Teenage hacker unlocks the iPhone
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A New Jersey teenager unlocks the iPhone, opening the way to Apple's hit mobile being used by non-US networks.
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InfoWorld - Apple&#39;s iPhone is a tough&#160;target for hackers, but a security researcher warned Friday that there are ways the sleek device could potentially be compromised.
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Hackers cash in by targeting gadget freaks that crave an Apple phone but aren't wild about the prospect of an AT&#38;T service contract.
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(InfoWorld) - Two claims of unlocking Apple's iPhone have surfaced in recent days, and a third is set to be announced Saturday. One blogger, George Hotz, on Friday posted a step-by-step tutorial for unlocking the iPhone that involves both hardware and software modifications. His blog also includes photos of an iPhone he said is unlocked and shows T-Mobile as the service provider. At another site, iPhoneSimFree.com, a company claims it can unlock iPhones through software only. A screen image with an item about the company on Engadget.com also shows an iPhone displaying the T-Mobile name. In addition, John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, said his Belfast, U.K., company will be posting software on Saturday that iPhone users can download to unlock their handsets to work with any SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card on any network they choose. The software should hit the Web at www.iphoneunlocking.com between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern Time, he said. The iPhone is based on GSM, the most widely used cellular technology, but today, the hot phone is sold only in the U.S. and locked into AT&T's network. Unlocking would allow iPhone owners to break the required two-year contract with AT&T and choose their own GSM carriers. More importantly, it would allow people outside the U.S. to own and use the highly prized device. With an unlocked GSM phone, it's possible to change carriers by putting in a different SIM card. Uniquephones' McLaughlin said 450,000 users already had signed up at iphoneunlocking.com, which the company set up soon after the iPhone was released for people interested in having their iPhones unlocked. The Web site was not active at the time this story was written, but it should be reactivated Saturday with options for users to access the unlocking software, he said. McLaughlin plans to charge between $25 and $50 for the software, but users who had already signed up will have access to the code at either a 25 percent or 50 percent discount. Uniquephones will let people anywhere in the world download the software. The company already unlocks phones from many manufacturers, including Nokia and Motorola. There were about eight locks that Uniquephones engineers had to break in the iPhone software to come up with the code that will unlock the phones, and engineers in several countries had been working around the clock since the phone's release to do so. McLaughlin declined to go into great detail but said one of the most difficult locks to break was contained in the handset's electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. There also was a lock in the handset's permanent phone memory as well as other places in the iPhone's software. In the end, it was an engineer in Russia who came up with the software for unlocking the phone, McLaughlin said. McLaughlin claims he is using his iPhone on the Vodafone network in the U.K. He added that both Vodafone's network and the T-Mobile U.K. network allow iPhone users to download data faster on their iPhones than AT&T Wireless's network does. Although almost 100 percent of the iPhone's features work even when the handset is unlocked and using another carrier's SIM card, the Visual Voicemail feature will only work on AT&T's network because of the way the feature is designed, McLaughlin said. Visual Voicemail lets users easily view the messages that have been left for them. The iPhone has been a hot target for unlocking since its June 29 launch, both because of its advanced design and features and because AT&T has an unusual long-term exclusive relationship with Apple. It's common for U.S. mobile operators to lock the phones they sell, but in some cases, they will later unlock the phones free or for a small fee. On its site, iPhoneSimFree.com says it will start selling individual per-unit licenses for its unlocking software starting next week. The company will also accept inquiries for bulk purchases of 500 or more licenses. Hotz, who wrote that he is soon heading off to college, isn't offering to sell his technique but is auctioning on eBay what he claims is the world's second unlocked iPhone.
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InfoWorld - Hackers are&#160;working to unlock Apple&#39;s iPhone, but the job appears to be more difficult than initially expected.
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A group of hackers releases perhaps the easiest application yet for getting third-party software onto iPhones running the most up-to-date version of Apple's firmware.
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Many iPhone hacks require opening up the case -- and that can lead to trouble, as one would-be hacker discovers, when a wayward screwdriver punctures the battery, causing it to explode.
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A 17-year-old hacker has broken the lock that ties Appleâs iPhone to AT&Tâs wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers areÂ working to unlock Apple's iPhone, but the job appears to be more difficult than initially expected. Hackers had hoped that modifying the iPhone's bootloader -- the program that runs before the operating system is loaded -- would unlock the handset. But that turned out to be a dead end, as the bootloader code must be signed using a 1,024-bit RSA private key employed by Apple, according to an update released last week by hackers working together on the #iphone IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel. Now, the hackers on #iphone are working to create an assembler utility for the iPhone's processor. "This is our last major hurdle to overcome in order to write programs for the phone," they said last week. Once hackers have the ability to write programs for the iPhone, they can write one to unlock the handset, they said. The iPhone is locked for use with AT&T's EDGE network. Unlocking the iPhone will allow the handsets to be used with other operators, including carriers in Asia and Europe, where the phone is not yet available. Efforts to unlock the iPhone began almost as soon as the phone hit store shelves on June 29. Within days, hackers managed to circumvent the phone's activation function, allowing users to access many of the phone's features, except its cellular phone function. TheÂ first to release an iPhone activation toolÂ was Jon Lech Johansen -- better known as DVD Jon, a hacker who helped develop a tool for decrypting the content on DVDs -- who released a tool on July 3. Within 20 minutes of that release, a second activation tool was released by the hackers on #iphone. While hackers have yet to unlock the iPhone, they have made other breakthroughs since overcoming the activation hurdle. For instance, hackers last week released a tool that allows users to install custom ringtones on the iPhone.
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A video showing the founder of a Belfast, Northern Ireland company unlocking the iPhone hit the Web early Wednesday U.K. time as proof that software exists that can unlock Apple Inc.&#39;s device for use with carriers other than AT&amp;T Inc.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers may successfully unlock an iPhone in as soon as three to seven days, according to a representative of one effort that aims to unlockÂ Apple's new handset. "We believe it will be easy. We are privately aware many of the iPhone engineers came from other handset manufacturers, and we understand their design techniques fairly well," said gj, speaking in an interview conducted using IRC (Internet Relay Chat). He requested that his real name not be used. "Easy to us means inside one week," he said, offering an estimate of three to seven days. Unlocking the iPhone means users will be able to use the handset with other service providers, not just AT&T, which has an exclusive deal to sell the phone in the U.S. By Tuesday night, U.S. time, hackers succeeded in cracking the iPhone's activation process, a minor step towards unlocking the iPhone but a significant technical challenge. The activation process uses a software token that is sent from the phone via iTunes to Apple, which signs the token and returns it to the phone. When that process is completed, iTunes tells the phone to activate. Hackers developed tools for both Windows and MacOS that allow users to activate their phones without iTunes. But users will have to use a token from an activated iPhone, which can be used to activate multiple phones. The hackers are not providing a token with the tools. "If you don't have a known token (which does contain identifying information) you won't be able to use the tool," gj said. At least one other hacker found a way to activate the iPhone without using iTunes. Jon Lech Johansen -- better known as DVD Jon, a hacker who helped develop the DeCSS tool for decrypting DVDs -- released a tool that can activate the iPhone without iTunes on his blog. "The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and Wi-Fi work," Johansen wrote. Cracking the activation process brings hackers one step closer to their goal of unlocking the iPhone. The phone requires iTunes to activate functions such as its camera and music player. But the process also requires signing up for a two-year data plan with AT&T. "Activating the phone really just makes the device more 'usable' for those who want to use it as a Wi-Fi device, for instance," gj said. With the activation process cracked hackers turned their focus to unlocking the iPhone, a challenge that is expected to be easier than cracking the activation process. "Unlocking is a function of the radio and the radio's interaction with the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) logic, and these are mostly standards based," gj said. A rumored software update for the iPhone, expected to be released on July 5, could undo some of the progress hackers made towards unlocking the phone. "If Apple releases an update on July 5th that includes 'fixes' for our efforts so far, it will be a setback," gj said. "I don't know if it will be a permanent one." Hackers working together to unlock the iPhone don't belong to a specific group, and don't plan to claim credit for their work, gj said. "We just want to see the hardware freed. We accept that others will exploit those works but hopefully it will be a lesson to Apple," he said. "They're such a great company, it's a real shame for them to lock everything down like this. The design is top notch," he said. "They would win far more business by setting an example for the industry."
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InfoWorld - A video showing the founder of a Belfast, Northern Ireland, company unlocking the iPhone hit the Web early Wednesday U.K. time as proof that software exists that can unlock Apple Inc.&#39;s device for use with carriers other than AT&amp;T Inc.
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Home detention for Sidekick data hack A hacker who broke into the systems of T-Mobile USA and lifted the personal details of around 400 people, including a US Secret Service agent, has escaped imprisonment.â¦
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Apple Inc. will do what it can to fend off hackers trying to unlock the company's popular iPhone, but he acknowledged that doing so won't be easy.
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Hackers claimed significant progress Monday in the race to unlock the iPhone, but some say that some egos in the scene are getting in the way of getting the work done.
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Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.
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Hackers have found a way to use  Apple Inc's  iPhone on networks other than AT&T Inc's  , opening up the coveted device to rival carriers and  overseas customers, according to a Web report on Friday.