Unlock Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Apple receives iPhone unlock requests from law enforcement

by Steven Sande (May 10th, 2013)

The encryption on your iPhone is apparently secure enough that law enforcement agencies are waiting in line to have Apple "crack" the lock and provide data to be used as evidence. According to a report by CNET, Apple has the ability to decrypt seized iPhones and has created a waiting list to handle ...

New Kevo lock uses your iPhone for keyless entry

by Mike Schramm (May 8th, 2013)

Kwikset has made a new lock it's calling Kevo that makes use of your iPhone to lose your keys for good. The idea on this one seems great, and apparently the company picked up some money from a pitch on the Shark Tank TV show. The lock has both standard key-based and wireless mechanisms, so ...

US regional iPhone carriers band together to ease unlocking rules

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 14th, 2013)

Smaller wireless carriers in several US regional and rural areas are backing bills in Congress that would allow consumers to unlock mobile phones and tablets without a carriers' permission, according to Bloomberg. The support is in response to a January 26 law that made it illegal to unlock ...

Canadian Bell and Virgin Mobile will unlock iPhones for $75

by Kelly Hodgkins (Nov 27th, 2012)

According to documents obtained by Mobile Syrup, Bell and Virgin are now unlocking all versions of the iPhone for eligible customers. The policy allegedly went into effect on November 26 and requires you to pay US$75 to the carrier for the unlock. According to Mobile Syrup, customers must also ...

iPhone jailbreaking legal, iPad not

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 26th, 2012)

The latest round of exemptions added to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) may be problematic for iOS owners who unlock or jailbreak their device, according to a report in Ars Technica. Signed into law in 1998, the DMCA bans the production and dissemination of technology designed to ...

Daily iPhone App: Summoner Wars is a complicated mix of virtual board and card game

by Mike Schramm (Oct 9th, 2012)

I took a trip down to Tampa Bay, Fla., for my sister's wedding last week, and before I headed for the airport, I loaded up my iPhone and iPad with a few new apps to check out on the way. Honestly, Fieldrunners 2 HD ended up taking most of my gaming time, but Summoner Wars was a very impressive ...

Unlock your contract-free AT&T iPhone 5: just restore in iTunes

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 27th, 2012)

AT&T customers who bought their iPhone 5 off-contract can easily unlock their phone to work on another carrier, says a report in TechCrunch. Instead of faxing paperwork to AT&T and waiting for authorization, customers without a contract can simply connect their iPhone 5 to iTunes and ...

Verizon won't relock the iPhone 5's GSM

by Michael Grothaus (Sep 25th, 2012)

Traveling overseas can be a big problem for US iPhone owners, as most of the iPhones sold in the US are locked to Sprint, AT&T or Verizon. And while those carriers do have data roaming plans, the charges can quickly add up. That's why everyone got so excited when it was revealed that the ...

Verizon's iPhone 5 ships unlocked, likely thanks to FCC

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 24th, 2012)

When the iPhone 5 arrived on doorsteps last week, some Verizon customers were surprised to discover the handset was unlocked on international and US-friendly bands, as iDownloadBlog pointed out. This means customers can sign up for Verizon, stick an AT&T nano SIM in the phone (or chop up a ...

RedSn0w updated with Corona A5 jailbreak, more

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 23rd, 2012)

Over the weekend, the iPhone Dev Team released two new versions of its RedSn0w jailbreak tool that has several features for unlockers, iPhone 4S owners and iPad 2 owners. Version 0.9.10b7 adds support for the corona-A5 jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 devices still at 5.0.1. It also lets ...

AT&T appears to be unlocking iPhones for deployed active duty military personnel

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 10th, 2012)

Image by Shutterstock A couple of days ago we got a tip from a reader who said he'd sent a letter to Tim Cook asking "for help to unlock my wife's iPhone, because she is active duty military deploying to Afghanistan this week. I wanted her to have an unlocked phone in Afghanistan, so that she ...

Daily Update for April 9, 2012

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Apr 9th, 2012)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player ...

AT&T's iPhone unlocking process simple but time-consuming

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 9th, 2012)

AT&T began unlocking iPhones this weekend. The unlocking process is being described as easy but long, according to a report on Electronista and forum posts at iMore. Customers only need to provide their phone's IMEI to AT&T online or in a store, and then they wait for Apple to unlock ...

AT&T to begin unlocking off-contract iPhones April 8

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 6th, 2012)

AT&T confirmed today that it will unlock customers' post-contract iPhones starting Sunday, April 8. AT&T told Engadget, Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones. The only requirements are that a customer's account ...

Video shows face recognition unlock for iPhone

by Steven Sande (Jan 10th, 2012)

One of the features that graces the screens of many Android 4.0 phones is FaceUnlock, which uses facial recognition technology to unlock a phone rather than a simple swipe or swiping and entering a passcode. Now some devs have ported that capability to iOS and are promising that the capability ...