iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity, August 24, 2007, 12:00PM EDT
By Ryan Block 
posted Aug 24th 2007 12:00PM
posted Aug 24th 2007 12:00PM
The iPhoneSIMfree.com team called us up to prove their claim that they cracked Apple's iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. (No, we don't have a copy of the unlock software, so don't even ask us, ok?) The six-man team has been working non-stop since launch day, and they're officially the first to break Apple's SIM locks on the iPhone with software. It's done. Seriously. They wouldn't tell us when and how they would release it to the public, but you can certainly bet that they'll try to make a buck on their solution (and rightly so). We can hardly believe the iPhone's finally been cracked. No, scratch that -- we just can't believe it took this long.
Again: we can confirm with 100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US. Read on for details and links to our video, and check out the gallery of images below.
Notes on the install
- The unlock process took only a couple of minutes. From our end it was totally painless.
- Once you put your new, non AT&T SIM in the device, you have to go through the usual activation process. This can, of course, be done by anyone anywhere with the right tools (like iASign or iActivator)
- We tested with an active T-Mobile SIM -- after the hack was finished and we reactivated we immediately got full bars and the T-Mobile carrier info popped up in the top bar.
- Everything is otherwise the same, except the menu system now has a couple more options. The root menu has Carrier settings where you can select your preferred network if you don't want to roam.
- The General -> Network menu now has an EDGE network settings area where you can input your carrier's APN and username / password. We put in our T-Mobile info, and were immediately online. (Apparently these hidden menus were added in the 1.0.1 update, they tell us. How convenient!)
- Visual voicemail isn't in the cards -- sorry. That was, of course, to be expected because it's a special AT&T network-specific feature right now. When you hit the voicemail button you are taken immediately to your carrier's default voicemail line though, and that works just like it would on any other phone.
- Everything is confirmed as working on a non-AT&T network: SMS send / receive, internet (including Safari, Mail, Google maps, etc.). YouTube doesn't work out of the box, but that's to be expected. If you're not on AT&T you have to manually activate YouTube -- here's the guide on how to do that. (YouTube is the only app you have to activate like this.)
- We know, it's kind of crazy, but this isn't a hoax.
- No, sorry, you can't have our unlocked iPhone.
- The iPhoneSIMfree.com guys claim this method is restore (though not necessarily upgrade) resistant. We have no way of knowing whether Apple will be able to disable this SIM unlock with future iPhone software updates, but we can confirm that it is restore-resistant.
- We performed a full restore (v1.0.2) on our iPhone and successfully activated it using an inactive AT&T SIM.
- After fake-activating our iPhone, you merely pop out the AT&T SIM, put in the foreign SIM of your choosing, reactivate, and you're done. "Boom," as Steve might say.
- Restoring from an iPhone backup in iTunes worked perfectly despite the lock and foreign SIM. The only thing to notice was the phone number is now listed as "n/a" in iTunes. Big whoop.
- No, seriously. You can't have our unlocked iPhone.
Before you get in a tizzy claiming it's a faked video, please note that:
- We show the T-Mobile SIM at the beginning and end.
- The video stream does get cropped toward the end. That's actually just a crop to make sure the phone number on the second iPhone isn't shown. No frames of the video stream were removed, it wasn't a cut.
- Just so you could be extra sure it's real, we even left in the GSM radio noise.
- Dude, you can unlock your own iPhone soon, ok? You can't have ours.
[MP4] Download in wide VGA (14MB)
[AVI] Download in 720p HD (44MB)
[AVI] Download in wide VGA (14MB)
so you can buy a refurbished w/o getting ATT service?
interesting...!
I personally think it was silly of Apple to ink a full 5 year exclusivity deal in the US with AT&T, but it wouldn't surprise me one iota if this sim unlock was fully anticipated by Apple. I'm sure Apple could have done a better job locking out other carriers if they wanted to.
I doubt that - if you plan to be in the mobile phone business, you really don't want to be antagonizing carriers. Also, it took a fairly long time to unlock it, so I'd have to guess that Apple did what it could to stave it off. The question is, will Apple shove a firmware update down our throats to cut this off?
For the software hack, I am sure apple could easily screw with them, for the hardware hack that was done yesterday, there is no way for apple to patch that, they would have to replace a physical piece of hardware in all existing phones. As for future production, they can mess with the hardware hack on the new phones.
I think they planned it. Note that in the article Ryan says that he entered the information in hidden menus that were added in the 1.0.1 update.
Conspiracy!
Who else in the US were they going to sign with, T-Mobile? What would selling through them help much at all. They have poor coverage and have about 1/3 - 1/4 the number of customers (depending on who you beleive) AT&T was the only options. So probaby by signing a long term deal, Apple could get a better deal from at&t and not really have any impact on apple sales. And please don't go with a Verizon / Sprint Model as Apple will not produce 2 different versions of the iPhone, one to workon GSM and one to work on CDMA.
The AT&T was a no-brainer really.
I'm sure your government has nothing better to do than track where you're going. You must be very important.
Cool.
Way to go
Whew... sounds like a giant lawsuit coming up after this... when Apple and AT&T mean exclusive, they probably mean it. For now. If not, bricking firmware maybe? I dunno... people like to do what they like to do I guess.
The way I understand things, and correct me if I'm wrong, didn't congress pass a law in the last few years basically making this kind of thing ok. If you own the device, you can do whatever you want to it to make it work in whatever way you want. Most people won't bother with this, but for those that do, Apple is still making 499/599 off the deal. AT&T can get as mad as they want, but the fact is, the person doing this doesn't have a contract with them and so there isn't much of a basis for a lawsuit.
@ Brett
You have to understand Apple has a legal obligation to maintain the AT&T exclusive deal, if they don't act against this, AT&T can sue them (and rightfully so) for violating their contract. As such, it is in Apples best interest to get this under wraps ASAP.
Sure, Apple might have to take steps to stop this from happening and if they do not do so, they may have contract liability to AT&T. What I'm saying, is that there isn't a basis in law or contract for AT&T or Apple to sue Joe consumer for cracking his iPhone to work with another service provider. I could be wrong here, but that's what I'm saying.
I hope its real, but there's a definite cut in the video when the call is being made.
Again, it's not a cut, I had to crop out part of the video because the number was displayed. No frames are missing from the video.
Thanks Ryan, so many posts turned up within seconds, I was playing devils advocate at about post 4 but by the time submission went through, I was well behind:-)
P.S.
Can you please just elaborate what you have to do as a customer if no software is involved, as you state you didn't get any software?
Thanks in advance
A great news break!
Why is this a good thing? As an aapl shareholder, I want the exclusive aarangement with a carrier...........OPTIMIZE PROFITS
What the hell are you talking about? This is good for apple, because now people who don't like AT&T still have a reason to buy an iPhone.
John, I think he's referring to the fact that Apple has a revenue-sharing deal with AT&T. So if someone buys an iPhone and uses TMobile, they won't see any of that revenue coming in. I'm not agreeing with it, just explaining it.
Shareholders should all go die in a fire. You people are the reason major companies suck so bad. Instead of putting the customer first, companies create cheap or crippled products to "maximize profits".
PAUL, you worthless slime.....I said Optimize profits...not MAXIMIZE PROFITS....TAKE ECONOMICS 101 if you ever get to college
do you hold preferred stock?
if no you own common stock which in the event of any trouble(god forbid) becomes useful fishwrap. you are not 'the investors' that wall street keeps talking about.
if yes, WTF are you doing posting on engadget, slacker?
As an Apple Shareholder, I believe the opposite to be true. I say maximize hardware sales. There is a ceiling with AT&T of people who have a want for the iPhone and have bought it, who desire an iPhone but can not yet afford it, and have no desire at all to ever touch an iPhone. Outside AT&T, with other carriers there are those that are willing, and have, switched to AT&T just to have the iPhone, and those that desire it but have a very bad AT&T taste in their mouth and will never buy an iPhone as long as AT&T comes along for the ride.
Yes, Apple receives a percent of the monthly charges from AT&T for the use of the iPhone. However, when the ceiling is reached so that all AT&T customers that want an iPhone have one, what happens then? Apple closes it's production facility? Of course not. A surplus of the hardware will begin to mass in the warehouses.
If a T Mobile customer that absolutely refuses to ever use AT&T again is aware that there is a way, even though it will probably officially be considered a void of warranty for Apple Care and replacement insurances, to unlock the iPhone to use with T Mobile and purchases the hardware how is this a bad thing? What has Apple lost at this point? The AT&T contract revenue? They didn't have that to begin with in this case because He/She had already declared AT&T the Devil and refused to buy the iPhone because of it.
So now we have AT&T iPhone users that have purchased the hardware (at a profit since it is not subsidized), that also have an AT&T contract (at an Apple profit) and certain other carrier users that will never use AT&T (Vermont anyone?) who will now buy an iPhone (at another profit) and use it as they wish.
Again, I personally don't see how this win, win, win situation is bad.
"I want this, I want that, I'll get more money if you don't do this, blah blah waah"
Screw you. You have the same mentality as the RIAA - screw customers, they only get anything from us because they give us money.
I already have a college degree, artman. Semantics don't play into this situation. Whether you say "maximize" or "optimize" profits, you mean the same thing: "Give me as much money as possible, no matter how much it limits the product!"
Please stuff your stock certificates down your throat until you choke. "We" is more important than "you".
who cares if your stock goes down? really?! if i buy something and want to mod it in any way, thats my right! so what if you lose a couple cents on your stock! we dont tell you how to use your stock, so dont tell us what we should do with our purchases! all because you happen to own 1 1/2 shares of aapl!
So how does voicemail work without AT&T? Does it just text you letting you know to call your vmail?
'Visual Voicemail' bypasses the linear, listen-to-the-entire-single-stream-of-voicemail-system standard - instead it treats each message the same way you receive email.
You can listen to them in any order, and delete messages without needing to start listening to them first and then press a key while it's in progress.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/?feature=feature02
To bad Verizon doesn't use SIM cards :(
That's exactly what I was thinking.... :(
Maybe I'll switch to T-Mobile just for that.. haha
Steve Jobs is getting the attorney's ready. And of course this will invalidate your warranty, etc, etc. And knowing Apple, they will try to brick your phone if they find out you did this, and of course blame you and not want to honor the warranty. lol
Unlocking the iPhone, or any other phone, is completely legal, and Apple would be torn on whether to release a firmware update because if they did it would brick it and make people use AT&T who they share iPhone revenue with. And if they didn't release a software/firmware update, they would have a boost of iPhone sales and a rising stock.
Apple, what do you do?
But can you cut/paste on it?
Cut and Paste is easy. Simply grab a pair of scissors...
...don't forget the elmers!
If you want to cut/paste so badly, get a computer.
Now if they can only hack it to be able to work on sprints network
that really isnt ever going to happen due to the fact that the iPhone operates on the GSM network and sprint uses CDMA
That's impossible. Two totally different underlying cellular networks..
I think that was sarcasm...atleast I hope so...
Though the feat is very impressive, it's important to understand that the iPhone uses server-based functionality for some of its best stuff - like Visual Voicemail. That simply won't be available anywhere Apple doesn't agree it will be available from.
That is, "fully functional" is incorrect, though "majorly functional" might be.
who the hell cares tmobile sucks anyway
Why would anyone's attorney be knocking on anyone's door? It's not illegal to unlock a phone that you own; as long as you are not changing the IMEI.
The IMEA is tied to the SIM card on a GSM phone. ;-)
You change it every time you swap out cards.
No, IMEI remains the same independent of the SIM card used. You can re-flash your phone, change the SIM card and it will still have the same IMEI. Changing this number is illegal in a number of countries, as it is usually done to clone phones or hide the identity of stolen phones.
who the hell cares tmobile sucks
Wait, wat about this dude in Jersey who claims he's unlocked the iPhone?
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/24/business/NA-FIN-TEC-US-IPhone-Unlocked.php
That's a hardware unlock, not a software unlock. We covered it here: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/08/23/geohot-and-crews-hardware-unlock-is-going-live/
Got it... I'm a day behind.
I'm assuming "Fully functional" doesn't include visual voicemail, as it is a limitation of the network, right?
Maybe you want to change that or something, I dunno. I'm not really a stickler on things like that, but it got me curious enough to post this comment. If visual voicemail DOES work, please reply!
People please for God's sake RTFA. BEFORE you post stupid questions...
Five days later you posted that? Dude, get bent, you aren't impressing anybody.