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M5RahuL

macrumors 68040
Aug 1, 2009
3,469
2,133
TeXaS
WhatsApp is end to end encrypted so I don't see how Zuckybaby can pry on our messages but I do share your views if you apply them to all the tech giants. Google, Apple, Microsoft and Meta etc are all dastardly spies on our lives.☹️

When I started working in Cyber Security many moons ago, I quickly learnt WA isn't truly E2E encrypted.. Plus, bad actors salivate over meta data..
 
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Technerd108

macrumors 68040
Oct 24, 2021
3,061
4,311
If you're a new customer, yes you have to port in.

You don't have to keep the sim in the new device after activating, porting ( if new sign up ) and once you see the 120 day counter kick off ( Fi account > Billing > fi Savings > In Progress ) I'd wait until the counter goes down to 119 ( usually after 24 hrs post activation)

The key is to NEVER insert the Fi Sim in another device, other than the device it was activated with! Best practice, unless you want to use the Fi service or keep it as a second line, is to store it away with a notation [ do not use and activation date ] and forget it.

Since ALL Fi devices are factory unlocked, feel free to put any sim ( assuming you have another carrier ) and be on your merry way

This isn't my first rodeo with this promo thru Fi, but just my .02 :)
With all do respect, what your past experience is doesn't mean that Google hasn't changed something and maybe you are right but it is a $600 if you are wrong or they have changed their policy from your past experience. They know when the sim is active and what IMEI it is using. They also know each day it is active. I had a T-Mobile account with a locked phone and they knew every time I switched the sim to another phone that wasn't theirs and those days I didn't use their sim with their phone didn't count towards my account promo.

So I am not discounting you but there is only risk to other people if they do what you say and a big potential bill if you are wrong.

I would just keep that kind of advice to myself because I know if I put in another sim in my Fi promo device and get a $600 bill you aren't going to pay me for the advice you gave.

What advice I gave is official from Google customer service. Whether they actually monitor or follow their advice is a different thing but if someone does what I said there is no risk to them at all.
 

M5RahuL

macrumors 68040
Aug 1, 2009
3,469
2,133
TeXaS
With all do respect, what your past experience is doesn't mean that Google hasn't changed something and maybe you are right but it is a $600 if you are wrong or they have changed their policy from your past experience. They know when the sim is active and what IMEI it is using. They also know each day it is active. I had a T-Mobile account with a locked phone and they knew every time I switched the sim to another phone that wasn't theirs and those days I didn't use their sim with their phone didn't count towards my account promo.

So I am not discounting you but there is only risk to other people if they do what you say and a big potential bill if you are wrong.

I would just keep that kind of advice to myself because I know if I put in another sim in my Fi promo device and get a $600 bill you aren't going to pay me for the advice you gave.

What advice I gave is official from Google customer service. Whether they actually monitor or follow their advice is a different thing but if someone does what I said there is no risk to them at all.
I never stated anyone had to do it... just my and various others' ( Slick Deals ) experience.

Finally, without getting too technical, even if Fi servers ping the Sim ICCID at any given time it'll show being attached to the S23's IMEI ( which is why it's strongly recommended not to insert the Fi sim in another device )

Oh well..
 
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SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,510
4,748
Land of Smiles
Whatever the origins of the differences are, currently when I speak to people about it the big appeal of iMessage is it's so easy to send photos and videos to another iMessage user. People on FB did use FB Messenger but usually when it relates to something while they're on FB.

Apple has everything set up that you need, that even my dad could be taught to text me photos and videos when he was 84. And now his younger brother who is 81 (I think) can also do it and he's not even a techy like my dad was. Even my mother-in-law could do it. She was a terrible smartphone photographer though. We found so many photos of her feet on her phone! Just her feet. We are sure it wasnt intentional. We hope it wasn't intentional. 😳

With Android you need to pick what you're going to use, is it going to be Google photos? Is it some other service the manufacturer partnered with?

Samsung had Gallery, but they confused even ME when they changed where the photos back up to. I had to sign up to OneDrive to keep something akin to what I was used to with their own service that they discontinued.

So basically we are at the point way past your origin story" to where people don't remember or care why they have an iPhone. But they have it and they're not going to give it up because it still "just works" (though not always as steadily as it used to).

Lol I hope this post makes sense. I got interrupted a few paragraphs ago to have one of those 50's sitcom style heartfelt parental talks with a very upset child. It was a compassionate talk on the perils and pitfalls of procrastination on homework. And speaking of procrastinating, please everyone under my roof, stop hoarding dirty laundry and having Mom (and Dad--he does laundry too) bailing you out of potential unsanctioned nudity at school with these last minute post- midnight laundry emergencies. 🙄:rolleyes:🤪

I say that, even though I forgot to gather all the socks from under my side of the bed and put them in the hamper so they got missed when my husband ran our sock and underwear laundry this afternoon. I'm notorious for kicking my socks off before I go to bed and kicking them partly under the bed. Then to add insult to injury, forgetting to pick them up next morning and putting them in the hamper. Mea culpa.

Be better than me, children! Do as I say, not as I do! 😬
Yep that is exactly the point :)

They have eaten the whole pie now and to objectively look back and try to change is too late :D

My only concern is often the failure of many to understand very low income families usage of mobile technology and what cheaper mobiles and apps like Whatsapp and Line mean to them

Regardless of purchase price 2nd hand or new, daft things like $2 for Icloud storage is probably greater than their mobile costs for the month. It is quite common for data in Asia to bought daily if at all and not monthly

Imessages discrimination is disgraceful at best and the casualness that is bounded around of it's use and superiority is careless at times :)

Apple had the opportunity (like Volvo and seat belts) to gift it to the world Imessages for better communication between all, than monetize it. That would have been a far bigger Kudos for Apple IMO

else

You kicking your socks off at night is probably a far better conversation to be had :D
 
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keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
The US was in fact quite slow to adopt SMS as unlike many countries they had been used to relatively free local landlines and were more inclined to call where in Europe for example sms was seen as a cheaper way to communicate over dialing. In UK 20 years back there was a stage when phones had 1000's of free sms per month :) and of course later when data was more widespread the Blackberry message system was very popular in Europe

very true that :) I remember those days well, "per month 3500 inclusive texts, 60mins, 100MB data" or similar :) funny to remember. I seem to remember a lot of friends in the US had pagers at that time and I spent a fair amount of time saying "no its not a pager it's just a little message you can send between phones"
 
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keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
Samsung had Gallery, but they confused even ME when they changed where the photos back up to. I had to sign up to OneDrive to keep something akin to what I was used to with their own service that they discontinued.

yeah this is very annoying :( because I have O365 business and apparently samsung gallery needs onedrive personal to back up to and can't use business :/ I mean wtf
 
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Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,850
8,077
yeah this is very annoying :( because I have O365 business and apparently samsung gallery needs onedrive personal to back up to and can't use business :/ I mean wtf
Wait you can’t back up photos from Gallery to a Samsung account? It has to be OneDrive ?
 

keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
Yep that is exactly the point :)

They have eaten the whole pie now and to objectively look back and try to change is too late :D

My only concern is often the failure of many to understand very low income families usage of mobile technology and what cheaper mobiles and apps like Whatsapp and Line mean to them

Regardless of purchase price 2nd hand or new, daft things like $2 for Icloud storage is probably greater than their mobile costs for the month. It is quite common for data in Asia to bought daily if at all and not monthly

Imessages discrimination is disgraceful at best and the casualness that is bounded around of it's use and superiority is careless at times :)

Apple had the opportunity (like Volvo and seat belts) to gift it to the world Imessages for better communication between all, than monetize it. That would have been a far bigger Kudos for Apple IMO

else

You kicking your socks off at night is probably a far better conversation to be had :D

really interesting take on it all. If anyone at apple IS thinking "this is starting to make us look bad".... gifting it to the world would be a really great message
 
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keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
Wait you can’t back up photos from Gallery to a Samsung account? It has to be OneDrive ?
yeah they got rid of the samsung photo storage (is my understanding) and it now has to be onedrive and not just ANY onedrive, only one on a personal MS account
 
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Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,850
8,077
yeah they got rid of the samsung photo storage (is my understanding) and it now has to be onedrive and not just ANY onedrive, only one on a personal MS account
That sucks, I do have OneDrive personal with my 365 subscription from when I got a Surface Pro. I don’t think I’ll keep it tho after the year ends.

This is partly why I still use an iPhone, at least with Apple photos are backed up to a iCloud. Yes you have to pay £.079 a month for 50GB beyond the free 5GB of storage, but at least it’s all done for you.
 
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SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,510
4,748
Land of Smiles
That sucks, I do have OneDrive personal with my 365 subscription from when I got a Surface Pro. I don’t think I’ll keep it tho after the year ends.

This is partly why I still use an iPhone, at least with Apple photos are backed up to a iCloud. Yes you have to pay £.079 a month for 50GB beyond the free 5GB of storage, but at least it’s all done for you.
You have 5 GB of free cloud storage with your Microsoft account shared across your files and photos in OneDrive, attachments in Outlook.com and your Microsoft 365 apps. You also get 15 GB of free Outlook.com email storage which is separate from your Microsoft cloud storage.

They all beat Apple free offer which is 5gb for everything

I think Google photos is 15gb free

I cant even backup my Iphone with Apple free stuff let alone photos
 

Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,850
8,077
You have 5 GB of free cloud storage with your Microsoft account shared across your files and photos in OneDrive, attachments in Outlook.com and your Microsoft 365 apps. You also get 15 GB of free Outlook.com email storage which is separate from your Microsoft cloud storage.

They all beat Apple free offer which is 5gb for everything

I think Google photos is 15gb free

I cant even backup my Iphone with Apple free stuff let alone photos

I wouldn’t trust Google personally, when setting up my Samsung 23 Ultra I turned off Google drive, photos and all that. I get what you mean tho, I was just referring to it being under one package. Samsung should do the same, whereby you back up your photos and videos to your Samsung account.
 
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keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
You have 5 GB of free cloud storage with your Microsoft account shared across your files and photos in OneDrive, attachments in Outlook.com and your Microsoft 365 apps. You also get 15 GB of free Outlook.com email storage which is separate from your Microsoft cloud storage.

They all beat Apple free offer which is 5gb for everything

I think Google photos is 15gb free

I cant even backup my Iphone with Apple free stuff let alone photos

I have 350GB of photos in my iCloud LOL I'm just hopeless I know..... and I'm on the apple one plan which gives 2TB shared across the family so it's just kinda easy and taken care of.

I dont mind paying but it's irksome that I already have 1TB of onedrive storage but because its a business not personal account, samsung gallery wont use it
 
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mjschabow

macrumors 601
Dec 25, 2013
4,924
6,239
I have 350GB of photos in my iCloud LOL I'm just hopeless I know..... and I'm on the apple one plan which gives 2TB shared across the family so it's just kinda easy and taken care of.

I dont mind paying but it's irksome that I already have 1TB of onedrive storage but because its a business not personal account, samsung gallery wont use it
Honestly, Google Photos is good enough for switching over photos. Now that I'm getting to know that app better, I actually love it it also synced all of my favorites from iOS which saved me a TON of time!
 

keithop

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
691
914
Honestly, Google Photos is good enough for switching over photos. Now that I'm getting to know that app better, I actually love it it also synced all of my favorites from iOS which saved me a TON of time!

yeah I must admit having that switch to google page that did it all in the background WAS amazing
 

SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,510
4,748
Land of Smiles
I wouldn’t trust Google personally, when setting up my Samsung 23 Ultra I turned off Google drive, photos and all that. I get what you mean tho, I was just referring to it being under one package. Samsung should do the same, whereby you back up your photos and videos to your Samsung account.
They did but after partnering with MS to bring great functionality between Windows and Samsung devices your free 15gb is now with MS not Samsung

Your S23 back up is with Google :)
 

SteveJUAE

macrumors 601
Aug 14, 2015
4,510
4,748
Land of Smiles
I have 350GB of photos in my iCloud LOL I'm just hopeless I know..... and I'm on the apple one plan which gives 2TB shared across the family so it's just kinda easy and taken care of.

I dont mind paying but it's irksome that I already have 1TB of onedrive storage but because its a business not personal account, samsung gallery wont use it
Many companies allow for free 365 or discounted personal account but for what you pay Apple for 2TB on onedrive you get 1tb for 6 family members and as many personal device installs of Office 365 for each family member ;)
 

5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
I have my Samsung photos backing up to Google Photos. I have all my files and photos backing up to OneDrive. I could probably just have everything go onto Google and save myself the OneDrive expense.

But somebody on here a few years ago accidentally got locked out of their Google account when they turned on 2FA. They got it fixed I think, but were separated from their storage for a nail biting time. And one time EA mistakenly banned me and locked me out of my account and purchases. Fortunately I had a second account to game with while they fixed their mistake.

And reading the fine print, I see these companies can pull the plug on us whenever for whatever, so I prefer redundancy. I can switch over and keep on functioning and have access to my stuff while I imagine myself lawyering up or stitching together a voodoo doll. 😆
 

Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,850
8,077
They did but after partnering with MS to bring great functionality between Windows and Samsung devices your free 15gb is now with MS not Samsung

Your S23 back up is with Google :)
My S23 Ultra backup is with Microsoft OneDrive. I don’t trust Google.
 

5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
I never noticed on the S22 Ultra because it was dark green, but now I see on the S22 Ultra and the S23 Ultra the IMEI is printed on the back of the phone now.

Why? Isn’t this relatively private info?
 

5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
My S23 Ultra backup is with Microsoft OneDrive. I don’t trust Google.
What do you think Google is untrustworthy about specifically? I once sat and read the whole eye watering TOS document that came with setting me up on the Microsoft Surface that my husband passed to me (that I used that one day and never again). Microsoft are very invasive and big into funneling our information to their partners, too.
 
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mjschabow

macrumors 601
Dec 25, 2013
4,924
6,239
I never noticed on the S22 Ultra because it was dark green, but now I see on the S22 Ultra and the S23 Ultra the IMEI is printed on the back of the phone now.

Why? Isn’t this relatively private info?
Ummm what the heck. I think mine is printed on the back too! Not sure I like this but also not sure what bad could really come from it.
 

Dave245

macrumors G3
Sep 15, 2013
9,850
8,077
What do you think Google is untrustworthy about specifically? I once sat and read the whole eye watering TOS document that came with setting me up on the Microsoft Surface that my husband passed to me (that I used that one day and never again). Microsoft are very invasive and big into funneling our information to their partners, too.

There have been so many reports about Google and privacy issues, they collect so much data on people and track so much. I wouldn't mind certain things, but I just don't trust them with my photos and videos. Microsoft are known for that too, my Surface Pro 9 I had was sent back and then I ended up being gifted one 😂 personally I much prefer Mac.

I use to have an Amazon Alexa device, it started playing music in the middle of the night which was weird so I ended up selling it. The same thing happened when I tried a Google Nest Mini, except not only did it do that but I would have conversations about things and the next minute I would be given ads about that product. I find that very intrusive. I have a HomePod now and have for a while, I find it not only has has much better sound but I have never had any issues with it randomly playing music in the night, or adverts targeted after I've had conversations about things.

I much prefer Apple when it comes to privacy, it's why I pay for iCloud storage. I should probably subscribe to Apple One at this point, I already pay for Apple Music yearly and after my free trial I will be subscribing to Apple Fitness+ too as well as paying £0.79 a month for 50GB of iCloud storage.

This is one of the reasons why ill never fully migrate over to my S23 Ultra, it's really a great device but there are just some things that Apple do better, privacy is one, fitness and the Apple Watch are the other.
 
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