Salty Helps You Ditch Your Sprint Contract
Posted 01/28/2009 at 12:55pm
| by Salty the iPhone
I used to be militant about not wanting to switch my cell service to AT&T, but I've been fiddling around with my buddy's iPhone enough that now I REALLY want one. Any advice for getting out of my Sprint contract?
First of all, congratulations, you've finally caught on. Secondly, you don't fiddle around with an iPhone, you perform MIRACLES OF HANDHELD COMPUTING. (Although I do support militantness nearly everywhere I can find it. *Raises fist.*)
Thirdly, you're neck-deep in luck, my friend, but only if you act fast. Sprint recently increased its administrative charge to 99 cents per line. Of course, this is a change to your contract and entitles you to cancel said contract without being subjected to the ETF, or Early Termination Fee. (You might have to argue with them on the phone a little, but stick to your guns. Salty would. In fact, you should just borrow my guns.) But you need to dispute the contract change within 30 DAYS, meaning before this Saturday, so do it, um, right now. Then enjoy your iPhone.
(Salty salutes Barganeering.com for the tip!)
I have too many apps! How can I weed out the ones I don't use?
Look, apps are great. They're convenient to buy and install, and it's nice to help software developers out. But it's easy to go overboard and then you have nine home screens of icons and you have to hunt around for Shazam when you're in the taqueria and by the time you found it, that awesome salsa number isn't on the jukebox anymore and now you'll never find out what it was.
I can't think of an easy software-based hack to track how often you use your iPhone's various apps. You could get all manual with it, and just jot down notes (in the Notes app or on actual paper I suppose) when you've used an app, then after a month or so jettison all the apps you haven't used since you started keeping track.
Or, try putting all the apps you know are keepers on one screen, then leave one screen almost blank in between there, then make a third screen of apps you're not sure if you use often enough to keep on your phone. As you find yourself using those, take a second to drag them to the almost-blank screen until it's filled up. The apps that are still languishing in your "I just don't know" screen can probably be junked.
But keep in mind, if you ditch an app from your phone (by holding an icon until they all start to wiggle, then tapping the X by icons of apps you want to chuck), it's still in your iTunes Library, so if you change your mind, you can always put it back on there. Like we might do one day with Demon Solitaire (not bloody likely).