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Can a DX connect to wifi without a service plan?

I was just thinking about how incredible this device is, and about how it costs as much or more than many laptops/tablets (without a 2 year plan). Then it dawned on me that when the time comes this summer for me to pick up a new toy, I would love to be able to perhaps give this badboy to my son to use as an ipod/mini computer to browse the web on. I mean what a shame it would be to turn this sucker in for a measly $50 credit! You can't buy anything remotely this cool for... well hell even $100 - $150.

But I don't really know if these things work once they're no longer activated on the Verizon network. Does anyone know anything about that? This is definitely the first cellular device I've ever really wanted to keep after I was ready to upgrade. It's just that they went and built this daggon thing so well that I can't see getting rid of it even when it's no longer the greatest thing on the market.

It would make an incredible MP3 player. With my 'MusicJunk' app on it, you can simply search for any song you want, download it, and play it all within seconds, and all free... try that one on for size Apple!
 
Yeah I run both my OG Droid and my new Droid X all the time. The on thing i would definitely recommend is to turn the phone to airplane mode, you will have to manually set the clock since it will no longer update from the cellular network but placing it airplane mode i get days of battery life from my phone now. Its great in a pinch if my Droid X dies i pull out my 5 Spot and use google talk and google voice on my OG with no issues. The one thing that I have yet to get a solid answer about is using google talk on both, can i go back and forth and just whichever device i pull out first? I know that having google talk running on my PC sometimes i miss messages on my phone, they are only displayed on the PC. With your son getting the X though this shouldn't be an issue just remember to throw it into airplane mode.
 
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How about GPS? The GPS receiver shouldn't be deactivated, and you can always update maps through wi-fi. Of course, you will not get real time traffic updates, but I think it should still work as Nav unit similar to Garmin, right? My only concerns is that recently I called VZW customer service asking about my data usage, and they quoted a hefty number enough to justify unlimited data plan. I don't use my phone to download movies or as hot spot, but I do use it to/from work as Nav to stay up to the minute with traffic. That is the only source of data usage, so it made me think if GPS would work or not without 3G service?
 
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That's super cool! Hells yeah, so once I get another device I can simply fire up the hot spot and he'll be able to connect to the web no matter where we are. That's so awesome. I think the cellphone industry is really changing things. I mean up until this point I've always considered my phones as disposable merchandise... as soon as I upgraded to something else my old phone got tossed. But todays smart phones are freakin amazing machines. WAY too cool to simply throw away once you've moved on to the next thing.

I'm sure this thing will seem dated in a year or two, but it can still serve the purpose as an MP3 player/web browser for years to come. Plus watch movies on, play games on, etc...

Thanks fellas!
 
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I just got a DX from someone who had it deactivated by VZW - I have it connected to my wifi at home, but no web pages will open, gmail will not connect - nothing. What am I doing wrong? I wanted to use it to surf at home, play games, etc....like an iDroid! Do I need to revert it to factory settings and bypass registration to get the thing to work?


UPDATE: It seems that the Droid X prefers WPA-TKIP as opposed to WPA-AES encryption. When I switched my router to TKIP, it worked perfectly. Of course, this meant changing over TVs, computers, Xbox, etc.....what a pain.
 
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