"hip" iPhone tethered to GOP-supporting AT&T

[villager]

from a Working Assets email:

Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone!
Free the iPhone!

Apple's new iPhone could be easily portable across wireless carriers -- but Apple has chosen to lock the phones to AT&T's network. Tell Steve Jobs to unlock the iPhone.
take action now

This weekend, Apple's new iPhone will debut with incredible fanfare. However, there will be an unpleasant surprise hidden in the fine print of the sales contracts. While the GSM technology used by the iPhone is designed to easily let users move their phones between wireless providers, Apple has chosen to lock their iPhones to AT&T's network for the foreseeable future.

This means that an iPhone purchased in the U.S. will only work on the AT&T network, regardless of what SIM card is placed in it. It cannot be taken to another provider such as T-Mobile, or taken overseas for use on networks in other countries.

Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone!

Apple could use its influence to set an example and open up the wireless market. If Apple leads, we would all benefit from competition and reduced rates. Instead, Apple has chosen to lock iPhone customers in with AT&T -- a corporation whose practices seem to run counter to everything Apple stands for.

This is, of course, the same AT&T that enabled warrantless wiretapping and turned over consumers' phone records to the Bush Administration's National Security Agency. The same AT&T that is doing its very best to destroy net neutrality and create a "slow lane" Internet for the rest of us. And the same AT&T whose new Chairman's political donations are almost entirely to conservative Republicans.

http://actforchange.workingassets.com/campaign/iphone/i365sbsrowt3bx3?

[REP]

1. Looks Like Someone's Trying To Move Their Hedge Fund!

Not the OP - but often when you see negative stories or outright lies about Apple, it's because some hedgefund is paying people to spread damaging info to move the stock price. Sometimes, people do their work without getting paid.

[villager]

2. is Working Assets lying?

:shrug:

[Nomad559]

6. No Villager

Everything In the Working Assets article Is true, It's just that some people on this forum do not like anybody posting anything negative about Apple.

Check out this thread from yesterday
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1183855

See REP's reply to me "Who's Paying You To Post This Crap?"

:)

[villager]

7. interesting -- who, indeed, has an eye on their hedge fund?

;-)

[REP]

21. Bank Of America, Working Assets's Credit Card Partner

[REP]

22. You Never Answered, Either

Anyone who puts this much energy into it either is getting a check - paid operatives do exist - or they're carrying water for no charge. Anyone with a hard-on as big as No-Med's for Apple makes me wonder.

[Nomad559]

23. And yet again

personal attacks Is all you have left.

:)

[REP]

20. Working Assets is Verizon (MCI/WorldCom)

They didn't get the contract, so they're using they're "liberal" face to spread bad press. Working Assets is also affiliated with Bank of America (for their credit card), and if you think there's no interest in manipulating some stock prices before the launch Friday, I'd love to sell you a bridge!

[hlthe2b]

4. What is untrue?

[hlthe2b]

9. Rep? what is it you believe to be untrue? I'd like to know...

Buehler? Buehler?

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Any evidence for your claim? Or just blind brand loyalty?

Corporate PR operatives just LOVE people like you.

[REP]

24. Nope - Fund Managers Like Jim Cramer Luuuvs People Who Repeat FUD About Apple (and RIM)

Harper's, June 2007


THE INVISIBLE HAND
From a December 22 dialogue between James J.
Cramer and Aaron Task on "Wall Street Confidential,"
a video feature of TheStreet.com, a financial
news site founded by Cramer, a former hedge-fund
manager and the host of CNBC' s Mad Money. Research
in Motion, a Canadian company that markets
BlackBerry wireless communication devices, experienced
growth of more than 60 percent in its stock price
over the past year.


AARON TASK: Again today we have a misdirection
from the futures. Is this just because of
the holiday season?
JAMES J. CRAMER: When I was short at my
hedge fund-meaning I needed the market
down-I would create a level of activity beforehand
that could drive the futures. It
doesn't take much money. Or if I were long,
and I would want to make things a little bit
rosy, I would go in and take a bunch of
stocks and make sure they were higher,
maybe commit five million in capital to do
it, and I could affect the market. That's a
strategy very worth doing. I would encourage
anyone who is in the hedge-fund business to
do it, because it's legal, and it's a very quick
way to make money, and very satisfying. It's
a fun game, and it's a lucrative game. By the
way, no one else in the world would ever admit
that, but I don't care.
TASK: That's right, and you can say it here.
CRAMER: I can. I'm not going to say it on TV.
TASK: Well, on a related note, there are so
many more hedge funds today than when
you were managing your hedge fund. Does
that make it tougher?
CRAMER: You've really got to control the market.
You can't let it lift. When you get a Research
in Motion, it's really important to use
a lot of your firepower to knock that down,
because it's the fulcrum of the market today.
You can't create, yourself, an impression that
a stock's down. But you do it anyway, because
the SEC doesn't understand it. So, I
mean, that's the only sense that I would say
it's illegal. But a hedge fund that's not up a
lot really has to do a lot now to save itself. So
this is different than what I was talking about
at the beginning. This is just blatantly illegal.
But when your company may be in doubt because
you're down, I think it's really important
to foment an impression that the Research
in Motion isn't any good, because
Research in Motion is the key today. So you
would hit this guy and that guy, and when
you would see a guy who's bidding, you would
wipe out that guy very quickly. It would be
fabulous, because it would beleaguer all the
moron longs who are also keying on Research
in Motion. When your company is in survival
mode, it's really important to get the
people talking as if there's something wrong
with RIM. Then you would call the Journal
and you would get the bozo reporter on Research
in Motion. And you would feed him a
rumor that Palm's got a killer it's going to
give away. These are. all the things you must
do on a day like today, and if you're not doing
it, maybe you shouldn't be in the game.
TASK: Okay, another stock that a lot of people are
focused on right now seems to be Apple-
CRAMER: Yeah, with Apple it's very important to
spread the rumor that both Verizon and AT&T
have decided they don't like the phone. That's
a very easy one to do because-you also want
to spread the rumor that it's not going to be
ready for Macworld-and this is very easy, because
the people that write about Apple want
that story, and you can claim that it's credible
because Apple doesn't-
TASK: Right, they're not going to comment.
CRAMER: You just create an image that there's
going to be news next week that's going to
frighten everybody. This is what's really going
on under the market that you don't see.
TASK: And that nobody else talks about except you.
CRAMER: Right, but what's important when
you're in hedge-fund mode is to not do anything
remotely truthful, because the truth is
so against your view that it's important to
create a new truth, to develop a fiction.
TASK: SO you're talking about the mechanics of
the market-
CRAMER: Well, the mechanics are much more
important than the fundamentals.
TASK: Well, okay, but in terms of the fundamentals-
CRAMER: Who cares about the fundamentals?
Look at what people can do. The great thing
about the market is that it has nothing to do
with the actual stocks. Now look, maybe two
weeks from now buyers will come to their senses
and realize everything they heard was a liebut
then again Fannie Mae lied about their
earnings for six billion dollars, so you know-
TASK: Right, and Bristol-Myers lied.
CRAMER: It's just fiction and fiction and fiction.
I think it's important that people recognize
that the way the market really works is to
have that nexus: hit the brokerage houses
with a series of orders that can push it down,
then leak it to the press, and then get it on
CNBC-that's also very important. Then
you have sort of a vicious cycle down. It's a
pretty good game, and it can pay for a percent
or two.

[Texas_Kat]

14. FUD hasn't worked, so they're trying this tactic

Not it surprises me.... we'll see how successful the iPhone will be on the 29th.

[rucky]

3. Because Verizon is so darn progressive! n/t

[Hieronymus]

12. After a Verizon clerk assured me that Verizon would NEVER go to GSM ..

I see that they have a new phone with that technology. Not surprising, since it's the most widely used worldwide.

[QC]

8. Careful--you'll piss off the iCult!

They're worse than the $cientologists.

[Nomad559]

11. They're worse than the $cientologists.

That Is so true :rofl:

Check out this article by Michael Malone.

The Cult Of Apple
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/IndustryInfo/story?id=2804821&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

-Snip-

What I'm talking about are the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people out there whose relationship with Apple is obsessive and, one would think, unhealthy -- the people who, like crazed sports fans, will fight to the death defending a team that doesn't even know their names.

For years, the standing joke about these folks has been that they've "drunk the Kool-Aid," or been trapped in the black hole of the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Zone, or that they are the geek version of Scientologists.

:)

[Neshanic]

15. The "ianistas are very vocal so watch it. A cathedral is being erected for the sav "i" or.

The church of the most holy "i". Steven Jobs teachings will make us one, his machines our common love, his phone to communicate our common "i"ness, and his networks to bring pleasure to all.

[Hieronymus]

10. The iPhone is set to be released in Europe and later in Australia ...

Seems one could purchase one in Europe and then use it here with TMobile. My understanding is that Europe doesn't lock their mobile phones.

[Texas_Kat]

13. Verizon rejected Apple iPhone deal

Apple wanted control over customer care and product distribution. Verizon wanted control. Verizon opted out.

Verizon rejected Apple iPhone deal

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-28-verizon-iphone_x.htm

NEW YORK — Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago, balking at Apple's rich financial terms and other demands.

Among other things, Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly cellphone fees, say over how and where iPhones could be sold and control of the relationship with iPhone customers, said Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless vice president. "We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach a deal that was mutually beneficial."

Verizon's decision to pull the plug on talks sent Apple into the waiting arms of Cingular, which will be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone.

[NJCher]

16. as Dana Perrino would say, it's not that simple

I think there's a little more to it than merely unlocking the phone.

As I understand it (and we were trying to buy the iPhone the other day, which is how I know), ATT (Cingular) had to re-write their software so the visual voice mail function on the iPhone would work.

Sure, you could use the iPhone on another carrier but you wouldn't have that functionality. Is every carrier going to be willing to re-write their software for iPhone?

When we spoke to Apple, they admitted that there had been considerable negative customer feedback over this issue. In our case, we weren't about to factor in the cost of ending one cell phone contract to go with another.

Apple signed this ATT contract for five years, as I understand it.

As a former marketing person, I thought it was stupid until I understood the reasons for it.

So instead we went with the top-of-the line Mogul. Yeah, 600 or so but it has Office functionality and a little QWERTY keyboard that pulls right out from under the phone. The 2 megapixel camera is nice, too. Day by day, as we work with it, we're finding it to be pretty amazing.

The one downside to it is that it's so new the customer service or tech people don't always know what to tell you but that's often the price for being cutting edge.

Here's a blog entry on the Mogul with a picture, in case anybody's interested.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/sprint-mogul-review-roundup/



Cher

p.s. edited to add that I touched base with a student who sells phones at Cingular and he said things were, "quite frankly," a little slow.

[hlthe2b]

26. I was looking at that....

the other day via some website "first looks"... My employer has gone nutso over the new IRS regs requiring separation of personal and business use and is insisting we carry two (despite the fact, many carriers have laid out a litany of solutions that would allow us to separate the calls for reimbursement). We're going blackberry, but I do edit office documents not infrequently on the fly, which BBS will not do and I also like to pull down internet when I'm out of the office. I suppose they will figure out a way to show that I was on DU, on the blackberry, LOL, so I'll need to double geek out, it seems.

The mogul has wifi too, I think and can also be tethered as a modem.... The first thing I'd have to do is change the yellow on the opening screen, but I'm sure that can be done--LOL
What do you think, Cher? I've been carrying a treo, so the fact that it is similarly a bit big compared to the ultra-sleek cells out there, would not probably bother me. How is the call clarity, including speakerphone?

I'm in Denver, which has a real Verizon hold, but I believe Sprint also has 3G wireless here.

[MonkeyFunk]

17. what nonsense...

getting certified by carriers is a very long, drawn-out process, and a short period of exclusivity is very common.

[Occulus]

18. Well, no iPhone for me

I don't like AT&T at all.

(As if I were ever going to get an electronic leash in the first place.)

[Hieronymus]

19. On the subject of cellphones .. does anyone have experience with

TMobile either good or bad?

[PBass]

25. Different carriers have different user reviews/feedback based on service area.

I have Sprint an in my area they seem to do great. In your area they may be considered lousy.

There is an internet forum that's all about cell phones and the geeks who obsess about them (and normal folks who just want to avoid a potential nightmare). It's called the Howard forum, look up the words cell phone howard forum (Google) and you should find it. (I didn't know if a direct link was against the rules).

[Tesha]

27. As compared to, say, GOP-supporting Verizon?

Working Assets is obviously trying to get people on to their
network (and I'd support that because I support Working Assets),
but I wonder:

Who provides the underlying network that Working Assets
re-sells and how red/blue is that provider? Ahh, I see
from post #20 above that it *IS* Verizon (MCI/WorldCom),
and IIRC, they're not exactly a paraggon of a blue
blue company either.

I'm also pretty confident that someone will crack the
iPhone's lock about 20ms after the phone hits their
hot little hacish hands.

Tesha

[onenote]

28. exactly -- here's a link

http://opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.asp?strID=C00186288&cycle=2006

[Tesha]

29. Thank you for that data!

> Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates (list recipients)
> (36% to Democrats, 63% to Republicans)

[John Kerry VonErich]

30. If the Iphone works, it works.

I look at the product itself and thats it.

[Iris]

31. well, I'll be writing that one off for now.

I was going to actually update beyond my free Nokia that won't keep a charge and had possibly considered leaving Working Assets Long Distance in order to the the iphone. Now it's easier to NOT make that decision!