Free the iPhone from AT&T 314
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!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:5, Funny)
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Granted its still an expensive, but there isn't another device that does all of the above with quite as nice a user interface, and which has quite as much cool factor.
Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:5, Informative)
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
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!! (Score:5, Funny)
I think the phrase you are looking for is "prosthetic eNis".
Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:4, Funny)
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No it does not play DRM locked iTunes music but it does everything else including play doom.
Oh and it's been out for far longer than the iPhone.
does it have the yuppie metrosexual iconic look? No but in a way kinda, every time I use mine with my phone (BT data) or for other reasons (far bigger screen than the iphone so movies rock and makes websurfing very tolerable) I get tons of questions about it.
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Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:4, Informative)
I haven't taken the plunge and enslaved myself to AT&T for an iPhone, but I know that my desire for it is a tradeoff of several things. Windows Mobile just plain feels like I'm fighting with my PDA most of the times (I will spare you my rant on the astonishingly poor UI design of the Connection management screen in WM5), and most of the more-usable PDA-type devices are, like the N700, just too darn BIG to carry around conveniently for me, especially if I also have to carry a phone with me.
So all flashy 'woo' factor aside, the iPhone seems to have a very usable interface, do most of what I actually want from my PDA-phone (with, alas, the exception of IM... what were you THINKING, Apple?) and would fit in my jacket pocket much more conveniently. It's just that (ugh) AT&T requirement that's kept me from taking the plunge; T-Mobile's been fairly good to me.
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Of course, I'm a pretty big guy and I don't wear tight pants - so YMMV.
In the winter, I've got coat pockets that make it even easier - in the summer, my shorts tend to have those big superfluous pockets, so that's a no-brainer too.
And the important part of 'the n800 is bigger' is that the nokia's screen is 800pixels wide.
Despite what Jobs would have you believe, the real internet is not 480 pixels wide, nor is it browsed by zooming in and out and sidescrolling as a
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I'm obligated to point out that the first generation Nano can play MPEG 1 and 2 videos full speed if you use Rockbox firmware.
Yea, the screen is small, and I'm totally ignoring your larger point.
It just needed to be said.
Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:5, Funny)
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OK, you get to be him by taking credit for someone else's DVD player hack. But you stay "DVD Jon" with noisy, pointless attacks on Apple gear.
Re:Yeah make it worthless, then I can afford one!! (Score:5, Funny)
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
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-- My mom
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Why "Of course"? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why "Of course"? (Score:5, Interesting)
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"? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Good post. Just one gripe:
Don't equate 'truly' with 'instantly', or else you'll inadvertently summon the regulators, akin to accidentally blurting out Beezelbub's name and having him appear before you in a cloud of cinders.
Re:Why "Of course"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Jesus.
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So then the guy goes down the street to T-Mobile (a GSM carrier) and gets a SIM card. The phone now works. But the really nifty voicemail fe
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People who do this for a living [computerworlduk.com] came to a different conclusion [businessweek.com]
FTA's:
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And the only way I can think of would be buying one second hand, meaning someone else signed up to the contract, meaning you are buying a stolen phone.
Re:Why "Of course"? (Score:4, Informative)
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It has a sim card, but it's a weird one.
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It has a sim card, but it's a weird one.
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I wonder what would happen if my old AT&T SIM card, from my cancelled contract a few years ago, is put into it...perhaps I could sell it to some iPhone owner
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Re:Why "Of course"? (Score:5, Informative)
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?
Re:Why "Of course"? (Score:5, Informative)
It doesnt? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30
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Right (Score:5, Funny)
How about a guide how to free my PC from Internet security vulnerabilities. By blowing up my modem with a hand grenade.
Re:Right (Score:5, Informative)
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?
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Seriously, what makes you think everything runs as root on the iPhone?
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The real account must be named "grandma", no hacker would ever think to look there.
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The iPhone will start showing up on ebay in "New unlocked!" form shortly. Apple did not design the cellphone portion of the phone. It's a standard module or chipset and someone will discover what unlocking tricks are needed to get it fully unlocked and flashed to factory defaults for the cellphone portion so that the provider cant re-lock it.
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I hereby defy you in a game of Worms ! you seem to be in the proper mindframe 8)
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In order for this to be effective folks, you must remain beside the active grenade at all times in order to be certain the vulnerabilities have been removed (among other things).
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The iPod video in like 3 months, $399 (Score:2)
> there are people who want an iPhone to use it as an iPod and WiFi device without having to enter into a 2-year AT&T contract).
Just wait a few months and get a bug-fixed OS X in an iPod video with the same screen and Wi-Fi and Safari and 100 GB disk.
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The *really* scary thing is that if there's just the *tiniest* hint that an iPod without a cell phone is lame, then everyone is going to want an iPhone, or whatever v2.0 looks like. iPhone totally *rocks*, even the battery life is great.
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I still want, no need, the ability to connect to another network. I travel enough to need the ability to put a SIM card in for the country I'm in at the time. So i'd love to use your technique to get my hands on the phone, but will certainly need the (inevitable) hack to use another SIM.
I've been looking for a device that has wi-fi web, phone, and all the features the iPhone offers (including cool factor) but
Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Whole article is at: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061124-828
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What does unlocking a phone have to do with circumventing copyright protection? Surely the DMCA does not apply and it would be legal whether or not the DMCA had exemptions covering it, as long as you're not interfering with the built-in copy restriction measures of the phone?
Re:Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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That's called pandering, and it's what all mainstream politicians do to get elected before going back to doing the same crap they always did. It's also why Hillary and McCain started campaigning so early this year; they needed to do a lot
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Tomato, Tomahto
I still say it's time to toss both of the current lying ass parties out and give someone else a try.
Re:Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL (Score:4, Informative)
It's not a legal thing, it's a commercial thing. SIM locking makes a lot of sense and is one of the features that allowed for such a massive and fast rollout of ubiquitous GSM communications. Essentially it means the providers can heavily subsidise the price of the phone, making an advanced piece of electronics extremely cheap (and therefore affordable to lots of people), while still turning a profit. Everybody wins. But without locking, subsidising such a phone is equivalent to simply giving away money - so robust locking (a form of DRM in a way) is pretty important if you value everybody having a mobile phone. As phones usefulness is very much related to how many people have them, I'd say that's pretty important, especially as many countries now have laws around how long a phone can remain locked for and on some contracts (like mine) after you've had it for a year you own the phone and can get it unlocked.
Now, in this case, there are some things that aren't really clear. The first is how much AT&T are subsidising the cost of the phone. My Sony Ericsson W800i, which is now about 2 years old and has most of the features (if not the nice ui) of the iPhone cost me 30 UK pounds when I bought it on contract (locked for a year), which is about $60. But the high end iPhone costs 10 times that. I can well believe it's more expensive to make, as it's newer, has a nicer screen etc, but is AT&T subsidising the cost at all? If they are then I guess Apple have serious problems with the manufacturing price. If they aren't doing so then the original rationale for allowing locking (which is otherwise an unwarranted distortion of the free market) disappears, and it should be looked at closely.
Re:Unlocking a Cell Phone is LEGAL (Score:4, Insightful)
In any event, AT&T is not subsidizing the cost of the iPhone in any way. Locking the iPhone to their network when they are not paying any portion of it's cost for the consumer is just plain evil. Apple, by extension, is also guilty.
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The subsidy is based on the idea that you'll use your shiny new phone a lot. People who get a phone cheap and then hardly make any calls are money-losers for the phone companies, they're balanced out by those who use their phones a lot. This balancing has tremendous benefit for society - it means I can basically assume somebody will have a mobile phone regardless of their personal wealth, because the actual equipment is so damn cheap. Without locking, people would sign up for a contract to get a phone that
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"The former CEO of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, had some interesting remarks to make about Net Neutrality during his parting speech. Choice quotes include his plans for getting anti-neutrality legislation through: "Will Congress let us do it?" Whitacre asks his colleagues. "You bet they will -- cuz we don't call it cashin' in. We call it 'deregulation.'
http://slashdot.org/articles/07/06/06/1220258.shtm l [slashdot.org]
Here is information on AT&T's failure to subsidize the iPhone and the progress being made to break the Si
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In other words, the sim-lock defendings are nothing but BS from the Telecoms. They just don't want to admit that they are so greedy.
Unlock?? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The iPhone is totally useless without this "Visual Voicemail" feature!
Or... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Or... Not (Score:2)
Re:Or... Not (Score:4, Interesting)
Cancel within 4 days and you get the activation fee refunded; and since you are within 30 days there is no early termination fee.
Essentially you are buying a very expensive iPod/WiFi web browser.
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Wait.... (Score:2)
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Its funny some of the hippies were pissed off when it took them 24 to 36 hrs in queue for, er, bricking their phone.
Well (Score:5, Funny)
I have one (Score:3, Funny)
iPhone - phone - introducing the "i" (Score:2)
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iPhone shuffle (Score:3, Funny)
voip (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows Only? (Score:3, Informative)
I'd be happy to verify this theory if someone wants to send me an iPhone
The service providers are the problem. (Score:4, Interesting)
To me the activities the US carriers engage in is just as bad if not worse than DRM. It's a big problem and unfortunately I don't see many people calling attention to it.
Its very hard to understand this (Score:2)
Its true they control the customers' network choice. But why do they care which network he/she chooses? Doe
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Also the main reason: I'm a T-Mobile dealer that also sells unlocked phones. Both AT&T and T-Mobile want absolutely nothing to do with you if you're using an unlocked phone. T
Re:Its very hard to understand this (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Its very hard to understand this (Score:4, Interesting)
Why risk it? (Score:5, Informative)
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On its own this development will only cater for those who are not interested in the phone component, but if he can find a way to unlock it then it'll be a lot more useful.
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That said, I fail to see how AT&T stands to lose from morons turning their expensive toy into an iPod. They still have to pay their monthly fees. If I were AT&T, I'd encourage that behaviour. Talk about free money!
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Doesn't the fact that the article you quote gives the price of component with five (5!) significant figures tell you all you need to know about it? Also, since when is development costs 0?
It's stupid to try and price an item by the price you think the components cost, ok.
But it's a nice number to guess, with 1 or 2 signifcant figures.
Development does have a marginal cost of 0.
When you are trying to know the benefit of a sale, it would be price - marginal costs. The development cost is a sunk cost, so it is irrelevant to each sale, because it won't change.
That said, I fail to see how AT&T stands to lose from morons turning their expensive toy into an iPod. They still have to pay their monthly fees. If I were AT&T, I'd encourage that behaviour. Talk about free money!
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Re:Why is DVD Jon focused on Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is DVD Jon focused on Apple? (Score:5, Funny)
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? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Because HD formats aren't worth anyone's attention.
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I doubt that most will cancel their service.
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