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Teenager Unlocks iPhone, Now on eBay for $2,750
Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 2:45 PM - by
A New Jersey teenager spent 500 hours over the summer developing a technique to unlock his iPhone. He collaborated online with several others, including two Russians, and the iPhone, now enabled for T-mobile, is for sale on eBay for US$2,750. The history of the exercise was detailed in George Hotz's Blog.
"The current method involves taking apart your phone and doing some complicated soldering, with a high probability of a bricked phone. Although after the phone is unlocked all the hardware can be removed," Mr. Hotz wrote.
Mr. Hotz noted that the technique he used is very similar to previously developed methods to unlock the Siemens phones that have the S-Gold2 chipset. That precedent may have helped kickstart the project.
In his Blog, Mr. Hotz noted that he leaves for college in a few days and said: "I have no intention of ever starting an unlocking service." The phone is currently for sale on eBay and the bidding as of this writing is at US$2,750.00.
In the process of reporting on this, the Associated Press, noted that last year Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). So while what Mr. Hotz did was fun, educational (for him and Apple) and terminated his warranty, it seems to have been perfectly legal.
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