Second iPhone software unlock promised tomorrow

The iPhone is getting used and abused today with a second software-only unlocking solution making itself known. Uniquephones has now surprised with word that it will be offering a downloadable software unlock service between 12 and 2 PM EST tomorrow at iphoneunlocking.com. Pricing will be somewhere between $25 and $50 with a 25 to 50 percent discount for people who have already signed up for the service -- apparently as many as 450,000 already have.

Read - iPhone Unlockers Lining Up
Read - iPhoneunlocking.com (not active until tomorrow)

[Carlin @ Aug 24th 2007 4:03PM]

now for me to steal someones iphone!

finally can use it with my tmobile w00t!

[elfribo @ Aug 25th 2007 12:43PM]

Tomorrow is today and looks like we are not there yet uniquephones allegedly received a phone call from a Silicon Valley law firm and they are backing down, for now.... No release today maybe a deal is in the making between Apple/ATT and uniquephones to scuttle the project but I may be wrong.

[JD @ Aug 24th 2007 4:11PM]

Wait a couple days and save yourself the $25.

[A.A. Williams @ Aug 24th 2007 4:18PM]

"Enga-diddy" when when they release the torrent file so I can download it... oh my bad... gotta wait until someone get the balls to put their purchased download up for seeding... No problem I can wait.

[Dan @ Aug 24th 2007 4:27PM]

www.spellcheck.net

[A.A. Williams @ Aug 24th 2007 4:43PM]

Nothing like a good flame huh... you flame boys kill me... you just don't get it do ya!!!
spellcheck.net that... "How Ya Doing"

[Richard A. @ Aug 24th 2007 4:31PM]

I say, pay the money! Developers/hackers work their butts off, testing phones and whatnot, while the masses sit and wait for the "free unlock".

Good work deserves compensation.

[Hedge @ Aug 24th 2007 4:57PM]

If these guys were the ones who did all the work behind the hacks I'd agree but not when Open Source Hackers do all of the work and these guys swoop in and profit off of it.

Boycott them.

[evenSong @ Aug 24th 2007 6:32PM]

As far as we know, there are no open source software unlocks. That means there is original code to their programs as well as original ideas. Pay programmers for their hard work.

By your argument, you could say RedHat just swooped in and profitted off Linux.

[eas @ Aug 24th 2007 7:56PM]

evenSong, it seems unlikely that they haven't built on the shoulders of the open source hackers, indeed, they would have been stupid not to.

[Richard A. @ Aug 24th 2007 8:07PM]

@ Hedge

I agree with you. You're absolutely right.

[Jonny @ Aug 24th 2007 10:16PM]

Heh, some company stealing and profiting off of hard work of open sourcers.

Hmmmm... smells like CherryOS all over again.

[Joe Smith @ Aug 24th 2007 4:56PM]

I have the plan already :)

[e @ Aug 24th 2007 5:02PM]

this is HUGE!

[Bob @ Aug 24th 2007 5:06PM]

Nice. Did you learn to communicate like that in your undergrad, or graduate level English class?

[Markus @ Aug 24th 2007 5:13PM]

I will be the first in line as Richard A. they have worked there backsides off and quite right they should get paid for it

[Dan @ Aug 24th 2007 5:17PM]

@Bob

http://digg.com/apple/The_iPhone_is_a_piece_of_shit_and_so_is_your_face

Asshat.

[facundo @ Aug 24th 2007 5:20PM]

So could I buy an iphone and make it work on my verizon network?

[PK @ Aug 24th 2007 6:11PM]

Nope - the iPhone runs on GSM networks, and Verizon is a CDMA network.

[Bob @ Aug 24th 2007 5:24PM]

Wow... I am an asshat. i wish I had time to keep up with the phrases that change every ten seconds on the web. oh well.

all your base... etc,etc,etc...

[jOhnson @ Aug 24th 2007 5:27PM]

i wonder what Apple/AT&T has to say about this..

[JugoGoya @ Aug 24th 2007 5:31PM]

Question, when I buy the Iphone, say a refurbished one from Apple which are 399 now or 499 for 8gb, do I have to sign up with ATT first then use the sim card of my tmobile? Doesnt the phone need to be activated first?

[Ayle @ Aug 24th 2007 5:41PM]

No you dont need to sign up for a plan, for the activation you have to use iActivator

[JugoGoya @ Aug 24th 2007 5:43PM]

AYLE thanks. Thats 350 dollar saving on ETF for me for two phones, great!

[Neil Christie @ Aug 24th 2007 5:48PM]

Can someone please clarify this for me?

I'm visiting the US in September and have no address in that country. After I buy an iPhone in the Apple Store can I use this without talking to AT&T at all and simlply slot in my Orange SIM?

[thalilhustla @ Aug 24th 2007 6:17PM]

can you use a pre existing phone plan

its kinda confusing to me

do i get a new phone number or what

[Chino B @ Aug 24th 2007 4:58PM]

If you have a different carrier, no you don't have to. You just have to insert the sim card to iphone.

[Thirrouard @ Aug 24th 2007 6:31PM]

Neil Christie => I have the same question... I live abroad and I just want to be sure that we don't actually need to take a AT&T plan to buy the phone...

[Bonkodoofus @ Aug 24th 2007 6:43PM]

I wold not be surprised if somehow this was swung by Apple to get their phones in use by non-AT&T users.

[Steve @ Aug 24th 2007 6:44PM]

Cant wait to get my hands on an Iphone now...

[Rob @ Aug 24th 2007 6:45PM]

Oh man that stupid kid that's going to all the networks in the NYC area bragging about how he cracked the iPhone is going to get served with a lawsuit from Apple pretty soon. Isn't this reverse engineering? Didn't Apple take Real Networks and their Rhapsody for making their stuff compatible with the iPod or something?

I'm a bit indifferent to the topic because I don't own an iPhone and don't have any plans to buy one or change my carrier. But, just to make a point, either Apple's or AT&T's lawyers are going to come out of their moisture-filled caves and take someone to court. It's just a matter of time.

[Duncan3 @ Aug 24th 2007 6:49PM]

2 hours only. Just enough time for people to realize it's a SCAM. Software only unlock of a hardware component, yea right.

Preregister = reduce server load during the critical scamming time.

400k * $50 = 20M take, for a few hours work, and a couple weeks of hyping it up.

Keep your money.

[CasperT @ Aug 24th 2007 7:08PM]

So there is no loss except you gotta hack the youtube feature?

and this fully supports roaming?

2 things keeps me back

1) The European version might have new features, when it arrives
2) The text messaging will only have an english dictionairy

This is the only "real" problems that holds me back from buying an iphone right now

[eas @ Aug 24th 2007 7:59PM]

These guys have been claiming that they were testing a successful iPhone unlock since shortly after the iPhone was released (and building up their page rank in the process). I have my doubts.

If they do start offering unlocks in the next few days I'll have to suspect that they are wholesaling the work of the iphonesimisfree group.

[stomper @ Aug 24th 2007 10:32PM]

Just because it says T-Mobile in the corner doesn't mean it is unlocked. It could simply be roaming on T-Mobile, right? Did Engadget get any proof other than the screen shots?

[SteveJobsIsTheDevil @ Aug 24th 2007 10:37PM]

I love how the iPhone buyers are being treated like convicted
criminals by Apple.You pay $600 for a device that you will never
really own (unlock and use how you wish.)

And what about the
Canadians? While the US and now EU being treated to the iPhone,
Canadians don't even get to see the product. The only downside to all
this is that the sheep that are Apple fans will pass the blame onto
AT&T for everything rather than blame their good buddy Steve who just
raped every one of them. Shame on you Steve, shame on you. The hell's
deepest inner circle awaits your arrival.

(Full disclosure: I am an
AT&T employee who owns 3 iPods, a new SR LED Macbook Pro, a Quad Mac
Pro, a Vista media center, an XP laptop, a "Hackintosh" tablet PC,
and an 8525/TyTn phone so I can't see myself as being labeled a
particular "fanboy".)fanboy".)

[Paddle @ Aug 24th 2007 11:18PM]

Did anyone notice the "Netwerk" in the screen shots? WTF is that?

[Taylor @ Aug 25th 2007 5:05AM]

The name of the Engadget/iPhone simfree guys' WiFi network.

[Gee @ Aug 24th 2007 11:31PM]

Still no flash, cut&paste or any of the other 20 features that any other free phone has.

[Scott @ Aug 25th 2007 11:25AM]

Sweet! Where can I get myself a free phone with a built-in iPod? I'm ready to go get one right now!

[omoks @ Aug 24th 2007 11:47PM]

The fact that so many people want to have their iphones unlocked doesn't bode very well for ATT. If I were in management this would be a dilemma. The number might not be significant being that ATT doesnt really make that much money off iphones but still . . . . ..

[CaptSaltyJack @ Aug 25th 2007 12:25AM]

Did you guys see this?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294437,00.html

So, some group of guys works since the iPhone launch to unlock it, and then this kid supposedly does it in a couple of hours. BS. I'm sure that this kid just followed the instructions based off the hard work of others, then he gets on the news about it. What a tool.

I hate his 'fro, too. Makes me wanna smack him.

[corey garnett @ Aug 25th 2007 1:43AM]

umm, George Hotz == geohot, the author of the hardware hack featured here on engadget. He is one of the "group of guys" who've been working on it, and they say as much in the story. The "two hours" quote in the article refers to how long the actual process took, he's quoted elsewhere as claiming to have spent 500 hours on the project.

iphonesimfree and iphoneunlocking are almost certainly standing on the shoulders of the open source unlocking effort, but geohot is one of the good guys.

[CaptSaltyJack @ Aug 25th 2007 1:46AM]

Wow. I stand corrected. And man, kids these days.. only 17 years old?? I expected a more mature group of coders working on this for some reason.
Impressive.

[Andrew @ Aug 25th 2007 3:56AM]

Another software: http://www.dvdtoiphone.net/unlock-iphone.html
The iPhone unlock Toolkit software is very safe, fast and easy-to-handle. Just click on the 'Unlock iPhone' button, the process will be completed AUTOMATICALLY within a few seconds. Now, you own a unlocked iPhone, which can enable you playback movies and music (the best widescreen iPod) and use the browser (Wi-Fi). SIM-card phone unlocking function will be added in October or so.

[Michael @ Aug 25th 2007 4:20AM]

Uh that isn't a program to unlock the phone.. simply a way to bypass activation it looks like. Their simply leading people on and trying to get them to sign up for their SIM unlocking in October. Totally bogus comment!

[Matthias Goodman @ Aug 25th 2007 1:34PM]

Except that the program you link to just activates the iPhone, it doesn't do a SIM unlock.

[kinneret @ Aug 25th 2007 4:13AM]

how do i install software to my iphone ?
with itunes , without... how?
can you help ??

[Majortom1981 @ Aug 25th 2007 8:14AM]

I am going to guess that if you do this unlocking i would not update the iphones software. Apple is bound to release software that disables this. so if you do do this be very carefull about updating the phone.

[Scott @ Aug 25th 2007 11:24AM]

Sweet! Where can I get myself a free phone with a built-in iPod? I'm ready to go get one right now!