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Comment by wmeredith | Hacker News Reader

I'd like someone to save me from Apple's garbage cloud services, but I just can't get away from their hardware. It's just too good.

So... Can anyone convince me that this thing is going to be different from the iPhone killers that are reported on every year in these regurgitated press releases?

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I use all of Apple's cloud services and am perfectly happy. Can you elaborate? I'm curious.

My only problem with Apple right now is they won't sell me an unlocked iPhone7 Plus. Every single person I talk to at Apple gives me a different story on how to buy one, but if I show up at the store with money, they won't sell it to me, or even reserve it. I even offered the store to just hold on to my credit card for a week or whatever and mail it back to me. They thought I was crazy! ;)

> My only problem with Apple right now is they won't sell me an unlocked iPhone7 Plus

Why not just order it from the Apple Online Store?

Not offered there. You have to be a current Verizon, Att, etc. customer (or sign up for new plan). I've tried.

On the contrary - I just did this. I'm a current AT&T customer and ordered a bare phone for my eventual transition to Verizon.

I'm in the US - maybe this is not available in your region.

If you ordered an at&t iphone 7 that way, it won't work because the intel modem chip in the att/tmobile versions doesn't support cdma bands: http://www.recode.net/2016/9/9/12863302/apple-iphone-7-intel...

If you're an AT&T customer looking to switch to Verizon, you order a Verizon phone, not an AT&T phone.

Yep, that's what they told me at the store, so I ordered a Verizon phone. To the parent's point, I had no problem doing this, I am not currently a Verizon customer and they sold me a bare phone without a contract.

Looks like you're right. For some reason I thought they started selling unlocked iPhones a few years back.

They do sell iPhones in the US not tied to a carrier, but usually not until a few weeks/months after the release.

All phones sold on Apple's online store are unlocked, but they come with an unactivated carrier SIM. I purchased an iPhone 7 (t-mobile), then popped out the SIM and put in my old AT&T sim. No problem. I suggest just buying the t-mobile device and doing the same, if you're looking for a GSM device.

You simply choose your current carrier so they know which brand of SIM to put in afaik. When you get to the final page choose "Pay in full" and you get the unlocked version.

Maybe not the greatest UI decision - but it's hard to imagine someone who isn't already on a carrier.

I have a business account and that didn't work. Haven't tried since, just going to wait for unlocked.

I have an unlocked iPhone 7 Plus in my pocket. I bought it from Apple. I gave them my credit card info and they mailed me a phone. It wasn't really that complex.

Are you trying to buy a "sim free" phone? I believe those are expected to go on sale soon.

Can you please go with me to the Seattle or Bellevue Apple Store and help me make this transaction? I went to both over the weekend and things did not go well. They didn't seem to understand the basic process you outlined above.

All phones sold at Apple stores are unlocked, but they come with an unactivated carrier SIM. I purchased an iPhone 7 (t-mobile), then popped out the SIM and put in my old AT&T sim. No problem. I suggest just buying the t-mobile device and doing the same, if you're looking for a GSM device.

I just want a phone that works. All of those words are confusing.

Seriously though I showed up at Apple with a credit card and a SIM card 48 hours ago and they were not able to sell me a phone. To make it even weirder, I had the (unopened) phone I wanted in a bag, but it is a "locked" one from TMobile. I thought that was ancient history.

One day Apple will want my money!

What carrier do you want to use the phone with? If, say, you want to use it with AT&T, just go in and buy an AT&T phone. It will be unlocked. Just swap out the SIM card in the phone with the one you already have if you don't want to activate the provided SIM card for some reason.

I thought I could do that but s/AT&T/TMobile. 3 TMobile retail stores have refused to unlock my phone. It's still unopened in a box. I paid full retail price for it and have never had a TMobile account, which is where they get confused.

Did you buy your phone from Apple or from TMobile? If you bought it from Apple, it should be unlocked already. You should be able to drop in your SIM and go.

In fact, I did this two years ago with the 6 Plus. I bought a T-Mobile phone from Apple because they were unlocked (at the time the others weren't, even if purchased directly from Apple) and used it with my AT&T SIM.

It depends on what cloud services do you want to run away from...

As a recent dad, having more than one copy of my pictures is paramount :) so I "backup" with Google Photos and OneDrive. As these services exist both in Android and iOS I feel like I could change phone without worrying too much about my pics being safe.

What I loved about the nexus phones is that they were cheap enough that I'd stop caring about the hardware. They were cattle instead of a pet. They really should have gone further down this route. Rather than compete with apple on hardware, play up the awesome web services and the fact that dropping your phone in the toilet is no longer a big deal.

Drop a Nexus 5x in the toilet, you're out ~$300. Drop an iPhone 7 in the toilet, you're out $0 since it's waterproof.

Drop both on concrete...yeah right

iPhone 7 is not waterproof, it's water resistant. There's a good amount of water resistance on the nexus 5x as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfweUIe3ueI

I'm in the same spot. I tried to give Apple another shot with iCloud Desktop and Document syncing but that feature is extremely buggy and I've already had to restore from backups because the syncing success is intermittent at best.

Google is just trying to get you to switch to their own cloud service - "Say goodbye to those “storage is full” notifications."

It's not a differentiator from the iPhone it's a marketing bite. Not a lot to pull me into this phone either.

Do they say how long this infinite capacity will continue for? Given their past track record I can envision them pulling the plug on it in a couple of years as they would technically be incapable of offering infinite storage.

What about the iPhone hardware do you think is missing in high end Android phones nowadays? Legitimately curious.

"Secure Enclave" has no parallel on Android.

Plus their SoCs are quite good.

(Maybe not what GP meant, but that's my own take on their hardware)

I don't claim to be knowledgable in all of the Android devices, but I don't believe there's an Android device with an equivalent to the Taptic Engine and 3D touch.

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