Back when I was 17, I spent my summer vacation working in a Burger King in Fall River, Massachusetts by a 400 degree machine that spat grease and fired compressed, heated steam at my polyester-clad self. It was about then that I realized I never wanted to do this again and that I felt really bad trying to push Disney’s “Pocahontas” merchandise on people.
George Hotz had a different experience. A 17-year-old Glen Rock, New Jersey resident, became the second person to unlock Apple’s iPhone and use it on an alternate wireless network from AT&T, in this case T-Mobile.
According to the Associated Press, Hotz commented that the unlocking takes about two hours and involves an amount of soldering according to his blog.
Hotz was able to confirm the hack by installing a reporter’s SIM card inside the iPhone and placing a call on the T-Mobile network using the reporter’s account.
With regard to instructions for people looking to unlock their own iPhones, Hotz has posted early versions on his blog, but cautions that the hack is complicated, requires skill with both soldering and software and that missteps may render the iPhone useless.
Neither Apple or AT&T have provided comments regarding the unlock and Hotz has stated that neither company has been in touch with him.
Hotz’s hack leaves most of the iPhone’s functions intact, but disables the visual voicemail feature.
Unlocking a cell phone falls into strange legal territory and last year the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from the coverage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Hotz himself stated that he spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone became available, working with a wider community over the Internet.
“Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it,” he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz’s hack Friday.
Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Back when I was 17, I spent my summer vacation working in a Burger King in Fall River, Massachusetts by a 400 degree machine that spat grease and fired compressed, heated steam at my polyester-clad self. It was about then that I realized I never wanted to do this again and that I felt really bad trying to push Disney’s “Pocahontas” merchandise on people.
George Hotz had a different experience. A 17-year-old Glen Rock, New Jersey resident, became the second person to unlock Apple’s iPhone and use it on an alternate wireless network from AT&T, in this case T-Mobile.
According to the Associated Press, Hotz commented that the unlocking takes about two hours and involves an amount of soldering according to his blog.
Hotz was able to confirm the hack by installing a reporter’s SIM card inside the iPhone and placing a call on the T-Mobile network using the reporter’s account.
With regard to instructions for people looking to unlock their own iPhones, Hotz has posted early versions on his blog, but cautions that the hack is complicated, requires skill with both soldering and software and that missteps may render the iPhone useless.
Neither Apple or AT&T have provided comments regarding the unlock and Hotz has stated that neither company has been in touch with him.
Hotz’s hack leaves most of the iPhone’s functions intact, but disables the visual voicemail feature.
Unlocking a cell phone falls into strange legal territory and last year the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from the coverage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Hotz himself stated that he spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone became available, working with a wider community over the Internet.
“Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it,” he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz’s hack Friday.
Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience at the Rochester Institute of Technology.