iphone hacked to work on other sim networks

To work on ONE other network, T-Mobile.

And it was 5 kids together who figured it out.

Phil
 
phatch said:
To work on ONE other network, T-Mobile.
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Once opened, the iPhone will work on any other GSM network. T-Mobile is the only other major carrier in the US using GSM. But, GSM is the standard in most of Europe and much of Asia.

Apple has not been selling the iPhone outside of the US thusfar. So, Europeans who want one were simply out of luck. Now, they can get one from an American source, perhaps over eBay, and do the mod and bring it up on their home network.

As an engineer, I was fascinated to read the hack and I'd love to shake the hands fo those involved. This was heavy-duty reverse engineering and those kids have great minds.

The iPhone has been out for what? Six weeks or so now. And a major and important design "feature" of it has been hacked and defeated. Marketing people need to learn a lesson from this: you can't lock technlology up.

The DVD cypher took a number of years to crack, but it was cracked. And that was back before the advent of near-supercomputer PCs. Business people have to realize that they can't rely on these technological locks to control markets because the technological lockpickers have gotten so good. Business people are going to have to come up with new models.
 
BTW, if you decide to try the hardware hack, I have just one little addition to the procedure to add:

Be sure that when you're done and you remove the switch that you cover the trace you scrapped bare. The bare copper will corrode away over time. You can recover it with a brush of nail polish.
 
From the article:

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.
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I think this part is particularly interesting. The fact that five smart people from all over the world can effectively collaborate on a project such as this is, to me, a wonderful thing. And they don't even "know" each other in the conventional sense.

I've seen many other cases where an ad-hoc brain trust of enthusiasts coming together via the internet has been able to produce some very impressive results. I expect that this sort of thing will only become more common as the 25 and under set grows in technical ability and resources over the next decade or so.
 
Gollnick said:
There now a group http://www.iphonesimfree.com/ that says they have a software only (no need to open the phone and tamper with the circuitry) hack.
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Looks like Ma Bell ain't too happy about these techniques:

iphoneunlocking.com, a subsidiary of UniquePhones (www.uniquephones.com). was poised and ready to release remote software unlocking services for the iphone today at 12 noon EST. The sale of unlocking codes is on hold after the company received a telephone call from a Menlo Park, California, law firm at approximately 2:54 a.m. this morning (GMT).
After saying they were phoning on behalf of AT&T, the law firm presented issues such as copyright infringement and illegal software dissemination. Uniquephones is taking legal advice to ascertain whether AT&T was sending a warning shot or directly threatening legal action. The logistics of different continents as well as it being a weekend factors into how the situation develops.
Until an assessment is made of the potential of legal action, Uniquephones is unable to release the unlocking software for sale. The company spokesperson also said that the company would also be evaluating what to eventually do with the software should they be legally denied the right to sell it. A substantial delay caused by any legal action would render the unlocking software a less valuable commodity as well as creating unforeseen security issues for the company
 
The fun question is, how long will all the special features work after you do this? I can't imagine it isn't checking in with Apple every so often- wrong network, things stop working. It wouldn't be hard to do.
 
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