A cottage industry has grown up surrounding unlocked iPhones, and two new companies are looking to cash in.
Brazilian company DesbloqueioBr came up with a clever way of using a SIM-card adapter to enable unlocking the phone and choosing a carrier at your discretion. It's much like the Turbo SIM unlock. (There's video showing how this works at our sister site, Engadget.)
It ain't cheap: according to this site, the company plans to charge as much as $375 for the hack. Trouble is, the call quality is apparently worse, and Apple can break your unlock with a software update.
So, if you're not willing to drop that much for a hack, and you're into totally shady, fell-off-the-truck deals, then this is for you: You can order a "original" Apple devices direct from a dealer in Hong Kong. You do have to place a minimum order of $1,000, but everything you get will be network-unlocked.
We asked for pics and you answered: iPhones from around the world, from countries where the iPhone isn't even sold with service. Canada makes sense, as a quick trip across the border will land you an iPhone. China also makes sense, as it wouldn't be Hong Kong without a gray market plethora of unlocked iPhones, would it? We got reports from almost every part of the globe, and put together a nice little gallery to show just how popular this gadget is -- service or not. Where there's a hack, there's a way...
A post today at iLounge suggests that a close analysis of Apple's sales numbers for iPhone, contrasted with AT&T activation stats, leads to a somewhat surprising conclusion: somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of all iPhones sold worldwide are being sold to users who intend to unlock them, or possibly to middlemen who are shipping the phones to countries not yet serviced by Apple and its carrier partners.
While there wasn't a hard number on the most recent results conference call, the Q4 call indicated that 250,000 phones had already been sold to unlockers, by Apple's estimate. Clearly, there's demand out there for iPhone outside the exclusive carrier relationships.
For the past few months, we've seen some turbulent waters here at TUAW. I don't think I need to mention the furor that's popped up in the comments multiple times over a number of Apple's past actions. All the iPhone unlocking has stirred emotions we didn't even know you guys had. The ringtones issue made a lot of us question just what kind of company Apple was. And Apple's own developers were pretty shocked when they found out that to develop for the iPhone, they'd need to brush up on HTML and AJAX, not Cocoa. The Apple we've seen the past few months has been making plenty money, but not so much winning our hearts.
But as Macworld points out, change may finally be back in the air, and all in the past week. Apple brought DRM free music back down to normal prices, which is exactly what Jobs wanted to do when he wrote that open letter we all cheered so long ago. Apple has unlocked the iPhone-- albeit in France, and only because they had to, and they'll probably charge a lot more for it, but still, it's progress. High sales of the unlocks there will be more ammunition for getting an unlock everywhere else. And of course, we got the announcement, finally, of a coming SDK for the iPhone.
Apple isn't even close to back in the clear yet-- we may have cheaper DRM-free music, but no one but France has an unlocked iPhone, and all we have is the promise of an SDK with zero details on what that means. It's been a rough road these past few months, however, and we can only hope that Apple is listening to what their fans want, and willing to get back on track
In the words of the sainted Professor Farnsworth: "Good news, everybody everyone!" The iPhone/iPod touch dev team has decrypted the iPhone 1.1.1 and iPod touch ramdisks. So what does this mean, loyal TUAW readers? It means that you're getting really close to free, non-commercial 1.1.1 unlocks put together by a cadre of dedicated hackers who are doing all of this for your benefit, for fun in their spare time, and for free.
To all of you cynics who roll your eyes and add "does that mean we're getting really close to free, non-commercial bricks for the next firmware upgrade", the for-pay SIMFree 1.1.1 unlocks are now on sale. For those of you who would rather wait and save the $60-$100, it doesn't look like it will be long.
Update: Yes, they are working on unbricking as well as unlocking, saying they are "dedicated to getting a free and workable solution out to the general public. At the very least, a baseband downgrader should be possible. We understand your frustration, and please don't think for a second that we've forgotten you."
Following up on the iPhone 1.1.1 jailbreak, iPhone SIMfree--they are the commercial unlock folks--have announced a 1.1.1 upgrade and a 1.1.1 unlock solution. Moreover, they believe their unlock solution will restore and repair iBricks: "This now means that SimFree v1.6 release, is now capable of completely restoring/repairing software unlocked "bricked" iPhone". TUAW has not had the opportunity to try this out ourselves, so for now we're just passing along the link to the iPSF site. Let us know in the comments if you were able to unbrick and/or update to 1.1.1.
Update: TUAW Reader Matthew Fliegle writes: I am on AT&T, and I installed the IPSF 2.6 using WiNstaller (on 1.0.2 with 4.01bb). It took about five minutes with no error messages. Then I restarted the phone and a error popped up saying invalid sim. I connected it to iTunes and clicked update. That took another 5 to 10 minutes, and then it made me reactivate it with AT&T. The only thing bad is that it made me renew my contract for another 2 years, but I called AT&T and they said I shouldn't have had to renew it and they were putting it under review.
The iPhone Dev Team has released a simple-to-use GUI tool that allows you to unlock your iPhone for use with any SIM. The tool, which is based on their previous command-line work, provides one-touch speedy unlocking. This is a big improvement on the first generation release. It no longer requires you to use special files or to dump nor data.
You can download your copy from the DevTeam website, as a PXL package or, soon, from Installer.app. "Wheat" is the guy responsible for those amazing graphics.
Find out more at the #iphone channel at irc.osx86.hu. Remember, this is early software and unstable. If risk isn't your thing, you'll probably want to wait a few days or weeks for things to stabilize.
Update: After reports of failed unlocks, Sam has updated the version to fix a timing issue. Current version is now 1.0.1, which solves the timing issue.
Update 2: I know of a youtube hack and have heard third-hand of a Visual Voicemail hack. Will post when I have details.
Mac Rumors is reporting that iPhone 1.1.1 is due soon (duh), and they say that it'll bring an International Keyboard, some extra settings for the Home button, the likely WiFi store update, and an update to the Modem Firmware. As usual, this is a rumor, so don't hold your breath-- this could be coming next week or next month.
But there is a little twist that Mac Rumors missed. An iPhone hacker birdie tells me that their open source software unlock actually patches the Modem Firmware to do its thing. Which means that if the Modem Firmware gets a significant upgrade, it's very, very likely that it's game over for the current unlocks.
Now, I'm not sure how iPhoneSIMFree's unlock works-- as far as I know, this might only affect the open source iUnlock app. But while Apple has said they're taking a neutral stance against hackers, AT&T may have pressured them to push back against an unlock. As we've known all along, Apple could choose to update the firmware and break any hacks so far, and with a large upgrade to the Modem Firmware, that could be exactly what they've done.
So as you may have seen on someothersites, there was a little bit of drama today around the iPhone unlock program written (in part) by our own Erica Sadun. Lots of rumors are flying around, and lots of folks have it almost right. But none of them knows the real story. And since Sadun works for us, we have kind of an inside track on what really happened. So here it is. First of all, Erica didn't write the unlock application itself. The iPhone Dev Team did that, and it apparently is a real, no-code-stolen software unlock-- put it on your iPhone, run it, and then use any SIM you want. Erica only started to write the barebones of a GUI application for the unlock, and gave that code to the dev team.
Which is where this haRRo person gets involved. He, a Belfast, UK man, is not a member of the dev team, but pretended to be. He apparently took Erica's code out of the IRC channel, with the intent of selling it as his own application. He even got an offer from an Australian company, $50k AUD, to allow the application he said he'd written.
But he didn't write it. At all. Because while yes, the code he tried to sell was updated from Erica's code, it wasn't by haRRo. He actually contacted another coder to do the job-- who we spoke with, and our IM conversation can be seen after the jump.
Apparently there are two solutions-- the one above is part of a script based on ieraser, and the other is called iUnlock (Engadget says that one "appears to be in a more complete state"). We aren't yet sure what these do-- whether they're an actual unlock, or simply a reverse engineer of the iPhoneSIMfree unlock released the other day.
Either way, it doesn't much matter (hope iPhoneSIMfree made their money while they could). Even if these solutions (both of which seem to be straight code at this point-- there's still no simple "userfriendly, automated tool" available) aren't exactly what people need to use any SIM in their iPhone, a free, open source solution is likely just around the corner. Until Apple changes the firmware, that is.
Well that's it. Engadget revealed that iPhoneSIMfree's unlocking solution is up and running today, and they're now on sale (in fact, our Weblogs, Inc. brethren are giving them away as we speak). Hype, prices, and sketchy profiteering aside, what's done seems to be done. If you want your iPhone unlocked, have at it.
Why aren't the Mac faithful more excited? Europeans are definitely interested-- we've already heard from a few of them, including reader Callum, who really want to use their iPhones. But from my general sense of the population, iPhone owners, especially Cult of Mac folks, aren't jumping at the chance. Gadgetheads like Engadget love it, but you TUAWers, despite the AT&T hate (which I share, and I'm not even an AT&T customer yet), aren't that into an unlock. As Engadget says, the iPhone hackers aren't going to bother to reverse engineer iPhoneSIMfree's solution. The whole community seems to be saying, "meh."
Part of the problem is the warranty, I'd expect-- that's why I'm not going to unlock my iPhone when I eventually pick it up. And the other part is the fact that I'm sticking with Apple, even if they price drop in another few months and require me to be with AT&T. I want my iPhone to do everything it can, and if this unlock breaks anything, or won't vibe with the Visual Voicemail, or who knows what else, then iPhoneSIMfree can keep their $100 offer.
But enough about what I want-- let's ask you, TUAWers. What do you think of the unlock?
CNET's Don Reisinger has a great article up about what may have been Steve's Master Plan: letting an iPhone unlock happen.
Pretty ingenious if it's true. Basically, Reisinger maintains two things: that Apple is a hardware company, and that AT&T was just a means to an end for them. If hackers are able to unlock the iPhone, Apple will lose a little bit (because they do get a small cut of service plans), but they'll still sell iPhones, and AT&T will lose everything. Jobs "did his part"-- he closed off the iPhone and declared an exclusivity deal. But now that we're on the verge of completely unlocked iPhones, Apple has no real incentive to cut it out.
And that's exactly how it's played out-- Apple's recent iPhone update did pretty much nothing to close off the system, and as Reisinger says, it wasn't Apple knocking on the doors of those who are about to unlock the iPhone-- it was AT&T. The iPhone's unlocking will bring a rush of sales for Apple-- and a rush of sobbing from AT&T headquarters.
It's hard to believe Jobs planned it all out, and we'll likely never know for sure anyway. But considering that we might be days away from an iPhone unlock, you have to wonder if Apple not only knew it would happen, but kind of wanted it to.
Update: Our own Erica Sadun pinged me right before this post went to press to remind me that we're really, really close to the 90-day unlock period for most iPhone owners. In the past, AT&T has provided an unlock code for any phone upon request, as long as the customer has stuck with them for 90 days. I'm not sure if that policy is applicable with the iPhone, but that may be another factor in just how much AT&T has to lose with an iPhone unlock.
The main questions of legality lie around an exception to the DMCA, which allows you to unlock your cell phone "for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network." Under that law and that exception, it's perfectly legal to use an iPhone on T-mobile, Verizon, or any other provider that you can get it to work with. Things really only get prickly when you start selling those unlocked phones, or somehow profit off of selling unlocked phones. Then, Apple and AT&T start to have a case against you for honing in on their business.
Oh, and the other fun part is that the DMCA exemption that gives you an out on this one actually expires in November of 2009. So if nothing is done on that front, unlocking phones will be illegal within a few years. Still, Engadget makes the same conclusion that I would-- unlocking your iPhone for personal use on another network very likely won't bring AT&T's legal goons to your doors. It likely will void your warranty, and while some unlocks brag that they'll stay after updates, a future update may undo the unlock.
As Erica announced earlier today, our colleagues at Engadget confirmed a software-only unlock for the iPhone that's got their unit happily working on the T-Mobile network. Fine and dandy, but here's where it gets confusing. The AP/CNN has reported that a New Jersey teenager named George Hotz (with the help of some friends) has also unlocked the iPhone for use with T-Mobile; this unlock is described in the story as taking "about two hours" and involved expertise with "both soldering and software," so clearly it's not the same process as the software-only unlock from iPhoneSIMfree.com that Engadget has verified. Commenters inform me this is the same George who appeared in a YouTube video a couple of days ago with a claimed unlock hack.
Aside from the TurboSIM process, these unlocks are the first widely-publicized and (presumably) stable methods of unlocking the phone. What are the odds of two completely different methods of unlocking the iPhone hitting the newswires on the same day (even if the George Hotz unlock was announced earlier in the week)? I'm no statistician, but I'm picking up a lottery ticket just in case.
Thanks to Lisa, Rae and Rikin for sending this in.
Very late last night, I chatted with Ryan Block of Engadget. At that time, he was happily engaged in making calls on his iPhone using a T-Mobile SIM. Today Engadget announces a full iPhone software-only unlock. According to Ryan, this unlock comes courtesy of iPhone SIM Free.com. I haven't personally tried out the unlock but Ryan writes that he can confirm "100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US".
So what does this mean? It means that the iPhone just went International. You can use any SIM on the iPhone using tools like iASign and iActivator, and with the same limitations: namely no Visual Voicemail or YouTube video (at least not without a hack) and your minutes and data are charged per the plan associated with the SIM. Also the phone number seems to go MIA in iTunes, which lists it as "N/A".
The unlock adds a new option to Settings. See the picture at the top of this post. Ryan says you'll be able to use this to select your preferred network and avoid roaming. A new EDGE network settings appears in General > Network, allowing you to enter your carrier's access point name and username/password.
Is this method restore and upgrade resistant, as the iPhoneSIMFree guys claim? Ryan factory-restored his iPhone with the 1.0.2 firmware and the unlock stuck around.
The iPhoneSIMFree site is pretty light on details. They write that they intend to launch the unlock as a commercial product for both individual and bulk purchase sales.
Bottom line: is this for realsies? Ryan and Engadget says absolutely yes. They are standing by their tests.
A cottage industry has grown up surrounding unlocked iPhones, and two new companies are looking to cash in.
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For the past few months, we've seen some turbulent waters here at TUAW. I don't think I need to mention the furor that's popped up in the comments multiple times over a number of Apple's past actions. All the iPhone unlocking has stirred emotions we didn't even know you guys had. The ringtones issue 
Mac Rumors is reporting that iPhone 1.1.1
So as you may have seen on 
Well that's it. Engadget revealed that iPhoneSIMfree's unlocking solution is 
CNET's Don Reisinger has 
As 
