You have to wait for 24 hours since T-Mobile in Germany collect the IMEIs and send them to Apple CA per fax. This will create an additional delay because of the different timezones. Then at Apple someone punches in the IMEIs into the iTunes DB, and these need to be replicated around the globe. Once that is done it is just a matter of seconds for the unlock itself to complete. The other process is way more time consuming and is what causes the delay. :)

Apparently iTunes detects the state. Switching SIM's with or without iTunes synchronization in the meantime does not make any difference. :)

I know that picture. I should since I sent in to macnotes in the first place. :P

Unlock is done in just seconds. The most interesting is that you can swap the sim after activating (from T-D1 to O2 for example) and there is no need to reactive or unlock the iPhone again.

Unfortunately this is not possible in Germany. You leave the T-Mobile store with a signed contract and the contract is for both the phone and the subscription. Meaning that at home you only choose the package you want, but you already have a binding contract with T-Mobile. Canceling the contract is not really an option since then you would also have to return the phone.

So sorry, but your plan would not work here. :)

Well, it is only false advertising in a way. The data plan is in fact unlimited. The critical thing that is not mentioned here is the download speed. You can still download 2GB of data with the "Complete M" subscription. The 'only drawback' is that after 200 MB of data you are not able to use the full speed of the EDGE-network but only download with 64 Kb/s. That could be communicated more clearly (I'm all in favor for that option), but it is not like you can't download anything else after the 200 MB.