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Comment by kaolinite | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised nobody is talking about the Apple SIM which personally I feel is one of the most incredible features they've shipped this year: no more SIM cards, just pick the carrier you want in the Settings app and you're signed up. Fed up with them? Switch carrier in an instant. Going abroad? Switch to a local carrier. Just wow. I really hope they bring this to iPhone.

http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad-air-2/wireless/ (near the bottom, search for "Apple SIM")

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With a regular SIM, I can put any SIM from any carrier, and they don't have to be blessed by Apple.

I'm not going to let go this freedom, thank you. I'd rather have a physical operation to do than give even more control to Apple.

At first I was excited by this feature, but you're right.

Knowing Apple, they are most likely doing this so they can get rid of the SIM slot in future devices. Of course they will tout the slim device and large battery, but it is really all about control.

You could just take out the Apple SIM.

There are greater freedoms to protect and care for. :) What's happening here is not a company taking freedom from you. It's that old balance of convenience for the many, or customization for the few who care. For most people, this will mean an increased convenience, more competition, better pricing, easier signup. That's an obvious win, in my book, and clearly a positive innovation for Apple to focus on.

You can still do that, just replace the apple sim with yours.

Well you get the best of both worlds. For majority of users, they will just use what ever network that has signed up to be used with Apple Sim.

For those who really want the freedom of using what ever you want, you can always take out the sim. ( Which is a hassle in itself )

On the other hand I'm grandfathered in to an unlimited data plan, If the Apple SIM isn't a swappable card I doubt I'd be able to get unlimited with it.

For that matter I'm also not seeing verizon listed as a participating provider, which seems to be cutting out a previously supported demographic.

From what I can tell, it's ONLY those US and UK carriers. So, for example, don't come travelling up to Canada :(

If you travel to Canada or anywhere else, you take out the Apple SIM and put in your local SIM.

In the UK only EE is participating (as of now) so you can switch from EE to...EE.

Also -- am I right that this is the first iPad to be able to create a hotspot? This changes the economics of mobile -- you can grab a data plan as you like it and when you like it, and use VoIP calling and so forth.

I wonder if the watch may be able to interoperate with a cellular iPad instead of an iPhone.

> Also -- am I right that this is the first iPad to be able to create a hotspot? This changes the economics of mobile -- you can grab a data plan as you like it and when you like it, and use VoIP calling and so forth.

Nope, existing (my Retina Mini) iPads can do it too.

Thanks for the response. Being able to switch providers AND create a hotspot is pretty damn cool though.

So can I still use a regular sim card? If not, this is truly disappointing, not incredible.

You must be able to - I don't see Verizon listed among supported carriers for the "Apple sim" (or whatever they're calling it), and my current iPhone and iPad won't connect to the Verizon cell network without a Verizon sim.

In the past there were different hardware versions of Apple devices for Verizon and everyone else... I'd hate to see a trip back to that.

Likewise, and I think Apple would agree (better for their margins). I was quite pleased to see that all of the iPhone 6s, regardless of carriers, appear to be the same (at least as evidenced by there being only one version of iOS 8 to download compared to iOS 7 and the iPhone 5/5s)

That's ok until there's a provider that they don't have in their database. This may be a big problem for the smaller virtual operators or calling card outfits.

But apple does update their (baseband?) firmware every now and then, right?

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