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US Teen Trades Hacked iPhone for Nissan 350Z
PieGuy107 writes to mention that seventeen-year-old George Hotz of Glen Rock, NJ has made the trade of the summer. Hotz traded his hacked iPhone for a new set of wheels (Nissan 350Z to be exact) and 3 more 8GB iPhones. "[Terry] Daidone, who's the co-founder of Louisville, Kentucky-based CertiCell, has apparently also offered the young man a paid consulting job, but stresses the company doesn't have 'any plans on the table right now to commercialize Mr. Hotz' discovery'."
Boy's now got a set of wheels and more iPhones to experiment on. You'd think it'd just be cheaper to pay the him to unlock your phone for you.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
I like many Apple products, but I can't afford an iPhone (I don't YET consider it a value when it doesn't offer 3G support, etc, and I can't afford to pay just for the style factor). Despite its shortcomings, however, I have been fairly impressed with its hackability (and the efforts those who've modified it for interesting new uses, including unlocking it). I haven't heard any peep out of Apple about discouraging this sort of thing (short of the obvious warnings warranties being voided). I think this approach with the iPhone, and also the highly hacked AppleTV, is enhancing the value of these products, which out of the box, aren't necessarily top of the line in many categories.
Til he gets the 1099-MISC showing $30000 in "Misc Compensation" and the feds want him to pay 10 Gs in taxes..
Cool! Amazing Toys.
Unless they wrote up a contract stipulating that he would be compensated for the hacked iPhone with eight unhacked iPhones... and on a completely unrelated side issue, the Nissan was a gift.
Breakfast served all day!
Too bad it doesn't come with car insurance. There's no way the guy will be able to afford the premium on a 350Z.
I saw him being interviewed on CNN (I think) and he said he's already accepted an offer for an internship at Google next summer. And according to his blog he's already at college. I doubt he'll be taking that job unless he can work remotely, which would be awesome. I worked remotely at school for a tech company and it was the best job ever. Now I work for them full time on site and it's not as fun.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
I mentioned the exact same thing but that this was a big group project, he was just the guy (who rather badly) soldered the wire into the iPhone. The way to solder that kind of equipment is with tweezer soldering irons, very small amounts of solder, and either a chemical or 400 grit sand paper to get the solder mask off. You use a smaller 26-28 AWG wire instead of the rather large one he used in the photo to get the best results.
This was a huge team effort, it was not pulled off by this guy alone. The software reverse-engineering alone would take more time than figuring out how to hack the hardware. I don't know if he's a member of the North American Marl0n Brando Look-a-like Association, but come on.
Another thing- I know this post and the parent is going to hit the Trolling trigger for some people, but honestly we have a right to voice our opinion. As a moderator, you can choose three ways: reward the good posts, mod down the truely bad posts, or mod down anything you disagree with. Yes there are trolls out there who need to be dealt with and they are, but seriously our standards for posting and moderation have been slipping and it makes me wonder where /. is headed.
I just saw on the news today the first iPhone in Canada. Some guy got a 'supersim' card that he had to stick into his phone. Using his desktop computer, he was able to unlock the phone in 30 minutes. He's now using his phone on the Rogers network. I found this supersim hack guide by doing a quick google search.
Totally OT, but one night I was driving home one night around Four Mile Circle and I could see this car coming up to the circle behind me real quick. I'm in my little Saturn and so I'm going slow enough that I can keep one eye out for deer and one eye back on him.
He comes around the circle in his Trans Am, at top speed, and as he comes out of the circle back onto 70 West, he starts to fishtail. I start thinking, "He's going to overcompensate" and sure as shit, his wheels engage, he's aimed for the trees and goes airborn. Second time I've had a car going airborn in my direction and once you realize you're not going to get hit, you are amazed at how fucking awesome a sight it is.
I pulled over and backed up to him and he was totally like, "Can you help me back out of here."
I had to point out that his car was sitting on a tree and I was not going to be able to lift that Trans Am up.
He didn't know what he was supposed to do. I offered to call for help. He didn't want it. He seemed in a little bit of shock, but not much I could do. Besides, it was late, I wanted to get home.
But wow, what a sight.
The opposite of progress is congress
I seem to recall similar statistics about the Toyota Supra, back when they still made them. Something like, you have 20% more chance to die if you're in an accident while riding in a Supra than in a vanilla commuter car... which sounds bad until they mention that the average accident in said Supra is at more than twice the speed than the equivalent accident in the put-put-mobile.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Does one hardware hack give him qualifications that graduating CS majors don't have?
Since when do CS majors pick up soldering irons?
Heck, most EE's don't do that and wouldn't know how. (Yes, I'm an EE).
I saw the guy's website... I wonder how he is as a software/hardware developer... He's clearly talented, but does he document his code? Does he follow established best practices? Does he interact well with others? Probably is a bit unbalanced...
"Gifts" and contest "winnings" are taxed for about 1/3rd of their value, as I hear it.
That's why when a family member wants to give you a car, it's far better to say you sold it for $1, instead of paying the taxes on a free gift.
With this trade, however, it's not a free gift, nor a contest winning, so it'll be taxed like any other income. I don't expect him to have to pay more than $100 to the IRS. License and registration is also probably $150. If anything will kill him, it's trying to get insurance for a $20,000 car, as a minor, who hasn't been driving for 3+ years. I could see that easily being several thousand dollars.
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