# Unlock/Activate iPhone in Toronto



## serenaray (Jul 31, 2007)

Hi everybody!
I'm new... that'll be my default excuse =)

I'm planning on going to the US and buying an iPhone. I have a couple friends setup to help with activation in the US. And the plan is to cancel the payasyougo plan the next day. From what I've understood (and correct me if I'm wrong), this will activate the iPhone indefinitely.

Can anybody confirm this and/or let me know of any other links/threads discussing this very issue?

And I guess the second question is whether I can use my iTunes account to activate or does it have to be the ID of someone who has a US iTunes account...!??

Thanks!


----------



## retrocactus (Jun 17, 2003)

You can cancel the pay-as-you-go the next day but you won't get a refund...all you'll do by canceling is ensuring that next month it isn't automatically charged to your credit card. You'll also have no cell service in Canada or data so there isn't an easy way to deplete your prepaid minutes which will expire 30 days from signup. Fortunately I had a trip to California to burn through most of my minutes and use a ton of 'unlimited' data.

You won't be able to use your Canadian iTunes account to activate it...you'll need to use a US one along with a valid US address and US credit card (unless you've had a US address added to your Canadian card which I've heard has also worked).

As for it working indefinitely, nobody knows for sure yet as there hasn't been any updates from Apple yet. 

My current minutes expire on August 13th so if an update comes after that date, I'll post here if my iPhone still works or not


----------



## serenaray (Jul 31, 2007)

thanks for the quick response.

With that in mind, looks like I'll delay the purchase until I know for sure it won't turn into an expensive paper weight.


----------



## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Yes, I'm somewhat curious as to what happens if you cancel your GoPhone plan. I haven't bothered to cancel mine yet, since I travel to the U.S. enough to justify keeping it around, for now at least, but it would still be interesting to see if the device itself keeps on working after that point, and/or whether you're prompted to re-sign-up with AT&T.


----------



## retrocactus (Jun 17, 2003)

Yeah, I'm curious to see what happens after my 'time is up' and I have to do a reset or reinstall of some kind (get a new laptop for example)...time will tell I guess...worse case is I go the software activation method and lose Youtube in the process I guess.


----------



## Ace McDuck (Sep 27, 2005)

*Will iTunes Canada work with hacked iPhone?*

 I'm seeing lots of threads on hacking the iPhone to use "non-ipod" features like wifi, email, phone in Canada. But how does it work for ipod stuff with iTunes Canada? 

If I was to cross the border & pick one up, presumably I can manage to hactivate it somehow - meaning I'm able to use one of the plethora of currently available hacks to achieve activation. Now I want to d/l my music, podcasts, videos that I have in iTunes, and occassionally purchase more music, etc. Do I have to open a US iTunes account with address & credit card in the US (neither of which I currently have), or will the Canadian version accept the iPhone & sync my Canadian purchased iTunes stuff??

TIA​


----------



## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

If you use one of the activation hacks, it doesn't really matter what iTunes account you're using, as there are no special restrictions on the content itself (beyond the normal DRM of course).

You only need a U.S. iTunes account if you're signing up for an actual AT&T account (ie, activating the iPhone legitimately, rather than using one of the workarounds/hacks).


----------



## Ace McDuck (Sep 27, 2005)

so there's nothing in iTunes that checks for legitimacy of iPhones - i.e. you don't have a US account so you can't sync?

Secondly, if you use the pseudo-legitimate activation - failing the credit check so you get the pay as you go option - then you need a US iTunes account, first to do the activation, then to continue using the iPhone? Or can you activate with, let's say a friend's US iTunes account, then use a Canadian iTunes account for regular use/sync?


----------



## serenaray (Jul 31, 2007)

From the research I've done so far, the US iTunes account is only required at activation. From that point on, there isn't a connection between the iPhone and the iTunes account (as jhollington has said).

From that point, the only connect between iTunes and your iTunes account is for purchasing/downloading iTunes content. 

I've actually caved somewhat and will be going this weekend to pick one up.


----------



## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

The one exception may be if you do a full "Restore" on the iPhone. I know that the first thing the iPhone wants to do after a restore is check with the iTunes Store. If you don't have an Internet connection active, then when the iPhone comes back online after a restore, you'll get an error about being unable to connect to the iTunes Store. This is in the case of a legitimately activated iPhone, mind you -- I haven't tried this with a hacktivated unit.

Further, I'm uncertain if that has anything to do with any particular iTunes Store account, as I've done a complete restore on a different computer from the one the iPhone was initially setup on, while not actually logged into my U.S. iTunes Store account, and it was still fine as long as it could get at the store in general.


----------



## Ace McDuck (Sep 27, 2005)

Okay, you've convinced me that I won't have a brick when I cross the border, and that I won't have to jump through techno-hoops to make it work & stay working. My wife would not let me live it down if I bought a $600 brick.  

Now for a tricky question. I will have a blackberry shortly (company paid) and I think I can use the bluetooth dial up from the iPhone to the blackberry for surfing over Rogers' data network. Is this right? And is there a specific model or software rev level required on the blackberry?

TIA​


----------



## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Actually, no. The iPhone doesn't support anything over Bluetooth other than a headset, so initiating a dial-up connection through another device via Bluetooth is definitely not going to happen.

Basically, you'll only be able to get data for it over WiFi, although you can use just about any public-access WiFi network for this purpose, and the iPhone is pretty good at transparently hopping onto any available network.


----------



## serenaray (Jul 31, 2007)

success!! Thanks for the help. I'm just outside the apple store in buffalo as I type. Definitely worth it!


----------

