Apple May Include Support For a Second SIM Card in New iPhones (engadget.com) 87
Could Apple be planning on support for dual SIM cards with the new iPhone? It's possible. From a report: 9to5Mac was taking iOS 12 developer beta 5 out for a test drive and noticed something interesting in diagnostic report generation. There are clearly references to a "second SIM status." iPhones currently support eSIMs along with normal SIMs, so this could be nothing. But the diagnostic report also references "second SIM tray status," which signals that Apple could be planning on including support for a second physical SIM card with new iPhones.
Blu phones have dual SIM. Some for less than $100. (Score:3)
Roaming is expensive.
Many Blu phones [bluproducts.com] have dual SIMs [google.com] and cost less than $100 [newegg.com]. Quoting: Dual SIM [bluproducts.com]:
A Dual SIM gives you several advantages... If you have two SIM slots in your mobile device, you don't need to worry about these issues: (The writing on the Blu web site is poor. I improved it.)
1) Exchanging SIM cards from one phone to another.
2) Carrying two phones in your pocket.
3) Remembering to charge two devices.
4) You can take advantage of different voice/data plans f
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None of those are compelling for me, even as someone who carries a second phone for work (because I don't want my employer to be allowed to wipe my device, not because separating work calls matters).
The thing is, ten years ago, I would have jumped on the opportunity to have a second SIM card in my iPhone. I had an international SIM that saved a lot of money when making phone calls and using data overseas. These days, my main Sprint plan is cheaper in Europe than that European SIM card. It seems unlikely
But I thought... (Score:2, Flamebait)
Expensive phones don't have dual SIMs because people who travel and need dual SIMs just buy a secondary phone.
Traveling internationally, isn't it better to just use a burner anyway?
Not sure of the target demo...
Re:But I thought... (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't for travelling. It's for having a work account and a private account without having to deal with two phones.
Dual SIM is a must-have.
The S9 is available in dual-SIM by the way, and it isn't exactly dirt cheap.
Re: But I thought... (Score:4, Insightful)
There are many millions of people who work independently, as freelancers, contractors, through their own small businesses, etc. Carrying one phone with two numbers instead of two phones would potentially be helpful to almost all of those people.
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You want your private phone to be under the âoeremote wipeâ purview of your corporate / government security officer? No thanks.
Why? You can wipe my phone right now and I would lose nothing. Honestly people who keep critical important things they may want to lose on a mobile device that is taken everywhere in public and a big target for thieves are basically asking for it.
Do you think your security officer wants to make it even easier for you to misappropriate company proprietary / government classified information? I donâ(TM)t see this as being a remotely acceptable configuration for anyone but the most freewheeling Silicon Valley startup with âoefirst nameâ email addresses.
I can see you don't have a clue how systems like Knox or other secure systems that link corporate accounts on personal devices work.
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There is a far better reason for a dual-sim phone: Private + work sims.
I don't want to hand out my private phone number at work. My boss has it for emergencies, and he's fortunately responsible enough to treat it as such. But I have to have a work phone. So what do I have? Two phones that offer no benefit over a single phone with two SIMs.
Essentially, that would be the first actually useful feature in an iPhone in a long, long time.
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In this age of BYOD? If you have more material like that, you could work as a standup.
Re:But I thought... (Score:4, Interesting)
There is a far better reason for a dual-sim phone: Private + work sims.
That's not a good reason. You should have wholly separate phones. Yeah, nobody wants to do that. But it's necessary from a security standpoint. Work should not permit your personal phone on their network, and they should not allow you to install your choice of apps on your work phone. If they have any other policy, they're asking for trouble.
So what do I have? Two phones that offer no benefit over a single phone with two SIMs.
Compartmentalization is a tangible benefit.
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You can get that already with things like Work Mode on Android - I can't see it being too much of a stretch for Apple to do something similar in iOS
Do you really trust that, given the CPU vulnerabilities that are coming out of late?
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Why would I use a phone to access the work network? I have a laptop. Complete with a keyboard you can actually use without the growing urge to hurl the device into the next wall.
Re: But I thought... (Score:2)
You do actual work that requires typing? What a pleb!
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Work? Well... yeah, let's call it work.
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Yes that's one major benefit - decoupling a voice plan from a data plan.
In certain BYO SIM markets, it may be cheaper to stick with a basic calls and text plan and use the second SIM for data from a different provider.
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I bought a pocket wifi hotspot for traveling.
A second phone is a no go, why should I spent another $500 or more for another smartphone?
I won't buy another iPhone unless it is dual SIM.
My old iPhone 4S is just fine, has a new battery since 6 month, too.
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How about using the space for the useless second sim card for a real headphone jack?
There was a business report on Apple talking about the slowdown with their phones, and how Apple was smart and foresaw that and pushed harder for their online streaming revenues. Nice. People are getting tired of their hardware, and they know it.
In reality, though, little gimmicks like this aren't intended to actually entice users - it's just intended to keep them in the news. It's advertising.
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People are getting tired of their hardware, and they know it.
Yeah, they're really getting tired, alright.
Liar.
https://bgr.com/2018/07/25/app... [bgr.com]
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LOL BGR. The second biggest apple dickpuppet next to you.
Ok, I assume all THESE are not "Dickpuppets", Hater:
https://www.anandtech.com/show... [anandtech.com]
https://www.thestreet.com/mark... [thestreet.com]
https://www.marketwatch.com/st... [marketwatch.com]
https://www.channelweb.co.uk/c... [channelweb.co.uk]
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How about using the space for the useless second sim card for a real headphone jack?
There was a business report on Apple talking about the slowdown with their phones, and how Apple was smart and foresaw that and pushed harder for their online streaming revenues. Nice. People are getting tired of their hardware, and they know it.
In reality, though, little gimmicks like this aren't intended to actually entice users - it's just intended to keep them in the news. It's advertising.
This is getting spooky! Every time anybody starts a discussion about mobile phones, irrespective of topic, an audiophile appears in a puff of smoke and starts complaining in a high pitched whiny tone of voice about missing the missing headphone jack.
2nd SIM slot (Score:2)
I would be pretty surprised if Apple offered a 2nd SIM via an actual SIM tray. Likely the tray will still be one SIM, whilst the 2nd SIM will be an embedded SIM with OTA provisioning.
Apple has pushing PTCRB to accept embedded SIMs only for years and they were heavily involved in the steering groups and standards committees for embedded SIMs. I doubt they did that just for fun.
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Endless stories about Apple supporting features everyone else has offered for years....are Apple customers ever pleasantly surprised?
Yes they are.
Everytime they use their iPhone and iPad, and everytime they use their Mac.
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The Apple of yesteryear would take the dual SIM functionality (that everyone else has) and then add a couple of additional features (that no-one has) which would make the experience far better.
However, having seen what little effort they put into resolving the issues with notifications (they just basically copied the bare minimum from Google), I'm not convinced that they are o
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Would that be the FaceID camera that replaced functionality that for many users works better, rather than augmenting it, the Apple pencil that only works on a small subset of iOS devices, TruMotion that's a feature of LG TV sets, the A-series chips that exist primarily so Apple doesn't find themselves dependent on a chipmaker that can't meet their needs like they did with the PowerPC, or the HomePod that, despite its higher sound quality, nearly every reviewer says isn't nearly as usable as Amazon Alexa or
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Their motivation for building A-series somehow invalidates the fact that it is industry-leading?
We haven't seen a comparison of iOS running on other modern ARM chips, or of Android running on an A-series. We don't actually know that it's industry-leading; in fact, depending on how you define industry-leading (usually performance, which is what we don't have a valid benchmark for, or sales), it's far from industry-leading.
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It isn't that the product is bad, so much as that Apple's policy of creating artificial differentiation between similar products (beyond what is inherent to a larger screen) is bad, and the pencil is a lot less useful (or at least useful to a lot fewer people) because of it. Or maybe they were just having yield problems, and that kept demand down. *shrugs*
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Well sure, if you ignore the FaceID IR camera
Windows Hello was first, and took longer to crack (if it's even been cracked; last time I checked, well after FaceID had been, it hadn't been).
the Apple pencil
Adonit made active stylii for iOS long before Apple themselves did, and they work with all iOS devices, not just the iPad Pro. In fact, the two I have work better than the Apple Pencil I gave to a friend who bought an iPad Pro recently; that's why I gave it away.
Trumotion
The feature of LG TVs that Apple had nothing to do with? Or did you mean TrueMotion, which is an app not d
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We haven't been simce Steve died.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
That's not courageous. Courageous is taking something away, this is adding something.
Apple is losing its way, I tell you...
makes sense (Score:1)
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apple would much rather sell you two overpriced phones instead of just one. This doesn't fit with their corporate philosophy.
You mean this doesn't fit with your Hater narrative.
One for the user (Score:2)
I bet it's the same as every other dual SIM phone. (Score:2)
What I'd want to see:
* For sale at stores in North America
* Works on all carriers.
* Optional isolation between the two SIM cards.
What it will probably be:
* For "emerging markets" only. (You can import it, though.)
* GSM Only.
* Paid app for isolation. (Available six months after release, integrated in the next major version of iOS.)
Part of me hopes that Apple does their usual "take something that exists and up the game," but if I keep expectations low I won't be disappointed when it's the same as every other
ATT used to change $15-$20 a meg for roaming (Score:2)
ATT used to change $15-$20 a meg for roaming just think if the iphone was still att only.
MicroSD? (Score:2)
Since they apparently have room to spare, I'd much rather have a MicroSD slot than a second SIM slot.
Room for a second SIM tray... (Score:2)
You lost your headphone jack for this. (Score:2)
I get some people don't care for 2 SIM cards.
I'm one of them, I know what I'd prefer.
Idiots.