next »

[daviator]

I was down visiting my mom for a couple of days this week, and convinced her that she should upgrade from her iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4.  I told her that I could sell her 3GS on Ebay for nearly what she would pay for the new iPhone 4.  She bit, so now I need to deliver by selling her old iPhone 3GS.

It seems that unlocked phones fetch the most money, so I'm trying to figure out the best strategy.  Her phone is still on iOS 3.1.2.  Should I jailbreak/unlock that, or should I upgrade to 4.1 and then jailbreak?  Is there even a JB available for 4.1?  I'm a little out of date on things.

Suggestions welcomed.

[perkiset]

DONT UPGRADE.

The jailbreak path is much more rocky, and with the newest OS it's not been reliably done. Especially if you are talking unlock rather than jailbreak, which is a different story entirely. Unlocking is still more problematic, and you'll have much more success with 3.x.

   

[daviator]

Am I correct that once you unlock/jailbreak, if you then subsequently upgrade to a new OS, the phone will become re-locked and unjailbroken and you'll have to start over again?

In other words, is there a way to unlock the phone and upgrade to 4.1 and keep the unlock?  I'm less concerned about the JB, I think what sells is an unlocked phone.

[nutballs]

99% of the time, yes you are correct. thats why it is NOT a game for the early adopter.

[daviator]

If anyone cares, I sold my mom's iPhone 3G (8 GB) for $210 on Ebay.  Not bad, I thought, for a, what?  2+ year old phone?  And I didn't even bother to jailbreak it, I just sold it with 3.1.2 on it for the buyer to deal with.

But I do have a question:  After your contractual obligation to AT&T has been satisfied, aren't they obligated to allow you to unlock the phone?  I thought there was a law obligating them to do so, though perhaps I'm mistaken.  I never had a problem getting my previous cell phone carriers to provide unlock codes for subsidized phones I had purchased from them.  Is there a way to unlock a U.S. iPhone via a code or something?  Or are U.S. iPhones permanently locked to AT&T (unless you jailbreak them and illicitly unlock)?

It seems like this would be fodder for a class-action lawsuit.  It's one thing to mandate that the phone remain locked to AT&T during the contract period, but quite another to force users to remain with their carrier once the contract obligations have been satisfied.

[perkiset]

I think it's a buried truth. I think you probably are, but Apple has found a typically Apple way around that. Or perhaps theyre just waiting for the suit. In any case, id not hold my breath ...