What to Do With That Old Apple iPhone
We examine some of the things you can do with an old, inactivated Apple iPhone.
Wed, August 27, 2008
Macworld — It's clear, you're an iPhone enthusiast. No, it's not the slightly smushed-in left-ear that indicates you spend hour after hour on the phone, the Apple sticker that adorns your forehead, or the unconscious typing motions you make with your thumbs. Rather, it's the two-layer bulge in your front pocket--created by your original iPhone and your new iPhone 3G.
Yet is it really necessary to have two iPhones--particularly when the original no longer works as a phone because you've passed along its activation to the shiny new 3G?
Perhaps.
To find out, let's examine some of the things you can do with an old, inactivated iPhone.
Pass it along AT&T would love for your nearest and dearest to purchase their own iPhone 3G as well. But, barring that, the company is more than happy to lock them into a new two-year contract for your old iPhone. You'll learn the ins and out of handing off your iPhone to another in this PDF document from AT&T.
Before you give your iPhone to someone else, whether for free or for a fee, you should wipe the data from it. If your old iPhone isn't running the latest iPhone software, plug your iPhone into your computer, select it in iTunes' Source list, and in the Summary tab click the Check for Update button. Choose to download and install the latest software.
After you've installed the software take iPhone in hand and tap Settings -> General -> Reset and tap Erase All Content and Settings. Under the 1.x iPhone software, invoking this setting erased the iPhone's obvious data, but not everything. Under the 2.0 software, you get a much more thorough wipe. Note that wiping your iPhone's data this way can take an hour or two.
Sell it You can pass along your iPhone and make a tidy sum at the same time. Check eBay and Craigslist and you'll find that original 8GB iPhones are going for between US$350 and $450. Examine those listings carefully and you'll see that these phones are unlocked by one method or another.
Unlocking an iPhone breaks your license agreement with Apple and AT&T but this hasn't deterred people from using utilities such as PwnageTool to do the job. Once unlocked, the iPhone can be used with any carrier--in this country or overseas. The danger of unlocking is that a future update to the iPhone's software could render the phone non-functional.
