have a solution for a workaround for this, it would be much appreciated.

You can upgrade your 3gs to 5.0 if you want to. There is a workaround to not upgrading your phone baseband in the process to preserve your software unlock.

robby69 said:   cyrusallan said:   Virgin Mobile will have iphone4 and 4s on June 29!
Virgin Mobile is only $30/month!

And $649 to buy the phone. (Virgin Mobile is CDMA)
And cr*ppy Virgin Mobile service, and poor coverage, and don't even get me started on their data speeds.
Even though Virgin Mobile runs thru Sprint, the service is not the same. Before I got an iPhone on Virgin Mobile,
I would ask if it will run on the normal Sprint Network, because you will want to switch.

2-year price comparisons, $300 over 2 years less expensive than AT&T. I am not an AT&T fanboy either, but you will get 4G
and alot more options.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/257210/virgin_mobile_iphone_4s_vs...

I had a Sprint iPhone 4S for a whole three weeks. Slow speed, drop calls, no network at work led me to return and switched to ATT. YMMV.

wildgun said:   robby69 said:   cyrusallan said:   Virgin Mobile will have iphone4 and 4s on June 29!
Virgin Mobile is only $30/month!

And $649 to buy the phone. (Virgin Mobile is CDMA)
And cr*ppy Virgin Mobile service, and poor coverage, and don't even get me started on their data speeds.
Even though Virgin Mobile runs thru Sprint, the service is not the same. Before I got an iPhone on Virgin Mobile,
I would ask if it will run on the normal Sprint Network, because you will want to switch.

2-year price comparisons, $300 over 2 years less expensive than AT&T. I am not an AT&T fanboy either, but you will get 4G
and alot more options.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/257210/virgin_mobile_iphone_4s_vs...

I had a Sprint iPhone 4S for a whole three weeks. Slow speed, drop calls, no network at work led me to return and switched to ATT. YMMV.

I depends on your location. Midtown and Flushing Queens, I get the opposite results with AT&T and Virgin Mobile. Point is make you test out your phone services and return once you relize it sucks.

Just get an unlocked Nexus phone direct from Google. It's a better phone anyway. Play Store

dishdude said:   Just get an unlocked Nexus phone direct from Google. It's a better phone anyway. Play Store

Is nexus comparable to iPhone 4s???