Comments
Keep Your Original iPhone As A WiFi-Enabled iPod
Written By Mike on Jul. 2, 2008.
6 Comments
Report Note
+ Clip This
From the Clip Keep Your Original iPhone As A WiFi-Enabled iPod posted by Mike:
Original iPhone owners who prefer not to give away their old iPhones after upgrading to an iPhone 3G can instead keep their devices and use them as WiFi-enabled iPods, AT&T has confirmed.
I'm actually really surprised that AT&T would let people do this. Cellphone companies are always trying to milk users out of every dollar they have, so letting "old" iPhones still exist without AT&T activation or a contract is pretty cool.
So you can check your email, download iPhone apps via the App Store, do the iTunes thing, and essentially have yourself an iPod touch.
Of course the flipside of this issue is that if AT&T deliberately made your old iPhone unusable as soon as you deactivated it in favor of a new 3G one, the masses would be at their doors with pitchforks.
RightOn
Written Jul. 2, 2008 / Report /
I would love an iPhone minus the phone... I want the Camera on my iPod. :)
Gnorb
Written Jul. 2, 2008 / Report /
Meanwhile, AT&T is screwing over the people actually paying for the service by not including SMS with the phone plan, and charging $10/month more for the service.
Scrivs
Written Jul. 2, 2008 / Report /
Yeah you figure they had to do something "cool" at one point. Hard to imagine them making customers bend over anymore to use a device they bought.
RightOn
Written Jul. 2, 2008 / Report /
Honestly, that would actually MAKE me want the plan more... I can't stand SMS.
Odd that they would do that, when the iPhone ships stock with an SMS app.
Gnorb
Written Jul. 2, 2008 / Report /
Not odd at all. Profit.
Of course, Apple could be trying to give SMS the floppy drive system treatment. Remember when the iMacs were first introduced without floppy drives? Many, many people screamed at Apple for not having one, while their supporters said they were "ahead of the curve". Still, doesn't quite make much sense, considering the system's rather useful. Here's a guess: AT&T decided to go with the draconian SMS policy despite Apple's objections. And I'll also venture to guess that services which turn SMS's sent to you into emails and emails you send out into SMS's will grow in usage.
Still, RightOn, I'm sort of with you on SMS. I'm not a big fan of it myself. I still do receive a few, however, which means that if I decided to get the new iPhone (as I had planed) I'm either stuck paying an outrageous $.20 per message, or paying an extra $5/mo for 200.
I'll continue to consider getting one, mostly because of the interoperational functionality with the other Apple devices in my house, but I'm now also considering other options whereas a week ago, it was a sure thing I'd get one.
Oli
Written Jul. 3, 2008 / Report /
And I'm surprised you're surprised. Seriously: I don't get it.
I've seen this thread buzzing away in RSS and I haven't paid it any attention, just marking it read and moving on but now I've read it and I don't understand why you're surprised.
What was the alternative? AT&T forcing people to keep their units tethered to an AT&T account?
Or are you shocked that the iPhone can run SIM-free? Even so, surely the US has pay-as-you-go SIMs that only cost £1 or thereabouts?
News would be: AT&T allow you to convert your old iPhone to wlan VOIP handset. Or is that already a viable feature?