Had my iPhone since I was 17.. Don't buy her a new one, bit get her one if you can afford to, especially if the home life has been rough.


Don't turn your kid into the lame kid I was in HS. ;)

I thought you were about my age? I can't remember iPhones being on the radar in high school.

I'm 20....

Posting from my iPhone right now. On i35 in the middle of nowhere MO.

Guys,

I appreciate the parenting advice and your feedback...but that is not what I am asking for ;).

IF we decide to buy an iPhone for madam it will be an outright deal and then prepaid. She will contribute to this purchase on a 50-50 basis from her savings. She needs to feel the pain of parting with the dollars...and no plan for her to run up the bills.

Prepaid has always worked well for our younger kids as I will not charge their phones more than once a month. If they run out of credit; they run out. They know the rules...and they are pretty good at sticking to them :). It helps them learn about the budgeting process...

My questions are techy ones...what is jailbreak all about and what's the blurb about buying an offshore phone (not Aussie issued) and not being able to update the software? I need an unlocked phone obviously as well.

Charlotte's iPod is playing up so the iPhone isn't such a bad idea. She doesn't need a video cam etc as she has a great camera that she loves already. 3GS seems to be the way to go (16 or 32) from what I have read etc.

5 won't come here for a while and if the current local pricing on 3GS is anything to go by the 4 won't come down much here on its release anyway.

So throw me some techy advice please...I'm not a smart phone person so don't know the stuff I need to.

iPhone on a prepaid carrier may be an issue with the carriers data...

When I was 14 I got to go race go-karts at Jim Hall Racing school. It was the time of my life doing the day #2, wheel-to-wheel racing program.

Lisa, sorry I can't help you with AUS mobile service providers. But basically jail breaking a iPhone means that you run a script to get super user privileges of the device. That enables you to install any iPhone app you want...even if that goes against your service providers wishes. Like I said I don't know about AUS but here in the U.S. service providers (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, etc...) want you to pay money for their services and put a strangle hold on the original phone OS to ensure you pay for what is commonly available through the app store. About 14 months ago I had a iPhone 3GS which I jailbroke and then installed apps like Skype while removing the service providers apps (music, photos, navigation)...all of which required monthly fees to use. I was able to install better (and free) versions of those utilities from the App store.

There are tons of videos on YouTube about jail breaking your iphone and various forums you can google for as well. I have moved to the android platform and the internet support (XDADevelopers) is equally robust.

I think if you pick up a used 3GS you can easily jail break it. I just don't know what the service providers in AUS are doing. Sorry.

Get her an iPod Touch. :D

We're about to "hand down" my wife's iPhone 3G to our 16 year old daughter and my wife will get a "no frills" phone. If the phone gets broken, lost... Our daughter pays for the replacement. Neither of our kids has ever lost or broken a phone (they pay for them) but our neighbor's kid break/lose their phones weekly, it seems. Their parents pay for the replacement. Funny how that works...

Something I hadn't considered :confused:. Thanks - I'll check with the 2 providers that actually give us some reception here.

No iPod touch...she'll still need a new phone and that makes 2 not 1 extra new gadgets ;) (thoroughly sick of all the leads and such already for phones etc around here).

David (JavaBrewer) - thanks. Good explanation and what I need to know.

Art - I hear you! Same rules here...amazing how the two younger kids do not lose things like this when so many of their friends do. Bought the youngest a new phone for his birthday (nothing fancy; just a great little phone) and he never lets it out of his sight; doesn't abuse the privilege of having one and is so appreciative. The oldest one...different story these days. Probably has something to do with lifestyle choices for him at the moment :mad:. His stuff is his problem - I won't replace anything for anyone who can't manage to look after things and doesn't value the effort it takes to make the money to buy the damned things in the first place...whole other story. Can't go there at the moment; makes my blood boil too much :mad:.

Jyl - thanks for the pm; will be back to you soon.

Lisa, this thread makes me appreciate that when my daughter was a teen, cell phones were those big clunky things that a teen didn't want.

Wishing you good luck with this. SmileWavy

What you have to find out, is what carriers you can use an iphone on. Once you find that out, is one of those carriers the same one you are using now. If not, can you jailbreak/unlock it to work on the carrier you are currently using.
The most common unlock here in the states, is to use an iphone on Tmoblie.
Anyway, jailbreak means as stated above, you are free to use non licensed apps. Once you have jailbroken the phone, then you run one of those apps to unlock the carrier, so you can use it on another carrier. You can jailbreak it without unlocking it, but not the other way around.

Also, you can only unlock up to a certain firmware. Apple keeps coming out with updates, and the hackers are always a few versions behind. Also, with most unlocks, you lose the 3G speed. And 3GS iphones are only $49.00 new!

Lisa, I use TPG for my internet access and they are great. Had one issue in the two years I have been with them and it was fixed immediately. If you have a broadband account with TPG you can get mobile access for $14.95 a month. This includes $330.00 of credit to any network and $370.00 of credit to another TPG connected mobile plus 1gb of data.
Both my lads have Iphones and this deal works out great. They have credit left over at the end of every month and have never used the entire 1gb of data. They use their iphones for everything including homework when we are traveling.

Forgot to point out that you can go online and check the usage with all the phone numbers and websites visited.

don't forget about "parental controls"... oh and i'm for her having the best phone you can afford, iphone 5. You never know what creative spark it might ignite in her, IMHO

I guess it boils down to what kind of kid she is. If she has a little bit of the wild side then I would look to a differnt model. IPhones are tough to set up restrictions on. If on the other hand she is pretty grounded and is really interested in it for its power and ease (and fun), your idea of going halves in good faith that she is responcible.

oh ya, if she is a little bit of a 'wild child' than really no amount of restrictions are gonna stop her but you can make it a bit more difficult. Plus, by making it tougher on her it will promote a smarter scam on her part - she will commit the crime anyway but at least she will be using her brain to make it more interesting!

Rattlesnak and dewolf - valuable info; thanks!

Poor kid...late birthday pressie this year as I am working all day every day (and night) at the moment.

This is still on the 'to do' list - with about 100 other pressing things before it :(. I need to clone me ;).

Cheers guys,