Ditching my iPhone and going T-Mobile + Android

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Originally Posted by ua549

For people without access to a wall outlet battery time or lack thereof is a significant factor. I have 3 relatives who each own several iPhones because they can't swap batteries. In reality an iPhone works about a quarter of a day (business use) before the battery dies. It is like me carrying a couple of spare batteries for my notebook. That is the only reason I decided against buying an iPhone. If they had a replaceable battery ...

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I was in the same situation. I bought myself one of these:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

Charges an iPhone battery from empty to full in about 2 hours. I bought one of these, and it's served me well.

I've seen those, but it just another piece of equipment to stuff into a pocket.

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Originally Posted by ImaNihilist

Not all, actually. I believe South Korea has factory unlocked iPhones. A few other countries as well. France I think.

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Do they use separate firmware releases? In my experience with iPhones it's just like Kent said, every firmware release relocks the phone.

AFAIK Only if it was originally locked. That is my experience with Moto and Nokia handsets.
The reason is that third party exploits are work arounds, they don't actually remove the lock. When the firmware is updated the exploit is wiped out and must be reinstalled.

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Originally Posted by Soul Assassin

Do they use separate firmware releases? In my experience with iPhones it's just like Kent said, every firmware release relocks the phone.

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I'm not sure how updating is managed. I believe the firmware updates for SIM locks are different from OS updates though. This is why "unlocking" is different than jailbreaking. That is, if you update with a US iTunes firmware it can't re-lock your phone.

I think if you have an unlocked South Korean iPhone you can update it thought the US iTunes store without breaking the unlock. Not 100% sure though.

EDIT: Or see above. I'm pretty sure ua is right.

I guess the battery thing is more an issue for some than others. If I needed a phone with a really good battery life i would probably just get whatever free flip phone they where offering at the time. As it is now, I have many opportunities throughout the day to put it on charge, in the car, at my desk, ect. I put the thing on my desk at work anyway(I hate things in my pocket), so its no big deal to just plug it in.