“Hackers in Europe claim that they have completely unlocked the JesusPhone, allegedly using a SIM reader/writer and a blank SIM card to obtain full calling and SMS capabilities. Total cost: $96,” Jesus Diaz reports for Gizmodo.
Diaz reports, “A Hackintosh forum member has been able to test the hack in the Orange UK network.”
Just tested it – works fine with Orange UK – Call In/Out, SMS In/Out…
Diaz writes, “If the SIM forgery works those $96 seems like a very low price to buy an iPhone and have it working in your network.”
More in the full article here.
Some people aren’t completely clear on the concept of SIMM locking/unlocking. When a phone is unlocked, nothing on it changes, except that it can now work with a SIMM card from a different mobile carrier. The ‘Subsidy Lock’ is a feature that mobile carriers require from handset makers in order to force customers to continue to use the subsidised (zero dollars with rebate) phones with the same carrier. In the US, there is an obscure law that gives consumers the right to unlock their phone if they wish. All carriers abide by this, although almost nobody (certainly not many in this forum) know about this. All cellphones manufactured for the US market are unlockable. You call your carrier, ask for the instructions to unlock the phone, they e-mail them to you. It works.
I’m sure the same will eventually happen with the iPhone.
I’m sorry that I’m such a newbie about mobile phones, but aren’t you supposed to sign up/activate the iPhone with AT&T or whoever will be handling the exclusive rights to the iPhone in the UK and the EU? Won’t it be just like here where you would have to buy the iPhone, activate it and get an AT&T account, and then go from there with the unlocking procedure?
Is the theory that the European hackers would buy the iPhone for US$ 500/700 and then the unlocking itself would activate it with their present carrier, or would they still have to activate it through AT&T here in the U.S.?
Again, I’m sorry that I’m not familiar with how this works.
Rudge,
There is an application out there (courtesy of your neighbourhood hacker) that mimics the activation process for the iPhone without ever connecting to AT&T. It activates the device and allows it to use any AT&T SIMM card without having to sign up for a new contract. You could also do this with an existing AT&T account and SIMM card.
Once you get this done, you can do the UK hack.
As for the US, the change in the Copyright rules was made last November. It was related to the notorious DMCA. Here’s the document from the US government:
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2006/71fr68472.pdf
Scroll down to page 5.
Great. Pay $96 for breaking your iPhone so that visual voicemail and other specialized features don’t work on “your own network.” That makes sense… If it’s just an WI-FI iPhone you want (with no mobile phone contract), you can do that for free using several previously published methods.
Here in Yurp we’re spoiled with choice when it comes to cellphones and operators. That is, we usually don’t have locked-in cellphones. Instead we can freely choose the operator and the phone and combine those two. Compared to this, the iPhone is inferior to its competitors here in Europe. I, for one, won’t buy it if I can’t choose the operator of my choice. Which is a pity, because it really is a marvelous gadget.
MDN MW: ‘people’ as in ‘people have the power – at least in Europe’.
>If you have an iPhone, do not use it in Europe for data. I was in >Europe for 2 weeks last month and used my phone minimally >for internet. I just got my bill from AT&T for $3,215.84.
Now wait a minute, there, ****WARNING****, ‘splain this to us a little better. Do you mean that you went on the internet using WiFi (AirPort), or using something else? Like the Edge network ATT has in U.S. ‘Splain it to me better…
> WARNING wrote: If you have an iPhone, do not use it in Europe for data. I was in Europe for 2 weeks last month and used my phone minimally for internet. I just got my bill from AT&T for $3,215.84.
I’ve a similar story…. made 2 phone calls for about 30 seconds each – enough to tell family my hotel phone number and room number.
For roughly 1 minute of talk time: $130 US
UK telecoms know how to stick it to Americans.
“UK telecoms know how to stick it to Americans.”
The bill is from your American telecom. You write the check o them. They get the money. To assert the UK telecoms get a large chunk of this is absurd. I have no doubt all the telecoms work together for price gouging on international roaming, but American networks are just as complicit. Your argument holds very little water.
-Liquidu
I’ve done the same with my AT&T (Cingular) phone. I was charged (roughly) between $0.70 and $1.40 per minute, depending on which country in Europe I was in (UK, France, Serbia…). Of course, before I left the US, I had called Cingular and asked them to turn on my (free) international roaming feature. If you don’t have it, you get ripped off. If you’re planning on travelling overseas, you’d be a fool not to ask for it.
You DID have it turned on before your trip, right?
***Warning****
The answer is very simple. When out of the US use the phone in airplane mode. No expensive bills.
What is the “JESUS-PHONE”? You ask?
It’s a cell phone that’s SOOO Good, that if Jesus Christ invented it, that’s what he would have done.
Of course we all know Jesus supposedly died a horrible death on a Roman Cross some 2000 years ago. Some claim he was the son of a god. Some claim he was just a prophet.
The fact of the matter is this, evolution has occurred on this planet we all share called Earth for billions of freaking years. BILLIONS OF YEARS!!!
That expensive liquid you put in your gas tank to drive to your local religious brainwashing organization? Well that’s gas and it’s made from oil that is decomposed carbon elements like plants and animals from BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO!!!
Why did the Russians plant a USSR flag under the North Pole? Because of the vast amounts of OIL UNDER THE POLAR ICE CAP!!! Now how could the North Pole, so cold, have supported life like jungles enough to produce the oil? BECAUSE THE EARTH WAS TIPPED ON IT’S SIDE SOME BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO!!!
What tipped it in the way it is now? A large asteroid perhaps?
Killed off most of the life on the planet perhaps? So dumbarse ape looking fskers like us could evolve and create funky religions as a reason to KILL PEOPLE!!
Study GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, it’s living PROOF evolution is indeed FACT and not Fiction.
Study Sociology and learn why humans are a “herd animal” and form groups to kill other groups of humans.
Study more college level courses to really understand things and not what some undereductated preacher con artist tells you what you should know.
You are what you know.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pda-phones-smartphones.jsp
I am interested in what you said about humans being herd animals. It makes sense but if you can provide some URLs that would be much appreciated!
Okay, I’ll ask my question again to ****WARNING***, or whoever else might be able to answer it:
Here is what ***WARNING*** wrote: If you have an iPhone, do not use it in Europe for data. I was in Europe for 2 weeks last month and used my phone minimally for internet. I just got my bill from AT&T for $3,215.84.
Unless you have money to burn, set your phone to check email manually and do not launch Safari.
My Question: Using the iPhone on WiFi for internet in Europe will cause AT&T to bill you in America?? I thought in WiFi mode, the iPhone was just like any computer using the internet on WiFi. I’ve never been billed for using my PowerBook all over the world where I travel… My main man ****WARNING*** you need to post back and ‘splain yourself…