[Merged] iPhone officially unlocked!

[mark_in_2k]

Read here on Engadget!

The software hasn't been released officially yet, but has been confirmed as working from the boy at Engadget.

Here's where you choose the carrier:

Notes on the install

* The unlock process took only a couple of minutes. From our end it was totally painless.
* Once you put your new, non AT&T SIM in the device, you have to go through the usual activation process. This can, of course, be done by anyone anywhere with the right tools (like iASign or iActivator)
* We tested with an active T-Mobile SIM -- after the hack was finished and we reactivated we immediately got full bars and the T-Mobile carrier info popped up in the top bar.
* Everything is otherwise the same, except the menu system now has a couple more options. The root menu has Carrier settings where you can select your preferred network if you don't want to roam.
* The General -> Network menu now has an EDGE network settings area where you can input your carrier's APN and username / password. We put in our T-Mobile info, and were immediately online. (Apparently these hidden menus were added in the 1.0.1 update, they tell us. How convenient!)
* Visual voicemail isn't in the cards -- sorry. That was, of course, to be expected because it's a special AT&T network-specific feature right now. When you hit the voicemail button you are taken immediately to your carrier's default voicemail line though, and that works just like it would on any other phone.
* Everything is confirmed as working on a non-AT&T network: SMS send / receive, internet (including Safari, Mail, Google maps, etc.). YouTube doesn't work out of the box, but that's to be expected. If you're not on AT&T you have to manually activate YouTube -- here's the guide on how to do that. (YouTube is the only app you have to activate like this.)
* We know, it's kind of crazy, but this isn't a hoax.
* No, sorry, you can't have our unlocked iPhone.

[fishlips20]

Here we go. Time to hit eBay HARD!

iPhone has successfully been unlocked from AT&T.


See Engadget Link:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/i...ugust-24-2007/

It's high noon, Apple and AT&T -- we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It's all over, guys.

The iPhoneSIMfree.com team called us up to prove their claim that they cracked Apple's iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. (No, we don't have a copy of the unlock software, so don't even ask us, ok?) The six-man team has been working non-stop since launch day, and they're officially the first to break Apple's SIM locks on the iPhone. It's done. Seriously. They wouldn't tell us when and how they would release it to the public, but you can certainly bet that they'll try to make a buck on their solution (and rightly so). We can hardly believe the iPhone's finally been cracked. No, scratch that -- we just can't believe it took this long.

Again: we can confirm with 100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US. Read on for details and links to our video, and check out the gallery of images below.

Gallery: iPhone unlocked

Notes on the install

* The unlock process took only a couple of minutes. From our end it was totally painless.
* Once you put your new, non AT&T SIM in the device, you have to go through the usual activation process. This can, of course, be done by anyone anywhere with the right tools (like iASign or iActivator)
* We tested with an active T-Mobile SIM -- after the hack was finished and we reactivated we immediately got full bars and the T-Mobile carrier info popped up in the top bar.
* Everything is otherwise the same, except the menu system now has a couple more options. The root menu has Carrier settings where you can select your preferred network if you don't want to roam.
* The General -> Network menu now has an EDGE network settings area where you can input your carrier's APN and username / password. We put in our T-Mobile info, and were immediately online. (Apparently these hidden menus were added in the 1.0.1 update, they tell us. How convenient!)
* Visual voicemail isn't in the cards -- sorry. That was, of course, to be expected because it's a special AT&T network-specific feature right now. When you hit the voicemail button you are taken immediately to your carrier's default voicemail line though, and that works just like it would on any other phone.
* Everything is confirmed as working on a non-AT&T network: SMS send / receive, internet (including Safari, Mail, Google maps, etc.). YouTube doesn't work out of the box, but that's to be expected. If you're not on AT&T you have to manually activate YouTube -- here's the guide on how to do that. (YouTube is the only app you have to activate like this.)
* We know, it's kind of crazy, but this isn't a hoax.
* No, sorry, you can't have our unlocked iPhone.

Restore / upgrade resistance

* The iPhoneSIMfree.com guys claim this method is restore and upgrade resistant. We have no way of knowing whether Apple will be able to disable this SIM unlock with future iPhone software updates, but we can confirm that it is restore-resistant.
* We performed a full restore (v1.0.2) on our iPhone and successfully activated it using an inactive AT&T SIM.
* After fake-activating our iPhone, you merely pop out the AT&T SIM, put in the foreign SIM of your choosing, reactivate, and you're done. "Boom," as Steve might say.
* Restoring from an iPhone backup in iTunes worked perfectly despite the lock and foreign SIM. The only thing to notice was the phone number is now listed as "n/a" in iTunes. Big whoop.
* No, seriously. You can't have our unlocked iPhone.

Video
Before you get in a tizzy claiming it's a faked video, please note that:

* We show the T-Mobile SIM at the beginning and end.
* The video stream does get cropped toward the end. That's actually just a crop to make sure the phone number on the second iPhone isn't shown. No frames of the video stream were removed, it wasn't a cut.
* Just so you could be extra sure it's real, we even left in the GSM radio noise.
* Dude, you can unlock your own iPhone soon, ok? You can't have ours.

[elty]

Will Future updates brick the phone? if not, then the refurb. 4GB is at a pretty reasonable price.

[mark_in_2k]

Will Future updates brick the phone? if not, then the refurb. 4GB is a pretty reasonable price.

As there's no way of checking "future updates" there's no possible way that question can be asked!

And I bet those refurbs are flying off the Apples stock room shelves now!

[shaolinmonk]

big news.. need to find a way to confirm this and get one...

[Goonish]

The price on one of the refurbished iPhones doesn't seem so bad now. Now will Apple ship an iPhone to Canada?

[Bytown]

The price on one of the refurbished iPhones doesn't seem so bad now. Now will Apple ship an iPhone to Canada?

Can you afford to pay $200 a month in data alone.

[shaolinmonk]

meh you don't need to use rogers data on it.. all the non-data features are still there...

fyi-you cannot buy refurbs at an apple store...they only sell them online...

[baktrak]

If you dont have a data plan, can you still activate the wifi feature, and use all the nifty wifi goodness within your own home? Later on, when data plans get more economical, we can later activate that part, right?

cheers

[Kommander_KornFlakes]

YAHOO News has it on it's main page as its headline- (Friday 6:00pm)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/...phone_unlocked


Bwahahahaha I laugh in the face of Apple Thank God for hackers.

[st7860]

if you still don't want to lay out over $500 for an apple iphone you can buy a clone on ebay by searching for "cect p168", there are plenty of sellers selling clones for $150USD

http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?...ZxZWVFRXl5Mw==
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvJ1RGlxe8Q
http://iphonesimfree.com/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/i...ugust-24-2007/
http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/08/24/1858252.shtml

[Sgt_Strider]

Out of curiosity, what's with the MRG tag in the title?

I'm glad this hack has been released as there are definitely some people who are keen on getting an iphone; especially in Canada. However, I still think this phone is overhyped especially with the keyboard. Did anyone heard about people typing twice as slow on the iphone's keyboard versus a traditional handheld keyboard?

[st7860]

MRG = merged

[Badman]

suddenly the iphone looks like its worth getting. I still don't like the camera they use but the features are nice.

[perplexed_one]

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/249530

Hack opens up the phone to overseas users
Aug 24, 2007 01:42 PM
Associated Press

NEW YORK – A 17-year-old hacker 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.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., 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 AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology. In a video posted to his blog, he holds an iPhone that displays "T-Mobile" as the carrier.

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.

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 him 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 next step, he said, would be for someone to develop a way to unlock the phone using only software.

The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the Subscriber Identity Module, a small card with a chip that identifies a subscriber to the cell-phone network.

The SIM-chip method does not require any soldering, but does requires special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone – each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.

Both hacks leave intact the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which shows voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.

Since the details of both hacks are public, Apple may be able to modify the iPhone production line to make new phones invulnerable. The company has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year, but it hasn't set a date or identified carriers.

There is apparently no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last year, the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Among other things, the law has been used to prosecute people who modify game consoles to play a wider variety of games.

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.

Hotz himself spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone went on sale on June 29. On Thursday, he put the unlocked iPhone up for sale on eBay, where the high bid was above $2,000 midday Friday. The model, with 4 gigabytes of memory, sells for $499 new.

"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it," he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz's hack Friday.

Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience – or "hacking the brain!" as he put it to the newspaper – at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

–––

On the Net:

Hotz' blog: http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/

Apple iPhone: http://www.apple.com/iphone

bound to happen sooner or later, now it's upto Apple to up the ante.

Do you think ppl will stop buying fakes bcuz they go with any provider for their iphone?