Anonymous Programmers Reveal iPhone Unlocking Software 328
CNN reports details of a group of anonymous programmers who are planning to sell iPhone unlocking software on the Internet. They demonstrated the software hack for CNN and had a T-Mobile sim card working moments after removing the AT&T sim card. This is bound to stir up a lot of controversy: in the US iPhones are supposed to work only on the AT&T network in the first two years according to their agreement with Apple.
AT&T has no real claims (Score:5, Informative)
Any DMCA claim is going to be tough in light of the following:
From the Federal Register:
And from the US Copyright Office itself:
The only claim they might be able to make is one against those selling the information which will, inside a few days, get out and be posted everywhere so that anyone can do it.
Telcos subsidise the phones locked to them (Score:3, Informative)
I have no idea if the iPhone is subsidised.
Run that buy me again? (Score:5, Informative)
Next thing we know Apple will buy-out the company and start selling unlocked iPhones at a premium..
At the risk of sounding trollish, the pro-consumer OpenMoko [openmoko.org] looks very appealing in light of Apple's good-looking but artificially tied-down device.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:iPhone in Europe (Score:3, Informative)
As far as I know, Vodafone has never locked it's phones to only allow Vodafone SIMs (I've regularly used other network's SIMs in my Vodafone phone), but they do tend to put custom Vodafone firmware on the devices which can cause a loss in functionality if you put another SIM (say from Orange, T-Mobile etc) into the phone.
I don't think locking phones is illegal in the UK, but I'm fairly sure unlocking them isn't either, as you can wander down any high street and see people advertising unlocking services in store windows.
Re:Telcos subsidise the phones locked to them (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Run that buy me again? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:locks make no sense (Score:5, Informative)
There are currently 32 native iPhone apps on that page including 8 games, an AIM client, 2 IRC clients (not including BitchX), a fully functional VT100 terminal, RSS, eBook readers and much more with the development constantly growing. These are all open source and written in UIKit/Cocoa, with other apps happening that aren't listed there.
Just because the application development isn't officially Apple sanctioned doesn't mean it isn't happening.
Re:Maybe not surprising, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Are you a key employee at Apple and know how much they cost to build? Because the rest of us out here have to depend on tearing the phone apart and pricing the components - which at current best guess is at something like $250-$300. Except for the display, the components are pretty much standard off the shelf type stuff which is easy to price. So fess up, are the estimates on the display price way way low?
Thing is, the iPhone didn't happen before just because it's expensive
The iPhone happened because someone at Apple (Jobs, perhaps?) saw a market opportunity in the fact that most cell phones have a sucky UI. What makes the iPhone is a nifty multi-touch display and a lot of software development.
Traditional phone makers like Nokia don't have the same kind of incentive to sink a lot of cost in 'reinventing the UI'. Their current models are selling quite well, so why spend a lot of money on something that might or might not work. Not to mention legacy concerns - S60 has a thriving 3rd party software market, radical changes in the UI cause compatibility problems. Which is why you often see these huge jumps not from established players but from companies seeking entry to the market.
Probably not subsidized (Score:3, Informative)
But I guess your own question applies to you, too. Where's the evidence that it is subsidized?
Apple's Margins (Score:3, Informative)