Im on the fence. Could someone please help and answer a noobs annoying question?

[Orecets]

I wanna buy a toy for myself, and I am new to all things mac. Ive done a fair amount of research, but there is just so much reading to do and i wanna BUY!

So I was for sure going to get an Ipod touch, thing is just too cool, and with a little effort, it can be even cooler. Then I started to wonder, the touch is just a scaled down Iphone right?

The Iphone has a camera and mic and isnt a whole lot more. I have no immediate intention of using it as a phone though, as I cant justify the monthly fee. Ive read on this forum in the sticky that you can fake an activation, and use the Iphones core functions, save for the phone part of course. So, wouldnt it be smarter to buy an Iphone and have a more robust device with the possibility of legit activation once im not such a poor bastard?

Is an Iphone with a faked activation pretty gimped? Is it capable of skype conversations over wifi? Can I email pictures to friends, and use the mic for dication or notes?

Sorry to annoy you guys, and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to reply. <3

 

[danielforman]

You can buy an iPhone and unlock it so you can use another sim in it and don't have to pay AT&T for your contract. There are also a lot of third part apps out there that you can install.

The only thing is though that you will have to be careful not to brick (make inoperable) your iPhone if you do unlock etc. This only occurs if you install the updates that Apple release. Although not all updates may brick your device some will like the latest 1.1.1 update. The only way to get round this is hold off a while updating your device and wait for the iPhone Dev community to come up with a way to get round the effects of the update.

I live in the UK and have yet to get an iPhone but have been following what is happening with the iPhone in the US. Some others on here may have some more info for you.

 

[ellsworth]

I had the same issue & went with an 8 gig iPhone. I activated the phone with the pay as you go plan and canceled it. The cool part is, you get to test out the full functionality of the phone for that month that you sign up (you must pay $50's though) Personally, the web is really slow on edge, and where I live, there are free wi-fi spots all over. Activating the phone this way also allows you to update your phone without the fear of it locking..
-Word

 

[Orecets]

The only thing is though that you will have to be careful not to brick (make inoperable) your iPhone if you do unlock etc. This only occurs if you install the updates that Apple release. Although not all updates may brick your device some will like the latest 1.1.1 update. The only way to get round this is hold off a while updating your device and wait for the iPhone Dev community to come up with a way to get round the effects of the update.

I live in the UK and have yet to get an iPhone but have been following what is happening with the iPhone in the US. Some others on here may have some more info for you.

Thank you kindly for the tips!

I had the same issue & went with an 8 gig iPhone. I activated the phone with the pay as you go plan and canceled it. The cool part is, you get to test out the full functionality of the phone for that month that you sign up (you must pay $50's though) Personally, the web is really slow on edge, and where I live, there are free wi-fi spots all over. Activating the phone this way also allows you to update your phone without the fear of it locking..

Thank you, I will look into that. Ive never read about pay as you go, when you wish to stop "going" as it were, does the phone retain all of its ipodesque and camera fuctions though?

 

[Avatar74]

I wanna buy a toy for myself, and I am new to all things mac. Ive done a fair amount of research, but there is just so much reading to do and i wanna BUY!

So I was for sure going to get an Ipod touch, thing is just too cool, and with a little effort, it can be even cooler. Then I started to wonder, the touch is just a scaled down Iphone right?

The Iphone has a camera and mic and isnt a whole lot more. I have no immediate intention of using it as a phone though, as I cant justify the monthly fee. Ive read on this forum in the sticky that you can fake an activation, and use the Iphones core functions, save for the phone part of course. So, wouldnt it be smarter to buy an Iphone and have a more robust device with the possibility of legit activation once im not such a poor bastard?

Maybe poor bastards shouldn't be blowing their money on iPhones or iPods...

Besides, if you can't justify the additional monthly recurring charge for an iPhone, how do you justify (read: rationalize) the purchase price??

 

[Orecets]

Maybe poor bastards shouldn't be blowing their money on iPhones or iPods...

Besides, if you can't justify the additional monthly recurring charge for an iPhone, how do you justify (read: rationalize) the purchase price??

I just wanted a nice MP3 player, not a cell phone with a bill. Im not really that poor, I just have enough bills and am under contract with an early termination fee.

 

[ellsworth]

Maybe poor bastards shouldn't be blowing their money on iPhones or iPods...

Besides, if you can't justify the additional monthly recurring charge for an iPhone, how do you justify (read: rationalize) the purchase price??

Purchasing a product and paying for fueling it/operating it are two completely different things.

Some people can afford the one time price of $399 but paying for the monthly $70-100 can easily blow someone's funds in less than a year. I understand your "rationalization" you just need to to rephrase it differently: "Why buy a $30k car when you can't even afford to put gas in it to drive it around?" That's rationalizing

Thank you kindly for the tips!



Thank you, I will look into that. Ive never read about pay as you go, when you wish to stop "going" as it were, does the phone retain all of its ipodesque and camera fuctions though?

Yes. The iphone will still function like an ipod. The only thing you cannot do is use any of the phone functions (calls, texts, v-mails, etc), use any of the web-functions outside of a wi-fi spot and that's about it. Everything else works perfectly fine.