The Apple iPhone is no longer locked into one service provider as a team of hackers have started distributing a free downloadable unlocking solution by way of several websites
By: Captain Maverick
Published: Sep 13, 2007
Updated: Feb 9, 2010

Apple may not be as upset over the issue as AT&T will undoubtedly be but it seems a team of hackers have gotten together in an attempt to unlock Apple's iPhone for use with GSM-based wireless carriers other than AT&T and have finally succeeded. The tool is called "iUnlock", and it is a SIM unlocking tool that represents a multi-month effort on the part of an unofficial "iPhone Dev Team", basically a team of independent contributors that have banded together with the express purpose to discover and develop additional uses for the iPhone handset.
There are commercial solutions out there such as iPhoneSIMfree and UniquePhones, but iUnlock was released as a free download and has spread rapidly across the web. Several iPhone owners and members of Apple online communities claim to have tested and verified the solution as genuine. It is not however for the technically challenged though as it requires a "jailbroken" iPhone, a rudimentary knowledge of using a unix terminal, experience with SFTP and some patience. Some tutorials on how to apply the hack have also begun to crop up, but they're currently rough around the edges. Several more user-friendly versions are on the way for the less tech-savvy.
Looking at it legally, a user who unlocks their own phone is completely in their own right and completely legal though a US customer may only be limited to an alternate of T-Mobile because the iPhone is GSM-based. They are the only other national carrier who can handle the technology, but internationally there are quite a few more choices.
You can share this Tech news story with your friends or family from our Technology section. This article can be shared through e-mail or sent to online social Web sites including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and others. You can choose from one of the options below.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Welcome!