A recap for those new to the site, the Neocell was my first iPhone (the one for sale), a 24K gold and wood plated iPhone 2G 16GB. There’s a pic of me ‘n’ my “new baby” the first week I got it.

I was in a contract with T-mobile at the same, so the very first thing I had to do once getting the Neocell was jailbreak it to work on T-mobile. I had a choice between an iPhone 2G 16GB or an iPhone 3G 16GB. The reason why I went with an iPhone 2G is because of me bein’ on T-mobile, it’s impossible for 3G iPhones to access T-mobile’s 3G network. So why pay more money on a 3G iPhone if I can’t access the 3G speeds. So a 2G was a perfect choice for me. See, I did my homework before hand. This is how theneocell.com got started.

About 9 or 10 months later, once I was out of my contact with T-mobile. it became time for me to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS. So I’ve had the Neocell 2G sittin’ and lookin’ all pretty on my desk for a few months. I’ve put off sellin’ it because, well… it’s my baby. Hard to sell somethin’ that means so much to ya, ya know?

I remember all the great and wild comments I’ve gotten from people. There’ll be times I’d be out somewhere, messin’ around on the Neocell 2G and I’d look up and see a chick starin’ at me. I’d say to myself “If she’s checkin’ me out, she’s got a weird way of staring at me…” and then I’d realize “Oh, she ain’t checkin’ me out, she’s checkin’ the Neocell out.”. I’d get the same reaction from guys too, I’d look at a guy and think “What the ‘freak you lookin’ you??” and realize “Oh… the Neocell. It’s cool, it’s cool…”. It would happen out with people too, someone would ask “What was that guy lookin’ at?” and I’d say “Oh, my phone…” and they’d go “Oh… I thought he as a weirdo or somethin’.”

One thing I had to get used to (which I still get now with the Neocell 3GS) is that people will mistake the Neocell 2G for other phones. My banker, who sees me about once a week, regonized that I had a new phone instantly and asked “Wow, that’s awesome looking… is that the new Blackberry” (talkin’ about the Blackberry Storm). I got offended and said “Blackberry? Does this look like a Blackberry??” and showed him the Apple logo on the back. His response, “Oh, I didn’t think it was the iPhone because it has that… what is that, wood?”. That was the first time I realized that people will sometimes not recognize it as an iPhone because it’s so unique. So now, when I get “Wow! I love your phone! What type of phone is that? The new Blackberry / Palm / Droid / Nexus One??”, I take that as a compliment and simply say “No, it’s an iPhone…”.

I remember one person who checked out the Neocell 2G, they asked if they could feel it. I said sure, and they said “Ooo, I feel the wood…” and then they leaned in and sniffed it! I said “Whoh, what’er you doin’?” and they said “I wanted to smell the wood…”. I looked at this woman strangely and had to say “Yeah… sorry… it… it don’t smell like nothin’.”. Haha, wild.

Made a lotta’ memories with the Neocell 2G, I’m gonna’ miss it.

Peace, JbB

And that’s exactly what I did. Now, I wasn’t sure if “jailbreaking” an iPhone would work. Sure, tons of people have done it from what I’d read online, but “online” and real life are two different things. If it didn’t work, I’d be forced to get AT&T and pay an early termination fee to get outta’ T-mobile.

Of course it worked and I’ve been a happy camper for the past 6 months or so. But my contract ends in two months… and I’m so ‘freakin’ happy ‘cuz I’m gonna’ switch to AT&T to get the iPhone 3GS. I ain’t got nothin’ against T-mobile, in fact, after gettin’ the Neocell and usin’ it on T-mobile, I might actually say I… love them. Well compared to the things I hear about AT&T.

I’ve hear all this stuff about AT&T so I’ve got low expectations for them, and I’m not looking forward to the price increase from $55 I pay with T-mobile to the $70 I’ll pay with AT&T a month. But I will be getting a lot more. So let’s break it down exactly what I’ll be getting a month…

Right now with T-mobile I pay $55 for 300 anytime minutes, unlimited weekend minutes (that does not nights) and unlimited 2G (Edge) Internet.

With AT&T, I’ll pay $70 for 450 anytime minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes, as well as roll over minutes, free calls go AT&T mobile and unlimited 3G Internet.

That’s a big jump from $55 to $70… but it’s ok, because if I were to try and get close to the same thing with T-mobile, they’d make me not only sign up for a new contract, but also pay close (or as much as) $70. So although it’s a much higher “C note” than I’m used to paying now, it’s fine…

One thing I’ve noticed is how horrible the reception is for me with T-mobile. When comparing my 2G iPhone to other 2G and 3G iPhones on AT&T in the same exact locations, the Neocell always has a much weaker signal on T-mobile compared to AT&T in Tampa Bay. Now when comparing my iPhone to any other T-mobile cell phones, they all have better reception. So… my thinking is, when I get a new iPhone 3GS with AT&T, signal quality will be another thing that’ll be a huge plus… in addition to more minutes, 3G internet and of course… a 16GB / 32GB iPhone 3GS.

Peace, J

But I’ve noticed that my T-mobile 2G Edge seems to act, well… almost as if I had 3G. It’s very fast. In fact, I’ve noticed simple pages like news.google.com load up about the same speed as iPhones on AT&T’s 3G.

I started thinking about this… why would T-mobile give such good speed to their 2G network? All of their smart phones access their 3G network… and I’ve heard so many complaints of it’s 3G speed compared to AT&T’s 3G speed. I know T-mobile’s 2G’s network used so be dirt slow, but now they’ve put so much quality in it. Why bother when most complain about T-mobile’s 3G? After all, the only ones on T-mobile that even use 2G to the full extent are… iPhone users, that’s it!

That’s why T-mobile’s Edge is so fast and reliable now. It’s because of all the iPhone users. Any model iPhone unlocked and running on T-mobile are only able to access their 2G network. Makes perfect sense. They have virtually no new phones that use the 2G network, so T-mobile boosting it’s 2G network makes it’s iPhone users happy. After all, if people bring their iPhones over to T-mobile and are then let down by sluggish 2G speeds, they’ll jump back to AT&T.

Keeping T-mobile’s Edge boosted helps them steal AT&T iPhone customers, and because they’re paying for the 3G network speeds anyways, but can only access 2G… so it’s only in their best interest.

Now, I can’t speak for all areas… but in the Tampa Bay area, T-mobile’s Edge is nice ‘n’ fast. I took some speed results from the Neocell to show what I mean…

Peace, J

Here’s the deal. The old tools will jailbreak 3.0 OS apparently, but it won’t unlock it or some junk. Basicly, if you try to get 3.0 now, you won’t be able to make any calls. Come on now, no one wants that.

So, just wait for the Dev-team to release the tools sometime this Friday when the iPhone 3G S comes out.

Peace, J

I put the SIM card into my old phone and the Internet worked, but not on the Neocell. I thought it might just be a flook so I waited and tried to test it out a few different times that whole month, but the same thing…

So what’s this mean? It means T-mobile’s system will at some point detect… whatever, and disable the net for just your device. Now, your not able to just pop your SIM into your old phone, call T-mobile, say your net’s not working and have it be done. You’ve gotta’ have the full, $25 a month Internet plan. Keep in mind this doesn’t include any text messages, which is fine by me. **** text messages.

So, is it worth it? $25 for unlimited Internet? If you were a chick readin’ this, I’d say, “Honey, it’s so worth it…”. The 2G speeds we get with Edge are very fast… don’t believe me? I’m able to stream net radio from WunderRadio and Pandora. And no, no skips or delays… just pure music. In fact, I plan on installing a secret, hidden little dock into my Lexus’ center console to play net radio straight into the stereo (already tested it on a few drives, works great).

I couldn’t do this with the $9.99 Internet plan ‘cuz they give you 50 MBs a MONTH… so I was turning on Edge only in the rarest of times, and there’s no way to track usage with T-mobile. So bein’ free to so what I want with the Internet when I’m not on wifi, shoot… I swear I go through 50 MBs in a few days.

Havin’ unlimited Internet is so worth it.

Peace, J

I don’t use T-mobile’s normal internet. Na, I ain’t payin’ $25 extra a month for mobile internet. What I was doing was using the “phone only” internet plan, where you pay $10 a month for 50 MBs of data a month. T-mobile wants you to pay for their $25 unlimited “3G” plan, but as I’ve mentioned before, it’s impossible for any iPhones to use T-mobile’s 3G network because the bands are different than AT&T’s. So your basicly paying for unlimited 2G internet, which is fine because I have a 2G iPhone for that exact reason.

So what my bud told me is that T-mobile has started doing auditing of their data and billing each month, either to make sure customers aren’t getting chraged twice, or that they’re doing it in a way to try to push users into upgrading their plans, or both.

I already know there’s a way to get the $9.99 Internet back, such as putting my SIM card into my “non-smart” phone and call into T-mobile to reactivate my Internet, but my bud says T-mobile will do the same thing at any given time that month.

I really don’t know if I wanna’ go through that hassle, ya know? It all depends. For now, I’m just planning on turning the Internet off. I’ll keep ya updated if anything changes though.

Peace, J

So you know, I’ve been thinkin’ to myself, “Man, I wish I was on AT&T and not T-mobile.”. But then I read somethin’ like this, and I’m reminded why I’m on T-mobile in the first place. I mean, 60% higher fees? **** that…

T-mobile, I may talk a lotta’ **** about’cha, but I still love ya.

Peace, J

Are you ****** me?! No, serious, are-you-******-me? ‘Freak… What bull **** is this?

For those of you that don’t know what I’m talkin’ about, check out the “Careful When Callin’ Into T-mobile” post. In a nut shell, I pay $10 a month for my Internet, but I only get 50 MBs a month. T-mobile wants iPhone users to pay for the unlimited plan, $25 a month for unlimited.

It’s towards the end of my billing cycle and T-mobile gives you no way to check how much Internet usage you use. So, there could be a chance I’ve run down all my net usage and that’s the default message your given. Or, T-mobile has started putting filters in place to automatically detect and then block iPhones.

I really don’t know what it could be, so I’ll have to find out later tonight or tomorrow.

Peace, J

But I wanna’ talk to those out there that got T-mobile with their iPhone and use either the 50MB or 100MB Internet plans instead of the unlimited Internet plan. Careful callin’ into them… they know what phone your SIM card is currently in.

It’s like this, there ain’t no problem with you usin’ your iPhone on T-mobile. And there is nothing wrong with you using any data plan from T-mobile, it’s not a violation of their terms of service (TOS). But, their call center people in India are actually ordered to change your account into the full, unlimited Internet or just disconnect the Internet from your plan. And, they don’t know any better either. They’re taught that it’s the “wrong Internet for your iPhone sir” and will change crap, thinking they’re helping.

If this happens, you can get your **** back, but not after it’s already disconnected, some downtime from havin’ the Internet, and maybe even some errors on your next bill (three Internet charges or whatever).

None of this has happened to me, but they tried with me so I realize it will happen if you let it. What you have to do is lead them into believing that you still have your old phone (the last phone that was registered on your T-mobile account, the phone that shows on T-mobile’s site). When you call for whatever reason, and say in broken English “Mr. Bob, I see your using an iPhone…” or whatever, all you gotta’ say is that this is your girl’s / man’s phone and your using your SIM card in their iPhone because your phone’s battery is drained or whatever. That’s it. They don’t have any data showing anything more than what phone you currently have your SIM in. And keep in mind they still know what phone your using even if you call from a land line.

It’s real simple, that’s all you gotta’ say. But if you still have your old phone, and need to call T-mobile, you could always pop out your SIM into your old phone, call, and not have to explain ****. That works nicely too.

So keep this in mind when calling into T-mobile if your using one of their two limited Internet plans.

Peace, J

So ok, I decided to go ahead and customize (hack) the carrier name of my iPhone. For one, you gotta’ be jailbroken. But instead of saying AT&T, or T-Mobile for me, your carrier, you can change it to whatever you want. For me, I changed it to the name of my iPhone, the “NeoCell”.It’s from an app called MakeItMine and it’s found in Cydia. I’m enjoyin’ it. From what I can tell, it won’t slow down your system and it’s not buggy at all.

The main reason I got it us so that when I post images, you can see it’s from the NeoCell.

Peace, J