iPhone Freed From AT&T, Twice

A very large number of readers sent in stories about one or the other of the two new claims to have unlocked the iPhone for use on other GSM carriers. A New Jersey teenager, George Hotz, posted instructions for unlocking the iPhone using a soldering gun and a lot of patience. This is from coverage in a local NJ paper: "If someone handed him an iPhone new out of the box, he could modify it in 'about an hour,' he said. A person following his directions might take 'a good 12 hours,' the teen estimated." Hotz has put up a YouTube video substantiating his claim, and is conducting an eBay auction for one of his two hacked phones. The other hack is by a commercial outfit called iPhoneSIMfree.com, whose claim Engadget has verified. The company will be selling licenses to the hack, minimum quantity 500, at a price not yet announced. These hacks are much bigger news for those outside America. Expect to see an industry spring up to meet European (and Asian?) demand for freed iPhones.

Calling all Lawyers

I smell Lawsuits.

Re:Calling all Lawyers

I smell Lawsuits.

Lawyers my eye, this is probably covered by the DMCA reverse engineering, same as for unlocking XBoxes and so forth. Simply purchasing an iPhone does not convey complete ownership and the right to dismantle protections under such law. Worse, offering up the modified iPhone on eBay, which I expect to see cancelled, will not simply bring grief from AT&T, but Apple as well. (It's currently up to $15K, which I doubt will be honoured.) It's best if someone does unlock the iPhone for other GSM services to keep their yap shut and use it as they see fit. Sadly, ego must be fed, but at what price?

Re:Calling all Lawyers

Lawyers my eye, this is probably covered by the DMCA reverse engineering, same as for unlocking XBoxes and so forth.

The DMCA prevents the circunvention of DRM technologies for copyright infringing purposes. Whose copyrights (or other kind of IP for that matter) are infringed if you unlock an iPhone you purchased from Apple? It isn't been subsidized in any way from AT&T, nor have you any contractual relationship with them.

Simply purchasing an iPhone does not convey complete ownership and the right to dismantle protections under such law

Gosh. You people are so brainwashed...

Re:Calling all Lawyers

Note that he said "under such law" and not "the law is always right". An understanding of the law does not imply agreement.

More Like....

Expect to see endless lawsuits spring up about this. But really, is there ground to stand on against this?

Re:More Like....

There's nothing to stop you unlocking any other phone (in Europe anyway), so I doubt the iPhone will be any different. If anything, if Apple tries to prevent it, I could see the European Commission stepping in.

Re:More Like....

Unlocking a phone isn't illegal. (nor should it be)

Apple doesn't lose out of this, so I can't see them rushing to redesign the hardware or software.

The only loser it AT&T. And one can easily argue that if the provided a good connection product, at a competitive price and backed it up with quality service they'd have nothing to worry about.

But, of course, the only reason for all service providers all over the globe to use lock-ins is because the last thing any phone company offers is any of the above.

So, yeah, let's hear those world's smallest violins.

Re:More Like....

Apple doesn't lose out of this, so I can't see them rushing to redesign the hardware or software.

Doesn't Apple get a share of revenue from each AT&T contract? I would expect them to respond to this asap.
http://www.mobile-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story _title=Analyst__Apple_Gets_Healthy_Share_of_AT_T_C ontracts&story_id=102008J3T13I [mobile-tech-today.com]
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/07/19/anal yst_weighs_in_on_apples_rev_share_arrangement_with _att.html [appleinsider.com]

Re:More Like....

Why do you say that? It's a perfectly legitimate business model to develop a platform that draws revenue from third-party licenses. The video game industry is an obvious example.

Re:More Like....

Perhaps you can draw up a Five Year Plan for the video game industry and we can implement it after the Revolution, comrade.

I'll work on rounding up the proletariat to design games for the People, so we can all play without anyone being trampled under these bourgeois capitalists who build electronics for money and orchestrate evil plots to make their products more attractive through proprietary software.

--
ZDNet's George Ou Exposed as Ignorant Microsoft Shill (Zoon!) [roughlydrafted.com]
The assault on reason isn't just a political phenomenon. Microsoft has long been developing its own cast of apologists who have eked out full time careers in the field of sputtering out ignorant, unfounded claims with such insistence and volume that the undecided simply have no alternative but to line up and applaud their seemingly convincing rhetoric. Among them is George Ou, who unsurprisingly blogs for CNET's ZDNet branded website.

Apple iPhone vs the FIC Neo1973 OpenMoko Linux Smartphone [roughlydrafted.com]
Frequently compared to Apple's new smartphone, the OpenMoko FIC Neo1973 is described as the free and open software community's alternative to Apple's officially closed iPhone platform. Here's a look at what it really is and how it compares to the iPhone.

Re:More Like....

But do they have more to gain from selling the hardware, or from their cut of the revenue? Estimates of profits on the hardware are anywhere from 23% ($138) [eetimes.com] to 55% ($329) [infoworld.com] of the cost of the phones (for the $599 iPhone, not sure about the $499 one). According to your links, Apple gets either $3 per contract ($72 over 2 years) or $11 ($264 over 2 years), depending on whether the AT&T customer is new to AT&T or not.

Depending on the balance of new customers to old (and 4GB iPhones to 8GB iPhones), Apple may just make more money by letting people buy the phone and use it with any provider, especially considering that the legal fees to try to enforce the locked phone policy would probably wipe out any difference in revenue from lost AT&T customers. That's provided that AT&T doesn't make too much of a stink with Apple about it. In any case, I'm sure the number of people who actually will end up unlocking their phones will be relatively small, so even AT&T doesn't have much to worry about, and Apple can enjoy those few extra sales that they'll get from it.

Re:More Like....

I really hope they don't go after that kid. We need more smart people like him around.

Re:More Like....

We need more smart people like him around.

Very true, but I fear the government wants less smart people around.

Re:More Like....

Grammar Nazi says, "Fewer! Anything that can be counted is Fewer! Less is for things that can't be counted, like water. Less water. Fewer smart people."

Thank you Grammar Nazi.

Re:More Like....

You call going on national TV with all the details and a big shit-eating grin plastered on his iFace, smart? "Hey, Mom!! Look at me!! I just pissed off two major north american companies and screwed the warranty on that new phone you bought me!!!"

No, I call it really smart. He did his homework, found the DMCA provision/exemption that allowed him to do EXACTLY what he did, and announced it.... and as neither "pissing off companies" nor "screwing the warranty" is illegal in the US, he just assured himself a future job.

Not just in lots of 500.

From the summary:

The company will be selling licenses to the hack, minimum quantity 500, at a price not yet announced.

iPhoneSimFree will be selling to end-users as well. From their front page [iphonesimfree.com]:

Individual per unit licenses will be available starting next week

Implications

AT&T might have a basis for a lawsuit, since it has a contract with Apple for exclusivity. For users with modified iPhones, I speculate the only negative externality will be a voided warranty.

Re:Implications

AT&T most likely has a basis for a lawsuit, but that basis has nothing to do with the Apple-exclusivity contract, since people who hack the phone aren't parties to that contract. The lawsuit would more likely be based on violation of license terms prohibiting the defeat of whatever protection mechanisms are keeping the iPhone locked. And I have no idea whether this would hold up in Europe, where this hack is actually useful.

Why do all this...

When there are good projects like the Neo [openmoko.org] that are on their way?

Re:Why do all this...

Because there are good projects like the iPhone already here.

Re:Why do all this...

"Because there are good projects like the iPhone already here."

STFU - iPhone represents the most proprietary item you can obtain, with a hardware supplier who's not letting anyone but them write software, a software supplier who's famous for not running on any hardware other than that which they created (software supplier and hardware supplier being the same company, for anyone interested in vendor lock-in), and doing an exclusive deal with a monopoly telephone provider, just to put the monopilistic cherry on the proprietary icing.

How the fuck can you compare *that* with OpenMoko, a completely Free phone with a Free firmware, Free Operating System, Free applications, and community of Free Software guys prepared to spend $450 each just to debug the hardware for the benefit of humanity, so that for the first time ever, you can buy a phone that does whatever you want

Re:Why do all this...

And "how the FUCK" can you fail to notice that currently it is not suitable for users*their exact words [openmoko.org])?

Yes, I am all for OpenMoko and Free Software, I hope they do a great job. But it is absolutely ridiculous for you ignore the fact that for the average non-technical user, a polished, working product that exists now has a real practical value over something that is still in "pre-alpha" (again, their words) development.

Re:Why do all this...

Because the Neo is a project and lots of people just want a product?

Re:Why do all this...

The Neo is neat and all, but you don't even have to be that open to do better than the iPhone.

The iPhone is explicitly designed to create vendor lock-in with AT&T. If you want a fully functional smartphone that is unlocked by default, you can get something like a Nokia Communicator [wikipedia.org].

In fact, there are great stacks of phones (all generally unavailable from carriers in the US) that are fully functional smart phones that run on industry-standard Symbian (some even on not-fully-open Linux; hell, even Windows Mobile is better than an iPhone) and have such amazing features as being unlocked and supporting 3rd party apps by default.

Here are some more phones to compare the iPhone to:

• Sony Ericsson P990 [wikipedia.org]
• Nokia E70 [thebestpag...iverse.net]
• Motorola MING [wikipedia.org]

Do you smell that?

Tt's the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and phew, is it stinkin' up the place!

Re:Do you smell that?

Cell phones are not covered under the DMCA.

Neither were ink cartridges, but try telling that to Epson.

Re:Do you smell that?

I don't know about Epson, but Lexmark didn't get away with it. [arstechnica.com]

Yeah, but...

but what are you going to do now that you just bought a 2-year contract with AT&T that was required with the purchase of your iPhone?

Re:Yeah, but...

Given that activation of that contract doesn't occur at the time of sale, but upon activation later. Not much.

Meh

Bah, It's not like he made it's battery replaceable.

Thinks a lot of himself..

I'm not trying to belittle his achievement, but I think the fact that geohot autographed the phone with a marker pen can only detract from the value. After distributing instructions to do this yourself and acknowledging that similar auction lots are likely to appear before the end of his, he obviously believes that he's selling a part of iPhone of history. Odd.

Limited in its usefulness....

Its great to know that they have figured out the JTag interface, but I question how useful any of this is. Meaning, even if you can make/take calls on all the networks, the visual voicemail and SMS would still be non functioning due to software needed on the AT&T network. The SMS probably can be easily fixed by using a different application, but the visual voicemail would definitely be more difficult to get around.

Apple and AT&T won't care

Apple and AT&T have undoubtably already discussed what they would do if this happened, as it undoubtably would, Apple will probably have to pay a fine to AT&T as per contract, or attempt to fix the issue. Most likely though neither side will care much as the majority of users will simply switch to AT&T rather than trying to install an unlocking utility, as this is Apple's whole mantra and reason people buy Apple products, they would much rather pay for convienence and an easy to use device than having to hack, adjust, and tweak it.

Functionality

I wonder how the functionality of the iPhone is affected - visual voicemail, uploading video, etc. Does anyone know if these are AT&T specific functions?

Still...

You still have to go through the activation process. There are tons of methods to bypass it though. Those thinking it's just to unlock the iPhone and get worry free should be aware. If you have a non-ATT iPhone, You'll still need to re-activate it after every software update from Apple. That's because iTunes checks your phone for consistency and hacked phones don't pass this test. iTunes will demand a full restoration of the hacked iPhone that creates the need for re-activation. It's not that difficult to crack the activation process, but if you are not tech savvy you may get into trouble. After every software update, Apple may change things in iPhone's OS which includes the activation process. So all activation hacks may stop working overnight. Of course the iPhone hack community will eventually modify the hacks so they adapt to the changes, but keeping track of all of that might be hard for the technological challenged.

You would think......

You would think any company with a goal of making money by out competing it's competitors in the market would take this moment to jump in the air and yell, "Holy bat shit Bat Man, we have a hell of hit on our hands. We've hit a home run ! People are willing to spend 12 hours moding our gear to get it the way they want it. I bet they'll be willing to spend a ton of money on our stuff. This is fantastic. Lets give them what they want ! We are going to be rich !" I don't think that's what they are going to do though, I think they are going to sue some people. Sorta lets you know where they are coming from doesn't it ? They want to compete by locking you in. Sorta like some other large company I can't remember the name of just now.

Licensing a hack?

how the hell do you license a hack? That's like selling someone the way to snap their fingers.

Re:Licensing a hack?

Well I guess the guy found a bunch of people who don't know how to snap their fingers ;)

Creating the hack may be fine, but...

they'll never get away with selling it.

don't care

Personally, I don't even care about the iPhone until it has GPS. As much as I hate the unresponsive and convoluted interface interface, the clumsy buttons, and the general ugliness of my iPaq, having GPS-enabled google maps in my pocket is now an absolutely mandatory requirement for me to even consider another mobile device.

Will eBay pull the auction?

This seems to be the phone equivalent of a modchipped game console, which eBay has explicitly banned from their site. Given the insane amount of attention this is getting and will continue to get, is it likely that they'll simply pull the auction, possibly after receiving a nastygram from AT&T and/or Apple?

Hack licenses?

They're selling *licenses* to the hack? And will they send the BSA after someone if they suspect they're under-licensed?

Not Illegal

This is actually explicitly legal. In an attempt to defend their lock-in business model the phone company previously tried to prohibit flashing their firmware under the DMCA. They later decided the only purpose to of this was to support a business model and hence they added it to the DMCA exception list.

DMCA on cell phones [wired.com]

ET CLone Phone..

Didn't we read this the other day? China is busy cloning the I-phone? http://www.ipodobserver.com/story/32618/ [ipodobserver.com] It seems to me Meizu already makes a darn fine alternative to the ipod. I'd like to see this here.

Interesting to see what will happen

This is national news now. CNBC is covering it and Apple's stock [yahoo.com] jumped $3.60 or so because of the news.

It will be very interesting to see how the players react. My prediction?
Apple: won't care. more customers = better
T-Mobile: won't care.
AT&T: Pissed!

It is very important to distribute the "how-to" as quickly and widely as possible. I hope he published them before they sue his ass and try to silence him. Because I think AT&T will do exactly that...

Remember folks, sometimes it doesn't matter if you win or lose -- only that you delay. And AT&T would love to delay people from doing this on a mass-scale.