iPhone 4S and International Roaming

If you're the proud owner of an iPhone 4S, and are wondering whether you'll be able to pop in a local wireless carrier's microSIM card when traveling abroad, wonder no more.

The rules are different for the main three wireless carriers in the US. AT&T won't unlock your SIM, no matter how much you beg or threaten them. Verizon will unlock it after 60 days of paid phone bills. Sprint initially shipped their iPhone 4S with the SIM functionality unlocked, but has now changed their policy, and will unlock your phone after 90 days of paid phone bills.

So now, if you're outside of the US, you won't have to pay exorbitant roaming fees to your wireless carrier. Unless your wireless carrier is AT&T.

New kid on the block.

All of the non-iPhone smart phones have so far been slightly above mediocre, at best. Enter the brainchild of a newlywed couple: Nokia and Microsoft.

The Lumia 800's hardware is pretty much the same as the MeeGo-powered N9, which was Nokia's last but noble effort before signing a deal with Microsoft.

It's a very pretty phone, indeed. By the looks of it, you'd think it was the bigger cousin to iPod Nano. I have not seen it person, and chances are – I won't for a while, because rather than competing with the already highly-saturated smart phone market in the US, Nokia is going after the emerging markets of Europe and Asia.

Nevertheless, I'm sure the hardware looks as good in real life as it does in pictures. What concerns me is the operating system. I had a chance to play with some random Windows Phone handsets recently. I was delighted by smooth, hardware-accelerated animations, but appalled by some other things. Mainly, the software keyboard. Some of the keys were placed in the most ridiculous places imaginable. That, and the browser was awful. 

Hopefully, these minor issues will be ironed out in Windows Phone Mango.