saturday, February 9, 2008

*August 27, 2007 5:45PM EST*
"The Apple iPhone finally unlocked - 17 year old George Hotz of New Jersey goes live on CNN News to tell the world about his "10 Steps To Unlocking The iPhone" posted on his Geohot blog. Geohot has spent the entire summer reverse engineering the Apple iPhone in hopes that he will be able to use it with T-Mobile instead of AT&T. The entire trial and error process has been documented and explained on his Geohot blog: successes and pitfalls alike.

Geohot, a student who will be attending RIT University this year, has done what many have spent months hoping would some day be a reality. His decision to unlock the iPhone was purely one of personal interest - he just wanted to be able to use the iPhone with his family's cell phone plan with T-Mobile rather than forcing them to switch over to AT&T. 'There were days where I would be going to sleep at 9AM', says Geohot in his interview on CNN, but in the end all the hours and dedication paid off. 15 minutes of fame? Geohot and his blog have a much bigger future than that - with his persistent attitude, small degree of obsession, and unsatisfiable curiosity, I'm almost positive we'll be hearing more from this brilliant mind. In addition, the blog will now be a big hit for everyone who wants their very own unlocked Apple iPhone since Geohot does list his 10 step process on there for free.

If one flips through the pages of the blog they will quickly see that the unlocking process has not been a simple task. Geohot with the help of some friends from time to time, have spent the entire summer endlessly tinkering away at the iPhone. And a quick scan through of the posts shows that this summer was not without frustration. My favorite picture is of the energy drinks...with a need for that much energy, the unlocking couldn't have been a breeze!

On CNN and his blog Geohot tells us that there are only 2 unlocked Apple iPhones by him - 1 that always stays in his pocket, and a 2nd that was used to fully test out the 10 step unlocking process. This second iPhone has caused just as much commotion as the first! The first was obviously a big deal, the worlds first ever unlocked Apple iPhone, but the second, caused an equal amount of turmoil in the online community, especially on eBay. Geohot put his second unlocked iPhone on eBay thinking he would only get a few hundred bucks for it. As the world watched, the auction listing climbed exponentially until it eventually reached a peak of $99,999,999.00 - the maximum amount eBay allows for bidding. Little did we all suspect then that it was just someone causing trouble, we were curious as to why someone would want the phone so badly, but no one immediately knew it was just a prank. Eventually, with no help from eBay, who's support always seems to be lacking, Geohot posted on his blog that the worlds second ever unlocked iPhone would be up for sale through him. Phone numbers were sent, offers were made, and eventually Geohot ended up with 3 new Apple iPhones and a brand new Nissan 350z. Geohot states that the 3 new iPhones will be going to his friends that helped him with the 10 step unlocking process, and that if they so choose...he will unlock those phones. Do we see more news coming from that avenue? Worlds 3rd, 4th, and 5th ever unlocked Apple iPhones - will we be seeing them up for sale any time soon?

So what does the unlock mean to the world? Apple iPhones are no longer exclusive and available only to AT&T subscribers! Everyone that wants to can now use the iPhone regardless of what cell phone provider they use - T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, etc. For Apple this should be good news, more people will now be purchasing iPhones in hopes of unlocking them using the 10 step process on Geohot's blog. However, AT&T may be putting their foot down at some point, Apple did make an agreement to be exclusive with them for a few years. If there is no stop to the unlocking, AT&T may be getting the bad end of the deal, unless....unless, they jump on this and can come up with some kind of promotion. They already have their networks set up for the iPhone, everything is ready, they have a jump start on the other cell phone companies, all they need to do is give a really competitive price.

With somewhat coincidental timing, a few other companies have released software unlocking solutions for the iPhone. They are piggy-backing Geohot's press and publicity to release their software, which unlike the steps on the Geohot blog, the iPhone software unlock requires no opening of the iPhone. One of the softwares has been tested and reviewed by Engadget.com, with claims that it does work, however, now there is 3 other companies with similar software that must also be considered. Will the iPhone software unlock work successfully like the steps on the Geohot blog, or will any updates of the iPhone firmware immediately require new unlocking software? In addition, I'm getting the feeling that people are a bit skeptical about the software unlocking solution...it seems too easy...too simple, but soon we'll see more proof.

I suppose the next question to be asking, 'Is Apple prepared for these techniques to unlock the iPhone?' A somewhat decent collection of clues seems to be pointing to 'yes'. First of all, there have been very little updates for the iPhone so far, no big firmware changes have been released yet, and wouldn't you expect that there would be the most updates in the beginning when all the bugs are being worked out? Second, claims have been made that many very simple and common functions that are present in $100 cell phones aren't included in the Apple iPhone. Could Apple be holding off on the release of the major updates, and these somewhat simple functions? Are they waiting for the moment when someone like Geohot releases unlocking instructions on his blog, or for when a few companies start selling software unlocks? Is is then that Apple comes out with huge huge updates, and the only access to these updates is through AT&T? Or that only iPhones that haven't been tinkered or unlocked will work with the updates? Apple is a brilliant company, and I for one don't think they should be underestimated, something is coming."

BeatMyAuction.com

Latest Post by Geohot

Saturday, August 25, 2007 3:45PM
"THE iPhone HAS BEEN TRADED