iPhone Elite team releases "revirginizer" for unlocked iPhones

The estimated 250,000 of you out there with unlocked iPhones stuck at firmware 1.0.2 can finally get your 1.1.1 on, as the iPhone Elite crew has released their "revirginizer" tool, which will restore your phone to pristine condition and allow the 1.1.1 update to proceed smoothly before you unlock that bad boy once again. As always, it's probably best to wait a few days and see how well things are working, but the brave amongst you can snag what you need at the read link.

[Via TUAW]

[DickHardknocks @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:03PM]

if only they made "revirginizers" for women.

wouldn't that require Time Travel or some type of medically induced coma?

[macona @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:36PM]

There is now a surgery to replace a womans hymen... Really...

[CraigJ @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:43PM]

I've heard that some women find their lost virginity between the cushions on the sofa. True story.

[pscs @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:59PM]

haha if there's a pink pill (as oppose to blue) by phiz3r :) like you said that revirginises women... and should remove diseases like aids :P

[apeguero @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:17PM]

It's called Hymenorrhaphy and it's currently available as a plastic surgery procedure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenorrhaphy

[DickHardknocks @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:03PM]

if only they made "revirginizers" for women.

wouldn't that require Time Travel or some type of medically induced coma?

[jilie @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:10PM]

Breaking news for the 250,000 of you .. indeed..

[websyndicate @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:11PM]

Good think I never unlocked my phone.

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:17PM]

So why exactly didn't Apple do the right thing and make something like this available for their users who had modified their phone but wanted to apply the update?

Tip to Apple-- punishing some of your best customers isn't a good long-term business strategy.

[Cleverboy @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:45PM]

Providing service to customers that have explicitly modified their phones would be a bit silly wouldn't it? The tool would indeed be created mostly (expect in some isolated cases) for these people, right? You sound like Microsoft should create software that "re-virginizes" XBox 360 modders. My impression is that Microsoft actively banned these boxes from their Live network and marked boxes so that the reseller market has become a cloudy mess. Not exactly new territory here for corporations trying to manage their customer support obligations.

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:14PM]

@cleverboy

Hmmm... I don't remember arguing that it was OK for Microsoft to ban modders from Live. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't agree with that either.

Did I just have a stroke or something?

[Leonard Nimrod @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:09PM]

I'm quite happy Apple didn't spend the extra R&D time and resources to create a 1.1.1 firmware update that would work around all the poorly hacked iPhones out there.

I have no issue with people hacking their iPhones. Go for it! But either wait for the hacker community to release a solution before updating the firmware or restore to factory defaults before attempting to fudge you OS.

Apple did nothing intentional to brick any iPhones. If you still believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.

[vd @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:26PM]

too bad apple sucks and the iTunes store is DOWN!!!!

[Kizorblade @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:32PM]

Patience young troll. Patience.

[jilie @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:37PM]

we want immediate music gratification, no patience!

[Ryan @ Oct 23rd 2007 12:55PM]

anyone else notice they added the refurb 4gb iphones to the store this morning?? the only problem is -- its at the SAME price they were selling the new ones for!! ($299.99).. im waiting for it to hit $249.99 (apple refurb prices almost always fluctuate) then pouncing on one.

[anonymous @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:03PM]

I'm waiting for the $125 price mark.

[Alexander @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:14PM]

Good luck on that.

[Boynamedsue @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:12PM]

one time this kid in a youth group told me i could reclaim my virginity. i asked him what the point was. I'd only misplace it again anyways.

[james @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:36PM]

How is this not already built in to the phone, or iTunes? Is there any other phone in this world that you can't "reset to factory defaults"? I find it hard to believe that Apple accidentally left out the option.

[Ignacio @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:43PM]

Yes, iTunes can "restore" the iPhone to its original state, the problem is that the hack modifies firmware that wasn't supposed to be modifiable (baseband firmware). iTunes doesn't restore that.

[Alistair loveless @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:40PM]

Wow, these are pretty lame virgin jokes even by internet nerd standards. but theres not too many GOOD virgin jokes period. so ill take it else where. like funny words.

Clitormortis

DISCUSS!

cool to see the same kinda scene developing for the iphone that the psp has/had

[crescentdavid @ Oct 23rd 2007 1:41PM]

Good work, iPhone Elite .... All such efforts should be applauded. No need for applets to look upon it as a dis on their beloved, outsourcing corporation. The concept applies equally well to other companies with similar practices. Think different ... ok?

[Richard Lai @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:02PM]

Dammit, haven't got wi-fi in my dorm, but good work guys!

[Shawn Garringer @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:03PM]

I did this to my and my girlfriends unlocked iPhones last Saturday (it was mostly done but the source code to the server wasn't released). Worked like a charm. Fully upgraded to 1.1.1 without incident.

[C @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:19PM]

Is it just me, or is anybody else getting tired of hearing about the daily iPhone melodrama?

Suggestion: Add a new section just for issues that only apply to iPhone users. The rest of us really don't care......

[insertAlias @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:37PM]

Once more...
We appreciate you stopping by to sound off, but.....
If you don't like the subject, SKIP THE F*CKING ARTICLE!
You don't have to read every single post on Engadget. Read the ones you like and skip the rest! Or is it that offensive to you that a very popular gadget is getting coverage from a gadget blog? Granted, it is getting a lot of coverage, but I would rather Engadget give me everything and let me decide what to read. I don't want them skipping stories that may be interesting/important to me because people like you are bitching.

BTW, they already have an Apple free feed. Use it and shut the f*uck up!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/

[kinney @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:51PM]

@insetrAlias
is it possible for you to not shoot down people for voicing their opinions. If you don't like what someone has to say skip their effing post.

[insertAlias @ Oct 23rd 2007 3:20PM]

@kinney
I suppose I could use a dose of my own medicine, but I feel the need to defend myself for some reason. As I previously stated, I prefer all the news and the choice of what to read. If enough people complain, they start to get their way. I would prefer not to see this happen here.

Also, I wanted to show C that there already are options to opt out of apple/iphone news.

[apeguero @ Oct 23rd 2007 2:29PM]

What good would this be for someone that never SIM unlocked their phone but app-unlocked it and used some 3rd party apps and then remove the apps in order to successfully upgrade the phone to 1.1.1?

[zzz @ Oct 23rd 2007 4:36PM]

Wow, never realized that it was avaiable to men before now. What was I waiting for? Damn.

[dzhiurgis @ Oct 23rd 2007 6:10PM]

Instructions for dummies:
http://digg.com/apple/Instructions_how_easily_virginize_your_1_0_2_after_AnySIM_unlock

[nikster @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:08PM]

in case you find some files are missing in the virginizer unlock scripts - here's how to get them:

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/24/how-to-relock-your-iphone-before-the-firmware-update/

Ignore the article except for the part where it shows how to mount that disk image and get the missing files from it.

[simonjko @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:44PM]

This proves Zibri really knows what he is doing!

He was kicked out of iPhone Dev team for making crazy noise.
This proves, after all, he was the smart one in the Dev team. Zibri seems to know awful lot about modem firmware...

Check out the iphone-elite site for what got him kicked off.

ps: Now, If I can only make it work on my girlfriend....

[M Burke @ Oct 23rd 2007 8:49PM]

does it fix the 'bricked' phones?

[nikster @ Oct 23rd 2007 9:06PM]

it should because once the baseband firmware is restored, you can restore whatever other damage you did to the rest of the phone using iTunes' restore feature.

[chris1968 @ Oct 24th 2007 5:50PM]

iHymen.

Thank you Thank you..

[erzimag @ Oct 25th 2007 5:49PM]

Hi, I've been reading about all this and I've gotten lost I'm about to buy my Iphone and I'm not quite sure of which programs and steps to use, is there any manual or guidelines that any of you know and that I could use. Please if possible as simple as it may be, and that explains step by step.
Thanks, any help will be greatly appreciated.

[problematik @ Oct 26th 2007 2:20AM]

@ joseph

WHAAAAT???

[jay sea @ Oct 27th 2007 1:12AM]

http://digg.com/apple/Third_Party_Apps_On_iPhone_w_Firmware_v1_1_1