Free the iPhone from AT&T

Acererak was one of several readers who noted that DVD Jon has released information on unbricking an iPhone. You sacrifice all cel phone functionality of course, but you have an iPDA that will work on your WiFi. Currently the hack is windows only but it doesn't look very complicated.

Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

Why would you pay that much money for a PDA, when you can get other devies whose only purpose it to be a PDA for less?

Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

hy would you pay that much money for a PDA, when you can get other devies whose only purpose it to be a PDA for less?

Because of the "I" prefix.

Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

Well, because you get to have a cool iPhone.

This mod has a couple more advantages for the slashdot crowd:

1) you won't have to talk to people.
2) it makes it harder for 'them' to track you

Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

Tapwave Zodiac :)

Cool factor > Still looks cool to this day!

User interface > Yup its pretty nice touch screen interface

Wifi > With an SDIO card yeah

Almost full featured browser > yup got that too

Full screen > tis a pretty big screen

Video player > hardware mpeg4 decoder built in :D

plus it plays emulators and has tonnes of over features :)

f*ck the iphone get a Zodiac off ebay now!

Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

Cool factor, User Interface, Wifi, Almost full featured browser, Full screen, Video player.

I think the phrase you are looking for is "prosthetic eNis".

Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!!

YEAH! Someone should find a way of making the iPhone work without having to sign a 2-year contract with AT&T. Even if they have to sacrifice the cellphone functionality. I sure hope that when someone does that it becomes a story on SLashdot. Of course then, I'd probably have to respond to someone too dense to Read The Fucking Title.

Why "Of course"?

Why is it assumed that phone functionality must be sacrificed? Why can't another SIM be used?

Re:Why "Of course"?

The iPhone almost certainly contains a network lock (where it will refuse to talk to any SIM card that isn't from AT&T)

The interesting question would be if you could use any AT&T SIM card in the iPhone after activating it with this hack (or if not whether the hack could be changed so that becomes possible). If so, this allows you to completely avoid the "lock-in contract" by obtaining whatever the "I already have a suitable phone and I just want an AT&T SIM card with no lock in contract" plan is.

Re:Why "Of course"?

I personally think it is fair that a telco wants you to sign up for a 2 year contract when they give you a subsidized phone, especially when they want to give you an expensive phone at (what appears to be) a bargain.

What I think is a little unfair is paying full price for the device and being locked in for 2 years to a company that appears is not subsidizing the phone. AT&T must have wanted the lock-in for them to justify spending money on the extra services the iPhone offers such as video mail, which they would have made money on anyway if they were first to market or offered the best service.

In a truly competitive market the iphone would be free to connect to any telco (and because the phone meets FCC requirements they should not legally be allowed to turn the customer away). Problem is, the Telco's are too accustomed to locking down their services and features and couldn't bear the customer having a choice.

IMHO of course.

Re:Why "Of course"?

Here's a choice: DON'T BUY IT.

Jesus. /. drives me nuts sometimes. Everybody wants an iPhone for 99 cents, with 10,000 free minutes a month, unlimited texting, unlimited bandwidth, and a personalized letter from Steve Jobs thanking them for making a difference in the world. How the fuck is any of this unfair? There are other phones. There are other PDAs. Want a competitive market? Get Samsung to make a hot phone, and hook it up to another network. Talking about how you don't have a choice is truly idiotic.

Re:Why "Of course"?

The iPhone doesn't use SIM cards.

It doesnt? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305 746 [apple.com]

Re:Why "Of course"?

Which begs the question - if this hack unlocks it, does it also remove the sim lock? And if not, could it.

This hack doesn't do anything about the phone part of the iPhone. All he did was patch around the activation step and fool the rest of the iPhone into thinking it has already been activated. But I'm pretty sure that someone will take the software apart and figure out how to use it as a standard quad-band GSM phone via the SIM card. The question is if it will have web access via the carrier's data network...and if it would be any faster than AT&Ts EDGE system. The real tragedy would be losing the very cool "Visual Voice-mail". I wonder if Asterisk could be made to serve a Web 2.0 emulation of it?

Right

So "unbricking" the iPhone means losing cell phone ability. What kind of unbricking this is?

How about a guide how to free my PC from Internet security vulnerabilities. By blowing up my modem with a hand grenade.

Re:Right

If I understand the idea correctly this allows you to use it without activating it and having a mandatory contract. This does not remove the SIM lock though. If a hack comes out to unlock the SIM lock these two will make a total unlock possible. Anything else aside, this allows you to use the iPhone for something without registering for 2 years contract while you are waiting for the second hack.

The latter is only a matter of time, after all you do not expect a device with a general purpose OS where everything runs as root to last long, do you?

Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL

From Ars Technia -- November 24, 2006

The newest list of exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is out, and the Register of Copyrights is recommending six exemptions this time around. If you've been hankering for the legal authority to remove Sony's rootkit or to unlock your cell phone, then this will be big news. If you were hoping for the ability to make backup copies of your legally purchased DVDs, you're (still) out of luck.

Exemptions are allowed for 1) the educational library of a university's media studies department, in order to watch film clips in class; 2) using computer software that requires the original disks or hardware in order to run; 3) dongle-protected computer programs, if the the dongle no longer functions and a replacement cannot be found; 4) protected e-books, in order to use screen-reader software; 5) cell phone firmware that ties a phone to a specific wireless network; and 6) DRM software included on audio CDs, but only when such software creates security vulnerabilities on personal computers.

You are allowed to unlock your cell phone no matter what Apple or AT&T think about it. They can't sue DVD Jon for breaking their bullshit attempts to control hardware that they have sold. The purchaser can do what they want with their own phone.

Whole article is at: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061124-8280 .html [arstechnica.com]

Re:Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL

It's just a function of the fact that telecoms have buckets full of money and congress-persons like buckets full of money.

You notice that congress never said telecoms can't reduce consumer choice by locking cell phones. Instead, the head of the copyright office decided to make an exemption to the DMCA to cover unlocking cell phones. Perhaps the telecoms forgot to offer the head of the copyright office enough buckets full of money. Heck, I suppose it's even possible that this official is honest and has the consumers best interests in mind.

Sadly, the US totally lacks a political party that is willing to protect consumers when there is the possibility of gaining access to said buckets full of money. There was a lot of talk about network neutrality from the Democrats before they took control of congress. Now that they are in power and those buckets full of money are in the offing, they seem to have suddenly shut the fuck up about the importance of network neutrality. Sigh. Libertarians, anyone?

Unlock??

I am much more looking forward to unlocking the iPhone so you can use it with any GSM card - including those up here in the great white north.

Or...

1. Buy the phone 2. activate it through Apple 3. Cancel the plan within 2 days [alexking.org]

Well

I'm interested in a hack that allows tunring my nano into a phone. Let me know when this happens...

voip

would a voip webapp be feasible? then the iphone would be pretty cool even whitout gsm functionality

Why risk it?

Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to just use 999-99-9999 as the SS# when signing up for AT&T, which allows you to buy a prepaid phone plan? Then you pay $30, get access to the iPhone, have no AT&T contract, and can even use it to make phone calls if the mood ever strikes you. You also don't miss out on the software updates and new features Apple has already said are coming, and someday when someone offer unlocking for $50 you can get that done as well.

Re:Why is DVD Jon focused on Apple?

He earned his name long ago. He has no need to 'justify' himself to anyone, and he certainly doesn't owe us anything. He can do whatever he damned well pleases, and you should be thankful for anything that happens to help you, instead of disrespecting him for the stuff that doesn't.

Re:Why is DVD Jon focused on Apple?

He earned his name long ago. He has no need to 'justify' himself to anyone, and he certainly doesn't owe us anything. He can do whatever he damned well pleases, and you should be thankful for anything that happens to help you, instead of disrespecting him for the stuff that doesn't.

Showing your gratitude means you're weak. You gotta hate things. Hate Windows, hate Oracle, hate IBM, hate Intel, hate RIAA, hate Exxon. Hate the government, hate DVD Jon. Hate some guy who made a million by selling pixels on his home page and so on.

It's a survival technique. Now, of course, I kinda like Linux. I contributed a brightness adjustment to the "paste" icon in the KDE file manager, so by extension this puts me in the same group with the guys who created the Linux kernel.

But I'm not gonna tell you I like Linux. I'll just instead tell you you're an idiot for not using Linux, otherwise it means I'm weak.

Re:Why is DVD Jon focused on Apple?

In order to justify his name he should do Blue Ray and HD DVD stuff.

Totally agreed. And he better do it quick, I'm on the phone talking with the head of the Name Giving Commission, and they're seriously considering taking his name back.

Re:Its very hard to understand this

Should be pretty obvious why they have the network lock: visual voicemail. Visual voicemail is a major change to the carrier's voicemail system, to get a network to agree to make the change Apple has to agree to the lock-in.

For me, the visual voicemail is the big win for the iPhone, the ability to have random access to voicemail is great. The other features are pretty, but visual voicemail is what makes me drool.