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Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

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Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#21

Post by abrowne »

kgermino wrote: post #2

Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I think about switching from Verizon. No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service, and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their network?

Never had a dropped call in Minneapolis. My girlfriend is getting lots of LTE on an unlocked iPhone even though Minneapolis isn't one of the officially announced markets yet. (Our apt is still EDGE, but that's what wifi is for, right?)

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#22

Post by samolang »

rayiner wrote: post #13

Newsflash: many of your cars are governor limited to 120 or 130 miles per hour, even though the car could go faster. The vast conspiracy!

I imagine cars are tested for max speeds much like ropes and carabiners are given weight ratings. The governor probably enforces these ratings because although your car could go faster, things might start breaking. Faster internet speeds aren't going to melt your CPU.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#23

Post by nostrademons »

kgermino wrote: post #2

Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I think about switching from Verizon. No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service, and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their network?

I've used T-Mobile for the last 4 years. Generally pretty happy with them - their customer service is unobtrusive and generally pretty good, website is solid, plans are reasonable. I think I did accept a 1-year contract when I upgraded to unlimited voice + data + texting, but the initial plan wasn't contract-based.

Coverage in the Bay Area is great. Out east it tends to be a bit spottier than most of the other networks - in rural areas or inside certain malls my relatives on AT&T or Verizon might get service but I won't. They're generally fine in major urban areas and around major highways, but somewhat sparser on the long tail.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#24

Post by [deleted] »

anonymoushn wrote: post #7
kgermino wrote: post #2

Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I think about switching from Verizon. No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service, and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their network?

In the peninsula where many Hacker News readers probably reside, their network is pretty great. In Austin, using T-Mobile is a lot like not having a data plan and having a phone with only moderately high probability. People who call you will sometimes get some message saying that your number doesn't exist. The opt-out process for T-Mobile's DNS hijacking is not satisfactory: > Note: In order for opt-out to work prope…

[deleted]

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#25

Post by nivla »

kgermino wrote: post #2

Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I think about switching from Verizon. No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service, and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their network?

I have had great experience being on T-mobile for about 5 years. Their customer service is exceptional and they also allow you to unlock your phone after 3 months.

However there are a couple of things that do irritate me:

[1] They sniff the header of every web-request looking for desktop browser string. If found they sent you a warning text threatening to cut off your service. It sucks especially when you move to a new home with no immediate internet service and want to tether for a few days.

[2] Non-existent domains redirect to a page with ads (Similar to OpenDNS). Sucks on a mobile since you have to wait for it to load to find out while adding to your data usage.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#26

Post by sdkmvx »

anonymoushn wrote: post #7
kgermino wrote: post #2

Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I think about switching from Verizon. No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service, and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their network?

In the peninsula where many Hacker News readers probably reside, their network is pretty great. In Austin, using T-Mobile is a lot like not having a data plan and having a phone with only moderately high probability. People who call you will sometimes get some message saying that your number doesn't exist. The opt-out process for T-Mobile's DNS hijacking is not satisfactory: > Note: In order for opt-out to work prope…

> > Note: In order for opt-out to work properly, you need to accept a "cookie" indicating that you have opted out of this service. If you use a program that removes cookies, you will have to repeat this opt-out process when the cookie is deleted. The cookie placed on your computer will contain the site name: "http://tmob.search-help.net.

Do you have more information about how this works? I cannot imagine how a cookie would affect whether the DNS server returns NXDOMAIN. The site could possibly do it by IP but then the cookie wouldn't need to exist. If opting out just changes the ads to a 404 that is still DNS hijacking.

The DNS server needs to return NXDOMAIN if a domain does not exist. Nothing else.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#27

Post by backwardm »

ampsonic wrote: post #4

Can you override (with or without a jail break?)

T-Mobile includes the personal hotspot at no extra charge. I just switched from AT&T too and have been really happy so far. My phone only gets Edge speeds right now, only because they haven't "reframed" their cell towers yet. (not exactly sure what that entails, but I understood it to mean that after reframing my phone would be on 4G, have better reception, etc.)

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#28

Post by rayiner »

liquidise wrote: post #20
rayiner wrote: post #13

Newsflash: many of your cars are governor limited to 120 or 130 miles per hour, even though the car could go faster. The vast conspiracy!

Indeed. And much like high-speed highway driving, if my iphone 4s were to use its full internet bandwidth, i would be a mortal danger to my fellow man. Oh wait.

No, but you might negatively impact the user experience of someone else in your cell sector. It's about system design. Your phone is just a way to access AT&T's wireless network. As the designer of that system, AT&T is entitled to control how your devices access it to optimize overall performance.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#29

Post by coldtea »

liquidise wrote: post #20
rayiner wrote: post #13

Newsflash: many of your cars are governor limited to 120 or 130 miles per hour, even though the car could go faster. The vast conspiracy!

Indeed. And much like high-speed highway driving, if my iphone 4s were to use its full internet bandwidth, i would be a mortal danger to my fellow man. Oh wait.

>Indeed. And much like high-speed highway driving, if my iphone 4s were to use its full internet bandwidth, i would be a mortal danger to my fellow man. Oh wait.

It would be a total annoyance of your fellow subscribers to the same network. Maybe not a car accident, but a lot like traffic congestion.

I mean, since capacity does not grow on trees, and it is not that easy or cheap to expand it.

Re: Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception

#30

Post by alecdibble »

runjake wrote: post #9

You can apply the IPCC file without jailbreaking, although I believe it still requires erasing all your settings and contents. The IPCC file is a ZIP file with a bunch of images and XML files with interesting settings within. There's a lot of superfluous FUD ("iOS uses more data than other smartphones, even when idle", which is not true) regarding iOS in the article.

He was quoting the carriers, though I could see how the statement could get misconstrued:

    However, from previous statements released by AT&T and many tech orginizations, iPhones are very complex devices with a very complex OS. The OS eats much more data, even when in idle mode, than most phones on the market. So by carrier request, Apple limits devices to "even out" the network, even if it means Galaxy users out perform Apple devices by such large scales.
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