NJ teen trades his unlocked iPhone for three more and a sports car

While the rest of us patiently wait for either UniquePhones or iPhoneSIMfree to call high noon on AT&T's legal team and release their software unlocks, 17-year-old George Hotz is cashing in on all those hours of work it took him to work his hardware magic: Terry Daidone, the founder of phone reseller CertiCell, traded three locked 8GB iPhones and one Nissan 350Z to get his hot little hands on Geohot's unlocked unit. Geohot says he'll give the three phones to his first PayPal contributor and two of his hacking accomplices, and we're betting that car will come in handy when he heads off to college this week. Hey, we've got an unlocked iPhone sitting around here somewhere -- but we're not settling for anything less than an actual sentient KITT.

[Techinkdev @ Aug 27th 2007 7:58PM]

Wow

[DarkAardvark @ Aug 27th 2007 8:02PM]

what an idiot. he couldve just checked google and had his own, unlocked iphone for $80. good job, moron

[Geo @ Aug 27th 2007 8:08PM]

Yeah i'm gonna have to throw the BULLSHIT card on that one DarkAardvark...

[eddie @ Aug 27th 2007 8:13PM]

DarkAardvark, you mean $800 right?

[Jim Goldstein @ Aug 27th 2007 8:23PM]

That is cool although the 350Z may not be that big of a prize. Of the two people I know that have owned one they've both turned out to be lemons. They're very testy cars and require a lot of work apparently. My hats off to him for his ingenuity and my condolences on the car.

[UIGuy @ Aug 27th 2007 9:56PM]

The kid just hacked an iphone... He ought to be able to handle anything a 350Z will throw at him...

[Russ @ Aug 27th 2007 8:26PM]

did he thrown in the unlocking software for free? or does he want another couple of cars for that?

[ScOObyDoo @ Aug 27th 2007 8:27PM]

Hotz did a hardware unlock, not software.

[nxtiak @ Aug 27th 2007 8:27PM]

Why the hell does this kid have 3 8 gig iPhones?!?! And the idiot trades it for 1 unlocked unit?
I hope his parents beat the crap outta him.

[LEXX911 @ Aug 27th 2007 8:32PM]

When people have money to spend, do you think they really care?

[Ben @ Aug 27th 2007 8:51PM]

Hes giving them to other iphone hackers that don't have one.

[Common Core 2 Duo!! @ Aug 27th 2007 8:29PM]

and the award for the most stupid person of the year goes to....

[Josh H. @ Aug 27th 2007 8:35PM]

The person who payed $800 for the first spot in line on June 29th and then reliazed you could only buy two. :-)

[Ben @ Aug 27th 2007 8:51PM]

Not this guy. He's trying to win the kid over with toys so he can come back and work for him. Sound's fairly brilliant to me. Good talent is hard to come by and this kid seems fairly sharp.

[Mike @ Aug 28th 2007 12:46AM]

and the award for the most stupid person of the year goes to....

Common Core 2 Duo!!

His Hackin' Skillz kill you!!!!

[ScOObyDoo @ Aug 27th 2007 8:38PM]

Seems like there is quite a bit more to the story:

http://www.certicellusa.com/iphone/

[LEXX911 @ Aug 27th 2007 8:41PM]

So what's better? Hardware or software unlock?

[aj_robins @ Aug 27th 2007 8:43PM]

Sigh, that probably wasn't smart.

On the one hand, profiting from the unlock could land him in legal trouble (see the various articles on the possible legal issues of unlocking).

On the other hand, all that counts as income, and the IRS is going to want their cut. Unless the kid or his parents have a nice chunk of spare cash, that's not going to be pretty ....

[Brian @ Aug 27th 2007 9:06PM]

Good for him! He deserves it!

[Brian @ Aug 27th 2007 9:07PM]

Where is golden palace when you need them?

[Chris @ Aug 27th 2007 9:08PM]

Software is easier, but that can be fixed easily with a patch. I'm pretty sure it's harder, if not impossible, to fix a hardware unlock with a software patch.

[DavisNYC @ Aug 27th 2007 9:08PM]

He's 17 Years old.... I don't think he pays taxes

[phantom42 @ Aug 28th 2007 11:07PM]

i was paying income tax at 15 when i started working a part time job.

[Blah @ Aug 27th 2007 9:54PM]

You pay taxes at his age when you make over like 4 or 5 thousand dollars in one year. IIRC, that is.

[DavisNYC @ Aug 27th 2007 9:08PM]

The CertiCell guy is a jerk.

He OWNS a cell phone repair company, has people who are very handy with a soldering iron and he apparently also has 3 spare iphones. Hotz provided detailed info on how to hack the phone.

This lazy fuck could save the cash and have it done himself.

[jasmeet Malik @ Aug 27th 2007 9:12PM]

do you think he just wanted to unlocked iphone to show it off? he probably got it so he can copy what the kid did and sell the solution.. and all it cost him was a 350z. that sounds pretty smart to me.

[3rdsun @ Aug 27th 2007 9:26PM]

Hey Nital I'll trade you that uunlocked iphone for a toyoda

[lolec @ Aug 27th 2007 9:59PM]

Its called PUBLICITY... the guy is now everywhere, everyone call him stupid... yea, but ive never heard of his company. and now im searching for it. you bet he will get more than what he give. I use to have a 350z and god is so fucking unconfortable.. he probably did't whant it anymore.

[Kyle P. @ Aug 27th 2007 10:12PM]

So whoever said open-source doesn't pay well? :)
Congrats Geohot!! a job well done

[Dan @ Aug 27th 2007 10:55PM]

If you have enough money to do stupid shit, then why not?

[Kralos @ Aug 27th 2007 11:33PM]

props to that kid

[DavisNYC @ Aug 28th 2007 12:34AM]

Jambalaya with vinegar

[Nik B. @ Aug 28th 2007 1:09AM]

How about a giveaway, eh, Engadget?

[HyperHacker @ Aug 28th 2007 2:39AM]

I should have bought an iPhone.

[scotty @ Aug 28th 2007 5:54AM]

isn't it against the law to do stuff like this

[DP @ Aug 28th 2007 10:44AM]

I wonder if he realizes the legal consequences of selling this invention of his. Nope, not talking about the hacking part of it, but rather something else.

He gets a new car and three free ipods. What's that? $35,000 worth of stuff. He better hope the IRS (and NJ revenue) is not watching or he is ready to cough up about $10,000 in income taxes.

[James @ Aug 28th 2007 11:28AM]

Online tax calculator says $5174 in Federal taxes on $35k, though I suspect he may be able to get some credits under EITC (if he can convince CertiCell to mark the items as "payment for services"). Of course, I don't know where the kid lives, so I don't know if he gets reamed on state tax like we do here in MD. Still, he should be able to get out with a lot less than $10k in taxes -- he might even be able to recoup enough by unlocking the 3 new phones and selling those ;-)

[DP @ Aug 30th 2007 10:36AM]

Ok, Ok, maybe in the end it's less than 10 grand in taxes. Let's make it simple. Let's ignore the state tax for the moment (and any possible local wage tax). Let's further assume that this kid can get some kind of credits (or other write offs) on his fed taxes. Let's also assume that he has no other income that would bump him into higher brackets.

With all that said, that is still going to be alot of coin to cough up out-of-pocket. Especially, when cash is not going to be part of the compensation package for unlocked I-phones. That's what i'd ask for if I were him, and I would ask for whatever amount to be "grossed up" to account for the taxes.

[Ivan @ Aug 28th 2007 10:53AM]

I traded an iPhone unlocked and reloaded with WinMo 6 for a penthouse condo in Manhattan, a f-16 fighter jet (pilot included). Why are we so quick to believe that someone would trade a car and 3 PoS for an unlocked PoS?

[Mike @ Aug 28th 2007 11:30AM]

Well since he's coming to my school in the Fall, I'll be sure if I see his 350Z to throw my more capable, though less touchscreen-ish Windows Mobile phone through his window. That'll teach him. Or just show my jealousy, one or the other.

On a side note, maybe the lack of 3G service here in Rochester was why he settled for an iPhone...Damn you, ATT/Cingular

[ChrisG @ Aug 28th 2007 3:08PM]

GeoHotz is the man. I just can't believe that he lives in my county and went to the other campus of my school. This hardware unlock is pretty cool but I'll just wait for the dev team or till more Turbo sims come for sale.

[Rohit Garewal @ Aug 28th 2007 6:04PM]

Actually guys lets do some math...Mr. Terry Daidone, founder of certicellusa may not be as dumb as some people think he is...actually, I think he comes off as pretty smart.

A used 350Z typically goes for $25K or less, as long as its not an '06 or '07. I am not sure which year he had, but if it was one as old as '03 the car was worth as little as $12K.

Now, as part of the agreement looks like the wiz kid is going to teach Ceritcell's engineers how to unlock iphones.

As people were charging up to $1000 premiums on these phones when they were readily available in apple stores here, how much do you think these will be worth in Europe or Asia? Lets even take a $500 premium. He would only need to sell 30 iphones in ALL of Europe to recover his costs.

Also, if you read the fine print, he is based (mainly) out of Hong Kong. He is not worried about Apple's lawyers shutting him down in the near term. By the time he does, I am sure he will have sold his 30 unlocked iPhones.

Oh, and like someone mentioned earlier, lets not forget the free publicity.

Looks like Terry Daidone did the math to me :-)

[gustavo33 @ Aug 28th 2007 6:28PM]

was I the only one that checked the ebay listing of this unlocked iPhone? It was listed as the "worlds second unlocked iPhone" and by the end of day one the Listing was over 100 million dollars, the listing was removed th second day for "listing errors" I'll try to locate the listing under my history and post it here in a bit