1. Of course, it only sorta enabled carrier choice. In the US, T-Mobile is the only other carrier that uses GSM.

Posted at 2:18AM on Aug 27th 2007 by Karl

2. He got a 350z and 3 iphones just for unlocking his freaking iphone!

Posted at 2:35AM on Aug 27th 2007 by Bob

3. Or you could just go the software route:

www.iphonesimfree.com/

Posted at 2:37AM on Aug 27th 2007 by jackboy

4. Do you think theres a chance that in the future updates may render this hack inoperable or broken? Surely they didn't actually hard-wire the phone to that setting...

Posted at 4:12AM on Aug 27th 2007 by m4dm4n

5. karl - Not true. T-mobile isn't the only other option. I know Cellular One (as bad as they are) uses GSM as well, along with several local providers.

jackboy - Why pay for it when you can hack it yourself? This is, after all, HACK-a-day, not BUY-YOUR-SOLUTION-a-day.

Posted at 4:44AM on Aug 27th 2007 by phrogg

6. interesting. its gms _only_ in australia...
so much more use here ;) thanks for the post.

Posted at 7:00AM on Aug 27th 2007 by HeBD

7. I heard the interview about this on NPR. Nice job!

Posted at 8:35AM on Aug 27th 2007 by opg

8. This is one hot hack. Blood sweat and tears. love it.

Posted at 9:25AM on Aug 27th 2007 by rmadmin

9. carrier choice is kinda of a major advance for all of us outside the US :)

Posted at 10:47AM on Aug 27th 2007 by beak42

10. So anybody out there agree with my conspiracy theory?


Apple, frustrated with their narrow minded exclusive contract with AT&T, either payed this kid or encouraged the kid to perform this righteous hack, to utilize the other millions of potential i-phone customers. Now they will have an immense rise in international sales and like somebody else mentioned the local cell providers as well as tmobile. Hats off Apple, well done. Theres no way they would have done it though unless they covered their asses every step of the way. you know they don't want to get caught up in a scandal like that.... but i truly think this is what happened.

Posted at 12:19PM on Aug 27th 2007 by danielpops

11. I friggen go to school with George Hotz. I'm put to shame

Posted at 12:25PM on Aug 27th 2007 by Nubaeus

12. hey danielpops,
wikipedia says that apple gets 10% of all voice/data calls of most its partners with iPhone. I think they are in a pretty good deal already without unlocking the phone.

Posted at 2:17PM on Aug 27th 2007 by beak42

13. No way in Hades would I trade a 350z... It's a craptastic phone that shows that Apple really does suck... A pocketPC beats an iPod all to hell, the only real advantage Macs have on PC's is in high end music and video production. iTunes is DRM locked crap. And now the iPhone... that whole only available through AT&T in the US while they sign with almost every European cellular carrier.

I'm looking forward to a day when people wake up and do something about this corporate crap...

*huh...what? Oh... The soapbox area is over there? sorry...*

Posted at 2:31PM on Aug 27th 2007 by phnx

14. He says that he ties the A17 high. I'm wondering if he eventually releases the line, because if not, what ever part [CPU?] is driving the A17 address line (trying to toggle it, will be constantly stressed and could potentially get blown. I guess it doesn't matter if that's all you ever want on that line, is a logic 1. But, I'm wondering if eventually, blowing that I/O will have any adverse effects elsewhere inside the CPU (probably not).

Posted at 4:48PM on Aug 27th 2007 by mikey

15. @danielpops: If you're going the tin foil hat route, atleast do it right. Apple, as any company looking for profits, did it a hardware way as to maximize the number of fried by soldering iron dead iphones which means more iphones bought by the masses. If they were going your way, it would be software only that the one person would release every month.

Posted at 9:29PM on Aug 27th 2007 by cde

16. Um, just about every online music provider has DRM locked music. iTunes is far from the only one.

And you say that Apple is corporate crap?
What about Microsoft?

Posted at 11:06PM on Aug 27th 2007 by Cameron

17. yeah I noticed that too... directly driving an already-driven logic line to an opposite level can very well damage the driver (in this case, the CPU A17 driver). Generally bus drivers are pretty robust, but even so... I would have used a low value resistor and seen if I could still get the line level below V-sub-IL. :-)

Can this be prevented with a software update? Yes and no. They can relocate the table elsewhere and make it more difficult, and they could always rev the board such that all address lines are on internal board layers. That'd pretty much put a stop to this, especially if there are parts on both sides covering the vias.

Very cool hack though, my hat's off to this guy.

Posted at 11:18PM on Aug 27th 2007 by andrew

18. Makes me wish IBM would enter the egg laying milk pig phone fray. At least it would probably be an open design. That's why 90% of all computers are PCs.

Posted at 7:38AM on Aug 28th 2007 by n0qbh

19. @danielpops:
Ooh! I want a foil hat, too!!

But if they were going to release it with this hardware hack and risk people winding up with $600 paperweights, why wouldn't they have used any of the other 4 known solutions that -dont- require voiding your warranty? Granted, it would drive up demand for replacement iPhones, but how many people would actually shell out $500-600 for a phone, brick it, and then buy another one to try again?

Posted at 9:01AM on Aug 28th 2007 by phrogg

20. @mikey:
Three israeli fellows have come up with a less-risky version that doesn't require solder.
Apparently, the a17 tie-in is only used to unlock the phone initially, and is not needed after that:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/another-one%3F/new-hardware-iphone-unlocking-method-wont-void-your-warranty-if-you-are-careful-294054.php

Posted at 9:11AM on Aug 28th 2007 by phrogg