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Zero VGS posted:Go for it. With regards to texting, yes, you'll need data to text through GV. Though in a pinch, you'll still have unlimited texting with the native number T-Mobile gives you. In practice people tend to reply back to whatever number they're texted from, provided you're identifying yourself. GV will hold a text until it has a split second of data to send it out and receive an acknowledgement back, likewise your T-Mo texts work the same but with more widely available voice signal. Has GV implemented MMS yet? Or is it still SMS only?
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Aug 14, 2012 18:17
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Can I purchase a Straight Talk SIM at a B&M store? I prefer to get one by this Friday when I have to take a trip to a non T-Mobile part of the country.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:06
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Tyro posted:Has GV implemented MMS yet? Or is it still SMS only? Only works on Sprint -> Sprint. The lack of MMS is the only thing stopping me from porting over. My friends don't understand the concept of emailing photos so I'd miss a bunch of MMS messages with GV. I just wish GV would notify you if someone sent a pic so you could at least tell them to email it.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:19
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gariig posted:Can I purchase a Straight Talk SIM at a B&M store? I prefer to get one by this Friday when I have to take a trip to a non T-Mobile part of the country. You can look at Wal-Mart, but I think they only sell SIMs online.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:32
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Schubalts posted:You can look at Wal-Mart, but I think they only sell SIMs online. It's definitely only online. As of a month ago anyway.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:45
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Simple Mobile (T-mobile MVNO) didn't make it into the OP but they've changed their plans around such that people might find them interesting. Now: $40/mo Unlimited Talk/Text/Throttled Web 250 kbit (up from 120kbit) $50/mo Unlimited Talk/Text/4G Web (Likely has a 2GB cap before throttling, like their old $60 plan) The $50 plan is now cheaper than the comparable offering directly from T-mobile, and only $5 more than straight talk. Simple's data use restrictions are likely to be less arcane than Straight Talk's. It's probably worth adding them to the OP now. It's also worth noting that people on other forums have reported pulling 3GB over the $40 plan before being cut off. 250 kbit is ~30KB/s which is fast enough for things like pandora streaming. That's a very cheap plan if you have limited data needs.
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Aug 14, 2012 19:55
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Didnt see this posted but apparently you can get the samsung S2 for $299 on tmobiles prepaid plan. For the casual user, not sure if this is better than the nexus. http://m.slickdeals.net/f/5048656-T-Mobile-Galaxy-S-II-No-Contract-for-299-Walmart
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Aug 15, 2012 05:52
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Hughmoris posted:Didnt see this posted but apparently you can get the samsung S2 for $299 on tmobiles prepaid plan. For the casual user, not sure if this is better than the nexus. Casual user or not, the Nexus is a better phone in pretty much every possible way, and it's only slightly more expensive. If you're going to spend $300, spend $350 instead and get something with much newer hardware and guaranteed support. I could see spending $300 on the Evo V 4G rather than the Galaxy Nexus because T-Mobile sucks in your area or something, but if T-Mobile is the service you're going with, don't bother with the GSII.
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Aug 15, 2012 07:50
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I really wan't to do the whole galaxy nexus thing on straight talk, the thing is i am not sure how the service is in my area. I looked it up online and at&t seems to have the most towers in my area(tallahassee,fl). Does that mean i should have good service in my area then? Also can anybody comment on the galaxy nexus batter life once you turn off 4g?
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Aug 15, 2012 17:28
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sethsez posted:Casual user or not, the Nexus is a better phone in pretty much every possible way, and it's only slightly more expensive. If you're going to spend $300, spend $350 instead and get something with much newer hardware and guaranteed support. If you can root, you can put jellybean on it; that's what I'm posting from. If you're scared to root, get the Nexus, but this one wins out for savvy types right now.
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Aug 15, 2012 17:36
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Xeom posted:I really wan't to do the whole galaxy nexus thing on straight talk, the thing is i am not sure how the service is in my area. I looked it up online and at&t seems to have the most towers in my area(tallahassee,fl). Does that mean i should have good service in my area then? Right now I'm the shining example of "what the coverage maps says doesn't mean poo poo." According to AT&T, I should be covered in 4G service at my house, and I get no 4G, no 3G, sometimes 2 bars of EDGE, and failing that, I'm back down to GPRS, which I'm guessing is some sort of 2G service worse than EDGE. There's really no way to know what coverage will be until you get a phone on that service in that spot. Ask your friends/co-workers what they get around your area.
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Aug 15, 2012 17:41
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Xeom posted:I really wan't to do the whole galaxy nexus thing on straight talk, the thing is i am not sure how the service is in my area. I looked it up online and at&t seems to have the most towers in my area(tallahassee,fl). Does that mean i should have good service in my area then? Coverage maps are only useful for finding out where you have 0 chance of getting service. They're useless for finding out where you will have service. My whole town supposedly has very strong T-Mobile coverage but any T-Mobile device will bounce between emergency calls only, roaming, and poo poo signal (usually the first two) regardless of where in town you are.. Att shows everything within 50 miles of here as having great coverage but there are huge areas (not even rural areas) where there is very little if any signal. There are some coverage review sites out there that might be able to help, but the only way to know for sure is to find someone with that provider in your area.
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Aug 15, 2012 17:46
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LiquidRain posted:Yes, yes, and yes. You may have to call for the MSL but we will give it to you - we consider your phone yours, especially since you paid full price for it, thus you get its MSL. I've been told that if you go to a Sprint corporate-owned retail store they're unlikely to add it to the network since their retail scrubs are chicken, however calling them directly or finding a franchised store or reseller store (Best Buy, etc) will pose no problems. When will you guys have enough of the s3 in stock where there will not be a 3-6 week wait? That is probably one of the deciding factors seeing as my plan ends in 2 weeks and can't afford to not have a phone.
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Aug 15, 2012 20:50
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picked up a mint at&t unlocked (by at&t) iPhone 4s 16g on here for $300 shipped. Got my straight talk sim today and just waiting for the port to go through. painless so far.
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Aug 15, 2012 21:29
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Mr.Trifecta posted:When will you guys have enough of the s3 in stock where there will not be a 3-6 week wait? That is probably one of the deciding factors seeing as my plan ends in 2 weeks and can't afford to not have a phone. Can you PM me your email address? If the deadline's coming down that tight for you I'd like to get you a better answer or see if we can do something for you, but I'm off until next week out of town so can't relay your plight personally and respond here. The least I can do is forward your email to someone who has a better idea when the devices will ship, and you can talk to them directly. You can also try giving us a call at our painful phone number (1-800-TING-FTW  ) and asking one of the reps into checking in with the Ting marketing/managing team on the device ETA. Explain your situation. I'd be disappointed if they didn't at least check into it for you, we do like to pride ourselves on putting in extra effort on our customer service side. (if they don't let me know so I can use it as an example of where they can improve)
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Aug 16, 2012 04:51
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In case anyone was curious, the process of switching to Straight Talk was incredibly easy. I was using an unlocked AT&T iPhone 4S. 1) Order a straight talk sim kit + plan card ($15 for Sim $45 for monthly unlimited everything plan) 2) Call up straight talk to activate sim once it arrives. Tell them you want to port your number. Give them current phone account info such as number, account number, pass code, etc. 3) Stick sim in iphone. Your current phone will still work, until the port is complete, which, for me, took 2 hours. Then my iPhone was working and your old phone is dead and your plan is auto-canceled with that provider. 4) Data is not yet working on your iPhone. You connect to wifi, go to a website, click create APN, pick USA, pick Straight Talk, hit proceed, creates a data profile and then you have data. 5) Last thing is to get MMS working. You need to download a free program called ibackup, back up your iPhone, then it lets you change two pieces of code, basically a cut and paste job, hit save, restore phone, and you're done.
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Aug 16, 2012 13:53
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Has anyone else on StraightTalk had problems getting SpeedTest to work right? One of the reasons I thought my StaightTalk plan was having problems was because I couldn't get good results from SpeedTest. It would get an ok ping, then sort of time out and either quit saying the network had problems, or get one tiny bit of download at either 7 or 8 kbps (always 7 or 8) in the last second of the download. The upload would then frequently be good, around 1-1.5 Mbps. When I tried someone's AT&T SIM card, SpeedTest works fine, and it works fine on wifi. Only about once or twice have I ever had SpeedTest connect properly while on StraightTalk.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:46
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DrBouvenstein posted:Has anyone else on StraightTalk had problems getting SpeedTest to work right? One of the reasons I thought my StaightTalk plan was having problems was because I couldn't get good results from SpeedTest. It would get an ok ping, then sort of time out and either quit saying the network had problems, or get one tiny bit of download at either 7 or 8 kbps (always 7 or 8) in the last second of the download. While reading the wiki last night (Linked in the OP), under the getting data via non-jailbreak, it mentions if you set your APN setting to Straight Talk, it can gently caress with Speedtest because it uses proxies. Check the wiki in the OP.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:31
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rear end Catchcum posted:While reading the wiki last night (Linked in the OP), under the getting data via non-jailbreak, it mentions if you set your APN setting to Straight Talk, it can gently caress with Speedtest because it uses proxies. Check the wiki in the OP. Sorry, should have said I have an Android (GNex.) Not iPhone. That wiki seems to be for iPhone only. But thanks for the info that SpeedTest uses proxies...so even though the Android APN settings for StraightTalk have a proxy, it's not correct?
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Aug 16, 2012 21:45
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After doing some research the past few days I think I'm leaning towards TMob prepaid for the $30 100/U/U plan. Currently I'm with Sprint and my contract is set to expire 11/26 (I was told if I cancel 10/26 I won't have an ETF) and I'm currently paying $80 a month for service. I was told that if I cancel now it would be $50 for my ETF so in my head it makes sense to just do that since it's either pay $160 for Sept/Oct or just pay $50 to cancel. Maybe I'm missing something? I'm not sure what phone I want to use yet since I am another one of those weird "tiny hands" people and as much as I love the Nexus that thing is huge. Are there any comparable but smaller phones that will work on TMob? The main features I want are front and rear cameras, WiFi, Exchange mail access, and good navigation. I stream Pandora during my commute but I never watch videos or anything on my phone so a big fancy screen doesn't matter to me. I ordered a SIM card from the T-Mobile site so once I pick my phone and get it will the situation basically be: 1. Insert SIM into new phone 2. Activate on the TMob website and request they port my number 3. Have a $50 a month cheaper phone bill and still have same phone number? I keep reading all this stuff about Google Voice porting to keep your number but is it necessary? I'd rather just pay my ETF and get my phone number on a new prepaid phone. Also, once I get my phone number ported will it then be locked to that SIM card? I've never had a phone with a SIM so I have no idea how they work...Basically I'm wondering if I can just get a lovely phone now and port and then just pop this SIM into whatever phone I want to upgrade to later? Roulette fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 23:22
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Roulette posted:After doing some research the past few days I think I'm leaning towards TMob prepaid for the $30 100/U/U plan. Currently I'm with Sprint and my contract is set to expire 11/26 (I was told if I cancel 10/26 I won't have an ETF) and I'm currently paying $80 a month for service. I was told that if I cancel now it would be $50 for my ETF so in my head it makes sense to just do that since it's either pay $160 for Sept/Oct or just pay $50 to cancel. Maybe I'm missing something? You can pop a sim card into any phone as long as it's unlocked and it will work, yeah (3g and 4g only work on compatible phones though). And I bothered with google voice but to be perfectly honest I would rather have saved the $20 because the voicemail doesn't work on tmobile, if it doesn't seem like something you would want to do then don't bother. The nexus S is pretty much the recommended "not-gnex" phone and while I have it and quite like it, it's still almost two years old. It's small and one of few phones you should spend your money on but, well, it came out in late 2010. It speaks for itself. nigga crab pollock fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 23:41
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Mister Snips posted:You can pop a sim card into any phone as long as it's unlocked and it will work, yeah (3g and 4g only work on compatible phones though). And I bothered with google voice but to be perfectly honest I would rather have saved the $20 because the voicemail doesn't work on tmobile, if it doesn't seem like something you would want to do then don't bother. What would the benefit of GV be? I currently have the Optimus S which I hate because it just seems slow and dated now but I do love the size. How would the Nexus S compare to that? Oh wait it seems that the Nexus S is only 3G and stuck on Gingerbread...Seems like it has the same restrictions that my Optimus S, just with more internal memory and better CPU. Not really worth the price I think. Thanks though. More research! Comedy option: Would a Sidekick 4G work with the prepaid TMob service because after some research it looks like that fits my criteria... Roulette fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 00:23
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Roulette posted:Oh wait it seems that the Nexus S is only 3G and stuck on Gingerbread... Huh? According to Wikipedia, it already has ICS and JB started to roll out a couple weeks ago.
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Aug 17, 2012 01:45
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Uthor posted:Huh? According to Wikipedia, it already has ICS and JB started to roll out a couple weeks ago. Oh, I should probably learn to read more gooder instead of jumping to conclusions based on 2 seconds of research. My bad!
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Aug 17, 2012 01:57
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DrBouvenstein posted:Sorry, should have said I have an Android (GNex.) Not iPhone. That wiki seems to be for iPhone only. I think that if you put the ST proxy into your APN settings it screws with the speed test. That being said, I'm still having trouble with my Gnex + StraightTalk and I've never used the proxy (except when troubleshooting). Very rarely can I complete the speed test, most of the time it has a connection error when it attempts the upload or download portion. My phone will jump from HSDPA+ to 3G and drop connection even with a strong signal. I tried my SIM in my brother's Gnex and it had the same issue. My connection was great until a week ago. I was trying to make this post from my phone, outside, with 4 bars and it kept timing out so I had to hop on my desktop. I'm going to see if I can get a new SIM from ST and then I'll explore my other options.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:36
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Even though the Nexus S is 3g, it's the same speed as my home DSL so I don't even notice a difference 4 mbit down 
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Aug 17, 2012 02:45
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I just failed to activate a t-mobile line on a new galaxy S multiple times. My guess is that the area code I wanted isn't actually available, but I had to go through two people (and the website) before I found someone who told me to try another one. The 4G speed (3.5mbit by 2mbit) seems a lot better than what I'm used to from VM 3G (~1mbit). I'd been thinking about jumping to VZ, but I'm going to hold off on that until I see how the speed is in other areas I spend time in. Cabbages and Kings fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 05:00
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What model of phone do you have exactly? If by new Galaxy S on T-Mobile you mean a Vibrant (and yes, T-Mobile does still sell them new in retail stores), then that phone doesn't have full "4G" capabilities on the T-Mobile network. If you mean an S2 or S3, 3.5 is a little on the low end for metro area speeds (I get 12mb up/2down). Still, it's fast enough for Netflix or whatever else you're doing. Why on earth would you jump to Verizon if you're getting reasonable T-Mobile speeds?
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Aug 17, 2012 05:17
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Zero VGS posted:What model of phone do you have exactly? If by new Galaxy S on T-Mobile you mean a Vibrant (and yes, T-Mobile does still sell them new in retail stores), then that phone doesn't have full "4G" capabilities on the T-Mobile network. If you mean an S2 or S3, 3.5 is a little on the low end for metro area speeds (I get 12mb up/2down). Still, it's fast enough for Netflix or whatever else you're doing. Why on earth would you jump to Verizon if you're getting reasonable T-Mobile speeds? Yes, it's a Vibrant, I think - "Galaxy S 4G" -- this was for my wife, and she wasn't concerned about being stuck on 2.2 or the speed (and was concerned about the camera, which is better than the exhibit. If I go to VZ, it's because of overall better coverage. Speed is a lot less of a concern (though I've seen VZ 4g phones get upwards of 20mbit around here). Other benchmarks show that phone as capable of more like 7mbit: http://phandroid.com/2011/02/10/4g-speed-tests-show-samsung-galaxy-s-4g-as-winner/
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Aug 17, 2012 14:39
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Smeed posted:I think that if you put the ST proxy into your APN settings it screws with the speed test. That being said, I'm still having trouble with my Gnex + StraightTalk and I've never used the proxy (except when troubleshooting). Very rarely can I complete the speed test, most of the time it has a connection error when it attempts the upload or download portion. My phone will jump from HSDPA+ to 3G and drop connection even with a strong signal. I tried my SIM in my brother's Gnex and it had the same issue. My connection was great until a week ago. I tried deleting the proxy setting in the APN and after I did that I couldn't get ANY data connection to work, so I put it back in. I do frequently have to reload pages 2 or 3 times before they actually load, Chrome says "proxy error." So there clearly is a problem with the proxy StraightTalk uses, but I was worse without it, so...V  V
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Aug 17, 2012 14:42
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I might be totally wrong, but at least from what I've read on that wiki (i know it's for iPhone but I'm sure there are similar things for the droid) you're not totally removing the proxy script line you're replacing it with an other.
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Aug 17, 2012 17:18
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Mister Snips posted:The nexus S is pretty much the recommended "not-gnex" phone and while I have it and quite like it, it's still almost two years old. It's small and one of few phones you should spend your money on but, well, it came out in late 2010. It speaks for itself. Nexus S isn't much smaller than Nexus. I don't think you'll have an issue (small hands) with the Google Play gNex and would suggest trying a VZ version at a Bestbuy. Rumors are that Google will have several Nexus phones shortly. I would guess one will be almost exactly iPhone sized. Hopefully the new Nexus phones will debut at $399 or less. It's also possible at least one will start a run to the bottom with gNex type specs but smaller and lower quality screen at $199 off contract.
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Aug 17, 2012 19:26
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spengler posted:Yes, it's a Vibrant, I think - "Galaxy S 4G" So you know, the Galaxy S 4G is very similar to a Vibrant, almost exactly the same cosmetically, but it's drastically different internally. It has a better GPS, 4G speeds (Vibrant was basically 3G) but also the bad news is it's unfavored for development, so it's good she's OK with 2.2 because quality ICS/JB builds are a ways off. Basically don't do what I did and try to flash a Vibrant image onto the thing. That took a while to fix.
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Aug 17, 2012 21:38
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When I get my new phone and put the T-Mobile SIM card in it and go to activate it online will I get a prompt to port my current phone number over? Do I NEED to port my number over to Google Voice first? I just want to kill my Sprint contract ASAP before I keep giving them more money.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:11
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You're going from Sprint to T-Mobile? You can port straight from one to the other once you sign up the T-Mobile sim for a plan. Call T-Mobile and tell them to port the number, when Sprint heads from T-Mobile that they're taking the number, Spring will cancel your account and charge any applicable ETFs. You don't have to worry about paying them super-promptly; your number will be ported regardless of account standing. Just don't tell Sprint first or they might misunderstand and kill your account while your number is still on it. Edit: No, you won't get a prompt, you have to call T-Mo support.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:23
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Zero VGS posted:You're going from Sprint to T-Mobile? You can port straight from one to the other once you sign up the T-Mobile sim for a plan. Call T-Mobile and tell them to port the number, when Sprint heads from T-Mobile that they're taking the number, Spring will cancel your account and charge any applicable ETFs. You don't have to worry about paying them super-promptly; your number will be ported regardless of account standing. Just don't tell Sprint first or they might misunderstand and kill your account while your number is still on it. Well I want to sign up for the $30 online/Walmart only deal so I would go through all the activation online, get a random assigned phone number, then call T-Mobile and have them port my number over after I activate everything?
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Aug 17, 2012 22:26
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Bingo, do exactly that. I did the same thing, works great except your phone will be hosed up for a day or two during the porting process. As in calls/data will be all sorts of weird, no way around that and calling them won't speed up the process. Just plan for that and you'll be fine.
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Aug 17, 2012 22:33
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I must be stupid... how do I check my voicemail on a gnex with Straight Talk? The help page says to hit the voicemail button in the phone app...there is no voicemail button in stock JB it seems. So I tried dialing *86 like it says for other phones...nope, get a message saying the call can't be completed.
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Aug 18, 2012 03:49
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Long-press 1 on the dial pad? That dials voicemail on every phone I've owned.
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Aug 18, 2012 04:21
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I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 on eBay. It is brand new. When I entered the micro sim card into the phone, the phone said it was activated already. It was someone elses number. I was receiving their texts, calls, etc. I can even make calls and use 4g. I haven't personally activated a plan yet. I've never used sim cards before having been on just Virgin Mobile. I've ordered the sim card activation kit from T-Mobile so I can activate on the $30 prepaid plan. Should I just chuck the micro sim card and use the one I get from the kit?
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Aug 18, 2012 08:28
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