I loaned my newly purchased 2G (first gen) iPhone which had been unlocked and jailbroken (with 2.2 I believe) to a fellow who claimed he could get it working here in China (he has one from Singapore). I'm returning to N. America next week where I would like to use it but just as a phone, not with internet.

Now I have an iPhone where the slider says "slide for emergency" and a USB arrowing upwards to an iTunes icon and no SIM card in it at the moment (I could put my China SIM card in there now or wait until I'm home to put in my home card.) In iTunes the iPhone is rejected because it doesn't have an authorized (or whatever the word is) SIM card.

Is there anything I can do -- either here in China or when I get home -- to get this working again? (It worked fine when I bought it.) Or has that guy I loaned it to just made it permanently inoperable? Can anyone tell me the truth about my situation?

I'm on my iPhone now so I can't post direct links but go to iclarified.com and search for how to unlock/jailbreak your 2.x.x 2G iPhone using mac or windows .... Whatever you use... It's not bricked just... Unactivated

yea the guy merly restored it or some5thing, download quickpwn and the restore file that goes with your phone To FW files and you should be running smoothly