Using an iPhone as an iPod + camera without a contract?

[andboom]

Hi,

Given that the price difference between the iPhone and the iPod touch is not ridiculously huge, is it possible to get an iPhone (as opposed to an iPod Touch) for the additional camera feature without signing up to any phone provider, in order to use the iPhone without phone/map functions, effectively making it an 8GB iPod touch with a camera?

If so, will it have all the functionality of an iPod touch (ie do the wi-fi functions of the iPhone work fine even without having a phone contract? e.g. safari, e-mail) and can I use features such as Google maps over wi-fi instead of a cellular network?

I know it seems silly wasting so many of the iPhone's features by doing this, but for the extra cash I would love to have what might effectively be an iPod touch but with a camera... at least for the time being until it could be unlocked and I could find a cheap SIM card that works with it. Anyone know if this would work? Are customers forced to sign up to a contract or can you skip this? And if I ever unlocked it, would an iPhone work with a Pay-As-You-Go sim card?

Thanks for any help.

 

[FJ218700]

you can get a "pay as you go plan" with AT&T if you have bad credit (and not pay for the second month)

 

[andboom]

I'm in the UK, so AT&T won't be an option... when the iPhone does arrive here I hear it will be on O2 and (unconfirmed) possibly Orange (for which you can get free 'pay as you go' SIMs like the one I have and I also have an existing contract SIM with them which I would like to transplant from my phone to the iPhone once unlocked). So, is it likely I will be able to buy an iPhone from an Apple store when it's released and not have to sign up to anything, unlock it and insert my existing contract SIM card? Does the iPhone even HAVE an accessible SIM card slot?

Also, wanted to know whether I can use all the non-phone features of the iPhone e.g. camera, safari, maps etc. over Wi-Fi (without a SIM card) so it shares all the features of an iPod touch...

 

[FJ218700]

I'm in the UK, so AT&T won't be an option... when the iPhone does arrive here I hear it will be on O2 and (unconfirmed) possibly Orange (for which you can get free 'pay as you go' SIMs like the one I have and I also have an existing contract SIM with them which I would like to transplant from my phone to the iPhone once unlocked). So, is it likely I will be able to buy an iPhone from an Apple store when it's released and not have to sign up to anything, unlock it and insert my existing contract SIM card? Does the iPhone even HAVE an accessible SIM card slot?

Also, wanted to know whether I can use all the non-phone features of the iPhone e.g. camera, safari, maps etc. over Wi-Fi (without a SIM card) so it shares all the features of an iPod touch...

I believe you can slide out the SIM card from the top. Last I heard, without hacking, the iPhone won't activate until synching through iTunes. People were putting in fake social security numbers to generate a "no credit" score, and the synchinging program was defaulting them to pay as you go and then activating the phone.