gymcarm wrote:
That might work with Androids, but we are talking about iPhones. When you take it out of the box, it REALLY wants to be a phone.
So you're telling me you can't even use wi-fi or GPS or ANYTHING without activating the phone? WOW even moer reasons to not ever buy an Apple product.
I had the exact same issue and I found a solution if you are a Verizon wireless customer.
I have a Samsung Note 2 and my wife has an iPhone 5, both with Verizon. I have a hardware device that plugs into the big USB / charging connector found on the older iPhones and iPod touches. I could have used an iPod touch but I found a cheap iPhone 4 on eBay. I bought it and it arrived today.
I am good with computers but I could not get past the activation screen on the iPhone 4. On YouTube I found some possible solutions using the emergency calling feature but since the latest IOS was installed that would not work. It would be a pain anyway to go through that each time I started the phone. The other solution involved a SIMM card so that solution would not work. I did find a Hactivation and jailbreak solution but did not want to do that.
After trying everything possible, I called Verizon and spoke with someone that was very helpful. She sympathized with me and said that she was using an old iPhone as an iPod touch herself. She tried everything in the book and then had me on hold for 5 min and we tried a bunch of other stuff. In the end she suggested taking it to the Verizon store to get past the activation screen.
The Verizon tech at the store tried but he also could not get past the activation screen and said to call Apple. “They should have a solution” He said that if he activated it the normal way, I would be charged a the cancellation fee. This did not sound like a good option.
When I got home I did call Apple and we tried some stuff. Then they asked what happened when it was connected to iTunes. I said that iTunes comes up with a Verizon activation screen asking for my Name, account phone number, last 4 digits of my SS number, and my Verizon password. It looked like it would replace my Galaxy Note 2 with the iPhone 4 or add it to my account. The apple service rep did not think it would be a good idea to do this. After I ended the jail breaking fix was looking like the only solution.
After staring at the iTunes screen for a while I figured I could always undue what ever happened. I went ahead and submitted the info in iTunes (which was the latest version). Anyhow the next screen said something about contacting Verizon to complete the activation and it let me restore my info from a previous iPhone I had before the Note2.
It now works like a charm. I can use my Wi-Fi. Using my old Apple account I download my old apps.
The funny thing is that I get a cell phone signal and it also shows 3G when Wi-Fi is turned off. There is no phone number assigned to the phone in the settings. When you try to make a call iPhone speaker will have the ring sound but the phone that was called does not ring. I am then connected to Verizon with a message to wait for an agent. I assume to help me activate the phone. The other thing I noticed is that Apple maps locates me accurately, presumably using the cell signal. I checked and the new iPhone 4 is not listed in my on-line Verizon account. As expected, 3G data does not work.
Lou
Lou, I think why you see the 3g and why apple maps locates you is because even if the phone isn't activated it still has to allow you to make emergency 911 calls. I think its an FCC thing.
TPC:
That is a good point. Since it can make emergency calls it can also locate to the cell tower for maps.
Actually after reading all the posts over again the YouTube video, mentioned by GYMCARM, is basically what I did. Only difference is that I entered real information about myself. It might work with dummy info as well.
Lou
I have an iphone I bought in or around the year 2008 i think ? and I bought it new through att. so obviously I was signed up with att. One day I stupidly went into i tunes and deleted i mean wiped out everything on the phone. music apps address book saved stuff i had written photos all of it was gone in an instant. I was genuinely mad. I screamed and cried i think i even threw the phone. I called ATT and dropped my service with them and I have not picked up the phone since. However after the phone had sat about a month my daughter who is into electronics picked it up and put in our wi fi password for linksys and she was able to get the internet. From there she put in a app called text now that allows her to text others who have the app on their phones and it actually allows her to call people without being connected to a quote unquote phone service. I do not have service with verizon In fact right now i don't have a phone at all because of what happened and my daughter just kind of kept the phone after that lol but i accidently came across this and thought this may be good info for anyone who wants to read it.
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