[samuelmaskell]

Hello everyone,
Let me start by introducing myself.
I'm a strong supporter of android and I don't think that will ever change. However, I've always been really interested in webos. I probably would have gotten a pre when it first came out if it had been available in canada at that time. it wasn't though so I got an htc magic instead which I was just as happy to get. A year later I got a nexus one and I love it.

anyway, as I was still interested in the pre, I checked ebay one day and just happened upon a really cheap used pre. I of course picked it up with the intention of playing around with it for a bit and then selling it. God way to see if I should consider a second gen webos phone.

So now it's in the mail (and had been for three weeks! Ahh!) and I've been reading through the forums to find out as much as I can. I installed the emulator and have been playing song with setting up woqi and preware as well as some other stuff. Seems like a really cool os that is easily hackable. I really like how the phone comes with root access and how palm seems to really support hacking.

So now my question.. Why does palm make it so hard to use the phone without activating it? Sure you can bypass the activation with the tool on palm's developer site but that makes it so you can't sign in to a palm profile and you can't access the app catalog. I'm not down with that. Sure, you can use meta doctor (which is what I'm going to do) but you shouldn't have to. Why does palm require you to activate if you want to access the app catalog? That shouldn't have anything to do with it.

Thanks,
Samuel Maskell

[samuelmaskell]

so.. will I still be able to access the free apps in the app catalog? From palm's dev site on using a unactivated pre, I got the impression that I wouldn't be able to see any apps at all. If I can still get free apps then that's not a huge problem to me. I'm not going to be using this as my primary device so I probably wouldn't be buying many apps anyway if I had the option. Still.. it would be nice to have that option. I shouldn't have to activate the phone to be able to use it to it's full potential(other than phone and sms, obviously).

PAAAALM! What is your problem, man?!

[2sslow]

I believe if you go the official route you can access the app cat.

Try this route:

Developing on an Unactivated Device - Palm Developer Center

Edit: sorry no app cat this way.

[samuelmaskell]

yeah, I plan on using meta-doctor
it seems a little hard to set up but I'm sure I won't have any problem
if so many other people have figured out, I'm sure the I(a software engineering student) can manage no problem

my point is though that I shouldn't have to. there should be an official method that lets you use a pre without cell service that still lets you access the app catalog. I don't get why there isn't..

[samuelmaskell]

could I use the activation bypass utility from palm's site and then just install the patch "Show First-Use in App Launcher"? Would I then be able to just open up the "First-Use" app and sign in to a palm profile from there?

[HarleyDustin]

i have bypass but when i run first use..it always ask to call to Verizon..is there any other way that i can sign in my palm profile ?

[rwhitby]

i have bypass but when i run first use..it always ask to call to Verizon..is there any other way that i can sign in my palm profile ?

Use the WebOS Internals MetaDoctor.

-- Rod

[dslunceford]

I'm strongly thinking about buying a couple of used Pre's off of ebay and using Metadoctor to bypass activation and then giving them to the kids for Christmas as movie-playing/game/photo/video devices.

A couple of questions though:

1. If you bypass carrier activation, but set up a Palm profile, you should create a new profile, not select any profile currently in use by another device (eg mine or my wife's pre's).
   
2. If I set up Palm profiles on the non-activated devices, I'll get an app catalog and ability to purchase apps?
   
3. When webos 2.0 rolls around (or other updates) they'll need to be manually doctored again to update, correct?

[dslunceford]

Thanks. If it's never activated on carrier, I'm assuming it would still be carrier-dependent for the update? Eg. if it's a Sprint Pre, the update will be pushed out by Palm when Sprint approves/releases...

Some of the Sprint devices (scratched a bit, mind you) are going for $25 shipped via auction...

[dslunceford]

Another question if anyone knows...Given I don't want phone service on this and will be using the MetaDoctor, can I start with a device that has a bad ESN/locked by carrier and still be able to create a Palm profile? These devices are significantly less expensive on eBay...

Never mind...based on search in the Metadoctor thread it appears I could use bad ESN, but that may preclude allowing creation of Palm profile: http://forums.precentral.net/webos-i...ml#post1997773

[Garrett92C]

Yep. If you don't plan on using it as a phone, the status of the ESN doesn't matter.

[UndeadCircus]

So, this may be beating a dead horse, but I wanted to post my experience here.

I've switched to the Evo 4G as my full time daily driver. I kept my Palm Pre as a backup/play device to pretty much test new webOS releases, etc. Using the meta-doctor instructions provided by the great team at WebOS-Internals, I created a custom meta-doctor that allowed me to bypass activation as well as the first-use application.

Once the phone booted up, it went directly to the home screen. I then launched the first use app that had me set the language (which I then set) followed by a screen that said "Phone Activated" - don't get worried when that comes up. The phone didn't actually activate with Sprint.

Once that was done, I created a brand new Palm profile and was all finished up.

In short:
- Use meta-doctor, set it so that it bypasses phone activation as well as first-use app
- When phone boots up, run first-use app (you may be able to let the meta-doctor load the first-use app instead of choosing the disable it, I'm merely routing the way I did it)
- Create a brand new Palm profile
- You CAN access the app catalog
- You ARE NOT activated with your carrier
- Wifi DOES work

I've seen a few threads where people went back and forth on whether or not you could access the app catalog or use wifi if the phone isn't activated with a whole heap of various answers. Hopefully this will help you guys looking to turn a refurbished or second palm pre into a toy instead of a useful call-making device.

[mbraden72]

TY for your post....i used the webOS doctor to flash my unactivated pre,it worked exactly as advertised...great...then i tried to run the activation bypass tool.....downloaded all that it said, however when i type in the command "java -jar devicetool.jar" i get a "cannot access jar file" message...the pre is a Bell (canada) pre...I am a real noob here and not a developer, just looking to use all the cool things on my pre without a carrier....can anyone hellp walk me through this "activation bypass" procedure? a million thanks to anyone who helps.

[dslunceford]

TY for your post....i used the webOS doctor to flash my unactivated pre,it worked exactly as advertised...great...then i tried to run the activation bypass tool.....downloaded all that it said, however when i type in the command "java -jar devicetool.jar" i get a "cannot access jar file" message...the pre is a Bell (canada) pre...I am a real noob here and not a developer, just looking to use all the cool things on my pre without a carrier....can anyone hellp walk me through this "activation bypass" procedure? a million thanks to anyone who helps.

Couple of things to try. First, ensure you have latest version of Java on your PC. Second, you can just nav to the .jar file and launch from it's folder if you are having trouble in the terminal mode....

[liggy#WN]

From the previous posts i understand apps can be installed ... can the Pre also access satellites without being registered to a carrier. Thinking of giving my old Pre to my son for geo-caching etc.

Asking because I have noticed that location ?cannot? be found when the Phone Radio is turned off?!?! It appears without a carrier there wouldn't be a Phone signal.

Thanks