Loading ...iPhone unlocked – but is it a big deal?
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Worldwide efforts to unlock the iPhone – untethering it from the AT&T Network – appear to have been motivated by two main factors - “fortune” and fame.
The latter was clearly the impulse at work in the case of George Hotz, the New Jersey teen who succeeded last week in completely unlocking the device, using what’s dubbed as a “hardware hack” (temporarily installing a piece of hardware into the device, during the process of unlocking it).
By Friday, the 17-year old confirmed to several publications that he had unlocked the iPhone, and was using it on T-Mobile network – the only other major US carrier, besides AT&T, with i-Phone-compatible technology.
Hotz has posted a blow-by-blow account of the unlocking process on his site.
In one of his many media interviews, he also said he does not want people using his technique to make money.
Well given that the “10 steps” to unlocking the iPhone tutorial Hotz has published on his site is rather complex – a great many iPhone users may be reluctant to try out his procedure.
Their reluctance is likely to be reinforced when they read Hotz’s rather ominous cautionary message at the start of the tutorial: “you may brick your iPhone using this tutorial – you are WARNED.”
Heck – that’s quite a risk to take when it could compromise a device on which you’ve just forked out at least $US499.
So what’s the other option? I guess using someone that will - for a small fee - do the job for you.
In fact the buzz is that with the iPhone unlocking strategy now in the public domain, a small but fairly lucrative industry will spring up offering at least a couple of services:
• Unlocking your iPhone for a reasonable fee
• Shipping unlocked iPhones – purchased in the U.S. – overseas
Certain legal matters may have to be sorted out before this happens (will talk about this in my next blog), but it’s likely that in the not-to-distant future we’ll see a lot of these “unlock your iphone for a fee” providers spring up - in the virtual and real world.
One of these providers - Belfast, Northern Ireleand-based Uniquephones is already doing a reasonably lucrative business providing “unlocking” services to owners of a broad range of wireless handsets –including Motorola, Sony, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, LG etc.
Uniquephones has developed a software “unlock” for the iPhone, but says legal considerations are currently keeping it from offering this service to the public.
A six-minute video posted on the iphoneunlocking.com blog shows John McLaughlin, the founder of Uniquephones, unlocking the iPhone. The video hit the Web a couple of days ago.
Stay tuned for more on this…
August 28th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Whatever happens i’m just impressed that this finally got figured out by someone that’s still in high school, not bad for a 17 year old.