re - not unless you unlock (hack) the phone.

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thanks, john and KW, and that's too bad.

that about sums up Job's stubborn stance.
but it's more a reflection on the state of cell biz in the U.S.

hopefully google is successful in gaining wide acceptance and support for their open standard.

i am sure there are plenty of other mac die-hards besides myself who are steering clear of the iPhone because of the current setup.

Ya, the Google mobile OS looks promising and has the backing of Motorola and others, but it remains to be seen on the market and I need a new phone now!

Forgot to re-iterate that using a hacked iPhone on someone else's system is playing with fire, IMO. Apple has an exclusive contract with AT&T. The only other GSM provider in the US is T-Mobile and they're apparently activating unlocked iPhones, but the visual vmail doesn't work. I also think it's just a matter of time before Apple and/or AT&T files suit to stop it.

Just learned about a new "feature" of iPhone V2: non-user replaceable battery. That kills it for me. I usually travel with a charged spare battery which Apple doesn't seem to appreciate the reason why anyone would need such a thing. For a company so smart they can be dumb as a brick sometimes.

quote:

The only other GSM provider in the US is T-Mobile and they're apparently activating unlocked iPhones,

With GSM carriers, the phones don't get activated, the SIM card does. Any existing T-Mobile customer can put their SIM card into an unlocked iPhone and get it to work (this applies to any other handset with a compatible GSM band as well). I don't know how Apple and/or AT&T can stop this from happening.

Apple could conceivably put some software in the phone that detects the carrier in use, right?

BTW, the Curve just hit Verizon and I might be able to pick one up for $20!

Sprint does indeed suck!!! And their customer service is just about non-existent.

Sean

well my Sprint contract is now done, so come on iPhone 2.

So...I got a Verizon 8330 Curve for a grand total of $50. So far so good. Took me a while to like it but it's a really great phone and the coverage is excellent. POP3 emails sent to my web site address come through in 1-5 minutes which is fast enough, but I'm working on a way to push them faster via a BIS account.

Web browsing on it sucks but at least it's fast. iPhones are way better at displaying multimedia content for sure, but for texting and emails the Curve is quite good.

Did I mention that it only cost me $50?

We all know the next iPhone is gonna be $600 out the gate, a cost difference I'd rather put towards something more productive, like a D3 or a marketing push. Or food.

Meanwhile, the Curve perfectly syncs both ways with every feature of Outlook 2002, haven't found an error yet. The current iPhone has problems with that on a PC, even with newer versions of Office.

Oh, and Verizon is way ahead of AT&T with "4G" LTE implementation, it's in alpha testing now while AT&T is still struggling to get 3G online...which Verizon has had for a long time. LTE won't work with this phone but in a year I won't care, I'll just get something that does for their discounted price and restart my contract.

Anyway, if it cost me $400 I'd be bummed but for $50, c'mon, ya can't beat that anywhere. It's much smaller than an iPhone (the new one is rumored to be even larger) and it's easier to use for basic calls and SMS than the iPhone's I've fiddled with.

Kevin,

Have you seen this?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=1045

Cool! Should be a very good July for people that wanted an iPhone but don't already have one. For people who already signed up for the 2-year, maybe not so much.

Hi guys,

I've been on ATT, T-Mobile, and Sprint and to be truthful, they do all suck, but actually Sprint seems to be getting better (don't have a clue why, but they are). Also, after three TREO's (650 and 755p), run, don't walk to the Blackberry. LOVE the Blackberry and don't miss the stress of the TREO's at all.

Hi guys,

I just don't understand why we can't get the cool stuff that almost every other country gets when it comes to cell phones. 10 mp camera phones can be had in Korea (and WE'RE a superpower?) and phones with a lot of cool features. Nokia and Samsung have some really cool models that you can get in Asia and Europe, but not here. You can get some unlocked, but that's the best you can do.

I thought that the phones we have here were good until I started looking on the web for a new phone, and we're so backwoods in this respect!

I wish the US would start pushing cell phone companies in the US to upgrade their services!

re - and we're so backwoods in this respect!

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that's what you get for the way washington and big business operate - in bed together.
if it makes sense, it won't happen.
money first before making any progress.

The phone selection has been getting better in the US. If you looked at offerings a few years ago, handsets offered in the US were pathetic compared to Asia/Europe. This was undoubtedly due to the lack of GSM here in the states, and manufacturers would have to make special versions of their handsets for the various network protocols that US carriers used. In comparison, making a tri-band GSM handset that was compatible in most of Asia/Europe was a breeze.

With GSM service continuing to expand stateside, I'd imagine that our handset selection will continue to improve. Don't forget -- we were the first to get the iPhone.

GSM has been around a while here, at least for 10 years. My first cell phone was a GSM StarTac on PacBell PCS and it was the coolest thing ever.

Unless I went inside a building and wanted to make a call. CDMA is still a better protocol, IMO, what's too bad is that the rest of the world didn't think so because it's more expensive to implement.

That's all water under the bridge though, since all the major US and Western Euro telco's are switching their networks over to LTE which should be a compatible system that's better than either. They'll all be on the same page, so to speak. Verizon here and Vodaphone in Europe are leading the way right now but ATT and other US and Euro telco's aren't too far behind (not sure about Asia).

The idea is a worldwide system that surpasses both GSM and CDMA but is backwardly compatible with current GSM phones. The spectrums will still vary between countries but that's relatively trivial, like changing channels on a TV. So, within a couple years, all this incompatibility nonsense will hopefully be done with and the networks will be faster than ever.

BTW, speaking of Blackberry, Tony, my $50 Verizon Curve has been working wonderfully. It does excatly what I got it for exceptionally well.

Oh, and the first-ever touchscreen Blackberry (Thunder) will be here in a few months and exclusive to Verizon.

Also, once their LTE network overlay is complete (they'll still offer CDMA for the forseeable future), they will allow most unlocked GSM phones (including a cracked iPhone) to work on their system.

Vodaphone's influence is changing the company fast and they're poised to leapfrog every other US carrier by 2009 (edit: probably 2010) by having the most handset choices and an even better best network online before anyone else.

And yes, I have become quite the cell phone geek in the last few weeks! Did a whole lot of research and am really glad that I stuck with Verizon. At $50 for the Curve, I can afford to shelve it when LTE is online and their phone choices expand exponentially.

quote:

GSM has been around a while here, at least for 10 years.

Yes, but only in larger markets until sometime after that. And the network was garbage until Cingular(now AT&T) bought AT&T Wireless and later required all new activations to use quad-band handsets.

In Europe/Asia, a lot of the cool handsets are still tri-band (lacking the essential 4th band that makes Cingular/AT&T coverage good).

I guess I should have been clearer when I said "the lack of GSM"