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Ryan Faas's picture
Ryan Faas

Biting the Apple

Free iPhone unlocking tool unleashed

Following the news that iPhoneSIMFree has begun distribution of a commercial application to unlock the iPhone for use with non-AT&T GSM carriers, an unofficial group called the iPhone Dev Team has unveiled alternate software for free. The iUnlock tool is not as user-friendly as iPhoneSIMFree's software and it requires that an iPhone already be "jailbroken" and has ssh installed. It also requires the use of the Unix command line and SFTP to install and run the commands, which may be intimidating to some users (though a beta version of a GUI tool is in development). Details are a little scarce at this point, but the software's capabilities have been confirmed by Gizmodo and several individual users (though there are some reports of YouTube functionality being lost after unlocking). Tutorials are available from Free iPhone Unlock, iPhone.Unock.no, and Hackintosh. All tutorials still appear to be in early stages and it isn't clear of all details and potential problems are described in them. A free unlocking solution could very well be AT&T's worst nightmare with regards to the iPhone. While many users in the US might hesitate to purchase a software solution like iPhoneSIMFree for $100, a free solution is significantly more tempting (and possibly more difficult for AT&T to protect through a lawsuit - particularly as unlocking a mobile phone appears to be protected by an exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act). As with iPhoneSIMFree, which appears to exploit the same mechanism for unlocking an iPhone as iUnlock, there is no guarantee that even after an iPhone is successfully unlocked, a future Apple update may not re-lock the iPhone.

What People Are Saying

hey all i found a site that

hey all i found a site that actually vies u the iphone.. just gotta do a little surbey.. take slike 5 mins..

http://www.evfreeiphone.info/

tells u wat to do

The bottom line... If you

The bottom line...

If you want to spend a half a grand to buy a shiny piece of metal that dazzles you with pixels and such, this thing is great...

Even if you have to step over boundries and corporate contracts, to me rules are ment... to be bent. And I'm bending like a motherfcukr.

I highly doubt Steve Jobs will produce an crackdown on hacking the phone, as it is unlike piracy, you are still buying his product. Therefore him taking a stance on people from other networks or countries, trying to buy is product for use elsewhere, would be a bad PR move and will loose him loyalty with his clients. If he ever decided too, I'm sure his accountants, and future business forecasters would rush in and say there is no major profit gain by doing so... as apple stands to make more money by leaving things as is.

However, AT&T I could see be the only one pushing apple to have the hacks fixed, and thousands of phones bricked... if it where a sissy step child of a company. But it's not, they know that the hack is not as of yet a big enough pain in the a$$ that it's not going to be a huge impact on their bottom line. 95% of people won't hack it themselves, and would rather walk into a store, and walk out with a product. Not many are willing to fork out 500 bux for something that when they do this and that it may actually work. And if they where really irritated about all the people that MAY make it work without using AT&T they would have already done something... wouldn't be hard. PLUS I know plenty of people who travel the world, and are going to be calling AT&T every day saying, HEY! A$$Hole I bought this damn thing, and I can't use it when I'm away on business? And after the 2 year contract, they will release a fix to open the sim up anyways, meaning we can all go restore our iPhones and walk away happy.

The mistake of many is that they over commercialize the modification of the iphone, and advertise, and sell the software, and selll the phones on Ebay, and that brings it to the radar. These gentlemen are obviously not my kin folk to phone phreaking and jazz in the 90's... the whole idea is to NOT spread it around, and keep it for those that appreciate it. Same reason DTV hacks are now pretty much more hastle than they're worth. After a couple broke bastards in a cable truck get done with it, they're selling free satellite to anyone with 150 bux... lesson should be learned here.... anyways... yeah... iphone...

If they do crack down, I have enough faith in the counterculture of the world that they will have a new hack, or a new patch, or a new sync program to avoid bricking the device waiting for the exclusivity to break. 18 months and counting. ;)

And if they do? just give Steve Jobs the big middle finger, tell him to take a long walk off a short pier, and look for somewhere to dump your next 500 bux of hard earned money.

It's a gamble when you do these things, and usually they pay off... so welcome to the wonderful world of disobedient electronic modification. And all the exciting adventures we have while bug-eyed infront of the computer.

No get back to work and stop reading mundane iphone jargon posts. If you read this far... you need a girlfriend... hell take mine.

Just my 2 cents.

Slippy.

Were all pawns to the big

Were all pawns to the big corporations and they want to control us in every way.
Choice is what we need, but it just comes down to greed.
I dont need a iphone, im pretty much hooked up in every other way possible, what will an iphone do for me?
I have a friend that has never had a cell phone, I'm starting to think he is the smartest person I know.

Smart geniuses!

Smart geniuses!

There are hundreds of

There are hundreds of products that come out in other countries every year that aren't released in the US simultaneously despite the demand. It's business and it sucks, deal with it.

For all of you not in the US, you get the benefit of having a iPhone version 1.5 where many of the bugs have been worked out before you even see it. Its the trade off. Apple can release their products as they see fit.

But I can see Apple doing something that will render hacked iPhones useless while simultaneously adding features making it a huge incentive to update iTunes.

People do not like being

People do not like being told what they can and can't do, we're not at school any more. When you buy something you own it and should be free to do what you want with it. It's the same story with Activations on MS Windows, not installing the bios emulation on the Intel Mac range and loads of other things. If you don't want your hardware/software to be hacked then be open with it... tell someone they can't do something and there are a bunch of people who will prove it wrong.

We unlocked our iPhone last night and it's amazing, servers IPhoneSimFree right for being greedy... you knew as soon as it was released a free version would appear.

The big difference is for those millions who are not in the U.S and want an iPhone, I would buy a UK model only apple seems to have forgotten to bother to release one here yet, like most of the rest of the world...

Hey Steve Jobs, there are other parts of the world not just US... we have money to spend also so get them iPhones out here we are gagging for em.

This makes a HUGE difference

This makes a HUGE difference to the 6.3 billion people (95%) in the world who do NOT live in the US.

I live in HK and am super happy to have used iUnlock. Now happily using my new iPhone on my local GSM carrier.

If you are also in HK and want to share notes/trade tips, come over to http://hkiphone.blogspot.com/

Hey why dont you just not

Hey why dont you just not download the new itunes when it comes out that way you can keep your iphone from ever being locked? This is a question, would it work? please reply asap thanks

Truth of the matter is, who

Truth of the matter is, who cares.
Whether its AT&T or T-mobile I make my check out to I dont really mind. I like my iPhone even though in a year the 2.0 version will be out.
If your so concerned about $20 here and $30 there for all of the services, then don't get a phone. Its like everyday I have to hear someone babbling on there phone, that I remember when no one had phones and we all just talked with each other. These are toys, not pacemakers, we can do without, just get over yourselves.

It is really only a matter

It is really only a matter of time before some update in iTunes checks for SIM hacking. The only thing that will come of this will be irritating sync protocols that make the sync more of a hassle. I'm seeing a line of code that pings the AT&T network before a sync. If the network responds and is identified as AT&T the sync goes as normal. If it gets another response iTunes renders your shiny toy a paperweight until you get the proper not hacked/not modified SIM. No sync, no updates, nothing. And I'm sure AT&T and Apple will be sooo happy to see the the iPhone user who can't sync because of a hacked SIM. It is people like this that are ruining it for the rest of the customers who enjoy leaving our products the way the engineers meant for them to work.