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Convert a SIM To a MicroSIM, With a Meat Cleaver
An anonymous reader writes "This morning, my shiny new iPad 3G 64GB arrived from the USA! The only problem was, it had an AT&T MicroSIM and as yet there is no such thing in the UK. So what's the solution? Get a chopping board, a meat cleaver, and a pair of scissors — simples!"
Cutting edge technology.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Apologies for the focus issues with my new Canon IXUS 210 - it is going back today!
Why send it back when you have such mad skillz at your disposal? What happened to your DIY attitude? Just fix that lens focusing issue with a sharpie and a plasma cutter!
This works for SD cards going into microSD slots as well--just chop them up. I also heard that if you cut Wii discs in a perfect circle down to GameCube size they will even play in GameCubes. Cutting things up until they fit solves all of life's problems. Steak won't fit in mouth? Cut it up! Square peg not going in round hole? Cut it up! Video too large for e-mail? Cut it up! Loud mouth neighbor too large for freezer? Cut him up!
My work here is dung.
"hardware hacking".
Up next: how to split an SD card into two mini-SD cards, using "git bisect."
You have violated the TOS you agreed to by opening the packaging. Please relinquish the device post haste. Failure to produce the device will result in you being thrown in the apple shark tank (also known as the limo the lawyers ride in).
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Clipped-SIM in de iPad...
Bork Bork Bork!
(sorry)
I had *just* gotten done watching the 'Machete' trailer over at The Superficial(.com)
"Remember, you can take more off, but you can’t put it back on."
Did Sony have a hand in this article?
I've heard advice from others that a file is actually better, as it works better for removing the controlled amount of material and things like rounding corners.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Or is it a conspiracy... http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/ipad-mini-sim/ Ah, the forbidden fruit of Crapple...looks so pretty but tastes like rotten apples...with worms...
What exactly is the point of MicroSIM anyway? To make it easier to lose?
The cutting edge of knifewear.
You'll ruin your mighty-fine blade. Rock it on the cutting board, dice up a big 'ol pile of veggies. This is a cleaver.
Boy, Slashdot needs <WP:Cleaver>-style tags.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
iPad won't fit in your pocket, or the iPhone apps don't work well on the larger screen? get your iPhone, and line up the top left corner of the screens ...
*Twitch* *Twitch*
I have to do it. My parents own a kitchen store.
THAT'S NOT A MEAT CLEAVER!
It's most likely an 8" chef's knife. However, a meat cleaver would be better since the front and back edges are closer to parallel, where as the chef's knife is tapered to a point. The parallel edges would give a more precise cut when hammering on the back edge.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ETG99JSQL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
*sigh*
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
But they help make such great mini MAME cabinets! And they are useful as head racquets.
So it's possible to stuff in other, mostly useless, gadgets and connectors into the device, I would guess...
Remember kids,, 'chef' in Swedish means 'Manager'..
(or so Google tells me)
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
clever technical cleavering.
*ducks*
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
I read your comment as so:
I tried your approach with the balls that I couldn't play...
- took me a while to come back into my senses after the cold feelings of horror have gone through my spine column and I forced myself to reread that statement.
You can't handle the truth.
Well... I'm not a rocket surgeon, but i think it would allow for slightly smaller sim-holding mechanisms in devices such as cellphones. As the challenge appears to be to make them smaller and thinner with every generation.
What exactly is the point of MicroSIM anyway? To make it easier to lose?
As you can see from the pictures, a regular SIM card wastes several mm^2 of space. Apple used the extra space to implement awesomeness and a fancyfier.
My UID is prime. Hah!
For what it's worth, that's clearly a chef's knife, not a meat clever.
Slashdot is not a game, Slashdot is not a game. Crap, I just lost points.
...and still the name of the provider gets truncated to "voda..."? Tsk, tsk.
(Apologies for wasting a few seconds of your time with this pointless post... but i have to say something negative about something from Apple, or i'll lose street cred.)
Did this years ago to fit 2 sims into on dual-sim adapter. Worked great on my ipaq6915.
(News for nerds: NO , Stuff that matters: NO )
It hurts just a little bit seeing Global brand cutlery used for chopping up a SIM card :-(
+1, Informative.
I think that this should start a trend.
Clearly meat cleavers are the best way to deal with all Apple products.
Fair enough, but why is the first thing to use it an *iPad* which is over twice a big as an iPhone with a regular SIM card? :)
You have an iPad but it doesn't fit in your pocket? Grab a chef's knife and cut it down to iPod touch size!
Or more to the point why didn't they make it that small to big with. Since all the guy did was cutdown a normal SIM card!
But will it blend?
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
nt
Although rockets make great use of computers, I believe that computer surgeon is the correct nomenclature in this case.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
...pretty damned sharp. I bet it even works on the Edge network.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Slashdot should have enough articles demonstrating how evil Apple is, and how even more evil the iPhone and iPad are.
Why is a slashdotter buying an iPad? That is the real news to me.
All I want for xmas is a 3-G meat cleaver.
Or more to the point why didn't they make it that small to big with. Since all the guy did was cutdown a normal SIM card!
My mom had a cell where you put in the entire credit card sized SIM, then came the smaller SIMs that you broke away from the "credit card". I'm guessing they made it that big simply because it's easier to handle big objects - rember that the target marked back then was butterfingered rich men.
saying "You call this a knife/meat cleaver..." - there is only one tool to properly deal hack this SIM. :P
http://www.wengerna.com/giant-knife-16999
In case you break the SIM - just etch a new one with the integrated workbench
That is NOT a meat cleaver!
THIS is a meat cleaver:
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4034/12027320202011.jpg
That is what I was picturing was going to be used. I am very dissappointed that not only was that NOT the tool he used, but that he has no idea WHAT a meat cleaver is!
That is so cool how you made it small enough to fit in your iPad. It does sound "SIMPLE" :) I'ms so sorries fors makings funs of yours typos. I hads to do its!
... how he knew that the SIM card would still work after chopping off the edges. Or did he? I'm pretty sure applying the same method to an SD card would not turn out so well...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
No, no, no. The point of the MicroSIM is so that you can sneak it across the border in your sinus cavity to evade the authorities.
Oops. I've said too much. :-D
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Locking customers in.
Vince Offer?
To make it easier to lose?
I don't know about you, but I usually keep my SIMs inside the phone.
Whoosh
Cheers, Chris
To prevent you from swapping in your current iphone sim to surf for a spell and then swap it back into your phone, when you want to use it in your phone.
I know buying Apple implies being taken in by shiny marketing campaigns, but can we please not make a habit of saying "simples"?
Just think, the original SIM cards were as big as the piece of plastic you now punch them out of.
The common SIM we use today is properly called Mini-SIM.
SIMs use the same technology as smart cards (which every European credit card now is*), so they were originally the same size... no doubt this was back when mobile phones were the size of bricks or worse.
* We had a French foreign exchange student a few months ago, she tried to use her credit card at a gift shop, and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do with it as there was no smart card reader. The swipe-and-sign method was completely foreign to her (literally!) just as the chip-and-pin method is foreign (and unavailable) to us. It was enlightening.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
Are iPads tied to mobile data plans like iPhones? If so, there's your answer. Makes it somewhat harder to swap in other SIMs, as hacking a SIM down to a MicroSIM is (for most people) a one-way process, and also surely voids the warranty (it might even be a breech of your cell contract).
As you draw nearer you determine that the noises are coming from a sad apple sack whining and scheming with it's fleet of lawyers.
"Uh, can we sue him?", "Can we have Interpol ransack his house?", "Can we have the Queen behead him and say it was an accident?", "Hmm, okay, I guess will just fabricate some more monopoly objective disguising BS and write another laughable open letter".
An innovative method to make some thing work. I think I would have use a X-ACTO knife instead since a meat cleaver reminds me of Norman Bates.
I hate it when people do this.
It's so rare to find a signature as true as yours is in this case.
You insensitive clods! Some of us don't see the signatures. Doesn't anytone think of the ACs? Next time, when you reference to a signature of someone, please quote it.
Thanks.
Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! :)
The actual reason was that back then sim cards (and mobile accounts) were expensive as hell. Namely you (as rich dude) were more likely to have multiple phones than multiple sim cards.
As such, a credit-card sized SIM made sense. It's sized to fit in your wallet with the rest of your cards. You would keep it in your wallet and when needed, whip it out and insert into "phone" of choice.
Back in the 80's/early 90's I remember coming across car stereos wondering why they had credit card slots, then I found out they were for sim cards. You slit the card in there, and the radio became a handsfree mobile phone. You didn't have hands free kits, bluetooth or any kind of connectivity back then short of the actual GSM radio. You actually had a separate physical phone for multiple places and events, so it made sense to have a hard to lose, easy to store and insert/remove SIM card.
Imagine having to switch between the phone in your car, your "mobile" on your person, the phone in the jet, the office phone etc... with all the fumbling around with current SIM cards. Logically, when requirements as above were no longer necessary and people had one headset with wired and wireless accessories attached, the SIM was made smaller as people were less likely to need to insert/remove it 10 times a day.
It's to make sure you don't use the sim from your phone to get 3G access. Why should you only pay for one internet connection when they can sell you two for double the price?
This is standard stuff. People have been doing this for years for using regular SIMs in dual SIM adaptors.
Take a look here
There are even special cutters available to make this job easier.
...for the Global Knife Company
Their they're doing there hair.
Not to mention that the ipad has a ton of open space inside.
http://instantcsi.bakalair.com/
Har...
To be serious about your funny jab for a moment, this guy's brilliant plan had a fatal flaw in judgement, and it was just pure luck that he didn't trash a SIM doing what he did. He made the mistake of presuming that the circuitry inside would be no bigger than the effective external contact area. While he got lucky and that proved to be true of SIM cards, I doubt if he actually knew this to be the case previously and it would be dangerous to think that presumption can be applied broadly.
Alternate headline: How to ruin the edge on an expensive knife.
Have a gentile who is too big to fit? Get a knife and you'll have a pint-sized Jew in no time!
Is it true that if you carry a knife like that outside of your house in the UK you can be arrested? I've heard that but I find it difficult to believe.
The next version of the iPhone will use the microSIM. So they used it in the iPad so that it will be compatible with the iPhone going forward. It gives the people who bought the iPad an incentive to upgrade to a new iPhone.
I had a credit card sized slot on my ICE. Think it was a Blaupunkt. The card was an anti-theft device, nothing to do with phones or SIMs.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Here is the relevant link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orBMc-6Fus4
They show how to fit it without a cleaver.
For those not in on the joke, he's sending you to let me google that for you, snarky boy!
We had a French foreign exchange student a few months ago, she tried to use her credit card at a gift shop, and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do with it as there was no smart card reader. The swipe-and-sign method was completely foreign to her (literally!) just as the chip-and-pin method is foreign (and unavailable) to us. It was enlightening.
The question now being whether she was hot enough that we can let it slide, or whether we should point and laugh at "them silly french" instead.
No.
Why don't we just use 8" floppies?
The point of MicroSIM is that it's smaller. Someone has to switch first, and pretty soon it will be commonplace.
The linked article was mediocre. We all know how to cut things with scissors and knives, what we need are the measurements. Here is a better writeup, with the micro SIM dimensions. It also links to the micro SIM shop, where you can buy adapters to convert the micro SIM back to a mini SIM.
Why no officer, I ah*chooo*
SHIT! Cheese it!
Don't worry, they'll spend enough time searching your other cavities that you'll be more than happy to sneeze out the contraband and hand it over with a "Please, please stop! Please get his hand out of there!"
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
...in the proper names of knives.
This is a meat cleaver: http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/7438/895028-z707520_large.jpg
This is a chef's knife: http://www.bjsknives.com/image_manager/attributes/image/image_3/_6863858_full.jpg
The knife on the topic is a chef's knife, not a meat cleaver. A meat cleaver would be a terrible choice for the task at hand. Far too thick and clumsy.
...so, its the other way round, than in your article! My iPhone is to big for the SIM! Dear Sir, can you give me some advise how to cut up my iPhone?
We had a French foreign exchange student a few months ago, she tried to use her credit card at a gift shop, and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do with it as there was no smart card reader. The swipe-and-sign method was completely foreign to her (literally!) just as the chip-and-pin method is foreign (and unavailable) to us. It was enlightening.
We have those here in Canada now, however, both the chip and the swipe are supported. The chip is required on a device that has the chip reader. There are some kinds of security/responsibility issues, but I guess there always will be, considering how greedy banks are.
But Steve Jobs is a vegetarian, you insensitive clod...
Because Apple wants to use it in the new iPhone.
UR welcome!
to stop you cheaping out and using your iPhone SIM in it for mobile data, when you could be paying for two cell phone data plans?
I haven't laughed that much since I saw a guy in clown paint ask how magnets worked. Great job!
Elisa, the largest mobile operator in Finland saidthat they start selling micro-sim cards in june. Their product manager Panu Lehti suggested that if you need micro-sim before that you should use a box cutter.
Sorry, only in Finnish
http://www.digitoday.fi/mobiili/2010/05/03/elisa-alkaa-tarjota-micro-sim-kortteja-kesakuussa/20106299/66
I have already done this several times in order to fit two SIM cards into a dual SIM holder for my mobile. Although I have to admit that I only used a pair of scissors - the use of the meat cleaver is a nice touch. Also makes for a cleaner cut with the scissors :-)
We had a French foreign exchange student a few months ago, she tried to use her credit card at a gift shop, and couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do with it as there was no smart card reader. The swipe-and-sign method was completely foreign to her (literally!) just as the chip-and-pin method is foreign (and unavailable) to us. It was enlightening.
When I opened a new bank account in the UK in 2004 (just before university) they were phasing in the chip+PIN method. Liability issues meant almost all retailers switched very quickly. By 2005 everything was switched to the new system, by 2006 using a signature was disabled unless the retailer wanted to take liability for fraud.
The only time I've been asked to sign was in Germany, when a couple of cashiers assumed I was American (they explained why). The same almost happened in France once, only the machine wouldn't accept a signature since it knew the card had a chip.
So setting up windows last time took 30 minutes, one disc and a little bandwidth for a browser and video drivers. Linux had drivers for my usb wifi dongle out of the 'box'. But an apple device with a phone OS won't work properly without taking a meat cleaver to it?
Could someone please fix the stereotypes, they appear to be broken.
I'd actually point and laugh at you for still using the stupid magnetic strip method.
The one I saw was also a Blaupunkt, but this was a phone as well. I know because my uncle put his credit-sized SIM card into it, and could use the keypad to dial phone numbers. The call would be relayed through the car speakers and there was a microphone on the drivers side of the dashboard.
He made the mistake of presuming that the circuitry inside would be no bigger than the effective external contact area.
One does not need to presume where the pin-head-sized chip is located, Illustrations are available of the internals of a SIM card.
It's a "chef's knife." Meat cleavers look like hatchets, and are heavy, thick blades made for cutting through joints. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=10365
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.