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Apple SIM

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Re: Apple SIM

#41

Post by untog »

oarsinsync wrote: post #35
untog wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you don't mind not having a local-to-the-country phone number This is actually one of my big pain points with SIM-juggling while travelling. iMessage would work great, except for the fact that Apple unregisters your US number and registers your new SIM number in its place. Which makes total sense on a technical level, but is irritating in practise.

My slightly expensive hack-around is to have a second travel iPhone, and tether my primary phone to that when I travel. I used to swap SIM cards around so that my primary SIM ended up in my travel phone, and my region-specific SIM ended up in my primary phone, but ultimately that became more hassle than it was worth, and tethering was a less painful solution with the prevalence of wifi everywhere in most places I vis…

I wonder if anyone on HN can recommend a cheap-ish tethering device? That had occurred to me before - some little hotspot thing I can throw a SIM card into. Maybe annoying to keep charged, though.

Re: Apple SIM

#42

Post by jonlucc »

mvid wrote: post #31

I'm surprised Apple has created a proper Fi competitor yet. It would fit so well into their premium brand of "your iPhone works the moment you step off the plane wherever your amazing life takes you". They wouldn't have their UX tied to cell providers, who are some of the most unpleasant entities to interact with. They would probably be able to lean further into their personal security stance, by fully obfuscating th…

If you go into any of the major retailers in the US, the iPhone is already the first-class device. Why would they want to be in the messy business of running a carrier, likely dependent on the partners they'd then be screwing over, while they built their own network from the ground up. On the other hand, maybe they'd just purchase Sprint or Verizon.

Re: Apple SIM

#43

Post by vwadhwani »

chatmasta wrote: post #34
mvid wrote: post #31

I'm surprised Apple has created a proper Fi competitor yet. It would fit so well into their premium brand of "your iPhone works the moment you step off the plane wherever your amazing life takes you". They wouldn't have their UX tied to cell providers, who are some of the most unpleasant entities to interact with. They would probably be able to lean further into their personal security stance, by fully obfuscating th…

Probably because they’re making plenty of money from their existing relationships with carriers. There’s no reason for Apple to vertically integrate when they’re already the dominant player in their carrier relationships.

Google relies heavily on advertising revenue so needs to interject any time there's a threat to that. Doesn't matter if it's a web browser that defaults to bing or an ISP that interjects their own ads.

On the other hand, Apple relies heavily on hardware sales for revenue.

Re: Apple SIM

#44

Post by dorian-graph »

mrnobody_67 wrote: post #19

too bad this doesn't work in iPhones. I have 15+ international SIM cards. Slightly inconvenient to have to buy one for each country I visit to avoid surprise roaming charges.

What kind of case or holder do you use for your SIM cards? While I'm not at 15+, I have a couple.

Re: Apple SIM

#46

Post by zokier »

oneplane wrote: post #36

Nice to see SoftBank on that page, probably means SoC makers can simply get the IP from them when getting other parts like an ARM core etc. Makes it a whole lot easier to just get a virtual SIM in your device.

Probably means

> On October 1, 2006, Vodafone Japan changed its corporate name, mobile phone brand name, and its mobile phone domain name to SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank, and [mb.softbank.jp], respectively

and

> SoftBank Mobile was the only official carrier of the iPhone in Japan until the release of iPhone 4S in 2011 when it became available on au by KDDI as well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftBank_Group

Oh, and SoftBank also happens to own Sprint, although that probably is unrelated here.

Re: Apple SIM

#47

Post by jfaat »

dorian-graph wrote: post #44
mrnobody_67 wrote: post #19

too bad this doesn't work in iPhones. I have 15+ international SIM cards. Slightly inconvenient to have to buy one for each country I visit to avoid surprise roaming charges.

What kind of case or holder do you use for your SIM cards? While I'm not at 15+, I have a couple.

I roll them up in a sticky note and store it in my passport holder.

Re: Apple SIM

#48

Post by dorian-graph »

untog wrote: post #41
oarsinsync wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My slightly expensive hack-around is to have a second travel iPhone, and tether my primary phone to that when I travel. I used to swap SIM cards around so that my primary SIM ended up in my travel phone, and my region-specific SIM ended up in my primary phone, but ultimately that became more hassle than it was worth, and tethering was a less painful solution with the prevalence of wifi everywhere in most places I vis…

I wonder if anyone on HN can recommend a cheap-ish tethering device? That had occurred to me before - some little hotspot thing I can throw a SIM card into. Maybe annoying to keep charged, though.

I wonder if simply a cheap Android phone would suffice?

Re: Apple SIM

#49

Post by kodablah »

jonlucc wrote: post #42
mvid wrote: post #31

I'm surprised Apple has created a proper Fi competitor yet. It would fit so well into their premium brand of "your iPhone works the moment you step off the plane wherever your amazing life takes you". They wouldn't have their UX tied to cell providers, who are some of the most unpleasant entities to interact with. They would probably be able to lean further into their personal security stance, by fully obfuscating th…

If you go into any of the major retailers in the US, the iPhone is already the first-class device. Why would they want to be in the messy business of running a carrier, likely dependent on the partners they'd then be screwing over, while they built their own network from the ground up. On the other hand, maybe they'd just purchase Sprint or Verizon.

> Why would they want to be in the messy business of running a carrier

Does Fi run the carrier? I thought it used existing carriers and just supported seamless transition between them (and wifi). Regardless, the motivation would be to get that market they're missing that doesn't use one of the big 4. Granted Apple has never catered to that market, so not sure why they would now (it'd actually be detrimental to them IMO).

EDIT: Oh, and to the GP's point, seamless international use of your phone is a premium feature that might be valuable to customers. You could easily say "why do ____, they are already considered first class" for any new feature.

Re: Apple SIM

#50

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

dorian-graph wrote: post #44
mrnobody_67 wrote: post #19

too bad this doesn't work in iPhones. I have 15+ international SIM cards. Slightly inconvenient to have to buy one for each country I visit to avoid surprise roaming charges.

What kind of case or holder do you use for your SIM cards? While I'm not at 15+, I have a couple.

A piece of tape works fine.
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