Using iPhone as an iPod Touch

[ViViDboarder]

So I've had my 3G since it's release and it is awesome. The thing is I am probably about to switch over to Sprint and pick up the new HTC Hero because it also looks amazing and Sprint has better coverage near me and the plan ends up being significantly cheaper... (Don't commend on that part unless you've switched to or used a Hero)

I don't want to get rid of my iPhone. I want to hactivate it and run it like an iPod touch with GPS. I know the Hero has GPS as well but I still want the ability to run all the apps that require it. I know I can set up android phones as a Wifi 3G router, which is what I'm going to do so I can still use my iPhone when I really need the data.

I was wondering if anyone has made the switch to losing their data plan or from iPhone to iPod Touch and what their thoughts were. What did you miss? Any good solutions for offline use of apps (I've read there are apps to load up google maps offline also xGPS already supports offline use).

Thoughts? Warnings? I'm a little scarred.

 

[firewood]

Friend of mine pulled the AT&T SIM out of their iPhone, and switched to using a Sprint dumb phone + a MiFi box so that they could still use their iPhone for mobile wireless data (and VOIP).

Better coverage is some places, worse in others.

 

[ouimetnick]

So I've had my 3G since it's release and it is awesome. The thing is I am probably about to switch over to Sprint and pick up the new HTC Hero because it also looks amazing and Sprint has better coverage near me and the plan ends up being significantly cheaper... (Don't commend on that part unless you've switched to or used a Hero)

I don't want to get rid of my iPhone. I want to hactivate it and run it like an iPod touch with GPS. I know the Hero has GPS as well but I still want the ability to run all the apps that require it. I know I can set up android phones as a Wifi 3G router, which is what I'm going to do so I can still use my iPhone when I really need the data.

I was wondering if anyone has made the switch to losing their data plan or from iPhone to iPod Touch and what their thoughts were. What did you miss? Any good solutions for offline use of apps (I've read there are apps to load up google maps offline also xGPS already supports offline use).

Thoughts? Warnings? I'm a little scarred.

No need to hactivate it. I used a de-activated att sim card to bypass the connect to iTunes screen on my iPhone 3G.

 

[sparrky]

Any good solutions for offline use of apps (I've read there are apps to load up google maps offline also xGPS already supports offline use).

Navigon has offline maps and it's a fantastic GPS app. I highly recommend it. I didn't know how GPS worked exactly and was curious, so I turned off wifi, edge and 3G to see if the GPS would still work and it did, flawlessly. I do wonder if their Live Traffic add-on would work the same, however. I plan to do the same thing with my 3G when I eventually upgrade my phone.

 

[ViViDboarder]

Navigon has offline maps and it's a fantastic GPS app. I highly recommend it. I didn't know how GPS worked exactly and was curious, so I turned off wifi, edge and 3G to see if the GPS would still work and it did, flawlessly. I do wonder if their Live Traffic add-on would work the same, however. I plan to do the same thing with my 3G when I eventually upgrade my phone.

Well, I can tell you now that Live Traffic won't work without internet. They can have you download all the maps for your region ahead of time so you can use them without data, but Live information requires the internet to fetch constantly so it stays live.

Good to know though. I think the Hero has Sprint Navigation, but I have yet to see how well that works. Now I know I could always just buy one of these GPS apps and still use it.