Why would you need a "hole" to buy a locked iphone at FULL price? Assuming you live in the US, you could buy it from at&t for the same price..... As for buying from UK.. I've been researching this topic today and I'm also curious if unlocking will really work like with 3gs... Looks like all you have to do is buy an iphone, get a sim from O2, make sure your account is over 15 pounds (unlock fee) and fill out an online application for unlock. Olethros, do you know if it's REALLY that simple for someone who's just VISITING the UK?

Originally Posted by bootleg

ag...

the 32gb is 299 but WITH a contract. with no contract the phone is 699

hey olethros, can you buy an unlocked phone from the apple store in the uk or france or do you have to find someone there to buy one for you from another source?

last year someone found a momentary "hole" in the us apple store that allowed people (me) to put the phone in the cart listed as another item but still pay full price but get the iphone shipped direct from apple...

As I said before, when I got my 2g phone , I didn't need to buy any contract with it. Have they stopped offering this ? If I remember correctly, the phone cost 199$. But then again, I had to wait for the unlock to use it...

So I want to buy the phone at 199$, and just wait for the unlock. Won't that be possible?

when i got my 3gs (and i think it's still the case) you can't buy an iphone anywhere at any price without some form of at&t contract in the us. you can't just go to the apple store or online and buy one at full price. it has to come with activation through a contract. for a little while last year it was possible to bypass that but it ended very quickly. i was able to get mine in time.

i read today that t-mobile UK will carry the iphone4. it would be great if we could buy the iphone via uk t-mobile. not sure how that will work though since my account is obviously a us t-mobile account. but it will be my first try.

ALTHOUGH...i read a cnet review today at iphone atlas that gave 5 good reasons to skip the 4 and wait a year (if you already have a 3GS as i do) and just be happy with the new 4.0 software and i'm now re-thinking spending the money for sure...

i have the iPhone4 and can confirm the signal strength issue. holding the phone with your left hand does the trick. If I had a 3GS I would wait. I had a 3G and having the iPhone4 with issues is better than the 3G for me.

Originally Posted by me.

Why would you need a "hole" to buy a locked iphone at FULL price? Assuming you live in the US, you could buy it from at&t for the same price..... As for buying from UK.. I've been researching this topic today and I'm also curious if unlocking will really work like with 3gs... Looks like all you have to do is buy an iphone, get a sim from O2, make sure your account is over 15 pounds (unlock fee) and fill out an online application for unlock. Olethros, do you know if it's REALLY that simple for someone who's just VISITING the UK?

YES, it is that simple, as long as you find a store with an iphone left to sell it to you. they are all sold out at the moment.

you can also buy them online in the uk or france apple store if you have a friend living there to send it to you. apple will only post to adresses in france or uk.