After 4+ years (and one replacement unit) I finally retired my iPhone 1 and bought a new 4S. I'd like to continue to use the original iPhone as a low rent touch device.
I'm paranoid about doing a hard software restore on the device, or otherwise putting putting it back into pre-activation state, as I'm no longer with AT&T.
I assume jail breaking can help me here, but my initial google research led to a lot of pages written for people already familiar with the jailbreak community and technology.
So, there's three concrete questions I have.
Can I somehow reactivate an old iPhone that gets put back into pre-activation mode without resorting to a jail break when I'm no longer under contract with AT&T
If not, how can I do so with jailbreaking? (keeping in mind I'm a jail break novice)
Is there a a "Jailbreak for Dummies" style intro that will cover the terminology used by the jailbreak community, as well as the various options out there so I can start to make sense of the community and answer my own questions in the future?