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Geek Culture / IPhone - payments and contracts?

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fallen one
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 03:26 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2011 03:28
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I want to buy an iPhone, but I am unsure how they work, (second hand one, Im not spending hundreds of pounds on a new one)

are they connected online all the time? Do you have to have a contract to make it work, (play games on it by yourself) what if you have an iPhone and no phone contract.

I have an old phone that I bought credits on, not a contract, just pre paid some credits, can Iphone work that way, just buy some credits, though if the iPhone is always connected online, wont you be constantly be using credits every time you use the iPhone, say just playing a game by yourself, or taking a picture or something, wont you be paying for just using the phone, even though you are not web browsing or email or phone call making, So buying credits will soon be eaten up, even if you don't use any online abilities or calls.

The irony of this question is I have 25 iphone apps in the iTunes store. I have never even seen an iPhone in real life, much less used a real one. Always used the simulator, but as I am moving to building fps games for the iPhone I need more than the simulator to test them with.


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Cian Rice
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 05:39
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Well I don't know where you're located but in the US, at least on AT&T it works like this:

Buy the iPhone SKU of your choice with a 2 year contract. You can choose from a 200mb or 2gb monthly data plan. This means you have a maximum of 200 mb of data transfer each month while on 3G. You will not use up any of your data plan while connected to wi-fi. If your iPhone detects a wi-fi network it will ask you if you want to connect. If you do then it should auto connect to that wi-fi network the future.

And iPhone's, at least to my knowledge cannot be pay-as-you-go. So yes, you need a contract.

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Rampage
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Location: New Zealand
Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 06:05
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iPhones can be pay as you go over here in NZ. They are a lot more expensive as buying them on a 24 month plan knocks off a lot of the price. For instance, over here, on a 24 month plan $150 for an Iphone 4 16gb. Without a plan. $1000+.

Regards,

Max
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bitJericho
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 14:56
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150/mo for 24 months is 3600 dollars. So yeah, you are paying for it

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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 15:33
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In the UK you can buy a used iPhone for around £200 -300 on Pay as you Go. You can then get a sim from a customer-centric company called GifGaf who piggyback off of the O2 network. For a £10 topup every month you get unlimited texts and unlimited internet (obviously with a fair usage policy) - it's by far the best value for money I've seen.


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fallen one
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 16:52
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I am in the UK, you can get a used one cheaper on ebay than pay as you go.
What happens if I buy one on ebay and do not have a contract, does it still work to use apps, but not make phone calls, email, web surf.

Also can I connect it to my macbook, then use the macbook for the iPhones internet, emails etc.

I also wonder if you can use the iPhone with a contract and rather than have a connection to the net from my ISP, connect the computer the phone as use that to connect the macbook to the internet, 10 pounds a month is cheaper than my ISP for my computer.


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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 18:40
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If you do not have a sim card inserted (Pay as you Go or Contract) then you will not be able to do anything involving the network (ie. make calls etc.) Although it may not even let you turn the phone on if this is the case.

To connect your laptop to the phone is called tethering, you're not supposed to do it on GifGaf, but I've never had any issues. They'll know that you're tethering though because of the user agent and other giveaway info in the packets being sent. Whether or not they take action I don't know.


Blitzwerks | Indie Development Team
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fallen one
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2011 22:38 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2011 23:06
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So these sim cards, they are what is used to connect the phone or email, I am curious if the phone starts and one can use apps without the sim card in it, or credits on it.

Also I have found out that in the UK 'some' phones are locked in some way to a particular provider, so one could be forced if one bought that phone on ebay to have to use that provider, which may not be good if one wants to move to another country and use the phone where that provider is not located, I am not sure if unlocking the phone enables you to use that phone with a new company.

If you use pay and go, and you use up the credits, do you throw away the sim card, or do you take it to a mobile shop and they top up the sim.

If you have pay and go, if you are not phoning or emailing, just using an app, does it take some of the credits because you are always connected when the phone is on and a sim is in the phone. If that is the case then for app use it makes sense to take the sim out, otherwise you will be using credit for just having the phone on to play a game or use an app.


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Phaelax
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2011 02:39
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The sim card basically just registers your phone with the cell network.

I've been hearing lately that companies are telling people you need a data plan to use the phone. That is just false. You only need a data plan to surf the net or use various apps which require an internet connection. I have no data plan with my iPhone. I also don't use mine on AT&T but T-mobile. AT&T use to have unlimited data plans, it was about $80/mo for 500min and unlimited data. Now they cap it to those ridiculous limits which I could eat within a day using Pandora.

As a side note, AT&T is currently trying to buy T-mobile for like $60 billion or something.

If you buy a used iPhone, it will probably already be activated, therefore you don't need any phone plan to actually use the iPhone as a device. You can't make calls but you can use apps and connect to wifi. If the phone isn't activated through iTunes and you don't buy a phone plan, there's still programs out there to break the activation scheme, if it's still being used.

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