steve

Vince vaughn at the grove.

Found a way to bypass the activation step on the iPhone:


Steps (from fiveforty.net) :

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1) Download UltraEdit-32, install it.

2) Download PhoneActivationServerV1.0, extract it to desktop or anywhere you want.

3) You might wanna backup the original iTunes.exe(located under C:/Program Files/iTunes) first.

4) Run UltraEdit-32, open file iTunes.exe, use Ctrl+G to go to address 2048912, then enter 33C0C3. Do the same for the rest two offsets: Go to address 257074 then enter 28 and go to 257013 then enter 33C9B1. Save the file and close UltraEdit-32.

5). Open Windows explorer and go to c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc. Open the "hosts" file in ULTRAEDIT and add the line

127.0.0.1 albert.apple.com

to it. This will redirect any DNS query of "albert.apple.com" to your local host. Save & exit.

6). All you need to do is to run Phone Activation Server V1.0 first, leave it running and then run iTunes. Now when you plug in your iphone it will activate automatically in about 60 seconds.

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Follow in that exact order and it will work!

Next step is to actually "unlock" the phone so it will work on any mobile network. Right now I still can't make calls/voice mail/use mobile internet, but at least can get a damn menu and use WiFi. I have an old AT&T sim from my ericsson phone. here's what it says about that:

Just checked it out at a store on melrose. Looks really good and has video (iphone doesn't) but lack of qwerty is a dealbreaker with that touch screen. next to impossible to type a simple message. Interface is pretty good though and is a lot smaller than iphone. Too bad.