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Trading up to a new iPhone

by Erica Sadun Apr 18th 2008 at 10:32AM

The 3G iPhone is (apparently) on its way. 1st gen iPhones are being remaindered and are otherwise thin on the ground. TUAW reader Joël Huxtable writes to ask "what will we do with the old iPhone?" Well, Joel, we're glad you asked. Here are a few thoughts about what you can do with that old phone.

eBay it. The iPhone may soon be previous gen but it still has pretty good market value -- especially if you're willing to take the risk of auctioning it off to overseas clients. I expect to see some enterprising people realize this soon and start a buyback service specifically intended to put blocks of unlocked previous-generation iPhones together for sale overseas in countries without official iPhone support.

iPod it. Once you've pwned your iPhone, it becomes not only a perfectly good iPod touch but one with built-in speakers and a microphone. You don't need an active AT&T account to keep using that iPhone as one of the best iPods ever built.

Kid it. I don't know about your kids but mine are constantly after me to use the iPhone. It offers a perfectly portable sub-laptop solution for hooking into the Internet at Wi-Fi hotspots. It takes a lot of the burden off our main computer and allows my kids to watch endless Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus clips.

I'm sure there are plenty of other uses as well in addition to selling, re-purposing or sharing the iPhone. You can probably set it up as a SETI host or cryptography number cruncher. Got more ideas? Let us know about them in the comments.

Update: I am not now and have never been on an iPhone contract. I use prepaid (AT&T GoPhone). The rates are pretty stinky but with good WiFi and now VOIP, I'm not hurting for minutes. When I bought my new refurb 8GB, I swapped out the SIMs and then activated with iLiberty+. It's working fine--sends and receives calls and SMS. I did not activate through iTunes.



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The 3G iPhone is (apparently) on its way. 1st gen iPhones are being remaindered and are otherwise thin on the ground. TUAW reader Joël...
 

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Caterina Pryde

You've missed an excellent idea: donate it! Several companies are sending those Cellphones for Soldiers packets. And other orgs take them too. You should be abel to take a charitable deduction for its STANDARD USED value as well.

April 19 2008 at 3:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
goodfriend

Share : how to rip DVD and convert Video to iphone at http://www.oursdownload.com/dvd-to-iphone.html

April 19 2008 at 9:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
g-dawg

What about selling it to your parents?

April 18 2008 at 7:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
smarsh

Why does the wife get the used one?? Buy her a new one too! My husband and I both got an iphone the day they came out, and we'll both get the newer version when it comes out. Chicks like cool new phones too; we don't want last year's old model!!

April 18 2008 at 5:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to smarsh's comment
lane

Personally, My Wife hates gadgets, so I'll give her my used one (If I Was going to "upgrade") and force her to use it, then she'll love it and thank me, instead of "I don't want it, I just need a simple phone to call on) hahaha she's funny like that, Myself, upgrade junkie, as long as I can justify or for work or something, the 3G won't happen for me for awhile, not enough reason to switch unless tether as a modem comes into play and maybe a sling player app.

Faslane

April 18 2008 at 7:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
russ_schroeder

Unless there is a version of Slingplayer mobile available when the 3G iPhone comes out, as well as A2DP, I'll be holding onto my unlocked 8GB refurb.

On a separate note, I'm guessing there will still be a decent secondary market for 1st gen iPhone considering anyone looking to use one on T-Mobile will get no benefit from using the 3G version.

April 18 2008 at 4:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wsnoble

While I am happy for all the people who have access to it (3g) and want it, it is still not enough for me to update mine.

I know at&t is looking to increase their network buildout, but no 3G here curently, and last checked I thought there was still no iPhone tethering to a macbook.

An 802.11n chipset is far more interesting to me at this time.

I will get excited about 3G when it's near me and tethering is allowed.

That amount of time may help me miss the iPhone2 early adopter fee :-)

Cheers
-wsn

April 18 2008 at 3:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
daddyphatsacks

How do I go about resetting my iPhone so that I can sell it and someone else can use it? Do I just need to set up the new one when it comes out?

April 18 2008 at 3:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Seth Amott

I was going to give mine to my girlfriend, but she is a b it picky and rather have a new one than a hand me down. :-) Oh well. Either way, I can't get myself to let it go, I mean, I tend to cling on to my Apple products a little too tightly. Lol. Even my dad doesn't want it as he apparently needs Quote "G3" :-) Oh well, I assume I will just keep it as a backup, going off to college, a backup might not be a bad idea.

However,I have the burning question, how is AT&T going to handle it. Typically if you tried to buy a new phone before your 3 year contract ran up, they would charge you the remainder of the "Subsidy." As we all know, the iPhone has no subsidy, and the chances that thousands of people will want to upgrade... I am assuming I just buy it directly from Apple and throw the SIM card in the new one and it will work without a contract extension or penalty. The iPhone seems to be one of the few phones people wont wait two years to upgrade.

April 18 2008 at 3:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Greg Hartstein

With the addition of an overpriced AV cable it would work as an Apple TV. I regularly stream video from the internet or my home network to the TV with my phone.

April 18 2008 at 1:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Todd

I've been thinking about this process. My main concern is in getting my current iPhone ready to sell by securely deleting data off of the flash drive. Anyone have thoughts on how best do this?

April 18 2008 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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