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Help Question for those with multiple devices...

flyinjoe13

Android Enthusiast
May 18, 2010
463
70
I like to play with techie stuff even though half the time I don't know what i'm doing. So i'm always at risk for breaking something. Was thinking of buying either another Ally or a Droid 2 to have a spare phone to 'play around with' so-to-speak (if I got a D2, i'd make the Ally the play phone). One that I can try to learn how to build ROMs, test ROMs, play with different apps, etc. without having to worry about screwing up my main phone. I see a number of people here who have multiple devices and was curious about a couple of things.

1.) Is there a way to use these phones without actually having an account with Verizon? I.E., with my 'play' phone I could care less about making phone calls. Can it be booted up and used just over a local wireless network without actually activating it? I wouldn't want to have to pay for another line or data package if I have no intentions of using it.

2.) Do you have to get the phone through Verizon or can you get a phone off of say Ebay that can be activated if need be?
 
If you don't want to activate the phone, but operate it, I thought I read about tapping the corners of the screen (left top corner, right top corner then left bottom corner, right bottom corner) when you get the the "tap the android" screen. This may not be the exact procedure, but maybe someone can chime in. I thought I read it here in these forums.

This would kick the phone into a "demo mode". Does it stay that way, not sure.
 
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Thanks guys. I will look into one with a bad ESN and see if I can get it cheap. What is ESN, BTW?

wgb, you should have gotten a thanks, but I got a strange error message when I clicked it. So consider your self thanked as well. :)
If I understand right, it's:
Electronic
Serial
Number
It's a number that's unique to THAT device, and ONLY that device.
JL
 
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