iPhone Code Cracked and Unlocked for General Use
Cell phone companies put a lot of time, energy, and money into locking their phones so they can only be used with their particular company. The new (absurdly overhyped and expensive) iPhone is no exception… until now.
Apparently a 17-year-old has cracked the code and posted instructions on his blog so you can do the same. This is bound to piss off Apple and AT&T. Look out for the corporate litigation backlash… and a cottage industry of iPhone unlocking services.
A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple’s iPhone to AT&T’s wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.
The New Jersey teen collaborated online with four other people to develop the unlocking process.
George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from San Antonio-based AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.
While the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for use on the networks of overseas carriers.
"That’s the big thing," said Hotz, in a phone interview from his home in Glen Rock.
The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is sold only in the U.S.
AT&T Inc. spokesman Mark Siegel said the company had no comment, and referred questions to Apple. A call to Apple was not immediately returned. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.
The hack, which Hotz posted Thursday to his blog, is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. It takes about two hours to perform. Since the details are public, it seems likely that a small industry may spring up to buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas.
"That’s exactly, like, what I don’t want," Hotz said. "I don’t want people making money off this."
He said he wished he could make the instructions simpler, so users could modify the phones themselves.
"But that’s the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.
The modification leaves the iPhone’s many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks, intact. The only thing that won’t work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which shows voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.
Hotz collaborated online with four other people, two of them in Russia, to develop the unlocking process.
"Then there are two guys who I think are somewhere U.S.-side," Hotz said. He knows them only by their online handles.
source Tags: dumb news, iphone, unlocked, att, apple, macintosh, litigation
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1 opinion for iPhone Code Cracked and Unlocked for General Use
Hacked iPhone for Sweet Ride
Aug 28, 2007 at 8:05 am
[…] Hotz, the 17-year-old who figured out how to unlock the iPhone has reportedly traded his phone to a company which specializes in "reconditioning" used […]
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