Apple today released the following statement:
Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, later this week.
Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone’s warranty.
Source: Apple Inc.
Duncan Martell reports for Reuters, “‘We are not doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked,’ Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide product marking told Reuters. Asked how widespread the practice of downloading unlocking software, he replied, ‘We do not know.'”
Martell reports, “There are a number of unlocking software programs on the Internet, and, at least two of them, iUnlock and Anysim, can cause the iPhone to stop working once its software is updated, Schiller said. ‘There may be others, but we don’t know all of them,’ he said.”
Full article here.
In a related article from earlier today, MacFixIt reports, “According to the Apple reps we spoke with, the addition of third-party applications will fall under the ‘accidental damage’ clause, and hence phones that are brought in for service with evidence of third-party software modification may be denied service, and potentially have their warranties permanently voided, meaning that future service will not be delivered.”
MacFixIt reports, “However, the Apple rep we spoke with said that — though this is information he is generally ‘not supposed to share’ this common sense fact with customers — iPhones that have been ‘hacked’ (received third-party software modifications) then restored to an original factory state will certainly be eligible for service. In other words, if Apple can’t prove that you’ve made third-party software modifications to the iPhone, it will have no grounds to terminate the warranty; a fairly obvious fact.”
MacFixIt reports, “The moral of the story: Restore your iPhone before bringing it in for service. You can do so by connecting it to your computer, then in iTunes, selecting your iPhone and click the Restore button under the Summary tab.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: It follows logically that users who have modified their iPhones’ software should restore their iPhones before installing Apple-supplied iPhone software updates or risk bricking their iPhones and/or voiding their warranties. Hacks are never supported by manufacturers. Solder iron-wielding iPhone hardware modders are, as always, completely on their own.
Well, mine gets here tomorrow. Let the modding begin!
I guess we can expect an update tomorrow folks!
Looks like their new name is Applesoft. I wonder how long it’ll be before the transition is complete…
Any Swine who would violate their iphone like that deserves to loose its functionality.
You have a gadget that does everything bar making a cup of coffee or tea and you are still not satisfied?
Just go back to carying a mobile phone, laptop, mp3 player and a satnav unit instead of buying an iphone, at least you can modify those gadgets to your hearts content, hey why not unlock them into one gadget???????
Rather ominous tone to that, I’d say. I wonder if its true or if apple did something to break things on purpose? Whichever I’m sure they’ll be getting an earful about it
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Modding anything is always at a user’s own risk. The Applesoft comment is ridiculous. Go try to tweak your blender and see if Hamilton Beech will honor your warranty.
apple is trying to be apple and if the macfans like it is it how it should be.
Is this on Apple’s web site? I couldn’t find it anywhere…
So in your world:
“Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, later this week.”
means “tomorrow”?
“Any Swine who would violate their iphone like that deserves to loose its functionality.”
Thaats noot a veery niice thiing too saay.
Apple FUD
I, for one, hope that anyone who hacks an iPhone to obfuscate its original, implied, warranted functionality loses every nickel he invested in it. Yeah: an unpopular opinion on sites like these, where leaving something alone is a sign of weakness or intellectual vapidity. Nevertheless, if I were Apple I’d tell all tinkerers to suck it when the device fails in ANY respect.
Well if you don’t want me to unlock it then bring the phone to canada….oh wait thats right our money is different!
Place yourself in the shoes of someone who actually makes a real physical thing (say for example, an iPhone). Now, using the real world of profit and loss, please explain to all of us how you will run your splendid little company as you accept responsibility for every mod your nut job user base decided was good just for them.
“Well if you don’t want me to unlock it then bring the phone to canada….oh wait thats right our money is different!”
Yeah, I think it is actually worth more than the USD still, or at least still parity. Damn. But your data plans are way still too expensive, even with a stronger C$.
You mean that unlock hack where I had to go in and resolder the circuit board won’t be supported by Apple?
Hrmmph!
HAHAHAHAHAHA, you dumb hackers.
Dudes,
Listen up. Last week I installed a radical Nitrous setup on my new Ford Mustang. Ran great for a week and then I blew the motor while racing some dweeb in a Scion.
Now the lousy bastards at Ford-soft won’t honor their warranty.
You bought the product KNOWING that is was tied to AT&T;…. but that was not good enough. You had to go dick with it and mod it. Apple told you not to… and now it is broken.
People that do this are the same kids that broke toys and their parents just bought them news ones. APPLES IS NOT YOUR MAMA NOR YOUR PAPA! They are not going to fix or give you a new one because you fscked it up! GROW UP! PAY ATTENTION! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!
This does not make Apple a bad company. It makes you A BAD CONSUMER!
The Dude abides.
@Crabapple, I think you’re a little too Fond of your iPhone. I liked mine before but I like it better now that it’s unlocked and I can email any file I want and use a carrier that isn’t quite so quick to give up my personal data to the Feds. I’m not worried about the update or bricking my iPhone. Time will tell whether I’m right or not.
Hacking is At Your Own Risk. What’s the big deal here?
It has always been expected that hacks would clash, perhaps to brickdom, with the whole software update thing.
To: Moo
Excellent comment.
How about master of the obvious? Did this really need to be elaborated so much? Is there really such lack of common sense? You hack the phone; something goes wrong (related to your hack or not). Wanna bring it for service? Try covering your tracks first!
One would think that those who had enough brains to actually know enough to look for unlocking software and use it would also know enough to revert the device to the way it originally was!
As for Apple’s warning, it is more than likely worded in such a way only to make one point clear: you unlock it, you void the warranty. You have it in plain words, as well as in legal lingo. That’s that.
Some people have claimed that Magnusson-Moss act provides for protection against this kind of legal warranty language, but it in fact doesn’t. Google it up and you’ll quickly figure it out. Apple has indeed legal right to define limited warranty this way and in the end, it just makes sense.
Bell has $75 for unlimited data and the only company to offer ExpressCards. Not U.S. pricing but a lot better than it’s been.
“You bought the product KNOWING that is was tied to AT&T;….”
Actually I bought my iPhone when I knew I could unlock it and use my existing T-Mobile contract, a right that the FCC specifically grants me.
“Go try to tweak your blender and see if Hamilton Beech will honor your warranty.”
Um, if all I did to tweak my blender was change some lines of code in the software that I could easily restore to it’s original state then I don’t see how they would be unable to. Unless tweaking the code on my iPhone results in some sort of physical damage to the hardware like frying a transistor or something, I’m just a restore away from normal. Much ado over nothing.