Considering buying an iPhone as a gift

[Shookster]

It's my girlfriend's birthday soon and I really want to buy her an iPhone, but I had a few questions I was hoping you could answer for me.

1. She already has a phone and I don't know when her current contract expires so is there a maximum amount of time you can leave before activating it, or could she activate it 6-8 months in the future with no problems?

2. http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/02/tada-the-6th-gen-contract-free-wifi-enabled-ipod/

If she wants to use it as an iPod / mobile web browser until then, are the methods in the above article easy for a non-technical person to do? (although I suppose I could do it for her)

Thanks.

 

[mdnky]

If she's already with Cingular / AT&T, she doesn't need to wait until her contract expires. They just start a new one for two years for the iPhone.

Otherwise, the easiest way to activate it would be setting it up as a prepaid account. You'd have to pay for the first month, but it'll allow it to be activated. To do this you supposedly put a fake SS# in iTunes during the credit check (999-99-9999) to force a rejection. Can't say I recommend doing that though, nor am I sure about the legality of doing it.