Unlocked iPhones can save some users a lot of money
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Three years ago, Vivek Wadhwa used his iPhone while traveling in India.
"I only checked emails a few times, made several calls," Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, recalled of the 12-day trip.
When he returned home, he received an iShock: an AT&T phone bill with international roaming charges for $800.
"I was so outraged," the Menlo Park, Calif., resident said. "So for the next trip, I hacked my iPhone — unlocked it — and just plugged in my local (Indian) SIM card."
The charges for the Indian SIM, for voice and data, cost him as little as $2 per trip.
Now international travelers don't have to tweak their devices. Apple announced in June it would sell unlocked iPhone 4s that are untethered to carrier contracts in the United States.
Apple's decision could be a sign it hopes to take another bite into rival Research In Motion's BlackBerry dominance in the business world. In its most recent quarterly earnings call with analysts, Apple said the iPhone is now deployed or being tested by nearly 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies.
"If Apple decided to do this, you have to think there was a significant amount of requests that make it worth their while to do it," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, who travels regularly to Asia. He spent $160 on AT&T voice and data roaming charges during a recent three-day trip to Taipei.
"For international travelers, this is a real blessing."
Richard Doherty with the Envisioneering Group called it "another hit and run against RIM," which has lost market share in the United States as iPhone and Google Android devices continue to surge in popularity.
"It's a big step for Apple to be able to offer this to customers, both consumers and businesses."
But buying an unlocked iPhone may be less appealing for some users if AT&T's proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile — now under review by government regulators — is approved because it could eliminate the cost advantage of using T-Mobile's network.
"The challenge will be what happens if the merger goes through," said Parul Desai, policy counsel for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, which opposes the merger.
"We think it will increase prices for consumers. You'd have Verizon and AT&T controlling more than 80 percent of the market. Folks won't have anywhere else to go if they want a low-cost competitor.
Cell Phone Calls - News
A television station in San Diego says calls were made from Michelle's cell phone after the alleged abduction. By Zoneil Maharaj | Email the author | June 30, 2011 Michelle Le with her father, Sun Le in an undated photo. Le Family photo Police and
AP You could save even more money by dropping your cell phone in the toilet and not (July 4, 2011, by torvald uhlman) Read more SAN JOSE, Calif. — Three years ago, Vivek Wadhwa used his iPhone while traveling in India.
A quality of service survey was conducted on MTN, Vodacom and Cell C's networks from November 10 to 15 last year in Gauteng, Icasa said in a statement. It focused on network performance in terms of accessibility and retention of phone calls.
What happens when you throw a cellphone into the mix? At least 75 percent of American teenagers today have a cellphone, often purchased by their parents so they can stay in closer touch. And parents are more likely than other adults to have a cellphone
By LARISSA CAHUTE, QMI Agency About 17% were "dismissed calls," which encompass the infamous "butt dial" - when a cellphone mistakenly makes a call from inside a purse, pocket, backpack, etc. Since 2009, these calls have jumped by more than 16000.
What Cellphone Calls Say About Parent-Teenager Relations - NYTimes.com
Poor communication is a common complaint when it comes to parents and teenagers. What happens when you throw a cellphone into the mix?
At least 75 percent of American teenagers today have a cellphone, often purchased by their parents so they can stay in closer touch. And parents are more likely than other adults to have a cellphone, for the same reason.
“The phone is now a huge part of parenting. It’s how you reach your kids,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist with the Pew Research Center Internet and American Life project. In a survey conducted in the summer of 2009, nearly 70 percent of teenagers said they talked on the phone with their parents at least once a day.
Now researchers are starting to zero in on how cellphone use affects the dynamic of the parent-child relationship. A paper published online on Monday in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking suggests that both the nature of the calls and who initiates the calls may affect relations.
Robert S. Weisskirch, a professor of human development at California State University in Monterey Bay, asked 196 parent-teenager pairs to tell him how frequently they made different types of calls. The teenagers were asked about 18 different types of situations or circumstances in which they might call parents and to rank them from “never” to “often.”
The calls fell into two basic categories: “ask and confer” calls, in which teenagers checked in with their parents to ask permission or tell a parent they would be late; and “social support” calls, made when they were upset, wanted advice or wanted to tell a parent they were happy and share some good news.
Parents were asked how often they called their children to monitor their whereabouts, track their schoolwork, check in with them and get an update — or express anger or dissatisfaction with something the teenager did.
Parents and teenagers also filled out questionnaires about their relationship, how close they were, how much conflict there was and how well they communicated.
What Dr. Weisskirch found wasn’t altogether surprising. When teenagers called parents frequently to “ask and confer,” it was better for their relationship, and they were more likely to characterize their parents as supportive and say they were close and communicated well. Parents were gratified by the calls, too; such calls seemed to boost their self-esteem.
an idiot calls ur house@ 2am and gets his from your cell nd home phone nd u can only talk through tweets
My mama is thee worse with the cell phone... returning calls hours later. "You called me?" Smh
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My father calls me on my cell phone...we in the same house. I'm seriously just down the stairs. Technology -__-Cell Phone Calls - Bookshelf
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