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New Zealand carriers will block the Galaxy Note 7
If you think that Samsung's constant software reminders to return the Galaxy Note 7 aren't enough to make stubborn owners change their minds, you should book a trip to New Zealand. All of the country's wireless carriers will block the discontinued smartphone on their networks as of November 18th. Essentially, they're turning the Note 7 into a paperweight. You can use it on WiFi, but it won't be very useful as, well, a phone. New Zealand is expected to rely on the same IMEI (hardware identifier) blocking that telecoms use to render stolen phones useless, so you'd have to jump through hoops to have any hope of restoring cellular functionality.
The UK's stolen phone market is as healthy as ever
It may be easy to report and track stolen smartphones in the UK, but that's not preventing some of the country's shops from selling these ill-gotten handsets. A BBC undercover operation has revealed that at least eight stores in London are willing to buy stolen phones, even when the hardware is obviously locked down. One of the locations was only willing to make an exchange outdoors, but none of them were seriously concerned about a run-in with the law.
Apple, NYPD working together to locate stolen iPhones, iPads
The New York Post is reporting that the New York Police Department has assigned a team of cops to work with Apple on facilitating the return of stolen iOS devices. The move is in response to widespread theft of popular iPhones and wireless-enabled iPads in the city. The policemen work with the victims or wireless carriers to determine what the IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) number of the device is, and then pass that information on to Apple. The company then responds to the NYPD with the current location of the device. Since the IMEI is part of a device's firmware, even stolen devices that have been activated on another wireless carrier's network can be tracked. Since WiFi-only devices do not have an IMEI, they cannot be located through this method. According to the Post article, a number of arrests have been made and devices have been recovered from as far away as the Dominican Republic. Many devices are bought second-hand by people unaware that they were stolen. Police have the right to confiscate those devices and return them to the original owners. The wireless industry will have its own database of stolen smartphones and tablets in late 2013 and is expected to provide automatic blacklisting of those devices. Until that database is implemented, New York residents can rely on the NYPD and Apple partnership. TUAW readers can easily keep track of their device IMEI by tapping on Settings > General > About, taking a screenshot of the display by holding down the Home button and then pressing the sleep/wake button, and then either printing that screenshot or uploading it to a cloud service like Evernote.
iPhone unlocking service providers shut down
About two weeks ago we told you about several websites that seemed to spring up overnight offering genuine iPhone unlocking. By "genuine" we mean the unlocks didn't require any hacks or jailbreaks as the websites appeared to directly access Apple's database and add IMEI device identifiers to it, which then told iTunes to unlock the iPhone the next time it was plugged in. We also warned readers that they should be extremely careful if they take advantage of these services as there was no telling if Apple would relock the phone if it noticed unauthorized IMEIs being unlocked. Well, as of today, all those websites offering iPhone unlocks have mysteriously shut down. Yes, mysteriously. Even the websites themselves don't know what happened -- or where the unlocks were coming from. "To tell you the truth, first our supplier told us there were server issues, then after that they just told us that they will not be offering the service anymore," CutYourSim.com told Cult of Mac. "We are not sure where the service comes from, or whether it's a contact through AT&T or Apple. We do know that the service is performed in the UK, but that's about it." The fact that so many sites sprung up overnight offering these unlocks and have now shut down just as quickly leads one to believe that there was just one individual or small group with access to Apple's databases. It's possible that Apple quickly found out who this group or individual was and stopped their "services" cold. Once they were cut off, since the websites that sold the service were acting as nothing more than a middleman, they had no choice but to cease the sale of all unlocking services. There's no word yet on whether people who unlocked their iPhones through the service have found them locked again, but CutYourSim.com is offering refunds for those who paid and have not had their iPhones unlocked yet. The same site also notes that, in little more than a week, 400 people paid them for access to the unlocking service.
Websites now offering hack-free iPhone unlocking
Over the past few weeks several websites have popped up that allow iPhone owners to unlock their phones without a jailbreak or hack... for a substantial fee. The sites CutYourSim and Negri Electronics are advertising "permanent" iPhone unlocks, while the sites UnlockBase and GSMPhoneSource are offering "unlock" services. Prices for unlocking your iPhone range from between US$170 and $180. What's interesting about these unlock approaches is that they don't require any hacks or jailbreaks; per iPhone jailbreak hacker MuscleNerd, they appear to directly access Apple's database and add IMEI device identifiers to it, which then tells iTunes to unlock the iPhone the next time it is plugged in. CutYourSim even states that unlocking through them will not affect the warranty status of your iPhone, as this is an "official iPhone unlock." Readers who choose to go down this route should be extremely careful, however. Though two of the sites advertise the unlock as permanent, it is possible Apple can tell which IMEI device identifiers were unlocked using these third-party websites. If it can, it's possible Apple could choose to relock the phones. Also, if these websites actually have access to Apple's databases, I expect the sites to be shut down within the next few days. Something tells me Apple Legal isn't going to take kindly to this. [via MacRumors]
Indian government hoping to weed out IMEI-less handsets
Nokia has already taken upon itself an initiative to cull the widespread adoption of knockoff handsets (also referred to as Fokias in the underground) in India, but now it seems the nation's government is stepping up to help out. Reportedly, over 25 million Chinese-sourced handsets in India are making / receiving calls without an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number to identify it, and authorities believe these phones enable terrorists to communicate more easily in undetected fashion. Recently, it moved to delay a ban on IMEI-less handsets from January 6, 2009 to March 31, 2009, though it seems as if a special IMEI-loading software could enable those with knockoffs to continue using them lawfully. Way to think green, India.[Via OnlyGizmos, thanks Annkur]
Your iPhone 3G contains a hidden code
An iPhone user in Australia was playing around with his camcorder's NightShot mode (which can see through some materials), when he found that behind the rear plastic clamshell is a DataMatrix 2D barcode. Engadget suspects the barcode is the handset's IMEI and serial numbers. If you have the ability to see and scan your handset's barcode, let us know what information it contains with a comment below!
UniquePhones closing in on successfully unlocking iPhone
Alright, so it's not entirely impossible to unlock the iPhone, but we'd wager that the majority of folks looking to do so would enjoy keeping the whole "phone" functionality in tact. Enter UniquePhones, a Belfast-based firm that is reportedly on the verge of developing an application that will "allow customers to unlock their Apple iPhones so they can use SIM cards from carriers other than AT&T to activate the mobiles." The firm's founder has stated that a team of engineers are frantically working to "break the encryption process that protects the token sent through the iTunes activation process to an iPhone's firmware." Users can expect to pay around $49.99 for the software necessary to unlock the handset (if it indeed surfaces), but a number of analysts have unsurprisingly suggested that the loop would again be closed by Apple the very next time dubious users synced with iTunes.
