Be Excellent To Each Other

Given that Carphone Warehouse sells iPhones, reasonable. Go in and ask them.

She's a bit abrupt. I don't like her.

Text your postcode to a different number then.

I have been with o2 for ages and tried to get an iphone a couple of months before my contract 'ended'. They were totally uninterested in doing that for me, so i had to wait. The girl on the phone sounded in a terrible mood though, maybe someone happier might have budged.

Well, Becky has lead me to this deal...

Flext 35 discounted to £31.50 with a free G1 or Nokia 5800.

I dunno... it's too damn much!

Buying a phone+tariff is different through Carphone Warehouse - CW provide the phone, O2 provide the tariff. So you need to read through a massive sheet of faint 3pt which partially intermingles aspects of both contracts and is overly wordy and not especially clear.* At least, that's what I gathered from my girlfriend's last purchase.

* Is there any way I can make the background pink for added authenticity?

Cheapskates have shit phones. Trufax.

Do you need a phone right now? Could you wait a couple of weeks and see what pops up?

Cheapskate? I just resent paying for a landline + broadband + mobile + more for mobile internet. Actually... I hadn't even considered Virgin.

I think it's about time BT were properly required to separate line provision from voice accounts. I mean for fuck's sake, they're already two distinct companies theoretically operating autonomously. I'm already paying £125 to have a line installed, why can't I have no voice pay £8/mo? Or even just £X per-callout (when it's not BT's fault)?

I have it on good authority that it will break if you drop it down the toilet.


I just did this (with a G1). Go on, you know you want to...

I have no insurance to cover such a thing. At least, I'm pretty sure my home contents doesn't (one of the few discernible reasons it's less than half the price of the nearest quote). I'm also out of the original 18 month contract and onto a SIM-only monthly contract, so any warranty I had is gone, and I'm pretty sure it's modern enough to have one of those water indicators.

My D900i is the best phone I've ever used - as long as you only want phoning/texting.

I've always found Samsung and Motorola phones to have the worst software I've ever used. They always look nice, though.

Mine occasionally refuses to dial or text despite claiming 3 bars signal, then I have to wait about 3 weeks while it reconnects to a mast.

It also occasionally hangs up mid-call, but last time it did that it was a recruitment agent I didn't want to speak to, so I don't really mind.

Yes, the software is absolutely dreadful in every respect. I really don't know what I was thinking; I'd even had a play with one. I think it was the thin-ness and reassuring slidey action.

I agree. The Samsungs in particular are barely usable!

Yes. That. I had a RAZR, and still shudder thinking about it. It's a real shame I lost that phone, I was SO looking farward to smashing it up. My wife has had a number of samsungs and I just don't like them.

If you are out of contract, can't you just upgrade?

I don't use it enough, which is why I'm on the £10/mo tariff (150 minutes! 300 texts!). It's adequate enough for that.

When the battery isn't going from full to empty in the space of a single call, obviously.

...and it'll always be someone else's fault.

I might have to look at getting a replacement phone. Experimenting with one of the cheap ones from Deal Extreme was all well and good but it's bloody useless for texting which is what I mainly use a phone for. Might have to try another Nokia.

I really liked mine and only upgraded because I wanted something with proper net access. Of course dropping it down the loo brought that forward somewhat...no water indicator on mine I'm afraid. I'm on the £31.50 a month jobbie, so far so good. I'm pretty sure it's 3GB per month according to the fair usage policy too.

DM - I'd been asking you to get that fixed for ages. I'll bet it's still broken!

Like god.

But I'd settle for a slimmer model with 32gb flash space. This request would probably tear the space-time continuum in 2009, though, so god might be easier to ask for.

I have a couple of iPhone issues, can you help me please?

Issue #1 - Can you seriously only take music from one computer on to your iPhone? Maria's iPhone has taken a few albums from her laptop (as that's all she has on there). To take music from my iTunes it had to first delete everything from her iPhone and start from scratch... so she loses the albums she uploaded on to her PC, and now if she connects back to her own PC she'll lose everything she took from mine? If that's actually a 'feature', then it's just about the most ridiculous thing ever. Please explain how to get around what seems like an insurmountable wall of annoyance.

Issue #2 - When finally connected to my PC and iTunes (removing her music in the process), it stays synced for a few moments, but then after dragging across a couple of songs, it freaks out and gives an error, saying that it 'cannot find the disk' to put the music on. So you have to unplug it, plug it back in, let is sync up again and then after that add a couple more songs before it fails yet again. Anyone have experience of this?

Issue #3 - Whenever plugging the iPhone in to any PC, it immediately opens up a couple of windows and tries to show you every single photo that has been taken on it. Given that there are lots of pics on it, this is annoying, takes a while, and generally just shouldn't be there. This again must be able to be turned off, but I can't immeidately see how and it was annoying me immensely. Again this is obviously not something you cannot turn off and it shouldn't be happening, but for some reason it is. How can I turn off this ridiculously stupid setting?

I must say, the simple act of trying to put some music on this piece of equipment has changed my stance from "Really, really, really want an iPhone" to "I never want to see that annoying fucking thing ever again". I do, however, want a flashy phone, so please restore my faith in its nature.

THANKS!

Curio, I'm on my phone now, so I'll brief.

#1- all iPods, ever, can only sync with a single iTunes. This is unfortunate, as it means you have to gather all music for the iPhone on a single computer. There is an upside though, for example, that iTunes will have a total backup the phone, right down to every SMS and contact, and little stuff like "last played" will sync from phone to iTunes.

I don't know I'd this one-iTunes-per-iPod thing was Apple's decision, or part of their commercial agreement with the labels.

#2- not sure why this is off-hand.

#3- this is the PC, not the iPhone. By default the iPhone looks like a thumb drive. In Vista's control panel there is a "when I plugin X do Y" setting, you need to change that to Do Nothing.

I've always been a Motoroller. They're...okay.

I need a new one though, I was watching Ross Kemp in Afghanistan and the phone they pulled off some Taliban suspect on a moped was newer than mine.

So. I swallowed my pride and strolled to the carphone warehouse in Liverpool, wherein I met the stupidest, most ill-informed salesman ever.

I was looking at the nokia 5800 (as I am torn between that and the G1) and he comes over to offer 'help'

Him: "Can I help you?"
DavPaz: "(resists urge to say 'probably not') Yes mate, I see 02 are offering the 5800 for £15 a month"
H: "Yep"
DP: "Er... can you tell me about it?"
H: *reads the numbers off the fucking wall*
DP: "Ok, and what's the charge for data"
H: "You mean internet and email?"
DP: *through clenched teeth* "Yes"
H: "It's up to £1 a day"
DP: "How much for unlimited usage?" *of course I know that o2 do a £7.50 bolt-on, but I'm feeling adventurous*
H: *Looks terrified, gropes for a guess* "£10 a month(?)"
DP: *sigh* "Ok, thanks mate" *I head for the door*
H: "Would you like to see the phone working?" *as this is the first useful thing he's said, I return*
*He disappears out the back for 5 minutes, while I watch my lunch break tick away*
*He comes back with the phone*
*I play for a while*
H: "It's nice, isn't it?" *GAGH!* "It comes with a stick!"
*Hearing a phone salesman, who's PAID to know about phones describe a stylus as a 'stick' is the last straw for me. I hand the phone back and without eye contact, leave in disgust*

I've decided anyway. It's going to be Flext 35 (discounted to £31.50) on an 18 month contract with t-mob. I just have to decide between the 5800 and the g1. Anyone used both?

These 5800s good then?

well yeah, it seems like a good phone, sufficient for my needs. My bro's missus has just got one and I'm going over this weekend (KILLERS CONCERT ON MONDAY!) so I'll have a play and make my choice.

Many thanks for the help, but I'm afraid that this point at least is simply not true. I have taken music from at least three different computers with different iTunes log-ons with my iPod, have done so with previous iPods, and several of my friends have taken music from my computer in addition to that they have taken from their own.

If they've changed this for the iPhone it's a horrific decision. I could probably live with it as I have enough music on my PC as it is (in excess of 50GB), but it's always nice to plunder a friend's collection when visiting.

I guess #2 is the main problem, as it means we can't get the music on to the damn phone. Might have to visit Apple's help website or call them or something. It doesn't help that I cannot connect to the internet and pass songs to the iPod at the same time due to my USB expander thingy not working properly. Grrrrr.

I can't help but think your connection problem might be down to some sort of USB trouble as well

As for using it with more than one copy of iTunes - I haven't done this but it should indeed be possible - a quick google reveals:



Does that help?

http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=61176

Uhh, how? Everytime I've plugged any iPod into any iTunes other than the one it's synced with, it's popped up a dialog that says "hey, there, I'm going to wipe this iPod now and sync it with this iTunes instead, are you sure?" This is on half a dozen iPods back as far as a 2002 era Shuffle. Is this because you've put it in "manage music manually" mode perhaps? (I hit post, and Kalmar's post appears) Ah, yes, that's it. I've never used that mode, but it should work on the iPhone the same as it does on any other iPod.

When I want to do this, I plug the iPhone in and just copy the music using Explorer onto the disk part of the iPhone. The iPhone can't play music from there, but when I get home, I move it onto my PC and add it to my master iTunes library, then sync it back over.

Or: The Manual Sink



Sorry.

The dialog sounds a bit misleading - it might lead you to think that it's YES to continue (and wipe everything) and NO to do nothing and give up. Whereas it's NO to continue but not wipe everything.

They shouldn't have used YES and NO for that.

I have decided! I am going to get a G1 at lunchtime, and use one of my iPods (if I can find them) in the car. Excitement!

I try to avoid using sync with iTunes and any pods, given that I have over 50GB of music on iTunes, and no desire to have the majority of it on my pod.

iTunes broke when I put all my music on it for the Mrs. to choose from. That's what comes of using your laptop to DJ with

I can never be bothered syncing music properly with any device I've had - I'd rather just drag & drop stuff I want via explorer. Helpfully Winamp will often pipe up and say 'Do you want Winamp to sync this device'. I'd like the dialogue box to give me the option to type in 'No, I've only turned the bloody printer on'.

That dialog is shite. I'm trying to find a screengrab of it, but I can't just now. Anyway it's terrible in several ways, all of them basically resulting in a blank iPod you weren't expecting.

Do you mean you are going to a shop to get one? Because the better deals seem to be via the website.

Oh fuck? What?

That's almost always true. O2 give you twice as many minutes for online SIM-only deals, for example.

I wanted to pay £25.53 for Combi 25 with a free phone - can I not get that in store?
I think I'll ring them up and ask if they'll match it.

Where have you seen that deal Grim...?

Hither.

Ah, you're in the business part of the site.

Oh fucking triple-balls.

The lovely "Maff" has put a black G1 aside for me
I'm getting it on Flext 30 and the shop will match the web-only free Internet (normally £5) deal.

£1.50 more gets you flext 35 dude.

Now, see, I've seen that, and half my brain is saying "ZOMG DO IT" but the other half is saying "You'll not get near that many minutes and texts a month, WTF is the point?"*. I'm still dithering, and will decide when I actually go in store.

* Yes, my brain speaks leet.

that a FIVE PUND VALUE for ONE PUND FIFTY!

/informercial