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Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

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Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#31

Post by kalleboo »

Apple's locked-down APN settings affect me as well, except for me it's only an annoyance. I use a travel SIM card with cheap data called abroadband. They have their own APN settings, but since the SIM card is issued by Telekom Austria, the iPhone will lock in TA's APN settings, which don't work.

Now abroadband have a settings profile you can download and install, but since it overrides any settings you have, I have to find wifi and re-download/install this profile every single time I swap SIM cards.

It's a huge pain and no other phones have this issue. I really have no idea why Apple feel the need to hide the APN settings - it's like hiding the network settings on your computer since DHCP works "almost all the time" and all those numbers are confusing..

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#32

Post by fatbird »

kalleboo wrote: post #28
wlesieutre wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're better about it than the other phone manufacturers. Before the iPhone, it was more or less impossible to get a smartphone that wasn't loaded with non-removable carrier crapware. Apple's refusal to let AT&T do the same with the iPhone during their initial exclusivity deal was a big step. But now, Apple doesn't have as much leverage. If they walk away from negotiations and say "Sorry, no more AT&T iPhones," the…

> Before the iPhone, it was more or less impossible to get a smartphone that wasn't loaded with non-removable carrier crapware You've always been able to buy an unlocked phone with no crapware and no restrictions. The problem with the iPhone is that even the unlocked phones are restricted and locked-down, which is a first.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe you were able to buy unlocked phones with no crapware, as part of the normal subsidized phone regime most carriers have. Yes, you could always pay full retail for virgin phones, but most phone sales occur through channels that are structured around seriously reducing the cost of the phone in exchange for signing a contract. Apple was, IIRC, the first phone vendor to participate in those high-volume channels without locking or crapware.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#33

Post by nathana »

chiph wrote: post #25

Possible solution? Trade handsets with someone who never upgraded to iOS 6.

Yes, possible solution, but not really practical, for the following reason:

The iOS downgrade prevention mechanism also forces you to upgrade to the latest version, even if you do not want to do so willingly, if you ever need to restore (reload) the OS on your device. If iOS gets corrupted somehow and you need to reinstall, the only version you are authorized to install is the latest version for your particular device.

Even if I had not gone to the slaughter willingly, if the OS had ever spazzed out on me and required a reinstall, I'd have still been screwed. You aren't allowed to reinstall the exact same version that's already on the phone if what you have on it isn't the latest version.

So if I trade phones with someone, I still run the risk that at some point, I'm going to be forced to upgrade.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#34

Post by sneak »

roc wrote: post #20
sneak wrote: post #3

Apple also willingly blocks Facetime over 3G and tethering at the carrier's request (on a per-account basis) so that the carriers can upsell you. It really pisses me off that Apple is actively assisting the carriers in screwing me out of using the data that I'm already paying for. If I've paid the carrier for x GB, I should be able to use that for Facetime, wifi tethering, or whatever the hell else my phone is capabl…

I understand how business reality requires Apple to push at least some of the carriers' bullshit onto the customers. But the second a device is "unlocked", all this nonsense needs to be removed from it. There's no defensible reason for an "unlocked" iPhone to still be subject to ATT/VZW's anti-consumer preferences.

All iPads are unlocked. My iPad won't let me Facetime over 3G, and instead gives me a dialog telling me to call AT&T.

This is after "Facetime over 3G" was promoted (by Apple) as one of the big features of iOS6.

I'm almost willing to switch to a shittier UI/software just to not have to deal with thieving fucks like this.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#35

Post by russell_h »

runjake wrote: post #24
Apreche wrote: post #21

Should an unlocked phone be able to function on any carrier without hacking? Yes. If I had my way, there would even be laws guaranteeing customers this ability. However, I really can't sympathize with you at all. You intentionally and knowingly chose to do something that was not officially supported. Now you are complaining that your hack stopped working. If you wanted it to always work, you should not be doing somet…

Oops, it looks like you did not read the article. The person in question owns an officially-unlocked iPhone. This involves an anti-competitive practice where the APN settings are locked to a specific carrier, AT&T -- even in the case of an unlocked phone. You really seem to be venturing into an area you're not educated in.

Apreche acknowledged that the settings shouldn't be locked on an unlocked phone, his point seems to be that when you use an "unofficial workaround" as the author claims to have done, you shouldn't be that surprised when it stops working.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#37

Post by S_A_P »

I dont know that I can prove this, but Im pretty sure that AT&T was throttling my "unlimited" data plan well below the 2GB limit. It was bad enough that I rarely used more than 1GB of data per month.

Fast forward to my iPhone 5 upgrade. Granted there is decent LTE coverage here in Houston, but with no change in my usage habits I hit the 90% mark of the 4GB plan(I needed tethering, so I had to "upgrade") 18 days into the billing cycle. My main data consumption was iTunes match over cellular. I was getting constant buffer underruns with my iPhone 4 on 3g, but now Im hitting the data wall halfway through the billing cycle. Its now in AT&Ts best interest to open the pipe for me so I can pay overage fees.

I dont know that it would be better on a different carrier, but I certainly harbor no goodwill towards AT&T. I feel like Im one hassle away from buying out my contract.

Just getting my iPhone 5 proved to be a multi hour headache due to an AT&T agents royal screwup of my initial upgrade. I ordered a 64GB black phone, was shipped white. He also updated my home/billing address incorrectly(more on that later) I returned it, and they spent 2 hours reversing the upgrade and giving me a new sim for my iPhone 4. That took so long that I couldnt re-order the upgrade. A week later I used the AT&T website to order the new phone, however, it could only be shipped to the billing address that the AT&T agent mistyped when I originally ordered the phone. So I had to cancel the order. But it wasnt that simple. I am a "premier" account and premier support isnt open on weekends. I had to go to an AT&T store and cancel the order. Then I had to call premier support on monday and reverse the upgrade. The next weekend, they finally had some black 64GB iPhones in stock. I bought one. Guess what? it had an intermittent power button. I had to set up an appt with an apple store to get that fixed. Fortunately the Apple store experience was much better. So 3 iPhones later, I have an iPhone 5 with a bad carrier and have to now worry about my data usage. First world problems I suppose.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#38

Post by sneak »

nathana wrote: post #11
mathieuh wrote: post #7

If anyone else has this problem, check out http://www.unlockit.co.nz/ from your iPhone. It creates APN settings profiles which can be installed even if your carrier has disabled them.

This does not fix MMS . Their site simply constructs the same kind of configuration file that Apple's official iPhone Configuration Utility generates. You can override an APN in those configuration files...the internet APN, and ONLY the internet APN. There is simply no place in the iPhone Configuration Utility to specify an MMS APN, and there is presumably no field in the configuration file itself for it to go. iPhon…

Arguably, people who still care about "picture messages" deserve to get fleeced by carriers. If your Internet APN is working, send and receive emails like normal people.

Still, fuck Apple for locking the user out of configuring their own device, though.

Re: Apple Broke My iPhone, and Their Policies Prevent Them from Fixing It

#40

Post by nathana »

sneak wrote: post #38
nathana wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not fix MMS . Their site simply constructs the same kind of configuration file that Apple's official iPhone Configuration Utility generates. You can override an APN in those configuration files...the internet APN, and ONLY the internet APN. There is simply no place in the iPhone Configuration Utility to specify an MMS APN, and there is presumably no field in the configuration file itself for it to go. iPhon…

Arguably, people who still care about "picture messages" deserve to get fleeced by carriers. If your Internet APN is working, send and receive emails like normal people. Still, fuck Apple for locking the user out of configuring their own device, though.

My prepaid flat-rate plan includes "unlimited" SMS/MMS (and don't get me started on use of the word "unlimited" by service providers...). In any case, it doesn't cost me anything extra, and it's way easier to be able to accept and send MMS messages to people in your life who are going to use that channel of communication with you regardless of how many times you tell them to use e-mail to talk to you THAN it is to face them after they've sent you something and then you run into them a few days later and they want to know why you never responded. (EDIT: ...okay, that was a terrible run-on sentence.)
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