Comments on: Why unlocking the iPhone is a waste of time

Gadget blogs are atwitter over a new application that helps unlock the iPhone 3G. But unlocking the device no longer makes much sense, says Don Reisinger.

[vertigo_78]

as others have pointed out, its idiotic that you dont know the difference between unlocking and jailbreaking. you should do some research before writing an article. maybe you would discover some of the benefit of jailbreaking. despite you claims that a few banned apps arent worth it, there are numerous jailbroken apps that solve many complaint people have about the iphone. mms, video camera, home screen customization, quick dialing, landscape email and sms, and many others.

[hrishirao]

Such an idiot who wrote this blog. iPhone is a great technology. The phone can reach masses when it is unlocked. I hope Apple understands it now that they need to make it open which is why they are selling unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong. iPhone is a great invention. Perhaps it can do good to Apple if they get out of AT&T nonsense and sell it all over the place. If the phone is meant to be quad band (entailing from people saying they can use it abroad) then it should really be unlocked. I hate the idea of contract with cell phone providers. Apple can make use of much wider audience by changing their business model to sell higher quanties through different carrier and relatively reducing the price of per unit. For instance, the rumor is Apple are devicing iPhone Nano which is going to be cheaper. Probably by the end of 2009 the iPhone will be available out on the market.

[tupper_md]

OK, so the rest of the comments are railing you for the same things, with the exception of an ignorant comment from 'Goodbye Helicopter', but I could resist adding my 2¢ worth.

'Goodbye H' doesn't seem to understand what everybody else is talking about with regards to roaming and calling from abroad, since what everybody is saying is precisely that unlocking the phone will allow them to do exactly what this person is recommending: "getting a local number" or more precisely, buying a prepaid SIM from a local mobile operator. Anyway looks like everybody has more than hammered that point home.

But the other issue I didn't see as recurring, which is equally important, is the NetShare app for tethering the iPhone to a MacBook for surfing 3G from your laptop on the road, which to me seems like a key reason to buy an iPhone in the first place... so having that blocked means needing to unblock it to be able to enjoy that core feature.

[alexbs]

before writing an article like this please understand what is unlocking what is jailbreaking etc. maybe you'll see the benefits yourself.

To me the primary reason is the ridiculous prices for roaming - I travel quite a bit and prefer to use local SIM cards in the countries to which I travel. Every carrier (including AT&T) offers unlock codes for every phone after you've been with a carrier for 3 months. I used to do that. However this is untrue for the iPhone. Therefore, since Apple/AT&T fail to provide that for the iPhone I am tremendously grateful to the team that made it possible and gladly successfully jailbreaking and unlocking my phone.

[arslanh]

I care a lot because I tried AT&T before switching to T-Mobile. First of all 3G network does not work properly, despite the fact that I live in Washington, DC. Secondly why I should pay $30 to AT&T data plan where I can only pay $20 to T-Mobile data plan, not to mention I can get more minutes from T-Mobile for the same amount of money.

[terminalblue]

Don, you are the biggest troll on cnet.

[dkitsov]

TY

[murbo]

**** JESUS TAP DANCING CHRIST, enough already, leave the US, go to another country and try using the AT&T's roaming before saying unlocking iphone is a waste of time.. geez

on a side note you jailbreak it to load apps, and it has been already done to load the yellowsn0w application, unlocking is a completely different process where you get to use your phone with another carriers sim card.

honest to god (which i don't even technically believe in), you CNET people are starting to **** me off so bad that cnet is out of my rss feed from now on. only "stories" i've seen for the last couple of months are nothing but cheap speculations, and are complete rubbish at that too.

-screw you guys im going home
eric cartman

[U. Tripps]

CNET, please dump Reisinger's blog. He just spouts off with minimal knowledge. I can't think of a single post by this guy that I've found insightful or useful.

In addition to the international roaming issues, some people like me are still stuck with another carrier on a two-year contract. We want the iPhone, but not quite enough to toss an extra $200 in cancellation fees to our current carrier.

[dkitsov]

Thank you. It is nice to see I am not the only one aware of this issue with Mr Reisinger.

[effdiaz]

I am sorry Don but if you ask me, This blog was a waste of time!

[tomamas]

Wow, what a great example of isolationistic view this article is. May be C-Net should pay Don to travel outside of US before letting him write anything else. The AT&T roaming charges, when you travel outside of U.S., are sky high. Especially the data plan; not to mention that AT&T does not ?really? have overseas data roaming plan, so you really get slammed on every kb. And being locked to one network here in the US is like if you bought a car, and the dealer told you that you can only drive on Highway 280 but not on 101. What a joke. Does Don work for AT&T?

[tomamas]

Wow, what a great example of isolationist view this article is. May be C-Net should pay Don to travel outside of US before letting him write anything else. The AT&T roaming charges, when you travel outside of U.S., are sky high. Especially the data plan; not to mention that AT&T does not ?really? have overseas data roaming plan, so you really get slammed on every kb. And being locked to one network here in the US is like if you bought a car, and the dealer told you that you can only drive on Highway 280 but not on 101. What a joke. Does Don work for AT&T?

[d970813]

"Don Reisinger is a technology columnist "....

...give me a break. Your "technology columnist" should learn that there are other countries out there outside the USA. And yes, some people, (even US citizens) visit these countries. And when they visit, they'd rather not pay ridiculous roaming charges.

You see Don, with an unlocked phone, you can switch the SIM cards (i.e. use a local SIM card from whichever country you visit) and pay local airtime charges.

Yes, I know that many people already told you this by now.... but if you write tech. articles and don't know this, you deserve to hear it a couple of times more.

Man, what a way to start a new year.

[chronometre]

Bill the author for your roam charges when you go overseas. See how he likes ATT then....

[JCPayne]

"After all, if you were really unhappy with AT&T in the first place, why buy the iPhone?"

Uh, that would be like saying if you don't like what is on the PBS channel then don't buy a new television.

[Nicholas Buenk]

2/3 of iPhone 3G's sold by Apple are not in the US.
hint

[johnsbrn1]

First, you clearly don't understand the difference between unlocking and jailbreaking. Unlocking has nothing to do with apps or the app store, it only relates to what SIM cards you can use. Second, the main reason for a lot of people wanting to unlock the iphone is to travel with it abroad. International roaming rates are absurdly high and it's substantially more economical to purchase a pre-paid SIM card.

[JCipo]

I feel so financially poor surrounded by the rich. These people and the author talk about the iphone without ever mentioning the HUGE service charge that can be more then $2400 over 2 years. I use T-mobile with a Senior plan with a jailbroken and unlocked iphone and wifi (no Edge or 3G thank you). This costs me around $30 a month. I save over $70 a month. With hard times a plenty, I can't see how people can even think of putting out this kind of money for service! Oh please don't think of me as cheap, the money I saved helped me buy a Corvette.

well, i think that the CNET people "wasted his time" hiring this guy to write articles, he does not really know what he is talking about, mixing banned apps with unlock...i hope that he reads all this comments and then he finally understand the difference between jailbreak and unlock. I purchased my iphone by internet and as i live in Colombia is mandatory to unlock the phone, i used the phone with a turbosim until last night when i finally unlocked the phone with the yellowsn0w application. The dev team rules....steve jobs...not so much

[danejasper]

One word.

iBoobs

-DJ

[rich46--2008]

I've had 2 unlocked, jailbraked iphones for the last 9 months running on T-Mobile. I'm on a 5 person family plan and my monthly fee is about 1/2 of what it would be if I was on ATT. Given what I've saved and continue to save, I'd be crazy to subscribe with ATT. I'm already several hundred dollars ahead of the game by not going the "official route." If I were to do the same thing today with the 3G iphone, I'd also be ahead of the game (financially) in 9 months.

Giving ATT an xtra $2,000 a year just seems crazy to me. BTW, I have 2 iphones, 1BB, 1 Treo and a regular phone. The cost for having all those phones on ATT is ridiculous.

Clearly, the writer didn't do his homework.