t-mobile G1 question...

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subigo

subigo

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Can the G1 work as a wifi only device?

A friend of mine is willing to trade me his G1 for an old laptop of mine (he's getting the iPhone) - Problem is I don't want to sign up for t-mobile or any other cell service for that matter. But if it would work via wifi only (of course it wouldn't make calls), it would be a lot easy than taking a laptop everywhere for checking e-mail and ssh.
 


Well there's always the iPod Touch, it can get online and browse the web via wifi, and because it's not an iPhone you don't have to sign up for any kind of phone service.

:P But far as the G1, well not sure if the phone would even operate without an active SIM. Guess you can ask a Tmobile rep (assuming they don't lie)
 
kblessinggr said:
Well there's always the iPod Touch, it can get online and browse the web via wifi, and because it's not an iPhone you don't have to sign up for any kind of phone service.

:P But far as the G1, well not sure if the phone would even operate without an active SIM. Guess you can ask a Tmobile rep (assuming they don't lie)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I'd have to buy the Touch... with this I just give him a laptop that's been in my closet for three years and I get a one month old G1. I just don't want to trade a laptop that I will probably never use again, but could use, for a G1 that I could never use.
 
subigo said:
Yeah, but I'd have to buy the Touch... with this I just give him a laptop that's been in my closet for three years and I get a one month old G1. I just don't want to trade a laptop that I will probably never use again, but could use, for a G1 that I could never use.
Click to expand...

True True :p

Anyways a little googling I found out the G1 will work without a Data plan, but you still have to have a Sim for an active Tmobile account.

So basically you won't have to pay for the data (ie: limited to wifi for data), but you still gota pay for a voice line.

Some of the features won't work on the wifi connectivity (such as the android market place, yet the actual download if you purchase anything occurs over wifi). Doesn't sound like the webbrowser is restricted.

Edit Also found this instruction set to get around even that.
  1. Insert friends activated T-mobile SIM into G1 along with battery
  2. Power on and wait for setup screen
  3. Go through setup process to link any Gmail account
  4. Go to Settings > Wireless Controls > Wi-Fi Settings > Enable Wi-Fi
  5. Connect to nearby Wi-Fi network if one is available
  6. Optional: Stop the phone from syncing with Gmail account by going to Data Synchronization and unchecking Auto-sync, Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts
  7. Once done, take out friends SIM card and insert unactivated SIM that came with G1
Click to expand...

unlike the iPhone the G1 has not yet been able to be unlocked (for other carriers). (oh, let your friend know they haven't unlocked the iPhone 3G yet, so he'd have to get the previous iPhone if he wants to use a carrier other than AT&T)
 
cakes is wrong

I have a g1 that I pre-ordered and love it. If you already use t-mobile you can just pop your sim in and not worry about the data plan. It does have wifi and I use it all the time. youtube videos play in higher quality on wifi. The browser is great but so is the iphones seeing as how they are both based on webkit. As far as unlocking have your friend call t-mobile and tell them he is going out of the country and needs it unlocked to use a pay as you go sim. The data plan is a little high but if your in a city with t-mobiles 3g then it may be worth it. If t-mobile doesn't have 3g in your city then don't worry.
 
For anyone's future reference, FUCK NewEgg. I've ordered through them for years, but never again.

When I ordered that Asus last night it was $349.99... and the order went through fine, but like always my card wasn't going to be charged until today. Well, instead of getting the normal "your card has been charged" e-mail, I got a "the price on this item has changed" e-mail... wtf?

Now instead of $349.99 the damn thing is $429.99...

Fuck you newegg. It's now cheaper at Best Buy ffs.

And yes, I did call them and they wouldn't give me the price from last night.
 
Yeah, don't get an EEE with XP already on it. You're shelling out $80 for something you can put on yourself

The best thing about the thinstall that Karl's listed there is that you can actually mount it to an external drive. Which is what I've done on mine. Linux is the only OS on the actual computer, but there's a 16gb usb drive with Windows, and a bunch of other shit installed on it.
 
HarveyJ said:
Yeah, don't get an EEE with XP already on it. You're shelling out $80 for something you can put on yourself

The best thing about the thinstall that Karl's listed there is that you can actually mount it to an external drive. Which is what I've done on mine. Linux is the only OS on the actual computer, but there's a 16gb usb drive with Windows, and a bunch of other shit installed on it.
Click to expand...

Well its either that EEE-PC copy, or get the slightly larger but far more compatible "October 2008 Performance Edition", kinda like TinyXP rev09 but faster. And yes I down own a legit license of XP pro that I had for years I just find the hacked up copies to be far less of a headache.

Personally I would have went for a Acer Aspire, much nicer looking tad more powerful, and can successfully run Linux, Windows or even Mac OS X. And the next model up has a 120GB harddrive instead of a tiny 4GB flash based drive.
 
Actually, I'm now happy newegg screwed me. I ended up going to circuit city (after playing with the eeepc, msi wind, acer one, and some HP thing at best buy) and came across this:

Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-1211 10.2" Netbook - Black and other Netbooks at circuitcity.com

I ended up getting it for $349 because they were sold out of the acer one (which I asked about first) and the employee said he would match the price of the acer one if I bought the S10.

This thing is really nice. The build quality makes the other netbooks I tried feel like toys (it is IBM afterall). I'm honestly surprised this thing is under $450...

So from a busted old Toshiba laptop, to a G1, to a failed eee pc order, to this S10 all in pretty much 24 hours. I think I'm done.
 
kblessinggr said:
May need to chant a few spells over the laptop to make sure that's the end of the ordeal. PS: Lenova would have been my second choice.
Click to expand...

The Lenovo is definitely the best looking netbook of all the ones I looked at today... in my opinion anyway...

440153956_nyUxr-L.jpg
 
How is it working out for you???
By the way, Lenovo isn't IBM. It's some chinese company who bought the Thinkpad/Laptop biz of IBM.
 
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