DVD Jon whips up a way to activate iPhone without AT&T

The headline kind of says it all: a little hex editing of iTunes, a little hostfile hacking, a little program called Phone Activation Server v1.0, and you're on your way to an AT&T service free iPhone, friend. That's right, Jon, knock that toxic AT&T-tied iPod-coffee out of Steve's hand.

Ok, so apparently the phone still doesn't work (we wonder if there isn't some kind of mechanism that binds the iPhone to select AT&T SIMs), so it's not like it's an unlocked device, but at least you can now use it as "the best iPod [Apple's] ever made." We've yet to confirm the method though -- anyone want to give it a shot? Let us know in comments.

[Thanks, Justin and Gordon]

[six2one @ Jul 4th 2007 12:36AM]

haha, yes! i dont have one yet, and i still wont probably...but it looks like the single biggest flaw with the phone (at&t) is being fixed by the hacking community. this is from someone who has a curve with att

[Frankenstein Black @ Jul 4th 2007 3:05AM]

LMAO ;^)... Again, Bring it BITCHES!!!

[Chris McDannold @ Jul 4th 2007 12:40AM]

I have withheld from commenting until now, but enough with the iPhone shit. Has anyone really taken a look at what Apple takes control of when you install their software? jobs is a megalomaniac, and no seems to see it but those who are not drinking thew Kool-Aid. Great, the iPhone is God's gift to cell phones. Can we move on to real tech news now?

[Jonhimslf @ Jul 4th 2007 1:12AM]

What's this iPhone you keep talking about?

[Colin @ Jul 4th 2007 1:23AM]

You probably should've spoken up earlier, because everyone's just as sick of hearing from iPhone haters as they are hearing from iPhone fanbois.

"...what Apple takes control of when you install their software?" Cite your sources, please. As someone who has to use OS X, *nix and Windows, and a former BeOS and Amiga user, I guess I kind of expect some reason behind your ranting.

[bb @ Jul 4th 2007 3:11AM]

i'm with colin: what is the freaking problem with you people? worried you're missing out on important USB appliance coverage, like this?

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/21/usb-mini-fridge-keeps-the-dorks-cool/

[Cameron @ Jul 4th 2007 7:32AM]

It's a free tech gadget site. Delete the bookmark, get one of the several suggested scripts/filters/whatever that gets rid of the iPhone coverage, don't come here for a month whatever, but stop your whining about what Engadget decides to cover.

[yoinkers @ Jul 4th 2007 4:59PM]

I for one am totally interested in the iPhone news. Why is it so hard for you to just get the iPhone free RSS feed? For christ's sake they've bent over backwards for the haters on this blog...

[f14tomdog2 @ Jul 5th 2007 4:08PM]

To bb, that is one cool fridge, dont knock on the fridge. I would much rather hear about stuff like that than hear 1,000,001 things about the iPhone.

[Pez @ Jul 4th 2007 12:46AM]

And a simple software update later... and you have a brick again.

[guns @ Jul 4th 2007 2:04AM]

You know, I was wondering about this. Would the recent US Copyright Office decision to excuse the circumvention of software locks on phones prevent Apple from stopping hacks like this?

Or does the law just apply to protection from legal action?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/23/copyright-office-rules-that-consumers-can-legally-unlock-cellpho/
http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2006/71fr68472.html

[carlos @ Jul 4th 2007 12:53AM]

Spell check is your friend.

[simplyjas @ Jul 4th 2007 1:03AM]

Hey atleast it's a start. I have a feeling, iPhone will be the most hacked gadget ever, even more then the PSP. I am glad to say that statement :)

[Cam @ Jul 4th 2007 4:14AM]

Check that; the second most hacked product next to Windows.

[mike @ Jul 4th 2007 1:14AM]

maybe, with some more effort, they could get it to activate with other carriers? ...just thinking....

[Pierre @ Jul 4th 2007 2:08AM]

To work properly those carriers will need to install Apple's software - this phone does way more than the standard phone / text stuff and the carrier needs to support that.

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 1:52AM]

Don't think out loud too much people will see how much of an idiot you are.

[mike @ Jul 4th 2007 2:01AM]

oh, thanks for the advice, imaginative and smart martin

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 2:26AM]

Make a stupid comment, get a stupid response.

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 2:20AM]

Don't feel bad though Mike, Pierre wasn't that much better

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 2:24AM]

For some reason my last comment didn't post. But it said

"Post a stupid comment, get a stupid response."

[mike @ Jul 4th 2007 2:25AM]

there is a chance that voice call and sms would pretty much be using the same standards as all the others. Visual voicemail will be incompatible, but if that incompatibility is harmless to the carrier's network, then it is just a sacrifice for choosing another carrier

I think it's either the iphone could work on other networks or you wouldn't be able to use it overseas (roaming), in some other phones the only thing prevents you from using your phone in another carrier is just the sim lock

[chris @ Jul 5th 2007 12:03AM]

Yes that is there plan to do but for right now they havent gotten that far give the hackers about a month or less and they will get there maybe more we never know.

[Seni @ Jul 4th 2007 1:18AM]

Hmm, I wonder..

I was considering the iphone's success earlier and how, as it will likely end up as an incredably popular phone, it will surely be the target of a massive number of hacks/exploits. Then the fact that the phone was based on OSX caught my eye...

It's been said that one of the reasons OSX has so few exploits has to do with it's low market penetration.. Now that the world's (and hackers') eyes will be on the iphone, could the iphone provoke an unusually sized increase in the number of exploits on OSX? Is it worth considering?

[Filip @ Jul 4th 2007 1:43AM]

It's not that OS X is hack-proof. The biggest advantage of OS X over Win is that the security updates are released ASAP after they discover the vulnerability. For MS you have to wait weeks, months, maybe years...

[scott @ Jul 4th 2007 4:45AM]

There's still a difference, Mac OS X is based on Unix, which was designed from the ground up for security, Windows/DOS/BIOS was designed to simply work in 1995 and hasnt changed much since...

[Foof @ Jul 4th 2007 5:49AM]

Filip,

Actually, I think MS is actually found to be considerably better and faster than Apple at patching critical vulnerabilities, though both companies are pretty good as things go.

[michael @ Jul 4th 2007 1:20AM]

sure, i'll try it. wire me the money and i'll go get myself a $600 slab of electronics and get nice pictures of hex editing goings ons. i'll show you the most kick ass ipod the world has ever seen.

[m @ Jul 4th 2007 1:26AM]

it can't last. it's not like putting divx on an apple tv or something-- there's big money at stake. apple and at&t both get a cut of the subscription money, and it adds up to thousands of dollars per subscriber.

[Phil @ Jul 4th 2007 1:24AM]

So do I have to use a firmware downloader to play homebrew on this thing?

Just kidding - I only wanted to be the first person to ask this question about the iPhone since 8,752,211 people have already asked it about the PSP on the Internets.

[CG @ Jul 4th 2007 1:27AM]

Not really a required hack, I have read at least 2 blog post yesterday where an iPhone owner simply took out the Sim card, and was still able to use the iPhone, without the Phone parts...thus the iPod, Browser and all other non-phone applications.

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/02/tada-the-6th-gen-contract-free-wifi-enabled-ipod/
and
http://gigaom.com/2007/06/28/no-contract-no-iphone-for-you/#comment-299545

So a hack not required really.

[Mark @ Jul 4th 2007 1:48AM]

That's after you've already activated it.

[Rafael @ Jul 4th 2007 1:54AM]

what is hex and how to edit that????

[Joe @ Jul 4th 2007 12:24PM]

What is Google, and how do you use it?

[Colin @ Jul 4th 2007 5:32AM]

@Joe:
Who the hell are you people? Get off my internets before I call the cops!

[Arikiti @ Jul 4th 2007 2:16AM]

Great!!!
I wil buy iPhone today.

I read his blog "So su me",but I cant understand the iTunes modificatin(hex editing,Happya numer,etc,,) part.
Does anyone know how to modify iTunes??

Please.

[bruckwine @ Jul 4th 2007 8:32AM]

And you made that one all by yourself!

[Dee9 @ Jul 4th 2007 2:06AM]

has anyone checked cnet's crave blog lately? They have a video of the Iphone's SIM card being removed. There are some people saying that the IPhone SIM card works in other phones but any other SIM card placed in the Iphone does not work.

[Leonard Balk @ Jul 4th 2007 3:08AM]

I already tried removing the SIM card and it does work if you place it in another phone, including data. I moved the IPhone SIM to my Treo and it worked perfectly. I moved the Treo SIM to my IPhone and the IPhone wanted me to reactivate. All of the wifi and IPod features work fine without the SIM installed once the phone has been activated. I am considering canceling the new account and I can move my Treo account to the IPhone and move the SIM between phones during the work week since the email is better on the Treo for now. I will also save $20.00 per month since the data plan is cheaper. The IPhone will cost me $240.0 per year less to use than my Treo.

A friend has most of the exchange issues worked out in using the iPhone but there are some other differences in the Treo I prefer. Little things like return to inbox after discarding a message instead of going to the next does not work. Call forward on no answer is not an option, I forward to the office phone when I can not answer. The Edge network does not allow me to receive emails while on a call, this is great with the Treo on Cingular where available. If you are roaming in Europe where you pay for the amount of data you receive, the Treo will allow you to limit what you receive when in roam mode. I limit each email to a preview of 1k, there does not appear to be a way to control this with the Iphone.

[m @ Jul 4th 2007 2:23AM]

this seems to be a different approach, which however allows it to work as a phone:

http://www.iphoneunlocking.com/

they don't say much; anybody know more?

[Alan Partridge @ Jul 4th 2007 6:18AM]

They're probably con artists, if there was a way to unlock the iPhone to any network you better believe Engadget would have it on the front page, breaking news and featured stories :)

[Martin @ Jul 4th 2007 2:18AM]

Make a stupid comment, get a stupid response

[Ogami_ito @ Jul 4th 2007 3:26AM]

I wonder...

If someone was able to hack into the activation function of the phone, then someone could easilly make a free activation program and put that on the internet. The issue is...is that activation program illigal? I don't think so.

Apple/AT&T could claim that by hacking the phone, you are overcoming security software meant to protect the network and other intellectual property, and therefore is illigal. But there would be nothing illigal about web-based software that could give an activation code which mimics the iTunes software code. Then, you can also provide certain network services which the iPhone uses.

[Perkoff @ Jul 4th 2007 8:56PM]

Genius, where do you come up with such original things to type?

[d$ @ Jul 4th 2007 2:39AM]

why is everybody bitching all the time about AT&T????
i have it and love it.
all my friends are complaining all the time
(tmoble, esp verizon, sprint)
about how much they hate whatever they are with.
you can call 100million people for free...
and the coverage is the best, (just look at the maps)
the only prob i have is that the data/mms/txt plans kinda suck

[Chird @ Jul 4th 2007 2:46AM]

It depends on your region. Here in Upstate NY Verizon and Sprint are king (CDMA Networks) AT&T is spotty at best, and T-Mobile is complete garbage.

It's all about who has the most towers where. As for me, it's all Verizon baby.

[Reg Muffet @ Jul 4th 2007 2:41AM]

Chances are the iphoneunlocking.com site is a scam and want your email address for a profiled spam list.

Regard with caution.

[Wout Mertens @ Jul 4th 2007 5:28AM]

You know, if that's a spam site, it's the best looking spam site I ever saw.

They even went through the trouble of creating a blog. Read it here: http://blog.iphoneunlocking.com/

Dunno, it looks legit to me. Pretty sweet if it's true that they manage to unlock 75% of iPhones :-)

[nikster @ Jul 4th 2007 4:09AM]

well it could be a scam/email harvesting operation but then again, which could you make more money with - a website to unlock iphones or a website harvesting emails. maybe it is a scam but there's a lot of money to be made with unlocked iphones.

red flag: iphoneunlocking claims to have received over 130,000 requests to unlock phones. now, with 500,000 sold that would be one out of 4 - and that i do not believe for a second. most people are sheep and will just take what is given to them, and half of them don't even know what a SIM card is, so 130K is an impossible number.

[Foof @ Jul 4th 2007 6:02AM]

Nikster - I can believe 130k (personally I don't, but whateva) simply because I bet the majority of the people "interested in help unlocking" don't even have iphones--but are still interested in unlocking.

There is something awfully fishy about that site though. Paying users $100 to monitor the activation traffic? Immediate and constant reports of progress with no real setbacks? I'll be happy if it's real, but until it's proven to be so, I'm with you on the skepticism.