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Final Word on SIM Tray

AirmanPika

AirmanPika

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 19, 2007
307
2
Vandenberg AFB, CA
OK I know some people still are confused on this so I am doing this for the benifit for everyone. There is no speculation here. This is all based on official Apple and AT&T info.

This is the SIM Tray...
simtray.png


As you can see from my hard labor in MS Paint the tray is located between the headphone jack and the standby button. There is a small hole that you insert a paperclip or similar object in to release the tray.

Now...some people seem to be thrown off on the whole "preinstalled" text. All this means is that the card was put into the tray when the iPhone was made. It is a normal removable SIM that you can use in any other GSM phone. The following was taken directly from the AT&T Training Guide posted on Boy Genius today...

- SIM cards are not required for repairs, and should not be returned with the device. Advise the customer to remove the SIM card, prior to sending it to Apple, and store it in a safe location.
- If a customer decides to insert their iPhone SIM card into another AT&T device they will have the following experience:
Visual Voicemail will not be available, however regular voicemail will be accessible by pressing “1” to hear messages.
MEdiaNet will be used to access the Internet. MMS and IM messages are included in the customer’s iPhone Data Plan.
Contacts will not be accessible via the SIM.
- Contacts added to the SIM while in another device will not be synced back to iPhone.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this clears everything up once and for all. If not then Friday will tell you the same thing I just did.
 
AirmanPika said:
It is a normal removable SIM that you can use in any other GSM phone. The following was taken directly from the AT&T Training Guide posted on Boy Genius today...
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure it's normal and they've definitely altered some of the functionality one would come to expect from a normal SIM. From the same Training Guide...

Contacts will not be accessible via the SIM.

Contacts added to the SIM while in another device will not be synced back to iPhone.

Set clear expectations around what to expect if the customer chooses to insert their AT&T SIM card in another device while their iPhone is being repaired.
Click to expand...

Edit: Looks like you added that info to your post...but the question remains, how "normal" is this SIM card. Looks like we can use it to access the AT&T network from another phone, but the guide also makes it clear that existing SIM cards won't work for contacts in the iPhone.
 
TheAnswer said:
I'm not so sure it's normal and they've definitely altered some of the functionality one would come to expect from a normal SIM. From the same Training Guide...
Click to expand...

it's absolutely normal. if not this would not be possible....

"If a customer decides to insert their iPhone SIM card into another AT&T device they will have the following experience:
Visual Voicemail will not be available, however regular voicemail will be accessible by pressing “1” to hear messages."

edit: and the quote you posted is in regards to a limitation of the iPhone, not the sim card. the sim works exactly like a normal card but the phone does not have the capability to pull contacts off it.
 
TheAnswer said:
I'm not so sure it's normal and they've definitely altered some of the functionality one would come to expect from a normal SIM. From the same Training Guide...
Click to expand...

Yes it IS a normal SIM. My god people. This is why there are so many confused people still. The IPHONE simply cannot access the the Contacts from the SIM as it does not use it to store or access them. On a normal Phone it will still work fine PER AT&T. Thats part of the quoted text.
 
AirmanPika said:
Yes it IS a normal SIM. My god people. This is why there are so many confused people still. The IPHONE simply cannot access the the Contacts from the SIM as it does not use it to store or access them. On a normal Phone it will still work fine PER AT&T. Thats part of the quoted text.
Click to expand...

I'm clear on the ability to use the iPhone's SIM card in another phone on AT&T. The problem is some people think removable SIM card = unlockable or that any SIM card will work in the iPhone. I don't think that's the case here.

What I'm thinking is that on the iPhone's SIM, the data area where contacts would be stored is being accessed differently by the iPhone as part of their measures to maintain network exclusivity.
 
What I want to know is why the SIM is made more accessible than the battery... As the iPhone can use ONLY ATT SIMs, and you'll be (close to) never changing it. Whereas many would love to replace the battery once in a while.

Was the iPhone originally designed to worm on any GSM network with the replacement of the SIM? I dunno.
 
Edit: Looks like you added that info to your post...but the question remains, how "normal" is this SIM card. Looks like we can use it to access the AT&T network from another phone, but the guide also makes it clear that existing SIM cards won't work for contacts in the iPhone.
Click to expand...

Yea I had a hunch you might have replied but not seen the info since the update was close to your post. But yea its not the SIM thats the issue. The iPhone just doesn't look at it. Thats all. It definitely opens people up to some nice options though. I'm thinking of getting myself a 3G Phone or Card to use as a modem with my laptop.
 
pdpfilms said:
What I want to know is why the SIM is made more accessible than the battery... As the iPhone can use ONLY ATT SIMs, and you'll be (close to) never changing it. Whereas many would love to replace the battery once in a while.
Click to expand...

I think third party external battery additions like the iPod has are what Apple is going to suggest for people who regularly swap out batteries. I know a lot of people who've messed up their phone case just because they've swapped batteries so many times. The external battery additions, plus the loaner program when you take your battery in for replacement should keep most people happy.
 
"- Contacts added to the SIM while in another device will not be synced back to iPhone."

^^ What about all the contacts I have on my SIM now, will I be able to transfer those to the iPhone, like I would with any other phone? If not then do I have to manually input everyone again??

I allways save my contacts to the sim because Ive broken phones before and never had a problem taking the sim out putting it in another and having all my contacts in place.
 
well that is piss poor design by apple. Not allowing one to save or pull numbers from the sim card is crap. That is something i love about GSM phones is the sim card makes it so easy to transfer phones. I have had my phone crap out on me. Got a new one and then had the phone sync up all the contacts from my sim card and boom I was done and good to go.
 
mmartahus said:
"- Contacts added to the SIM while in another device will not be synced back to iPhone."

^^ What about all the contacts I have on my SIM now, will I be able to transfer those to the iPhone, like I would with any other phone? If not then do I have to manually input everyone again??
Click to expand...

You can setup your contacts by syncing them to your Address Book app (or Outlook on a PC) before hand, you can manually reenter them, or AT&T has an in-store Universal Memory Exchanger, but that will cost you $15 because you'll have to buy one of their 512MB flash drives (it's on page 33 of the training guide)
 
Rodimus Prime said:
well that is piss poor design by apple. Not allowing one to save or pull numbers from the sim card is crap. That is something i love about GSM phones is the sim card makes it so easy to transfer phones. I have had my phone crap out on me. Got a new one and then had the phone sync up all the contacts from my sim card and boom I was done and good to go.
Click to expand...

It really isn't that big of a deal. All your contacts will be synced on you computer anyway. I would expect that when you have your iPhone repaired you will probably get an iPhone replacement.
 
Doozy said:
It really isn't that big of a deal. All your contacts will be synced on you computer anyway. I would expect that when you have your iPhone repaired you will probably get an iPhone replacement.
Click to expand...

see that would require me having to sync my computer contacts. It still a piss poor design by apple. It clearly not hard to read the info off the sim card. No this is an example of apple shoving what they think is best on everyone instead of using a feature that works great and is not confusing
 
Rodimus Prime said:
see that would require me having to sync my computer contacts. It still a piss poor design by apple. It clearly not hard to read the info off the sim card. No this is an example of apple shoving what they think is best on everyone instead of using a feature that works great and is not confusing
Click to expand...

As someone noted in another thread...they are probably using the vCard standard for contacts. This should make sharing and syncing much easier.
 
TheAnswer said:
As someone noted in another thread...they are probably using the vCard standard for contacts. This should make sharing and syncing much easier.
Click to expand...

and I repeat how how would it be to pull that information from the phone on to the card..... or go the other way. I currently own a sell that sorta does something like that for the on in the phones memory and it has no problem updating the sim card and pulling information from it.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
and I repeat how hard would it be to pull that information from the phone on to the card..... or go the other way. I currently own a sell that sorta does something like that for the on in the phones memory and it has no problem updating the sim card and pulling information from it.
Click to expand...

Well...as I said above, I have a suspicion that Apple is using that space where the contact info for other purposes. That's just a gut feeling I have though.

Since the iPhone will probably see a lot more syncing action than a regular phone (I only sync my phone when I absolutely have to, just because it handles it so badly), I suspect Apple saw the need for putting contact info on the SIM card as a none issue. If your iPhone gives out on you, you exchange it for a loaner at the Apple Store...you then sync the loan with your computer (unless the Apple Store is going to offer some sort of on-site syncing for loaners, that would be ideal but remains to be seen).
 
TheAnswer said:
I'm not so sure it's normal and they've definitely altered some of the functionality one would come to expect from a normal SIM. From the same Training Guide...



Edit: Looks like you added that info to your post...but the question remains, how "normal" is this SIM card. Looks like we can use it to access the AT&T network from another phone, but the guide also makes it clear that existing SIM cards won't work for contacts in the iPhone.
Click to expand...

My recollection from using various GSM phones is that the phone itself has to have the software to be able to read the contacts off the SIM card. The contacts are just stored there -- they are not automatically synced with any phone, but most phones give you the option of accessing contacts on the SIM card.

I suspect this is a normal SIM card, but that iPhone software does not provide a means to access the contacts data on the SIM card.
 
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