Thursday
Sep132007
I Was This Close
Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 8:55AM
I came so close to unlocking my iPhone this morning, but I just couldn't pull the trigger.
Shooby has unlocked his using iUnlock - the free unlocker from Harro Inc. the iPhone Dev Team. That's a picture from his phone showing T-Mobile as a carrier - he posted the news on Pownce.
I got as far as running iFuntastic on the phone (Windows users should try the scarily named, iBrickr) but it didn't quite finish completely, and I just don't have the nerve to run iUnlock on it now.
It would be great to cancel this AT&T account (instead of cancelling my dormant T-Mobile account), but it would be even better to show an unlocked phone to the perennially skeptical Scott Bourne.
Maybe I'll get up the nerve later today.
Shooby has unlocked his using iUnlock - the free unlocker from tagged Gear, Hacking, Technology in Blog
Gear, Hacking, Technology in Blog
Reader Comments (19)
I love Scott, but he went a bit too far in being skeptical about the unlocks in that one MBW episode. I can understand he is an apple fan, heck, I am too but why go so far to defend AT&T?
Go ahead and unlock it. Worst case is you have to update it with iTunes again and start over. Have strength!
I broke down and run AppTapp to put the installer.app on my phone after seeing Kevin and Alex doing it on Diggnation.
Some of the stuff is handy.
Also the free MakeiPhoneRingtone is nice. I had used the trial of iToner and found that the ring tone disappeared after I'd sinked. But MakeiPhoneRingtone appears to be kosher with iTunes.
Where's MacBreak Weekly for this week?
I'm a great apple fan and I'm in Russia, so I had no choice but to unlock it. At the beginning I used the Turbosim method and yesterday I used the iUnlock. Absolutely no problems - I'm as happy as I could be!
By the way, there was a very interesting story with this free unlock software - various people tried to claim to be the creators of this unlock.
As far as I know, and as it was reported on TUAW and Engadget, it was not Harro, who made this unlock. The iUnlock was made by the Dev Team (a hacker group) and later on by Erica Sadun - a very talented woman, who did GUI for iUnlock. Whereas Harro only placed the software on his site for download and claimed to be the software developer...which was obviously a scam ((
Just wondering if you produced MacBreak Weekly yet? Im very curious to see what the crew has to say 1 week after Apple iPod announcements. And I agree that showing Scott that you can unlock the phone will change his skeptical outlook.
Unlock it, be brave young man. Have no fears of the dreaded LBOP. Since we have Blue Screen for Windows, Red Box of Death (RBOD) for Lotus Notes, why not a new name? LBOP
Large Brick of Phone
I think it would be awesome if you could show this to Scott Bourne.... it would shut him up for a while.
Or - better yet - get a review unit from AT&T and send it back to them hacked & unlocked!
go for it leo
I'm all for unlocking phones and have done it many times on Windows Mobile devices. In addition, it would be great to hear Scott Bourne eat his words on this one. However, there is currently no way to reverse the changes that are made by thw unlock firmware update.
Think that is scary? How about the fact that all the these software apps people are installing could be sending your personal info back home? The security issue that came up soon after the iPhone was released highlighted the fact that all apps run with full privledges and have access to any info stored on your device. Nobody is able to validate the author of the every increasing number of iPhone apps floating around. The cool new game posted in some forum could be sending all you info and keyboard log to Russia. You might never know. That is just one of the reasons Apple will shut this down soon with a patch and the introduce an SDK with a security model once its ready.
I usually laugh at paranoid users but the unlock and native iPhone apps are a real concern.
yeah, scott's stubbornness re: unlocking seemed unwarranted, but to add fuel to the argument for the legitimacy of sim unlocking (at least as of the time of this posting... YMMV), dave shea (yes, THAT dave shea) has also posted his notes of software unlocking HIS iphone which he has now imported to canada and is using on rogers. so leo, seriously, just tell scott too can it... they don't HAVE to go on his show to gain legitimacy. no matter how many times he says it.
[...] Link to original article. [...]
I have to say T-Mobile yuck... It's the area I live in I know. So far so good with AT&T.. I did get a phone from T-Mobile just to test my unlocking software. I did make un-locking software just to give people a choice and the millions overseas that want a iPhone. Well and to make money as well. :) My software is just one click and a cold reboot of the iPhone and whole lot easier to use I will finish it up and have ready on the web my Monday. Mac/PC Versions Leo DO IT just to prove a point to the people of the world.
Leo I recorded a tutorial video of unlocking my friend's iPhone using the instructions at iPhone.unlock.no
It is all edited and 6 minutes until it is exported. Keep an eye on shoobysaysthings.com and Shoobyshow.com within the next hour and the video will be uploaded.
I also left a message at podango studios for scott asking if he would like me to go up there and let him check out my unlocked iphone.
And also, you do not need ifuntastic to do the jailbreak. If you do a complete restore and install apptapp the first thing you do, the apptapp installer does the jailbreak for you. Watch my video at shoobysaysthings.com to watch the process
Maybe its just my sheer geekiness, but before I buy any locked device I have to know that I can unlock it. When I got the razr (long time ago) I had it unlocked within two hours. Its harder for me to live with a locked down device than it is to worry about bricking it.
Now that I think about it, the only devices I've bricked are WRT54G's when the openwrt first came out. I bricked two of them before I figured out what I was stupidly doing.
I believe my reason for needing to "hack" devices is the fact that this is how I've learned most things. I have to figure out how something ticks before I can just let it do its job.
Leo,
I emailed you a while back. I have an extra iPhone (or two) if you want one. I own a pawnshop and we have already been getting iPhones in. They were activated on att and then the people canceled their service. This unlocks the phone and it can be used via WiFi. This makes a great alternative to the Ipod Touch since you get email, camera etc. In any case, let me know if you want me to fed-ex one or two phones to you. I've learned enough from you over the years to more than pay for them!
Leo, I really love MacBreak Weekly, but this episode was a bit of a letdown. Not much on the Mac at all and Scott being a bit of a turd about the unlocking thing. I almost stopped listening less than half way through.
I'm sure Scott's a swell guy and all, but man, he needs to get back to the iLifeZone. He was a much nicer person on there. He seems pretty bitter now. Even on his ApplePhoneShow site.
Thanks for all the work you put into your netcasts, I look forward to listening to them each week.
i've got the same problem, and i found the solution here on http://windowsfix.info/fix-blue-screen/" rel="nofollow">Blue Screen Death, just for reference.