Group to liberate iPhone from AT&T
Less than a week after the iPhone was released, a group of dedicated individuals announced in a wiki this morning they have successfully unlocked the phone, potentially allowing the use of carriers other than AT&T.
The site and its various mirrors also plan to issue an Internet tool to "expand the functionality" of the device, perhaps later today. The site, which describes itself as "a place for people who want to make iPhone even more awesome than it is already out of the box," reminds those who want to try any these tasks that opening the iPhone effectively voids the warranty. It is the same site that earlier this week announced its members had cracked the root password to the iPhone OS, although it is unclear if that specific hack is even necessary.
The tool the site hopes to release, iPhoneInterface, promises to run any application residing on the phone, control any process running on the phone, move files around, enable the viewing of verbose information during the restore operation, and activate the phone without iTunes or a token. The first release of iPhoneInterface may not do all of the above. Earlier this week, DVD Jon announced his own method to activate Wi-Fi and iPod features without subscribing to AT&T.
As CNET's resident security expert, Robert Vamosi has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and other outlets to share his knowledge about the latest online threats and to offer advice on personal and corporate security. Listen to his podcast at securitybites.cnet.com or e-mail Robert with your questions and comments. 
Because no matter what, they're cell phone service providers. They suck by defininition.
user (and have access to root in the first place) does not mean an
operating system is insecure. You can screw up Mac OS X pretty
quickly if you start deleting files in your system folder (and put in
the password to do so) just as you can with Windows by deleting
important system files.
Nice job troll.
of a generic product without any of the restrictions that have
been set-forth for the device. When you start to see the
headlines where Hacking Group XYZ has successfully created
and released a virus/trojan allowing them to gain access to
secure information and destroy data on the iPhone...then you
can tell me that the security of the iPhone has been damaged.
Also being the safest OS out there does not mean that it is 100%
secure...there is no such thing as 100%...its just that OS X is one
of the best out there right now.
Could be an interesting toy project though.
They still get the sale, so who cares?
There are plenty of uses for it, without phone service, so is that screwing Apple to?
and then play around with it a bit so that you can use it the way
you want to use it ... and that's screwing Apple? Some of you fan
boys are insane, you need help.
On a side note, Apple is not getting screwed, as they have already gotten the profit off the device. If anything, they are giggling with glee as they will not have to honor any future warranty claims on the device.
As for AT&T, for the phones that they sold through the store, they've already gotten the $35 activation fee and they'll get $175 when the user cancels the account to move to another provider. As for the phones sold directly through Apple, AT&T has not incurred any cost in handling the device, so a device sold and not activated through AT&T is the same as a device never sold.
- Why would other carriers not allow it on the network?
- by GraysonBuzz July 9, 2007 8:53 PM PDT
- Besides, iPhones will roam onto other carriers' networks almost certainly. If someone can get around and locked SIM issues, then I see no reason why a T-Mobile user, for instance, could not put their SIM in the phone and use the iPhone with their T-Mobile account. Granted, any network-based features that AT&T is offering would not work, but the basic phone and EDGE data should work fine.
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