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iPhone Freed From AT&T, Twice
A very large number of readers sent in stories about one or the other of the two new claims to have unlocked the iPhone for use on other GSM carriers. A New Jersey teenager, George Hotz, posted instructions for unlocking the iPhone using a soldering gun and a lot of patience. This is from coverage in a local NJ paper: "If someone handed him an iPhone new out of the box, he could modify it in 'about an hour,' he said. A person following his directions might take 'a good 12 hours,' the teen estimated." Hotz has put up a YouTube video substantiating his claim, and is conducting an eBay auction for one of his two hacked phones. The other hack is by a commercial outfit called iPhoneSIMfree.com, whose claim Engadget has verified. The company will be selling licenses to the hack, minimum quantity 500, at a price not yet announced. These hacks are much bigger news for those outside America. Expect to see an industry spring up to meet European (and Asian?) demand for freed iPhones.
I smell Lawsuits.
AT&T might have a basis for a lawsuit, since it has a contract with Apple for exclusivity. For users with modified iPhones, I speculate the only negative externality will be a voided warranty.
but what are you going to do now that you just bought a 2-year contract with AT&T that was required with the purchase of your iPhone?
Because there are good projects like the iPhone already here.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
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Because the Neo is a project and lots of people just want a product?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Unlocking a phone isn't illegal. (nor should it be)
Apple doesn't lose out of this, so I can't see them rushing to redesign the hardware or software.
The only loser it AT&T. And one can easily argue that if the provided a good connection product, at a competitive price and backed it up with quality service they'd have nothing to worry about.
But, of course, the only reason for all service providers all over the globe to use lock-ins is because the last thing any phone company offers is any of the above.
So, yeah, let's hear those world's smallest violins.
Apple and AT&T have undoubtably already discussed what they would do if this happened, as it undoubtably would, Apple will probably have to pay a fine to AT&T as per contract, or attempt to fix the issue. Most likely though neither side will care much as the majority of users will simply switch to AT&T rather than trying to install an unlocking utility, as this is Apple's whole mantra and reason people buy Apple products, they would much rather pay for convienence and an easy to use device than having to hack, adjust, and tweak it.
I wonder how the functionality of the iPhone is affected - visual voicemail, uploading video, etc. Does anyone know if these are AT&T specific functions?
I really hope they don't go after that kid. We need more smart people like him around.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
You still have to go through the activation process. There are tons of methods to bypass it though. Those thinking it's just to unlock the iPhone and get worry free should be aware. If you have a non-ATT iPhone, You'll still need to re-activate it after every software update from Apple. That's because iTunes checks your phone for consistency and hacked phones don't pass this test. iTunes will demand a full restoration of the hacked iPhone that creates the need for re-activation. It's not that difficult to crack the activation process, but if you are not tech savvy you may get into trouble. After every software update, Apple may change things in iPhone's OS which includes the activation process. So all activation hacks may stop working overnight. Of course the iPhone hack community will eventually modify the hacks so they adapt to the changes, but keeping track of all of that might be hard for the technological challenged.
"he obviously believes that he's sellng a part of iPhone history."
Well, considering the bidding is currently at around $3000, he's not the only one that thinks that.
they'll never get away with selling it.
Well, seeing as the autographed phone has 23 bids and is going for in excess of 3,000, I guess I'd find your statement a little odd.
Very true, but I fear the government wants less smart people around.
I would not think that "patching" their visual voicemail app to be that difficult. I do not know how it stores its values, but I suspect that if you spent a couple of hours one could easily figure out its structure, you could probably just put an app that talks to a secondary app on the Asterisk server and pushes the data into the application. I dont have an iPhone, though, so it wont be me doing the work.
Also, in my opinion, anyone who honestly believes that a 17 yr "figured out" the iPhone JTag interface is nieve. I admit that someone that young is ideal for releasing the data because it is very unlikely that AT&T will go after a kid...
This seems to be the phone equivalent of a modchipped game console, which eBay has explicitly banned from their site. Given the insane amount of attention this is getting and will continue to get, is it likely that they'll simply pull the auction, possibly after receiving a nastygram from AT&T and/or Apple?
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While these iPhone hackers will be spending their time working around Apple restrictions, these Neo people will have an SDK and full support from the manufacturer. Not to mention a market for their apps. Let the flames begin.
"We need more smart people like him around."
Smart?
You call going on national TV with all the details and a big shit-eating grin plastered on his iFace, smart? "Hey, Mom!! Look at me!! I just pissed off two major north american companies and screwed the warranty on that new phone you bought me!!!"
There were three others in on this, according to the story so far. Those are the smart ones, but only as long as they keep quiet.
...relies on ignorance and short sightedness of the unwashed masses... Thats the business plan of just about every large producer of consumer goods.I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
You don't buy an internet router from your ISP.
You don't buy cars from the Highway Department (or equivalent)
You don't buy your TV,dishwasher,microwave or other electrical appliances from the electricity company.
So why on earth do americans still meekly accept the logic of buying mobile phones from service providers?
The sooner unlocked phones proliferate, there won't be a need to jump through such hoops to unlock an iPhone, or any other phone.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
The clue would be that they chose to enter into an exclusive deal with a single carrier in the first place. When you find a clue yourself let me know.
Open software and propetiary software without the need for some stupid licenses, resulting in much wider selection
I'm not quite sure what you mean here, since the application development aspect of the iPhone hacking community requires no licencese and is totally open. In fact I daresay there are a lot more iPhone applications right now than for OpenMoko...
I love the idea of OpenMoko and may get one myself. But if you think it's at the same level as the iPhone, that's just being delusional and check-list centric.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Followed shortly by bans from the carriers.
because lord knows the iPhone is so important to business that not only do you need one, you need your company to buy it for you and pay for it.
So basically what you are complaining about is that they won't help circumvent tax laws so you can basically get the phone for free cheap schmuck..
Here's a better idea figure out how you are going to explain to your tax auditor how the iPhone is a warranted business expense... I suppose next you are going to have "your" company buy you a ferrari too and claim that as a business expense because you needed a car... unless you've already done that.
Honestly you own a business, if you want the iPhone so badly just pay for it for yourself
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" ~Frank Zappa
EdelFactor
No, I call it really smart. He did his homework, found the DMCA provision/exemption that allowed him to do EXACTLY what he did, and announced it.... and as neither "pissing off companies" nor "screwing the warranty" is illegal in the US, he just assured himself a future job.
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
The Neo is neat and all, but you don't even have to be that open to do better than the iPhone.
The iPhone is explicitly designed to create vendor lock-in with AT&T. If you want a fully functional smartphone that is unlocked by default, you can get something like a Nokia Communicator.
In fact, there are great stacks of phones (all generally unavailable from carriers in the US) that are fully functional smart phones that run on industry-standard Symbian (some even on not-fully-open Linux; hell, even Windows Mobile is better than an iPhone) and have such amazing features as being unlocked and supporting 3rd party apps by default.
Here are some more phones to compare the iPhone to:
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
How the FUCK can you be unable to google openmoko and within a few minutes realize that:
1)You can buy it now if you want.
2)There's every indication that the retail version(s) will be released on time.
3)There is a FAQ which answers all of the questions in your original post.
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
They don't want socially savvy people. Those are the folks that can manipulate people to do their biddings. A computer geek? They'll just build/fix shit for those who have above average social skills. He's most welcome in any government. Yes I'm perpetuating the stereotype geeks are antisocial, just noting book smarts doesn't necessarily mean scared government.
And "how the FUCK" can you fail to notice that currently it is not suitable for users*their exact words)?
Yes, I am all for OpenMoko and Free Software, I hope they do a great job. But it is absolutely ridiculous for you ignore the fact that for the average non-technical user, a polished, working product that exists now has a real practical value over something that is still in "pre-alpha" (again, their words) development.
The United States Federal Government lives and dies by smart people. It's the smart people in the government that keep the planes flying, the nuclear weapons from blowing up in our faces, the law making halfway descent sense, and who translate the will of the elected charismatics into something mostly practical.
What the government doesn't want is smart rebels. Something entirely different from the larger subset of "smart people."