Cell Phone Unlock/Jailbreak Help?
September 5, 2011 5:02 PM Subscribe
Is it possible to unlock or jailbreak a verizon, samsung continuum, phone to make it useable with t-mobile?
Giant puppy ate my wife's t-mobile cell. No insurance. Kind friend gave us an unused verizon Samsung Continuum. Is there any way to hack that or should I just get my wife a new phone.
Difficulty for me; she's a teacher and NEEDS a cell. I blew my wad on two kids birthdays and back to school stuff so can't purchase a new phone immediately.
If I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about, you're right, but I'm willing to try anything that an average Joe with some basic skillz can do.
Many thanks in advance!
Giant puppy ate my wife's t-mobile cell. No insurance. Kind friend gave us an unused verizon Samsung Continuum. Is there any way to hack that or should I just get my wife a new phone.
Difficulty for me; she's a teacher and NEEDS a cell. I blew my wad on two kids birthdays and back to school stuff so can't purchase a new phone immediately.
If I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about, you're right, but I'm willing to try anything that an average Joe with some basic skillz can do.
Many thanks in advance!
Response by poster: Well there goes THAT idea! Thank you reptile! At least I don't have to worry about working this angle any more.
posted by snsranch at 5:10 PM on September 5, 2011
posted by snsranch at 5:10 PM on September 5, 2011
If you're still bound to a contract, hop over to a Radioshack/Best Buy/Target (?) and grab a T-Mobile branded pay-as-you-go phone to last until you can afford a nicer one. They'll range anywhere between $15-200 depending on features. I'm not sure if T-Mobile has these models in stock at their own retail stores, but I know AT&T doesn't, so hopefully you have one of those stores in your area.
posted by june made him a gemini at 5:11 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by june made him a gemini at 5:11 PM on September 5, 2011 [1 favorite]
If she can manage a day or two without a phone, go check eBay. I recently bought an HTC EVO for less than half of what they're going for in stores, and for an extra $5 got priority shipping and had it in two days. You can pick up older phones for a song--under $50--and while they may not be the prettiest, they generally work pretty well, at least in my experience.
posted by MeghanC at 6:11 PM on September 5, 2011
posted by MeghanC at 6:11 PM on September 5, 2011
Just to expand a little on june made him a gemini's answer:
You did remove the SIM card from the eaten cell, right? On the assumption* that t-mobile prepaid phones are network locked, you could switch that phone's SIM with the one from the eaten (also t-mobile) cell, and it should work fine.
*I'm going by my experience with European providers, YMMV
posted by HFSH at 1:05 AM on September 6, 2011
You did remove the SIM card from the eaten cell, right? On the assumption* that t-mobile prepaid phones are network locked, you could switch that phone's SIM with the one from the eaten (also t-mobile) cell, and it should work fine.
*I'm going by my experience with European providers, YMMV
posted by HFSH at 1:05 AM on September 6, 2011
HFSH, I can confirm that it works the same with T-mobile in the US. My original phone gave up the ghost before the contract ended, so I bought a $30 T-mobile prepaid phone and swapped out the sim card. Even better, both phones synced the address book with T-mobile's servers, so an hour after I turned it on, I had my entire address book automatically appear on the new phone.
If you don't have the original anymore, I'd imagine it's possible for T-mobile to issue you a new sim card, though I don't know how much they'd charge.
posted by yuwtze at 5:15 AM on September 6, 2011
If you don't have the original anymore, I'd imagine it's possible for T-mobile to issue you a new sim card, though I don't know how much they'd charge.
posted by yuwtze at 5:15 AM on September 6, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by reptile at 5:06 PM on September 5, 2011 [2 favorites]