Harry Finocchiaro

Anyone who has the original iPhone will probably tell you that it’s sitting somewhere on their desk being used as a paper weight. After all, if it doesn’t have a SIM card it’s pretty much useless, right? Every time you turn it on you get that annoying SIM card message. And when you plug it into iTunes you get the same damn message.

That is exactly what was happening with a colleague of mine. His old 2G was sitting around taking up space. Why did I care? Why would I want that paper weight!? I’ll tell you…

I transformed his old iPhone into a nice wireless device for my fiancée to use. Not only that, but because I set it up using my iTunes account, I was able to download all of my paid apps onto it. I no longer have to let her use my iPhone (my precious, precious iPhone) in order to check the weather or look at LOLCats. It’s a win-win situation, imo.

So here’s how to do it:

The process is rather simple.

Steps 1 – 2 involve updating the 2G to the latest firmware. If your 2G is already on OS 3.1.2 then just skip ahead.

Step 1 – Power off the phone. Wait 5 seconds, then plug it in while holding the HOME button. Continue holding the HOME button until you see the “Connect to iTunes” image.

Your computer will recognize that you connected an iPhone in recovery mode and it may even load iTunes for you.

Step 2 – In iTunes, recover your iPhone by checking for updates. CAUTION: This will remove everything from the phone, so make sure you back it up first. When it’s finished updating, it may try to sync your phone. That’s up to you whether you let it or not.

Step 3 – Keep your iPhone plugged in, close iTunes, and download a piece of software called Blackra1n.

Step 4 – Run blackra1n.exe, and click the “make it ra1n” button.

Step 5 – Wait until it says it’s finished. You should now be able to use your iPhone with wireless. You’ll also have a “Blackra1n” app on your phone. That means that you can access Cydia, if you want. But thats another article.

This worked very smoothly for me. Leave a comment if you have any issues and I’ll help you get it settled.