Filed under: Bad Apple, iPhone
My iPhone's IMEI
This morning, my iPhone's IMEI was perfectly fine. My iPhone has never been unlocked. I was able to use my AT&T Pick Your Plan SIM. And as recently as a week or so ago, I wrote about using iASign, which picked up on and used my normal, correct IMEI settings.
Today, as I liveblogged, I finally applied the 1.1.1 upgrade. This afternoon, when I finally got around to trying to reactivate my phone, which was displaying the "wrong SIM" message, I found that the iPhone update had apparently changed my IMEI to the dreaded 004999010640000. I cannot figure out any other way that the IMEI had changed. When I last used iASign, it showed the correct IMEI. Today, not.
Basic facts:
- My iPhone has never been unlocked.
- When I used iASign the last time, my IMEI was correct and I was able to switch between my two AT&T SIM cards.
- I did pitch in very peripherally with the unlock effort. However, I used a version of the program that had every baseband access commented out to keep my iPhone pristine.
- I have two AT&T accounts: one is an iPhone-specific PickYourPlan. The other is a general PayAsYouGo. I have switched between these two SIMs on a regular basis.
- iASign will not work and will not let me switch SIMs unless it detects a proper IMEI. It no longer does so.
Update: On Dinopio's advice, I removed my SIM--and the iPhone reports the proper IMEI. He suspects there is something corrupt on my baseband.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
unteins said 7:38PM on 10-05-2007
Did you check the IMEI immediately before the update?
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Tino said 7:39PM on 10-05-2007
they should have a self repair software out and soon too. This isn't right morally, we paid 600+ for phones and we get locked up. I understand mistakes happen but the best thing is to recover from them best as you can, and fast as you can too. Apple is loosing a lot because of these pricy phones. Be nice, gain. Be careless. I'm replacing my iphone in nov... I rather use windows mobile!
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Jonathan said 7:47PM on 10-05-2007
You all bought your iPhone knowingly aware of its locked status. I can't seem to figure out why all you hackers complain about this so much. You try to hack it and you only end up bricking it each time Apple sends out an update. Why did you buy it in the first place if you were unhappy with the carrier?
This site used to be fun and exciting, now every day it's just another stupid story about someone trying to hack their iPhone. Who cares! Isn't there a hacker or iPone cracker website you can post all of this to?
I'm sure there are many mac enthusiasts such as myself that really don't care to see anymore of it, so stop your whining!
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Kevin said 7:50PM on 10-05-2007
I also will be moving back to Windows Mobile 6, The Cingular TILT which in all specs blows the iPhone away. But most importantly I wont have to deal with the man named Steve who thinks he can play God with our $600 purchases. Tired of the mistakes Apple keeps making and now I have a bricked phone for no reason, NEVER UNLOCKED IT BUT STILL BRICKED. Also, i miss having my SlingBox which I had on my Treo WM5. Apple really is screwing their loyal customer base and i'm not talking about the people who recently went out and purchased an iPhone, I am talking about the early adopters who are loyal Apple fans.
Buh Bye Apple!!!
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Les Filip said 7:51PM on 10-05-2007
Hey Jonathan, did you read where Erica said the phone has never been unlocked? I'm tired of people who are tired of hackers who bricked their iPhone. So there.
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Tony Bowman said 7:52PM on 10-05-2007
You can just not read the site, Jonathan. The hacking content is relevant to the site and the majority of iPhone users.
Keep up the good work, Erica! I never unlocked, but I've been using AppTapp and a bunch stuff it makes it easy to use, but I've not unlocked. I was already a happy AT&T customer and am under contract with them with no regrets, so unlocking wasn't a big deal to me. I just want 3rd-party programs and such.
So, I'll just be chilling with 1.0.2 and biding my time until 1.1.1 is either cracked or something supersedes it with the functionality that I want.
Good luck getting your IMEI straightened out!
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Kevin said 7:53PM on 10-05-2007
Reply to #3
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! We will post where ever the fuck we want and you wont have any say in it. If you don't like this site anymore because it doesn't cater to you then go away dumb ass. Duh, you sit here and complain about us complaining but you are complaining at the same time. Go away LOSER!!!
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Jonathan said 7:54PM on 10-05-2007
Yes Les, and I didn't comment to the contrary. I did however state that "hacked iphone" stories are lame and boring and should be placed elsewhere.
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Jonathan said 7:55PM on 10-05-2007
Kevin, what are you like 12?
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Kevin said 8:00PM on 10-05-2007
Truth hurts doesn't it??? so go away already why dont you!!!
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john said 8:01PM on 10-05-2007
I'm not interested in hacking my iPhone because I want it to work without worrying about updates breaking things. Nevertheless, I think people like Erica are valuable in that they're letting Apple know that we're not happy with the current feature set or carrier restrictions. There are lots of things the iPhone does very well, but there's also a lot of room for improvement (where's the copy/paste, and why can't I txt more than one person at a time?). If Apple is unwilling to provide certain features, then I'm glad there are hackers willing to risk bricking their phones in order to provide more features for others willing to take risks.
As far as the carrier restriction goes, I'm no fan of AT&T, but what's Apple supposed to do if they're contractually bound? Risk getting sued to make a small group of hackers happy? As far as I know, no one here can claim to know the details of Apple's agreement with AT&T. For all we know, they're obligated to do what they can to prevent hackers from unlocking the iPhone. Apple doesn't exist in isolation, and they have to play nice with their partners in order to provide some services. Some of the bad ideas we're faced with may very well come from Steve and Apple, but others might just be the consequences of dealing with the devil, so to speak.
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Chris P. said 8:09PM on 10-05-2007
Jonathan - you suck. Now go find another blog to annoy with your petty comments. I love the iPhone news Erica provides. Keep up the great work Erica! Screw the haters :-P
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KP said 8:22PM on 10-05-2007
Erica,
I check this site regularly since you have become somewhat of an iphone hacking demi-godess and I greatly appreciate the work that you have done and the regular insights into your creative process. I hope you manage to get your phone back to normal (and in the process I wouldn't be surprised if you figure out what has neutered the phones of soo many others).
-KP (thrilled to have an ulocked iPhone in CAN, with the added bonus of many 3rd party apps that make a revolutionary phone even more useful)
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harrywolf said 8:23PM on 10-05-2007
The information presented here is part of the general base of public knowledge.
It is specifically useful to me because I live in Canda, run an iphone on Rogers network, and want to know what is going on.
Like many others up here in the frozen north (!) I have NO ALTERNATIVE but to unlock the iphone, if I want to use one - and as the iPhone is so much BETTER than ANY phone available, I do just that.
This part of the TUAW is about Erica's reporting of her efforts with the iphone dev people to 'get inside' the latest firmware - as she has clearly stated that this 1.1.1 firmware has 'bricked' her legitimate AT&T locked phone.
Naturally if you dont want to read this, then stay on other parts of the site which interest you.
There is a passion here, (which has got Kevin going a bit), and as its a passion for information, perhaps we should forgive Kevin for being abusive - he is only defending his right to this information.
I agree with his passion.
In the absence of Apple doing anything about locked phones being damaged, perhaps we should applaud Erica and the rest for investigating this, especially as Apple is rejecting warranty claims on legitimate locked phones.
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punkassjim said 8:28PM on 10-05-2007
remember when I said you've got big brass balls? Yeah, this is why I said it. I hope you get it sorted out.
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Jt Hollister said 8:31PM on 10-05-2007
Err...this is something you should send to Apple, not us...guess TUAW is very desperate for news today :/
Any Leopard tidbits?
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Christina Warren said 8:31PM on 10-05-2007
Now that your phone is showing the correct IMEI, sans SIM, have you tried using the other SIM card to see if you can get activation? It probably is something in the baseband, but you might want to try another SIM card - preferably one that hasn't been used in a modified iPhone to double-check. I don't know anything about the iPhone (don't have one, don't want one as long as it's through AT&T) but I used to be a cell phone geek and have seen bad/corrupted SIM cards totally eff up phones. Best of luck!
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J.G. said 8:33PM on 10-05-2007
I have to agree with Jonathan.
Up until now I've always poo-poo'd people that complained about so much iPhone news. My thoughts were "It's an Apple blog, Apple iPhone news is relevant." But I've finally had it with the number of stupid iPhone hacking posts on this blog.
I think a separate blog should be established for iPhone hacking. I don't give a crap what Erica's doing with her iPhone.
Think of it from a different perspective; let's say you're a BMW enthusiast, so you read a BMW blog. Then the latest 3-series comes out and all of the sudden 50% of the posts are from car weenies that are chipping it to get performance tweaks. Wouldn't that belong on a blog related to the 3-series or BMW performance tuning?
My upgrade to 1.1.1 was seamless. Why? Because I use my iPhone as a phone, ipod, and internet device. Not a modern-day breadboard.
Finally, you're not a hacker if you bitch and moan when the system that you're trying to "hack" gets harder to break into. You're just a whining twit.
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Bork said 8:37PM on 10-05-2007
welcome to the OFFICIAL ERICA SADUN UP-TO-THE-MINUTE HACKED IPHONE STATUS WEBLOG.
please take these never-ending tirades and unfulfilling announcements to a personal blog site.
the non-vocal majority of us do not care about the latest barriers of your hacked iphones.
this site has jumped the shark.
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Sven Gebhardt said 8:37PM on 10-05-2007
Welcome to The Unofficial (Erica Sadune Broke Her) Apple (iPhone On Purpose And Then Cries About It In Public) Weblog.
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