Posted on 06/25/2009 10:59:56 PM PDT by Swordmaker
I researched both my phone and netbook before I bought them. An iPhone is nowhere near an HTC Fuze/Touch Pro in performance or functionallity. And given that I can completely reprogram the ROM on the phone to a custom one that has only what I want on it and no/zip/zero ATT programs or other garbage is why I chose it.
You said — Question is.......how much will they jack the price up to tether every month....another 50 bucks?
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My guess (just on my own, no sources... ) is another $20 and put a cap on the bandwidth you can use per month.
Right now, as far as I know, there is no cap on bandwidth for the iPhone. But, I can imagine that there will be a bandwidth cap on tethering. It just makes sense...
And since the original comment was about “tracking” — you can make it so that they don’t see what browser you’re using? LOL...
Oh... and by the way..., when were you expecting that “green pie” to increase? :-)
T-Mobile is cheaper for considerably more minutes. My dad works overseas so it makes sense to be on the cheapest network to call him as well.
I think with the Android phones hitting the market now, not having the iPhone on the network isn’t as much of a drawback. I’m summoning all of my will power to wait on the Samsung Galaxy instead of jumping on the MyTouch 3G now.
You said — T-Mobile is cheaper for considerably more minutes. My dad works overseas so it makes sense to be on the cheapest network to call him as well.
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Now, I’m just wondering here, but I’m thinking about cel phone versus data plan. When you say that it’s cheaper for more minutes, are you talking about just the cel phone part of the iPhone, or the entire combination of the iPhone plan, which is the cel phone minutes and the data plan?
I also assume, you’ve got roll-over minutes, too — on your plan. That’s a very handy thing to have and makes things cheaper, too (for iPhone).
I agree that it is unclear what conclusion one can derive from these data.
It’s certainly not the case the the iPhone has a 69% market share. I would say that the most accurate conclusion is that iPhone users tend to use their phones to do web browsing more often than owners of other phones.
It’s also not entirely clear these days which phones are “smartphones” and which aren’t. I have a Palm Centro, which is considered a smartphone, but a friend has a LG Dare, which doesn’t seem to be considered a smartphone, even though it has pretty much all the same default functions (admittedly, it doesn’t have a massive library of installable programs like the Palm).
My dad, sister and I have unlimited minutes (on one plan which AT&T wouldn’t let us do because my dad has a different area code), unlimited Blackberry data plans and the monthly service charge to call foreign countries. All in all it has been about the same base price as AT&T except my sister and I were sharing about 500 minutes and my dad had about 500. But then each minute calling him overseas is cheaper than it was on AT&T which makes the plan cheaper overall.
When you say that they have “unlimited minutes” — I’m assuming that you mean it’s unlimited *within* the same network. I say that, because AT&T has the unlimited “plan” (if you will) for everyone on the AT&T network. You can talk unlimited minutes to anyone else on the AT&T network, no matter if you have the very lowest minute plan that AT&T has.
Am I mistaken on that? (in regards to being unlimited within the network itself?)
And also, aside from being unlimited within the network, do you know if the T-Mobile minutes are the same price as AT&T minutes on their “cel plan” versus the data plan?
And also, does T-Mobile have rollover minutes, too? I just guessing that they do... correct me on that one if I’m wrong...
No, T-Mobile has unlimited minutes to anyone at anytime. They don’t have rollover minutes to my knowledge. When I priced them T-Mobile was usually about 10 dollars cheaper on each plan. I remember seeing where T-Mobile is now encouraging people to go to a Web site to compare their prices to everyone else’s. It is the new Catherine Zeta Jones commercials.
I just picked up the new 3G S a few days ago; it’s a fun, and useful device!
I’ve actually posted a few replies (not this one) on FR using it already.
You said — No, T-Mobile has unlimited minutes to anyone at anytime.
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Well... sorry... :-), I am getting sorta confused here...
AT&T has an unlimited plan, if you want it. And that one is unlimited to anyone at any time. But, that’s not what I was referring to, because that plan is going to be more money on the cel phone usage part of the bill than the lower minute plan.
I was referring to being able to talk for free, to anyone on AT&T’s cel system (anyone that has an AT&T plan, no matter what plan it is). And since AT&T has a large customer base, you’ll find yourself talking to a number of other AT&T customers. And that could especially be so, if other family members took the lowest minute plans — but — they talked to each other and they would not use up any of their “minutes” in talking to family members. So, that was what I was talking about.
However, it seems that you’re talking about a “plan” on T-Mobile, in which you pay for talking to everyone and at anytime for unlimited minutes (which would be like the plan on AT&T in which you could do the same thing...).
Anyway, I hope that clears it up for anyone else, if they’re reading this, too...
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And as a last little note on the “plans” that “rolloer minute” thing is great, actually. You may not talk very much for a couple of months and you rack up a bunch of minutes that you never used for a few months — and then, you find that you’ve got maybe double the monthly minutes that you’ve had before and you can go *way over* your minutes and never be charged. It’s a way to use up *every last single minute* that you pay for and *never lose minutes* because you didn’t use them all up in that particular month.
That’s a *money saver* to be sure... and people ought to think about that one...
I can tell by your tagline you are an Apple fan.
:-)
Yeah, God is a Zionist — and — an iPhone user... doncha know... LOL...
That may be true (it probably is, you probably know more about technology than me). When I was shopping around for a "Smart Phone", I wanted both performance/functionality and ease of use.
For me, I found other "Smart Phones" difficult to just "pick up and use". This isn't to say they aren't easy to use once one learns how to use them. But for me, when I tried to use other phones, it wasn't intuitively clear how to start using it.
With an iPhone, and the touch screen interface, it was easy to learn how to use it on my own. I didn't have to read a manual, I just picked it up, played with it for a few hours, and now I know how to do everything on it.
You may have had a similar experience with your phone, I don't know. Clearly you are technically skilled, probably more so than an average person. So, I think it's probably safe to say you could probably learn how to use any phone quickly and intuitively.
It seems to me though, for an average consumer of technology like me, the iPhone is more appealing for its ease of use. I think "ease of use" is an important feature too, even if the phone itself isn't as functional/powerful as other phones. That is, I can see many people deciding to get a phone that's just easier to use, even if it can't do all the things, or work as fast as other phones.
What does that have to do with anything? However, it does show the real reason you visit a thread about a subject you obviously dislike - Apple.
These threads are often visited by people who can't stand Apple users regardless of the product. My experience with Apple users has never been negative but if it were I wouldn't haunt these threads to say so. Doing so indicates a very weak self-image.
Forgot to mention, the tethering trick works on my year-old 3G, too. As much as I lust for the new 3GS, the OS update brought almost everything to the 3G except the 3GS’s hardware-enabled video and compass capabilities. Per the very interesting http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/24/iphone-3gs-tops-t-mobile-g1-and-palm-pre-in-javascript-benchmarks/ the old 3G’s javascript rendering capabilities have been sped up by a factor of 8 with OS 3!
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