17yr old hacks iPhone

[blm]

George Hotz stood in the kitchen of his family home in Glen Rock, N.J., and announced his breakthrough to the world: He had liberated the hottest cellphone in history.

The 17-year-old, a curly-haired kid on his way to college, made his revelation not at a news conference but in a YouTube video. He had unlocked the iPhone from AT&T's wireless network, freeing the gadget for use on other mobile networks, including those in Canada. He was using his phone, in fact, on the rival T-Mobile network.

"I started working on it the day it came out," he told The Globe and Mail Friday after posting a complex step-by-step guide to unlocking the device.

The young hacker was one of thousands who queued for hours to buy the eagerly awaited iPhone the day it hit U.S. shelves in June. Many of them immediately began looking for a way to break the electronic chains binding it to AT&T.

The phone is sold only in the United States and is "locked" to the AT&T network as part of a two-year exclusivity deal between Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, Calif., and the New York-based wireless carrier.

Its design also prevents easy access to its SIM card, a chip that can be swapped so a phone can be transferred from one phone company network to another. The cards can usually be switched easily. In addition, many of the iPhone's features work only with the SIM card that comes installed.

The unlocking solution, which Mr. Hotz posted to his blog Friday, is difficult to follow and took him about two hours to perform.

"It's a complicated hardware method," he said Friday. "… You just open up your iPhone, solder some wires, run some programs that are out and then you get an unlocked iPhone."

Kevin Restivo, an analyst at telecom consultancy SeaBoard Group in Toronto, said the complexity of this so-called solution will keep it from having much of an impact.

"It's far too complicated for the layperson to deal with right now," he said, adding the iPhone's high price would dissuade most people from trying to make the changes.

"We're talking about $500 or $600 that could easily go down the drain if something goes wrong," he said.

Mr. Hotz, who is leaving home Saturday for his first year studying neuroscience at the Rochester Institute of Technology, wrote on his blog that he was sorry the instructions were so hard to follow. He also wrote that he hopes someone will soon be able to come up with a way to unlock the iPhone using only software.

That dream might have already come true.

According to technology blog Engadget.com, a Belfast-based firm called UniquePhones will begin selling a downloadable iPhone unlock service this afternoon through iphoneunlocking.com. The site displayed only a question mark when accessed Friday.

Earlier Friday, Engadget.com said a group calling itself iPhoneSIMfree.com contacted the blog to back up claims it made on a hokey-looking website that it had developed software to unlock the iPhone.

As for Mr. Hotz, he said he wants to keep his newfound knowledge in the public domain, available free of charge. "If people are going to charge money to do the hardware unlock, that's fine … What I don't want is people selling the method to do this," he said. "I've taken so much from free software, I feel this is my chance to give back."

Mr. Hotz says he plans to keep the first iPhone he unlocked as his personal cellphone. He is selling his second unlocked phone through online auction site eBay and started the bidding at $540 (U.S.). By early evening, the bidding had reached more than $25-million and was wildly spiralling higher.

Friday's developments are not the first reports of unlocked iPhones. Allegedly unlocked devices began selling on eBay for as much as $1,000 after the product hit stores.

Mr. Restivo said consumers should think twice before shelling out money to anyone promising a quick solution.

"People that are going to go to eBay and buy that purportedly unlocked phone from China are probably going to be sorely disappointed once it arrives."

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said Friday the carrier's multiyear agreement with Apple is still in place and referred all other questions to Apple.

T-Mobile USA Inc., which is owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, had no comment Friday. It is the only major U.S. carrier besides AT&T compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology.

Apple Inc. did not return phone calls Friday.

[Scrumhalf]

I read somewhere that he traded the phone to a CEO of some company for 2 other standard 8GB iphones and a new 350Z!!! Now that will be a nice ride at school... lol...

[coffee-guy]

How is that not illegal???

[Curls4dGirls]

Originally Posted by fog_hat1981

How is that not illegal???

What would be illegal about it? the only legal contract is between apple and AT&T.

[beefcake]

Originally Posted by fog_hat1981

How is that not illegal???

Not illegal. You're using service that you paid for on a piece of hardware that you paid for. Nothing in your contract says that you have to use a phone from that provider. I say it's too damn bad for at&t that thought they could capitalize on the demand for the iphone.

[blm]

Originally Posted by fog_hat1981

How is that not illegal???

Taken from a recent online article:

''After a rash of reports over the weekend of hackers who managed to unlock the iPhone—ranging from the iPhoneSIMFree.com team to a 17-year-old kid in New Jersey—AT&T has unsurprisingly decided to rain on the parade, with a little help from its legal team.
Gizmodo is reporting that AT&T has fired off a warning to a group that was planning to sell its iPhone unlocking software. In a press release, a spokesman for iphoneunlocking.com said that AT&T contacted the site early Saturday, warning that the group would run afoul of copyright laws if it went ahead with its planned sale of the software package. The site has decided to hold off releasing the iPhone-unlocking app for now, the spokesman said.

So, all this begs the question: is it legal to unlock the iPhone? Engadget asked a copyright lawyer that very question, and got a rather nuanced answer. According to the attorney, iPhone unlockers are most likely protected by an exception in the DMCA (a law that prohibits the cracking of DRM schemes) that lets you unlock your own phone for the "sole purpose" of using it "lawfully" on a cellular network. However, you can't unlock a phone (including the iPhone) and then sell it; also, Apple and AT&T are free to sue you on the basis of other laws besides the DMCA (and they certainly have the resources—and the incentive—to do so). Bottom line? The lawyer seems to believe that you're probably in the clear as long as you're just unlocking your own iPhone and not selling it on Craigslist; then again, there's no telling what Apple and AT&T have up their legal sleeves. Also, on a practical note, keep in mind that unlocking the phone will probably violate your warranty, so if anything goes wrong, don't look for sympathy from the Apple Genius Bar.''

[FitnessBrat]

Originally Posted by beefcake

Not illegal. You're using service that you paid for on a piece of hardware that you paid for. Nothing in your contract says that you have to use a phone from that provider. I say it's too damn bad for at&t that thought they could capitalize on the demand for the iphone.

It's Apples phone and they have a two year contract with AT&T. The hacker made it useable with his TMobile sim card lol. And he did sell the sautered phone for three 8gb iphones and a new 350Z!

[Scrumhalf]

Smart kid. He had not just the knowledge to do this but the cojones to take a soldering iron to a $500 phone. I am sure Steve Jobs would be smiling inside at the audacity. Regardless of how he does in college, I wouldn't be surprised if he is selling his first company and becoming a multi-millionaire before 25.

[blm]

Originally Posted by FitnessBrat

It's Apples phone and they have a two year contract with AT&T. The hacker made it useable with his TMobile sim card lol. And he did sell the sautered phone for three 8gb iphones and a new 350Z!

It's your phone. You paid for it so you own it. You can do anything you want to it, but you void the warranty. It's not illegal to make a phone compatible w/another network. Selling it after you mod it however is illegal.

[Scrumhalf]

Originally Posted by blm

It's your phone. You paid for it so you own it. You can do anything you want to it, but you void the warranty. It's not illegal to make a phone compatible w/another network. Selling it after you mod it however is illegal.

I seriously doubt any parallel to DRM will hold up in court. I view the parallel more as taking a hybrid car like the Prius and converting it to a plug in hybrid that can charge off the grid - something that you can get kits to do (although of course you will void the Toyota warranty) and the oil companies getting upset at it.

I am sure Apple or AT&T have the financial resources to scare any citizen, but if one were inclined to fight, I think the legal system will find in favor of the hacker.

[FitnessBrat]

Originally Posted by blm

It's your phone. You paid for it so you own it. You can do anything you want to it, but you void the warranty. It's not illegal to make a phone compatible w/another network. Selling it after you mod it however is illegal.

I didn't say anything was legal or illegal - I was only saying why it's only sold by AT&T and what the kid got...

[coffee-guy]

Originally Posted by Scrumhalf

Smart kid. He had not just the knowledge to do this but the cojones to take a soldering iron to a $500 phone. I am sure Steve Jobs would be smiling inside at the audacity. Regardless of how he does in college, I wouldn't be surprised if he is selling his first company and becoming a multi-millionaire before 25.

In other words - ballsy ...

[babyblues]

Originally Posted by Scrumhalf

Smart kid. He had not just the knowledge to do this but the cojones to take a soldering iron to a $500 phone. I am sure Steve Jobs would be smiling inside at the audacity. Regardless of how he does in college, I wouldn't be surprised if he is selling his first company and becoming a multi-millionaire before 25.

He either knew exactly what he was doing or he was just too immature to appreciate the risk he was taking. At 17 you don't calculate risk the same way you do when you're a little older. I think it was a combination of the two. He knew what he was doing yet didn't have the maturity to realize he might encounter something he didn't know what to do with. If he did calculate the risk, I don't think he would have messed with it. Sounds like he doesn't have to worry about money in life, so maybe he just didn't really care what happened to the phone.

[hlcn8]

Originally Posted by babyblues

He either knew exactly what he was doing or he was just too immature to appreciate the risk he was taking. At 17 you don't calculate risk the same way you do when you're a little older. I think it was a combination of the two. He knew what he was doing yet didn't have the maturity to realize he might encounter something he didn't know what to do with. If he did calculate the risk, I don't think he would have messed with it. Sounds like he doesn't have to worry about money in life, so maybe he just didn't really care what happened to the phone.

He had a few other people helping him out as well. He not only received a payment of three i-phones and a car, but a paid consulting position w/ the company as well. the three i-phones were for him and his helpers to replace the ones they'd been experimenting on.

17 years old and he's consulting for a company... if he had to worry about $ before he won't have to now.