Filed under: iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
Dear Aunt TUAW: Repurposing an old iPhone
Dear Auntie T,My father-in-law (long time reader) has the old original iPhone. He finally made the jump and got himself a brand new shiny 3G S. My mother in law wanted the old phone, and promptly took her SIM card out and popped it in the old phone. It should have worked. It did not.
It prompted her to connect to iTunes and then tried to get her to choose a data plan, which she didn't want. All she wants is the essential function of a cell phone with a nice iPod layered on top. Wifi would be nice. She couldn't be less interested in a data plan.
This used to be possible. Is it now not possible? A good friend of mine, somewhat recently did this very thing and had no problem whatsoever. He is happily chugging along with a data-free iPhone 3G. ATT is giving them grief over the phone and won't let her use the phone without a data plan, despite the fact that the iPhone, being the original one, is owned outright and is not subsidized in any way.
Love and kisses,
Lauren
Read on for Auntie's response....
Dear Lauren,
Unless you have a 3G or 3GS, you cannot just stick an AT&T SIM into an iPhone and have it work out of the box. Your MIL needs to consider jailbreaking the phone with a tool like Pwnage. When you jailbreak, you "hacktivate" a 1st generation iPhone and it will work with AT&T SIMs. Activation/hacktivation means moving past that "Connect to iTunes" logo. A hacktivated 1st generation iPhone works with all standard American AT&T SIMs.
Unfortunately, jailbreaking is like dyeing your hair. It's relatively easy to do but once you go there, it's all about maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. You give up the normal iTunes upgrade path, where "Check for Upgrade"/"Upgrade Now" provides a really easy way to keep your iPhone on top of the latest firmware. Instead, you need to monitor the latest jailbreak updates and only move forward when they're available.
If that sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. Auntie currently has one pwned first gen iPhone on the Locus/O2 network (i.e. rebranded AT&T). It's running 3.0 because she hasn't had the time or interest in upgrading to 3.1. Until that happens, that first gen iPhone is missing out on all the application reordering fun that was introduced with iTunes 9.0.
Now for the "good" news. AT&T is quite good at migrating people to the proper iPhone plan, which is the plan that your in-laws have been resisting to date. The first generation EDGE-only 2G iPhone data plan remains at $20/month, not $30/month like the 3G and 3GS data plans. So they might want to consider "going legit" with AT&T.
As a rule, if you don't mind a two year contract with data(!), stop by a store and ask them for a new SIM card (they generally have billions of extras on-hand). You can activate through iTunes while signing up for an account. If the two year contract is too much of a pain, give them a call directly and see what you can do with the existing plan on your MIL's SIM. They may be able to upgrade an existing iPhone SIM without contract into an iPhone-compatible plan (after all, you do own the iPhone outright) if you're willing to speak to enough customer service representatives. The AT&T rule of thumb is this: If the first, second, or third customer service rep can't help you, the fifth, tenth, or twentieth might.
Going no-data officially is, unfortunately, a no-go with AT&T at this time. AT&T will not help you activate directly without an official iPhone data plan. And no, this makes no sense at all for people who own their iPhone outright and are willing to do business with AT&T. You used to be able to drop the data plan after speaking to enough service reps but AT&T has cracked down on this loophole.
Auntie wishes she had better news for you. After all first gen iPhones remain terrific toys and perfectly acceptable phones but Apple and AT&T are quite insistent that if you want to play with their toys, you have to do it in a way that they approve of.
Best of luck!
Love,
Auntie T.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Eminemdrdre00 said 1:52PM on 10-05-2009
Dear Aunt TUAW,
Why do you post some stories *days* after I've already read them on every other Apple blog, and Engadget?
Love,
Eminemdrdre00
Reply
Information Central said 6:13AM on 10-16-2009
P.S. "Repurpose" isn't a word. You can't repurpose something any more than you can reintent it or rebelief it.
L3 said 2:28PM on 11-26-2009
@ Information Central:
The Oxford English Dictionary says "repurpose," which it traces back to 1984, means "to convert or adapt (esp. something holding electronic data) for use in a different format; to use for a different purpose."
Etymologically it's formed from "re" and the verb "purpose," which means to have a purpose or (and this is a rare and archaic meaning) "to be designed for some purpose; to be intended to do something."
The last part of the definition of "repurpose" ("to use for a different purpose") is somewhat similar to the now rather obscure one you mention for "utilize." I wrote about "use" vs. "utilize" once before on the blog, and the difference between them isn't as large as you think.:
While most of us now regard "use" and "utilize" as identical, "utilize" has another meaning that appears in English less frequently these days. This sense of "utilize" means to put something to use in a practical or profitable way. As you suggest, you might "utilize" a heavy book as a doorstop.
You ask whether "repurpose" arose to fill the gap left by that less frequently seen meaning of "utilize." I'm doubtful. There seems to me to be a slight difference between this old sense of "utilize" and the newer "repurpose."
I don't think you'd "repurpose" the book you prop against the door. The book still is a book; it hasn't been converted to anything else. It may be serving temporarily as a doorstop, but it hasn't been changed materially. On the other hand, if you "repurpose" an old mill into condominiums, the original is lost.
Although the OED's definition of “repurpose” does include "to use for a different purpose," it seems to me that most of us believe something that's "repurposed" has changed in some manner.
BeyondtheTech said 1:52PM on 10-05-2009
I'm usually no proponent for jailbreaking, but this is where it does come into play since it just doesn't make sense that you'd be forced into a data plan, even if you bought your iPhone at full price.
So what to do? Get a free or subsidized phone with a new contract. Opt out of any data plans the offer. Sell the extra phone off, if you want to make any money on it, or keep it as a backup. Jailbreak the iPhone so that you can disable EDGE and bypass iTunes activation. Insert SIM card and enjoy.
I am also told that AT&T is actively killing non-iPhone data plans that are being used on iPhones, which is basically what you would want anyway. But, in order to make sure that your iPhone doesn't inadvertently start a data session, and since you need to activate your iPhone for phone use, you need to jailbreak and make those necessary changes.
Reply
bill cant fart said 1:52PM on 10-05-2009
"Your MIL needs to ..."
I think you forgot a letter...
Reply
flouSH said 4:22PM on 10-05-2009
lol
Zane Barker said 2:01PM on 10-05-2009
If you don't have a iPhone data plan associated with the iPhone you are going to get a HUGE bill from AT&T. For example your mother-in-law will want to set up her email so she can check it while on wifi, problem is that you cannot tell the iPhone to only do it when on wifi. Tell her to just go legit and get a iPhone cell plan.
Reply
Erica Sadun said 2:02PM on 10-05-2009
You can ask AT&T to block data on a given account, which is what I recommended to Lauren when she wrote back to ask about that specifically. Blocking data does not affect WiFi use.
augwell said 10:06PM on 10-06-2009
This is incorrect. You can tell the iPhone to only use data while on wifi. You must edit the Carrier Settings.
Refer to an article by MacWorld specifically the section: Why you might want to view or edit carrier settings.
Frank Owen said 2:10PM on 10-05-2009
You can easily disable the phone from attempting any wireless data access, thereby avoiding the ridiculous metered data charges. Just go to unlockit.co.nz. Google "disable iphone data plan" for details. Of course, you won't have any internet access when on-the-go, but that's what you're not paying for, right? wifi will work fine when available.
Drifter71 said 2:08PM on 10-05-2009
Or, JB and go to T-Mobile.
Reply
Joseph said 5:35PM on 10-05-2009
or pay the cheaper iphone 2g edge plan, which is like $20/mo.
Zane Barker said 2:10PM on 10-05-2009
"You must edit the Carrier Settings."
So you have to HACK IT. Last hack I did to the iPhone to enable tethering JACKED the thing up causing me to not get voice mail, and Im NOT the only one to have that happen after doing that HACK.
HACKS ARE FOR HACKS.
My iPhone will NEVER be hacked again.
Reply
BeyondtheTech said 2:18PM on 10-05-2009
Like I said, I'm no expert on jailbreaking, but I do know the absolute minimum and easy way to get it done: Just use SBSettings right off of Cydia (download from Cydia or install it into the custom firmware by the PwnageTool). Then follow the instructions here (http://www.kashar.net/disabling-edge-on-iphone-v3-0.html) and the iPhone will never use data over EDGE.
William Hook said 2:18PM on 10-05-2009
You're obviously doing it wrong then. :p
Scott said 2:22PM on 10-05-2009
I've happily been using T-Mobile with my 2G for about 2 years now. My total monthly bill is $56 (that's including tax) and I have unlimited data with the $6/mo grandfathered T-Zones.
If you want to complain about messing up the procedure on your phone, don't blame the "hack" blame yourself. I'm proof that it can be done with no ill-effects at all. This is my only phone.
robogobo said 4:15PM on 10-05-2009
well, I am an expert on Jailbreaking. I've successfully JB'd ten iPhones and am voluntarily tech supporting each and every one. Jailbreaking is not difficult, not a lot of work, and the benefits well outweigh the downsides, which are none. Particularly on the first gen iPhone, just do it. Don't even think about it for another second.
Pibroch said 8:34PM on 10-05-2009
You're doing it wrong then. I have an iPhone 3GS that works perfectly over T-Mobile. Only features that don't work are Visual Voicemail and 3G network. As long as you keep an updated backup, jailbreaking is painless and quick.
Marco said 2:17PM on 10-05-2009
Dear Aunt Tuaw,
Respectufully and with much love I want to call to your attention that the question is related to using the old iphone as an iPod. Sometimes I wish you put on your eye glasses when you decide to read your email, we all love you and don't want the rest of the world to think you went crazy by answering questions that were never asked.
Now, please go back and re-read the question, then re-read your answer and you will find that you still didn't help any.
Yes, ATT and Apple should not hold an iphone hostage if you only want to use it as an iPod and it is no longer under an ATT contract.
Marco
Reply
Erica Sadun said 2:18PM on 10-05-2009
Darling Marco,
Unless it gets activated or hacktivated, it's not getting past that "Connect to iTunes" screen--SIM or no.