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What Are Unlocked Cell Phones?

James Keyes — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:37:54 +0000

In order to understand what the unlocked cell phones are, let’s take a quick look on the technology behind making that phone call or sending an SMS. You can look at the cell phones as some sort of mini radio transmitters; in fact, this is exactly what they are – when turned on, the mobile phone will transmit radio signals that are “caught” by the nearest base station and when you try to reach another cell phone user, your cell phone signal will be transferred via relays to the recipient’s cell phone.

Of course, most of us don’t really care much about the technical details – we want cell phones with great features that are reasonably priced; well, this is what most locked cell phones are: in order to keep the prices low, many of the mobile carriers offer brand new and popular cell phones at very reasonable price and quite often for free. What is the catch then? In most cases you will have to sign a contract, with two years being the norm, and the cell phone that you get can be used only with the provider that you have signed with; the unlocked cell phones, on the other hand, can be used with any provider, but they sell at full retail price and that makes them more expensive.

In many cases the locked cell phones are good for both sides – the mobile carriers can attract hundreds of thousands of new customers by offering new and popular phones on promotion, while the customers themselves can get the latest phone for next to nothing, instead of paying hundreds of dollars. Of course, not everybody is happy: once you sign a two year contract, you are pretty much tied up because of the early termination clauses. Owning a cell phone that works only with a specific provider is quite inconvenient as well: the unlocked cell phones will work pretty much in any part of the World, as long as there is an open network available; if you have a locked phone and you do not wish to renew your contract after its expiration, then you cannot use it at all unless you manage to unlock it.

However, is it possible to buy unlocked cell phones?

The unlocked cell phones are sold by third party vendors in their “original” state: this means that the phone has not been locked yet and can be used with a provider of your choice. However, not all brands can be found unlocked: in the United States the iPhone works only with AT&T and other smart phones or cell phones might be exclusive to certain providers as well and never be sold unlocked.

Can the locked cell phones become unlocked cell phones?

Quite often the locked cell phones can be unlocked right after the end of the contract if the provider agrees to give you the locking code; this isn’t always the case and even when it is, you still might encounter a few problems. Once unlocked, not all features on the phone might work; unlocking a cell phone privately might sound like a good alternative, but is illegal in many countries and you are facing the risk of damaging the phone and rendering it useless.

Click here to find unlocked cell phones and buy unlocked iphone.

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Where To Buy IPhone

James Keyes — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:30:15 +0000

If you think that when you buy iPhone, you will be simply getting a cool cell phone, then you are far from the truth. The iPhone is way more than that: it is an internet device, iPod and extraordinary phone all in one. The release of the first iPhone took the World by storm, but the latest 3G version is even more successful. What makes this smart phone so much better than anything we have seen before is the fact that you can always extend its functionality by downloading more and newer applications that will help you be more productive or give you more entertainment options.

If you live in the United States, then the easiest way to get an iPhone is to sign a contract with AT&T – you will have to pay for the phone, the first month fee and tax. Since Apple has signed an exclusive contract with AT&T, they are trying their best to prevent illegal use of their smart phones in the US; when you buy one from AT&T you cannot unlock it and use it with another provider legally; even though you might get it unlocked by the use of some software, this will immediately void your iPhone warranty. Another factor to consider is that if you want to buy it from an Apple retail store, you will have to have a two year contract with AT&T (for the 3G model), you must be over 18 years of age and credit check is required.

Of course, as long as you qualify, you can buy iPhone online as well; when buying from the Apples site, you are allowed to purchase only one per order, but the process is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is fill in your details – Apple will send them to AT&T for credit check and once that is out of the way, you will get your phone shipped to the address that you have provided and on the same address you will receive your monthly AT&T bill.

In Canada and some European countries, you will have to go through a similar process, but in most cases more than one provider will stock and sell it. Even though you cannot legally unlock iPhone that has been purchased from the US, you can still take it with you and use it overseas since AT&T provides a World Traveler service, which allows you to use the phone in more than 200 countries.

Of course many people want to buy iPhone and use it with any provider they wish, but you should understand that if you attempt to unlock it yourself, you might not be able to use it afterwards. Unlocking programs are sold virtually all over the Net and their authors claim that they work really well for 2G and 3G phones, but you might be wasting your money or even inflict damage to your phone. You should always buy iPhone from authorized sellers, which are the Apple retail stores, the Apple’s web site and the AT&T sores; use an online store locator that will help you find one near you and you can become a new iPhone owner right away.

Click here to buy iphone and here to buy unlocked iphone.

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Hover, Halflife, Tron and Mirror’s Edge all together!

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:52:40 +0000

Today we interview Michael Lubker. Michael started in the IGDA and volunteering with conferences. His first job was actually at a cybercafe and then went to QA The Sims and Supreme Commander. Now he helps with business development for a 3D Wii-like controller for the PC at Axelo, and works on his original indie projects. One of these is a vehicle combat game inspired by Hover and Michael is looking for designers and a publisher for it.

Tell us everything about the game.

Michael Lubker: It’s a vehicle combat game… inspired by Hover! Bumper cars… with a bit of Halflife 2 gravity and Tron and Mirror’s Edge graphic style: we have also some cyberpunk style thematics in gameplay.

Sounds cool! When did you have this game idea?

Michael Lubker: In December 2008, our goal is to release a multiplatform compatible game and a 3D game on Facebook which is relatively rare and eventually be iPhone compatible and maybe other downloadable platforms and go for a free release with more themed maps and content sold afterwards. If we are successful in our web/iPhone release we will try to go for WiiWare, Android, XBLA, and PSN.

It is a multiplayer game, right?

Michael Lubker: It will be all multiplayer (so you could jump on Facebook and ask a friend if they want to play a round of what is basically bumper cars online) with various collection modes etc… crazy powerups and unique areas (cyberpunk versions of aztec ruins, a crashed UFO, etc).

When do you plan to release it?

Michael Lubker: I hope at this point to maybe have an early closed beta by October.

Tell us something about the actual industry, how do you see it in our Crisis times?

Michael Lubker: hmm. seems that the iPhone is burgeoning, and the Wii/DS and Facebook and other social games. So that’s our market, and Unity kinda makes that easy because it supports all those. Also find the Zune HD announcement interesting, MS competing with the iPhone.

More on the Crisis, it seems like there’s a lot of focus on same old stuff, space marines, and it seems like the music genre is becoming rather old hat.

So… the future is mobile?

Michael Lubker: Seems like it could be, I also think OnLive is interesting but with the economy and threats like bandwidth caps it could be hard to get going. I think that something like the iPod could be used as a portable gaming/computer memory device, if it had HDMI output it would be perfect for sharing photos etc and also playing games (since it has wifi your phone basically becomes the controller if it can hook to a HDTV and connect to other iphones as more controllers).

The iPhone 3 software seems very interesting and I think the Apple WWDC timing right after E3 this year is interesting.

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