Comments on: Video: An iPhone without the phone (or the contract)

Erica Sadun at The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a handy little tip on how to transform your iPhone into a Wi-Fi-enabled iPod.

[acedtect]

Yep, it totally works

I "borrowed" the iPhone from Jasmine France's desk (I left a note) and tried this out. I was able to remove the SIM card and surf the Web just fine. Everything but making a clal worked well. I then put the iPhone's SIM card inside my old Motorola Razr and was able to make a call. I did try to put my Razr's SIM card in the iPhone but was not able to make calls. An Insider Secret video showing how to get the SIM card out and how the tests went should be coming soon.

[Jasmineflower]

Um...excuse me?

MY iPhone? Not quite. I ain't dropping six hundy on a phone...especially one that has an iPod built in. *SHUDDER* True, the office iPhone did take up residence at my desk briefly (so I could test out a new Shure accessory, incidentally...keep an eye out for that post. Coming soon to a Crave blog near you!). However, I was quick to return the Apple spawn to its rightful place on Kent's desk post haste. You never know....one minute, it'd be resting on my desk, looking all purty, and the next, I'd be fielding reviews of iPhone cases and battery packs and speakers...oh my!

Yeah, yeah...it's very sleek and stylish and has a fantastic looking interface, but I'm holding out for a second-gen and an unlocked option, thankyouverymuch.

[yehweh247]

I hate you guys

When ever I try to watch a video posted on CNET on a linux box the add works fine but the content video never works? I wonder why?

[deecee]

You've got to be kidding right

You spend $600 on an iPhone and use it as a MP3 player and a web browser, gosh, guys, go spend $160 on a PSP and you get the same thing with expanable memory and ability to play some real games. Not that I am a SONY fan, but when are you guys going to snap out of this ridiculous iFatasy?!

[jonathan_a]

iPhone > PSP

Whoever says to get a cheap PSP to use as an MP3 player/Internet Browser definatly needs to open up their eyes a bit more. Where's the touchscreen on the PSP? Where's the harddrive on the PSP? Where's the camera on the PSP? Where's this, where's that?

Sorry but buying an iPhone for all it's functionalities is much better than MANY other things out there.

[techmonkey]

jonathan, you dont know anything do you?

1) The iPhone doesnt have a HDD either...it is a flash based device, just like the PSP, which currently supports up to 4GB, just like the cheapie iPhone.

2) Touch screen? Over-hyped marketing. No real advantage to a touch screen...oh wait...you do get fingerprints on it and increase the chances of scratches...thats something for you

3) Camera on the PSP? Got it....yea, thats right genius...the PSP does support a camera, so take your 2MP camera phone and get lost. Anyone who uses their cell phone as a camera should be beaten with it. 2MP is absolutely nothing and is worthless except for posting really bad pictures on myspace.

4) Internet experience is the same if not better on the PSP. How? Well, lets see, at least PSP supports java....oh you didnt know that the iPhone doesnt support Java, which is used by the majority of the internet? Have fun surfing around on the 10% of the internet that the iPhone can actually handle.

5) iPhone is nothing more than a hyped up iPod with crappy phone service. It has crap storage compared to a true iPod (yea, what I really want is 8GB versus 30GB I have in my 5G iPod), has features that I already have on my more powerful PDA (inferior processor is found in the iPod), and the best part...runs on the worst cell phone network there is.

iPhone....good choice...for uneducated people who like marketing gimmicks and dont bother to do their research before buying new technology.

You are a poster boy for Apple's fanboy club.

[kingrah1]

id go with psp

who wants to pay to dollar for that?!? you can get a psp. does the same. also plays games. you dont need a touchscreen. as for the hard drive, you can buy an attachment for psp that is a 4gb hard drive and long lasting battery.

[Ultimo01]

Hmm... I like the iPhone better

We really don't need a flame to start gathering but if I had to buy either a PSP or an iPhone right now I would go with the iPhone because it doesn't need specialized web pages to be viewed in as the PSP sometimes does for some things.

But the thing is I don't want either right now as there will eventually be a better package for both in the future for much less money, and more features. It may take a year (or two) for Apple to provide more and improved features on what it already has.

The PSP (I hope) will get redesigned (like the PS2 with the slim version) in the future with it having better controls with the joystick and d-pad away from each other instead of being cramped onto one side or change the d-pad to a joystick.

[drkdaedvn]

Nothing new here & no tricks

Wow, CNET editors are not good, sorry:

1. All AT&T phones have 3G sim cards, is so in the future if a customer were
to upgrade their phone to a phone a 3G phone, AT&T wont have to take $36
dollars out of their pocket (retail price of sim card) to give them another sim
card. And customers keep their sim card because all contacts are stored on
the card (expect iphone sim card)

2. Duh, the phone works when you take the sim card out, you already
activated it with the sim car already in it. Did the phone work with no sim
card before you activated it?

3. Sim swapping has been going on since AT&T/Cingular/Pacific Bell(not sure
about the last name) started.

P.S. when you say "Same Number" , you say it as a really cool feature for the
iphone. But I been doing this since year 2000.

Overall nothing new in the video or top secret trick what so ever. waste of
time.

[alexisj11]

Wondering if you can help me out...

I'm getting the new iphone and want to give my old iPhone to my husband to use without the phone feature.
Any idea how the syncing works? I'd like to be able to put songs, podcasts, photos on the device.
Should I just use the same iTunes account or can he essentially wipe out the device and use his own iTunes account?

Thanks so much!