Help me be somewhat out of touch.

June 5, 2011 12:09 PM

I don't want any access to email when I am on vacation this year. However, I do need cellphone access. I am currently using an AT&T iPhone 4. Can use the iPhone 4 micro sim card (with an adapter) in a GoPhone? Barring that, what is the most featureless AT&T phone I can put my iPhone 4 sim in (including ones I can buy used). Thanks!
posted by 4ster to computers & internet (11 answers total)

I should have said this earlier, but the reason for using the iPhone 4 sim is because I want to keep my usual cell phone number, and this vacation is only a week.
posted by 4ster at 12:11 PM on June 5, 2011

Can't you just turn off data roaming on your iPhone?
posted by J. Wilson at 12:20 PM on June 5, 2011

Can't you just turn off data roaming on your iPhone?

I could, but I have way too little self-discipline than that.
posted by 4ster at 12:22 PM on June 5, 2011

You can turn off data roaming, you can also remove your email login information from your phone. It won't receive any of your emails. you can also hide the email app in the depth of a folder to make it harder to go to it.
posted by drethelin at 12:23 PM on June 5, 2011

If you're jailbroken, you can make certain apps password locked, so you can have a friend lock email and safari and then give the password to you when you're back
posted by drethelin at 12:25 PM on June 5, 2011

Do you have someone you can trust to have access to your e-mail? If so, you can give them your current password and have them change it to something else for the duration of your vacation, then change it back. It seems like there's got to be some non-hardware hack for dealing with your lack of self-discipline.
posted by SomeTrickPony at 12:25 PM on June 5, 2011

the only real difference between a micro SIM and the regular SIM card is the size. you should be able to use the card in any phone that'll also work on AT&T's network (obviously, a GoPhone would, but there's a wide swath of other phones that'll also work, provided they're not locked to another carrier).
posted by mrg at 12:36 PM on June 5, 2011

I found a sim adapter, put it in a GoPhone, and everything worked well. Thanks, everyone.
posted by 4ster at 1:55 PM on June 5, 2011

Make sure everything works correctly in the iphone when you get back. I used to switch out my sim to another phone when traveling overseas and about 50% of the time my sim wouldn't work correctly once back in the iphone. It would make calls but data was squelched. No one at ATT could figure it out, they would just always give me a new sim. One guy did suggest that since your IMEI changes to a phone without data, the servers may be altering something when they see that, but I never confirmed it.

Anyway, my point is: when you're home, double-check everything on the board is green.
posted by damiano99 at 1:59 PM on June 5, 2011

damiano99: That is one thing I am afraid of with all this, but the iphone seems to be working ok now.
posted by 4ster at 2:45 PM on June 5, 2011

I know you've already got your GoPhone working, but couldn't you have deleted your account info from your phone and changed to password to the account to something unrememberable (after writing it down in a safe place, of course)?
posted by clorox at 9:20 PM on June 5, 2011