New Apple Lust Objects

some sort of hacked ipod touch looks a better deal for downloading pr0ngoogle maps :(

How hard is it to unlock a phone?

It's a lot harder than it is with normal phones with an iPhone, but the ($50) software-based hacks that have finally come out do work, apparently. Problem is that Apple have to show AT&T that they are trying to stop it, because of the deal exclusivity and revenue-sharing. The next iPhone update could make the unlocked phones not work. The hackers would probably get around it again, but it's not ideal. Of course, you could just not install the update, but there are new features/bug fixes that people presume are around the corner.

However, a bigger problem with unlocking is, you still have to pay the monthly AT&T tariff for the minimum of two years, right? There's no way out of that.

There is a pay as you go tariff as well. There are also free tools for unlocking the iPhone.

unlimited data and free cloud wifi is not bad for £35. hmm.

funny that this is being widely reported as a £900 phone when you're still getting your minutes/texts/data (albeit not many minutes/texts and bad coverage on the data)… it's not common for other phones to be decried as £700 phones when you have to sign up for two year contract to get it for 'free'… thinking about it in these terms, £700 for yr phone needs (which you'd be paying anyway, if you're on a contract) + £200 for the ipod touch bits of it + a £70 premium for all the other niceties (ability to add calendar items, visual voicemail, all the features distinguishing it from the ipod touch…)

it's not THAT bad... but yes still steep and I won't be buying one

They said this tariff would be available to all 02 customers though.

How much is the pay-as-you-go version?

I reckon there is unlikely to be one in the UK. In the US it is the same price as the contract version.

However, a bigger problem with unlocking is, you still have to pay the monthly AT&T tariff for the minimum of two years, right? There's no way out of that.

nope, you can avoid that. uk terms look pretty reasonable to me - i was paying £30/month last year for 200 mins, 200 sms, unlimited gprs.

How can you avoid it?

It's not that I think the 02 tariff is especially bad (though I would miss the T-Mobile's £7.50 a month unlimited data for browsing) but if you *do* want to unlock your phone to chose your own carrier I'm interested how you get out of the 02 contract.

Here in the US, people have had great luck signing up through AT&T and then immediately calling them and canceling service. As long as its done within the first month, the contact is canceled without issue.

If O2 doesn't have a similar policy, I imagine you could just buy a US iphone and unlock it.

Is O2 EDGE support as bad as I've heard it to be?

not even 30% coverage on launch day. They only started turning it on a few days ago. It has been, till now, all about 3G here.

There were various workarounds for not signing up - if you entered a fake SSN then you were offered PAYG, which you could cancel at once. Or you could even avoid that entirely via some Windows hack due to DVDJon, I believe.

I would be v wary of using it unlocked with another carrier, as I'd be surprised if Apple doesn't relock them with another update soon. Also I'd miss visual voicemail, I suspect.

Any word on whether US iPhones will work on O2? As ever the exchange rate would make that attractive. Also, are they 0 subsidy, as in the US? We were able to sign up to AT&T, get free phones, sell them on eBay, and only then activate our iPhones, which saved us over $400 between us - I wonder if something similar will work in the UK?

though I would miss the T-Mobile's £7.50 a month unlimited data for browsing

O2 has unlimited data too though, right?

Oh, does it? Cool. Well maybe I'll sign up.

I don't understand how the phone company doesn't just have the right to demand the (discounted) phone back if you cancel immediately.

in the discounted case - you can't cancel immediately. are you talking about what i did?

http://www.hotukdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?p=978356

don't all fkn run down there and buy them but I just phoned the regent st store and was told they have ipod touches and they're selling them

so ive had an iphone for a week now. i like it a lot. the only compliants i have are no MMS (the sidekick doesnt have this either - so lame), you cant store photos from webpages or your email, no instant messaging (not that big a deal), and it seems like no ability to see java apps on webpages which I kind of assumed it would have.

maybe there are ways to hack this stuff.

oh and im not a huge fan of safari either.

the wifi receiver on the touch seems pretty weak nonetheless better than lugging a laptop I imagine.

i'm certainly interested -- hell, i've been interested since apple first announced the thing -- but i'm in no hurry. i'll see how stet and alba get on first.

its pretty good tbh but annoyingly crippled in certain respects and continuing a fine mac tradition boy does it get warm while surfing

I'm thinking of getting a Macbook (the cheapest version) at some stage in November. Questions:

1. Is this likely to come with Leopard or will I have to buy a new OS a while later down the line?
2. Are they likely to upgrade the Macbook models anytime soon?
3. Are there any problems with Macbooks? I have heard they can be hot and noisy - how hot and how noisy?
4. Is there any point in getting AppleCare? I am suspicious of extended warranties, and the cost adding on another 25% to the price of the laptop doesn't make me think that this is going to be any less dispensible.

Oh, another one:

5. Will there be any problems integrating a Mac into a wireless home network that is otherwise full of Windows PCs?

Last one, I promise:

6. Worth the buy?

macbooks seems ridiculously overpriced. why in particular do you want a mac?

Is there any point in getting AppleCare? I am suspicious of extended warranties, and the cost adding on another 25% to the price of the laptop doesn't make me think that this is going to be any less dispensible.

I think so. What convinced me was when I ruined a perfectly good year-old iBook by dropping it on its (connected) power supply. It was mere days out of the possibility of Applecare, which would have covered it totally. It's now weighting down some shit in my closet.

Also, Applecare is the BEST consumer support in the industry, bar none.

6. Worth the buy?

Hard to say. Either Macs "work" for you or they don't. If you are type of person to make lists of features and compare MHz and a bunch of nerdy shit, then you should get a PC. If you like to play games on yr computer, get a PC. If you need maximal interoperability with all kinds of computer hardware and software, get a PC.

If, on the other hand, the Mac computing experience appeals to you, then it's a non-question. That's how I am. Since 2001, I've owned over 10 Macs and one PC, the latter of which sits in a closet without a display or a keyboard running a few development databases.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the PC.

re: Applecare, buy on Ebay. Lots of people selling Applecare for half of what Apple itself charges.

I got Applecare for my Mac Pro for $75 - brand new, still shrinkwrapped and Apple accepted the registration number without incident. Dunno if it fell off the back of a delivery truck or what, but I don't care.

I don't really like the idea of having to pay a ridiculous premium just to get customer service that isn't shit. Grumble grumble.

x-post

macbooks seems ridiculously overpriced. why in particular do you want a mac?

It's more for my girlfriend. She feels that our current laptop is too large and heavy to lug to uni for 2 hours a day (which is fair enough), so she wants one that is less than 14" and 1.5-2.5 kg. As far as I can see, most of the laptops that fall in that range are ultraportables made for business execs, and so are insanely expensive. Macbooks are the cheapest laptops I can find that fit that criteria (unless you can point me in the direction of better/cheaper models?). I'm looking for something in the range of AU$1500-2000, which is guess is anything between US$1000-1750?

thanx for the tip milo

maybe im thinking of ibooks? i dont know. it just seems like a lot of money to spend because a mac is appealing. i dont mind macs, it just really annoys me that you cant run much on them and what you can seems to be the windows version from 5 years ago.

that's only really true w/r/t microsoft programs. which are admittedly important in some contexts (project, outlook, etc)

I read somewhere that the next Mac instalment of Office is coming in January! I'd say that laptop would mostly be used for Office/CS3/iTunes/moviez anyway

If you aren't a business consumer, then you can probably run what you want/need on a Mac, with the exception of games.

Games are stupid, anyways.

have any of you people fooled around with the new iphones or itouches? particularly the video functions?

i actually won one of those stubby video nanos (8gb). it's OK i guess, i've always been anti-iPod due to DRM restrictions and my general dislike of iTunes. but free is ok by me.

there's one really tantalizing feature i can't access. under video > settings there is a tv out function set to off. no matter what i do, i can't turn it on, even with a 1/8th to RCA plugged into it. is this one of those hardware functionalities they will activate in future software upgrades?

anyone out there with a 3rd gen nano, itouch or iphone able to send a video signal to their TV through this video out function?

If you aren't a business consumer, then you can probably run what you want/need on a Mac, with the exception of games.

also, all those microsoft apps run fine under parallels now if you have an intel mac (which all new macs are); it's not slow emulation like the virutalpc days. but if that's all you need to work on, there is no point in getting a mac.

Is it for tv out as in a cable, or as in their fancy new tv doohickey whose iName I can't recall right now?

Are there third-party apps for the iTouch, and/or does it run Java apps?

also, all those microsoft apps run fine under parallels now if you have an intel mac

Fusion > Parallels.

sanskrit my impression is that

a) you need a fancy new proprietary adapter ($50... bullshit) to access tv out on the new ipods
b) they only output shit resolution anyway

too bad too

lol get a mac

(srsly)

3. Are there any problems with Macbooks? I have heard they can be hot and noisy - how hot and how noisy?

My mother had that silver laptop but switched to a Macbook and still complains about hotness. :-(

my freakin iphone gets crazy hot when i look at the internet for too long (and thats not very long because it drains the battery quick)

Fusion > Parallels.

pls elaborate.

VMWare are doing good things with passing directX calls on to the gpu where as parallels is doing them all on cpu.

xposts-In my experience, Macs run hot but are extremely quiet. Or rather, Macs run hot because they are extremely quiet.

Since 2001, I've owned over 10 Macs

My god, what were you doing to them? Didn't you want a computer that lasted more than 6 months?

libcrypt was saying don't worry about the oil the other day because he's going to use it all to make all his computers I guess

what exactly is the Mac "computing experience"? And what's the appeal of it?

I like the keyboards for typing on but other than that....