so to answer your question Joe, No you dont need to activate it first. Thats all part of the unlocking process.

hey I was wondering the same thing when I bought my iphone yesterday. I'm with tmobile myself. I just followed the instruction on the link provided by engadget and I unlock the iPhone in bout 35mins. Now I dont have to worry about being tied to that 2 year att contract. It was actually pretty straight forward. I'm actually using my iphone to enter this. Keys need a little adjusting tho

THe best part in the movie has to be..

"This is madness..... Madness?? THIS IS SPARTA"

I spent a couple of weeks saying that at work... Driving my co-workers crazy

I did notice that he was making errors while typing fast at the end. They don't expect you to be able to type error-free, they just expect that the iphone will be able to predict and make the necessary corrections "when" you make those mistakes. In other words the software is built to concede to its flaws and faulty design (the keyboard) but offers an alternative solution.... correction. Somehow i feel uncomfortable about that.