[CaptainJapan]

Slightly off-topic:

I don't know if this has been discussed yet, but what happens in June 2009, when many two-year contracts expire with AT&T? Is Apple going to allow these phones to be unlocked and used elsewhere?

I unlocked my Motorola phone by calling AT&T and requesting the subsidy code. It was granted and that phone is now unlocked. By rights, if I upgrade to 3G, my 2G phone is no longer under contract. I should be able to have it legally unlocked by Apple. Am I missing something here???

[rab777hp]

how about this use, use it as the coolest ever external HD

[Chris Breen]

The iPhone can't be used as an external drive the way an iPod can unless you use a tool such as PhoneView.

[rab777hp]

So then you can use phone view, you can also house your itunes library on it, then keep it tethered and play everything from your iPhone in itunes

[Chris Breen]

rab777hp said:

So then you can use phone view, you can also house your itunes library on it, then keep it tethered and play everything from your iPhone in itunes

You can do that without Phone View. Just switch on the Manually Manage option in the iPhone's Summary tab and you can play content on the phone through the computer it's tethered to. Just like with an iPod.

[rab777hp]

That's what i meant, use it like a regular iPod, my commas were in the wrong places.

[TYates]

If you were to purchase the iPhone 3G today, AT&T is going to extended your contract 2 more years, unless you pay full price for the phone, non-subsidized.

Really, the whole 2 year contract means nothing as long as AT&T is the exclusive carrier, that is something you can't buy your way out of.

[rafaellugomd]

I did not see mention in the article that the IPHONE can also be used as a remote control for your ITUNES or APPLETV from anywhere within your wireless network. That alone makes it worth keeping.

[GreggChandler]

None of these suggestions address my used iPhone. I purchased a used iPhone 2G. I used the Wi-Fi component. However, when I upgraded it from 1.0.2 to 1.0.4 in an attempt to fix bugs with checking my POP3 mail, it was left in a non-activated state that doesn't allow me to use it as a wi-fi browser. There appears to be no way to do anything with it except make emergency calls. I don't really want to jailbreak it. Any suggestions for using my old iPhone?

[Chris Breen]

Did it ever work as a phone? If so, it can be fixed to do that again.

If not, why not jailbreak it?

[zeplin44]

Let's see.
I can buy an old iphone for $400, or a new iphone for $200.
I'll have to think about that!

[GreggChandler]

Yes, it originally worked as an iPhone. When I purchased it, I had access to the menus, etc. It had been activated at one time. Because of the POP3 mail implementation, I upgraded it to 1.0.4--hoping to fix some POP3 access bugs. Unfortunately, after that, it only has access to the emergency call screen. Many people have published articles similar to this one on what to do with an old iPhone, but no one has ever dealt with this issue. From what I can determine, the only alternatives I have are to either jail break it, or activate it with AT&T. I don't really want to jail break it, perhaps I will write code for it some day. In the mean time, it is just an expensive paper-weight.

[Chris Breen]

GreggChandler said:

I don't really want to jail break it

And that's what I don't get. You don't have to unlock it -- meaning hack it so you can use it with another carrier. You can simply jailbreak it so you can use all the feature except the phone stuff. Why wouldn't you want to do that? The effects aren't permanent. If you like you can always restore the thing so that it reverts to its previous paperweight status.

[GreggChandler]

If the effects are truly totally reversible, then I guess I don't mind. Perhaps the distinction between hacking it for another carrier, and hacking it to use as an iPod, are/were not clear to me. I understand the functional difference, but perhaps don't understand that the hacking tools separate the functions. However, it seems to me that if the hack is modifying the firmware of the device at the layer to defeat the encryption, Apple could break the hack it so that it can't be restored to the original state in the future. If the backup/restore process were modified to ignore a critical section of code, they could prevent the full restore at some point in the future. What has always confused me is that it SEEMS as though everyone says you can continue to use the iPhone as an iPod (including Apple and AT&T), however, clearly they do not endorse jail breaking. This would lead one to conclude that they have just ignored people in my state. With a phone in the state mine is in, it is clearly not usable as an iPod.