Software only unlock now available. This really is hysterical

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/i...ugust-24-2007/

Bet me to it by mere moments

Now that one looks to be more my speed!

I wonder how much they will charge for the software. $20? $50?

It was only a matter of time... Question is, will people really buy it now just to use on T-mobile?

I'm a die-hard symbian guy. I love Series 60 and even I think the iPhone rewrites the book on what a smartphone should be. It's a first gen device that's oriented towards consumers. It doesn't need push email although 3g woulda been nice. AT&T won't even permit activation on a business account.

The things you're talking about? Very easy to add in. The Wallaby (first HTC pocket PC PDA) was SO far from right in it's first iteration it was pathetic. Windows Mobile/Windows CE is on, what, revision six? WM5 was IMO when they first made it really usable. Not bad for only, oh, ten years to work on it.

MS has had far far longer to work this stuff out and Apple knocked it out of the park on their first try. Push Email is but software, my E61i, E65 and E90 running BBConnect prove that. The other issues (A2DP stereo and 3G) are but a hardware change away. It ain't *that* difficult.

Or people can use it with prepaid SIMs and not be tied down to the contract.

Also should have appeal to some foreigners who don't want to wait.

If the software actually works, along with a very weak dollar, we might see a flood of iPhones leaving the country.

So they're charging for the software unlock?

How much?

If they really want you to save you money, they'd just make it shareware or give away the know-how.

If they charge, will they guarantee the unlock after updating the iPhone firmware from Apple's official firmware updates?

That would be my worry.

Why not read the linked article to find the answer to those questions? @:-)

Then why didn't Apple put those features in the iPhone? Other phone manufacturers have made smartphones with A2DP and 3G and they still have better battery life than the iPhone, so the (unofficial) claim that some features were missing because of power consumption concerns seems to indicate that Apple has a lot of work to do when it comes to making a power-lean phone.

The iPhone is supposed to be "redefining the mobile phone" and "5 years ahead of the competition". Sure doesn't seem like it.

A second software only version will be on sale for a couple hours on Saturday

The iPhone is getting used and abused today with a second software-only unlocking solution making itself known. Uniquephones has now surprised with word that it will be offering a downloadable software unlock service between 12 and 2 PM EST tomorrow at iphoneunlocking.com. Pricing will be somewhere between $25 and $50 with a 25 to 50 percent discount for people who have already signed up for the service -- apparently as many as 450,000 already have.

and

In addition, John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, said his Belfast, U.K., company will be posting software on Saturday that iPhone users can download to unlock their handsets to work with any SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card on any network they choose. The software should hit the Web at www.iphoneunlocking.com between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern Time, he said.

You need to register your IMI number with them for an invite code

And yet another method (from the NY Times this morning)

Two weeks ago, a company called Bladox, based in the Czech Republic, began selling an $80 device called a Turbo SIM. The thumbnail-size card, attached to another carrier�s SIM card and inserted into an iPhone, tricks the iPhone into thinking it is running on the AT&T network even when it is not.

Friend with 16 yr old son just arrived and was advised that about one week ago you could unlock an iPhone, get Chinese 'software' installed and use local sim card in Taiwan.

So cat and mouse game starts with all the other hacks. Apple will update firmware to shut them down, hackers will find alternative ways to hack in again and the cycle repeats.