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Want To Know What Unlocked Cellphones Are?

Posted on September 6, 2007
Filed Under Unlocked CellPhones | 1 Comment

If you have heard the term unlocked cellphone before and are wondering what exactly that means, then you have come to the right place. Unlocked cellphones are phones that are free from being used on one carrier on their network. What does this mean you might ask? Well basically if a phone has been unlocked it allows the phone to be used on any network that uses a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Card. The SIM card is a device that is provided to a customer by the service provider and is what allows the phone, the card is installed in, to function on their network. When you have a locked phone it will only recognize the SIM card from the carrier the card came from. With an unlocked cellphone it will recognize the SIM card from any carrier that uses a GSM network.

Advantages of an Unlocked Cellphone

There are some very good reasons why people prefer to have a cell phone that is not proprietary to a certain carrier. It allows an individual to buy a phone that they like that their service provider does not offer and use it on their current phone plan. The service providers feel that they must keep the phones they sale proprietary to their network because of the low cost of buying a phone when signing up for calling plan. Without keeping the phones proprietary the carriers feel they will lose money. This is not necessarily in the best interest of their customers as they don’t offer all the phones available on the market. The second advantage is that it allows a customer to be free of a service contract. They can purchase an unlocked phone and never have to resign a 1 or 2 year contract again. The third advantage is that you can often times purchase phones that are not even available in the United States and you would be able to use it with your current calling plan as long as the phones band is supported by your carriers network.

Disadvantages of an Unlocked Cellphone

There are some disadvantages to purchasing this type of phone. The first being that they tend to be fairly costly. In most cases you do end up paying almost the full price for the phone if you purchase one brand new, unlocked and ready to go. If you don’t purchase one brand new there are two other options. One being to ask your carrier to unlock your phone. They might do this for a service fee, but this does not always mean your phone will have full functionality afterwords. Some features of your cell phone make not work. The second being to hack your phone. There are many websites on the Internet that offer instructions on how to hack a mobile phone. This tends to be a very risky option because if you don’t know what your doing you can fairly easily cause your phone to not operate any longer. If you can get it to work properly this can be the cheapest option you have available to you. The highest risk offers this highest reward in this situation.

In the United States the only networks that operate on the GSM network are AT&T(formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile. If you use either of these networks as your service provider then you have the option for an unlocked mobilephone.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment and I will respond back. Here are some great options for buying unlocked cellphones.

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Apple iPhone Has Been Hacked

Posted on August 23, 2007
Filed Under Apple | 2 Comments

It has been reported that the iPhone has been hacked by a 17 year old kid from New Jersey. This, in my opinion, is an amazing accomplishment when you think about the lengths Apple went to in order to block the iPhone from being used an any other network. The 17 year old, George Hotz’s, claims he did this by using a combination of a soldering gun and software. It apparently took him over 500 hours to crack the iPhone and he was working on it with a group of other hackers. He has posted a video on YouTube with proof of his claim showing a working iPhone running on the T-Mobile network and has also posted a how to guide on his website http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com. It is unclear if this will be bad news for AT&T as far as business is concerned, it has been reported that both AT&T and Apple were contacted but would not comment on the hacked iPhone. For those of you out there that do not have AT&T and want an iPhone the doors have now opened for you. Although beware as the word on the street is this is not an easy feat to duplicate. George states on his website its not an easy task. If your interested in reading more about this I suggest checking out his site.

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iPhone User Reviews

Posted on July 2, 2007
Filed Under Apple | Leave a Comment

There has been so much hype and anticipation for the release of the iPhone since Apple announced, and now its finally here. There are so many user reviews out there already for this product and its only been 3 days since its release. Overall it seems that most iPhone users love there new toy. On the flip side there are a fair amount of reviews with complaints about the functionality of the device. Most of these bugs should be worked out over the coming months by updates from Apple. It does make sense that consumers would be highly critical of the iPhone considering the price tag ($499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model) and the enormous consumer interest it has generated. Apple had received over 1 million inquiries for information about the iPhone prior to its release. There were lines of people waiting outside AT&T and Apple stores, for days in some cases, to ensure they would get one when it released on June 29. Some of the user reviews found explain the release of this device and its huge and growing following perfectly.

Positive User Reviews of the iPhone

First off I do have to say that I have read a tonof users reviews for new products over the last few years and have never read some of the amazing things people are saying about the iPhone. One review stated that it was the best consumer device that he has ever purchased in his 55 years of living. Now that’s impressive if you ask me. Another user explained how it was one of the greatest pieces of technology that he has ever purchased.

Users are impressed with the keyboard functionality, most said that they had some concern as to how it would work prior to purchasing the device but found the ease of use and adaptive dictionary to be more than they expected.

The Internet is another amazing feature the iPhone offers. Users have had good things to say about the Internet. Its kind of up in the air as the speed of the Internet, some say its fast and others say they wish it was faster. Some users have said that they don’t mind if the networks a little slower because its just like using the Internet on your computer.

The touch screen was another area that added to the anticipation of the device. I think a lot of people loved the look and design of the touch screen display while worrying about the functionality of the iPhone with no buttons. Users have mostly good things to say about it, most of the negative reviews in this area I feel are due to the change from the familiarity of other smartphones.

The battery has had impressive reviews despite the concern over battery life prior to its release. Users are saying that the battery does take a long time to charge but the battery life is great considering all the different functions the iPhone offers. One user said the he used his new iPhone for almost a full day and the battery had not died yet. Apple increased the battery life from 5 hours to 8 hours prior to its release.

Negative User Reviews of the iPhone

Now keeping in mind, as stated previously, that due to the enormous hype and steep price tag of this device that users would be very critical of it. I think one user summed up the negative aspects perfectly. He stated that although there are some areas of the iPhone that could obviosly be improved it is by far the best cell phone on the market and that people need to stop whining about it.

Probably the most common complaint from users is the lack of ability to add custom ringtones to the iPhone. Some users stated that they were disappointed to not being able to use a song loaded onto the iPod section of the phone. Others complained about the lack of functionality with Bluetooth devices for transferring songs to the device. This will be an easy fix for Apple in a software update that should come sooner than later.

Youtube not functioning fully seems to be a common complaint among users. This should be an easy fix for apple with a software update and users should not worry to much about any issues involved here.

Some users have complained about the Internet being slow, but the good as far as the Internet is concerned most definitely out-ways the bad. The Internet looks awesome what can i say!

The last most common complaint from iPhone users is the weak vibrate function. Now this might not be an issue apple can fix with a software update, we will have to wait and see. If not its definitely not a big enough issue to sway consumers from purchasing this phone.

Simply put the iPhone is amazing. I believe the user reviews explain it all. If you have the money and want to have service with AT&T i would strongly suggest going out and purchasing one of these badboys.

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Current Top 5 Free Wirefly Phone Deals

Posted on June 30, 2007
Filed Under Wirefly | Leave a Comment

One of our goals here at MobilePhoneGeek.com is to keep you up to date on online phone deals. Today we are taking a looking at Wirefly , who are currently the #1 online cell phone and wireless plan retailer. There website is very easy to navigate, you can search by service carrier, phone brand, or service plan. Most of the mobile phone deals they offer require you to sign up for a service contract, but that is nothing new in today’s world. They have the following Service Carriers that you can sign up for with your Free Phone:

AT&T
Verizon Wireless
T-Mobile
Sprint
Nextel
Alltel
U.S. Cellular

Current Top 5 Free Wirefly Phone Deals:

1. Pink RAZR from AT&T