Filed under: iPhone
Tada! The 6th Gen contract-free WiFi-enabled iPod
Oh man, what a day. Earlier today, I got my prepaid iPhone activated after a long struggle, which you can read about here, along with an easy solution. After all that, what time was it? Time To Hack!
So what did I discover? I found that your activated iPhone is a lot more flexible and powerful than AT&T and Apple admit. Pop out the SIM or put an inactive SIM and your iPhone works pretty much like a contract-free WiFi-enabled 6th Generation iPod. The WiFi means you can do Mail and Safari without a phone connection.
For your delectation, here's the stuff that I did and the results I discovered. I am still working on writing all this up nicely but I thought I'd rather share sooner than later.
Removed SIM and replaced it with an invalid, unactivated, no-account SIM. Still works as 6G WiFi iPod. Still Synced properly to iTunes. Tried placing call. It failed (as expected).
Removed SIM entirely. It complains but works at 6G WiFi iPod. Tried placing call. "No SIM card installed". Failed. Connected to iTunes. Synced without any problems I could detect. WiFi fine.
Removed activated SIM and placed into a cheap disposable AT&T cell phone. Worked fine. Was able to place calls. Good way to save your iPhone from danger on ski or bike trips.
Placed SIM from cheap disposable AT&T Pay as You Go phone into iPhone. Call failed. WiFi fine.
And remember: you still have to fund the phone and for those of you who are our friends across the border, I'm not sure how a Canadian credit card will play on the AT&T GoPhone funding site.
Conclusions: Buy the iPhone using prepaid. Activate. Cancel. Enjoy.
Want me to test something out? Let me know in the comments.
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Brian Irwin said 1:28AM on 7-03-2007
I travel up to Vancouver BC alot will the iphone work in that city. Also if I'm in a wifi free zone in vancouver will it connect to the internet. will I be charged for the internet usage from AT&T if it is a wifi free zone
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RYAN said 1:33AM on 7-03-2007
if you connect your iPhone dock to the usb port on the airport extreme base station, does the iPhone still sync and recharge properly as if connected directly to your macs usb port. thanks
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DiscoRage said 1:37AM on 7-03-2007
Congratulations. You discovered something EVERY SINGLE GSM PHONE EVER MADE is capable of doing. All cell phones will work with an inactive SIM card.
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DiscoRage said 1:41AM on 7-03-2007
...and by work, I mean you're able to power up the phone and use all other features.
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Soo Yeon said 1:49AM on 7-03-2007
What about battery consumption searching phone signal? I heard that a phone engineer reportedly said GSM phones search phone signal spot even without sim card because of using 911 in some cases.
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wilboy said 1:55AM on 7-03-2007
Erica,
Thanks for the great tip! I have not yet purhased, but have not yet activated my iphone because I'm waiting until August (to avoid early termination of contract) to port my Sprint number to my iphone. If I subscribe to prepaid service on my iphone now, will I be able to later port my Sprint number to my iphone in August when I establish a 2 yr agreement with AT&T? Or does the prepaid account permanently assign my iphone's sim card a number that cannot later be changed?
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wilboy said 1:58AM on 7-03-2007
Oops. I meant to say "I purchased, but have not yet activated" in my previous post.
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enrico tedeschi said 1:59AM on 7-03-2007
hi from UK,
can you elaborate on the COST of the activate/cancel operation please ?
Thank you
enrico
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george said 2:28AM on 7-03-2007
can an existing att (postpaid) customer buy an iphone and transfer his old number to iphone and convert it to prepaid account? ...and still keep the old device?
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Belgo1 said 2:45AM on 7-03-2007
iPhone as an 6G iPod and WiFi... why not. What about AdressBook, pictures, videos... are they fully accessible and functional ? iPhone as a modern PDA...WHY NOT... I woud say, it worth the price. Could you confirm all features except phone calls. Thanks
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Zach said 2:48AM on 7-03-2007
Erica-
Thanks for all your commentary. I currently have an AT&T plan with about 12 months left on it. I purchased the 2-year data plan addition for my iPhone the other day, but I may cancel the plan in favor of a prepaid plan. I do need the minutes, but they're provided for in my current plan. Would it be possible for me to get a monthly prepaid data plan but maintain the minutes I'm using under my family plan? This way I can finish the iPhone data at the same time the voice plan [initiated last year] is up and possibly get a new phone. Do you know how much prepaid data is per month if it's available? Thanks!
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phil said 2:59AM on 7-03-2007
it appears someone broke their iphone already.
http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-14265-iCrash+Baby+Phone.html
interesting to see how the warranty will unfold on this one.
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Felix said 3:40AM on 7-03-2007
When connected to your own WLAN: can you connect to your local Mac's Apache (web sharing active in system prefs)?
And do the bookmarks of the device have a Bonjour section like the Mac Safari?
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Alex Talmon-l'Armée said 4:36AM on 7-03-2007
#18: I breath wireless and try to spend as little time as possible out of reach of a wifi network. I use http://www.fring.com/ on my NOKIA E60 to make free calls to SKYPE, YAHOO, AOL, GMAIL friends.
I dont need an AT&T contract, as I live in Europe & Middle East, however, it would be great to have an iPhone and to just use it with and for its wireless features.
1. how to activate (without contract)?
2. anybody knows of 3rd party applications, existing or planned, for VOIP?
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eibeauty said 6:07AM on 7-03-2007
Can you use Skype wiht this once it is activated and then de-activated on the Prepaid plan? this would get around the feature right? Either that or a chat program.. Am interested if T-Mobile SIM works on this too.
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MaxInux said 6:39AM on 7-03-2007
Uhm, your itunes still knew the phone was activated... you won't actually know this works until you cancel your service which will tell itunes its canceled and when you sync it will deactivate it.. Didn't you wonder why you needed to have your phone plugged into activate?
Max
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Dinesh said 8:14AM on 7-03-2007
Can you pop in a T-Mobile Sim card and see if it works ? Need to know if this has unlocked the iPhone.
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Sidep said 8:27AM on 7-03-2007
can you show us a video or something of you using the phone which features work etc
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dan said 8:44AM on 7-03-2007
Can you get SKYPE to work on it to make WiFi calls???
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Enda Crowley said 8:52AM on 7-03-2007
So does this help me in my quest of getting an iPhone to Ireland before the Europe launch?
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