iPhone as a gift

[calvy]

I've recently come into a good deal on a refurbed first gen iPhone, and want to give it to my mom as a gift for Christmas. She is currently an AT&T customer, but I'm not sure she's going to want to pay the extra 20 bucks per month for the data plan or not.

So my question is, should I jailbreak and unlock it before I send it to her? She'll probably not get into using themes or any non app store apps, but if she wants to use the phone without the data plan, it's going to have to be unlocked. On the other hand, it's possible she may want the data plan. If I unlock and she decide to pay for the data, will she be able to just plug it into her old 12" Powerbook and run through the whole setup of upgrading the account?

 

[Michael CM1]

One problem: I don't think they're allowing any more new $20 plans. Those of us on it before were grandfathered in. New customers gotta pay the $30 (I know, it's dumb). I could be wrong, but I doubt it. This is going to be a HUGE reason keeping me from upgrading at some point. I don't think the bump to 32GB (whenever it happens) will be my tipping point. I still don't like the uggo casing and wonder what the next big update will hold. As I sit with my iPhone pretty filled up with maybe 1/8 of my music on there, I get itchy.

Back to your question, it may be a good idea. If she hates it, you can turn around and sell it on eBay. I think the re-jailing process is just to hook the phone up to iTunes and reinstall the firmware.

 

[jmann]

if she jailbreaks it then who is going to be there when an update comes out? She won't know what to do. I suggest you just tell her to call at&t and disable data services. Then she won't have to worry about accidental charges.