Questions about unlocking

[Mister Hams]

Hello. I was wondering if I could get some questions cleared up about unlocking iPhones. ^_^

Now, I know unlocking the iPhone is technically not illegal, but does Apple want us unlocking them? Does a locked iPhone lose some of its features when it is unlocked? Can unlocked iPhones be updated to newer firmware (i.e., if I buy a 1.1.2 unlocked phone, will this little guy have any hope of seeing 1.1.3?)

I have a Tracfone, but it's taken a few unfortunate trips through the washing machine and has ceased to function, so I'm interested in keeping this SIM card (which I've confirmed is GSM) in upgrading to a new phone, hopefully, an iPhone. Tracfones are prepaid. Does anyone know if this could/would work?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Mister Hams]

No dice, huh. >_> Okay.

 

[skubish]

No dice, huh. >_> Okay.

You can use an iPhone with ATT prepaid. Just fail the credit check in iTunes and it will give you a prepaid option. I think you can just enter all 9s for the SSN.

 

[TouchUser]

TracPhone DOES NOT work even after the iPhone is unlocked. I believe it is because the TracPhone has a hardware to sim connection deal. Correct me if I am wrong, but I would do more research on this.

 

[munroe]

You can use an iPhone with ATT prepaid. Just fail the credit check in iTunes and it will give you a prepaid option. I think you can just enter all 9s for the SSN.

I've read that the all 9s trick doesn't work anymore. I was able to activate the SIM card that came in my iPhone (OOB 1.1.2) on the AT&T Web site on a pay you go plan. Then I jailbreak-ed (jailbroke?) the phone to bypass activation. There's a topic in this forum with the details.