Relocking your iPhone

[MacRumors]

TUAW posts a rough guide on how to relock your iPhone to avoid the threat that the upcoming iPhone 1.1.1 update will leave your iPhone in a "permanently inoperable" state.

Following the instructions and restoring your broadband firmware should make your iPhone indistinguishable from an never-unlocked iPhone. Of course, you will lose your ability to use non-AT&T SIM cards.



Article Link

[MrT8064]

i Have just got an iPhone from the USA (new sealed) arriving in a few days to the UK, any advice as for what to do, please tell me?

i am wondering if i should wait for 1.1.1 to be unlockable, or just go with 1.0.2.

any suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

also, if i were to get a new mac with Leopard installed, what would happen to my iPhone when i tryed syncing it for the first time? would it force a software update on me? or would be be as happy as george bush?

[javaGuru]

This is starting to get quite amusing. First, there were posts on how to unlock an iPhone. Now, there are posts on how to relock an iPhone.

[parafish13]

Heh heh heh to the above comment. I hope this works out well for the hackers. I'm still saving up for my iPhone and as a college student, my cheapo AT&T plan and Wifi is all I need.

[aerospace]

we kinda knew the update would interfere with the unlock so this is mostly a scare tactic. i would imagine the update either not being worth it anyway(unless you really need wifi itunes), and an updated unlock coming out a few days after the update comes out.

[itsaka]

I see this whole announcement made by Apple not to be that big of a deal. The main point to what they are saying is you will be voiding any warranty if you hand them a hacked up phone. Is a warranty really even worth using since right off the bat, you get a bad phone, most likely, you will be returning it that instance--not months from then.

Plus, it makes sense that Apple isn't going to troubleshoot and fix a phone that has been modified. You messed it up. It isn't their software they provide that is screwing up but more so the modified firmware or whatever.

[villanova329]

Hahaha you guys got spooked by Apple... hilarious

[aerospace]

= evil

...or didn't you know that?

[cromestant]

It makes me sad to see such disregard for the fellow mac fanboy /fangirl out there.
I for one did not unlock because i hate att or anything, its simply that since apple doesn't even have an ITMS here in venezuela, i can 't even think about waiting till they decide to sell the iphone here.

I see lots of forum members saying things like :"you unlocked now you will get a bricked phone,har har har..." not really inteligent,
And to the poster above that stated that it was not apples software that would cause problems, i beg to differ, IF the update bricks my iphone, it is because of the apple software, since in its current state, with iunlock , my phone is in PERFECT WORKING CONDITIONS. So basically it would be the update ( and not the unlock) that is damaging.

I sincerely think that apple is just taking a big fat DUMP on their loyal clients...
i own a g4 mac mini - first gen, cduo black macbook, first gen, airport express base station, 4th gen 20 gb ipod photo, 2g 1gb shuffle, 30 gb 5th gen ipod, 3 apple keyboard ( including the last edition with the absolutely useless usb 2.0 ports...) a mighty mouse and now an 8gb iphone.

So basically in the last 3 years i must have spent like 5grand on apple products.. like me there are others that dont live in the us or UK or france or germany and still want an iphone.

this is just sad.. apple is turning into the silicon valley bully...

[itsaka]

Originally Posted by cromestant

And to the poster above that stated that it was not apples software that would cause problems, i beg to differ, IF the update bricks my iphone, it is because of the apple software, since in its current state, with iunlock , my phone is in PERFECT WORKING CONDITIONS. So basically it would be the update ( and not the unlock) that is damaging.

I see how in that examination that yes, the update would render the phone "bricked". But really, its not the update screwing things up in the sense that Apple is providing software updates for phones that are untouched in terms of hacking and 3rd party unlocking methods, and so forth. They are updating their software. Ultimately, you broke the phone, not the other way around.

Please don't take this as I'm kissing some major Apples. I think it's immature for some people to expect to have everything [warranty and repair] and no consequences from modifying their phones. I personally am tired of not seeing any significant updates from the company and I've been having a grand time toying with all the 3rd party apps.

[lorien]

Originally Posted by cromestant

...this is just sad.. apple is turning into the silicon valley bully...

Yep! I totally agree with you on this one! I'm usually an Apple fanboy but lately the company is being an ass. See this excellent summary of Apple going rotten: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/art...-going-rotten/

[talk2dug]

Originally Posted by lorien

Yep! I totally agree with you on this one! I'm usually an Apple fanboy but lately the company is being an ass. See this excellent summary of Apple going rotten: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/art...-going-rotten/

Please!!

You call yourself a fan boy but have no problem ripping them off. Is this how you treat a company you love so much????

[spazzcat]

Originally Posted by aerospace

= evil

...or didn't you know that?

No they have contract with ATT to keep the phone locked...I dont understand why this is so hard to get

[sanford]

Originally Posted by spazzcat

No they have contract with ATT to keep the phone locked...I dont understand why this is so hard to get

Yeah, spazz, everyone keeps factoring AT&T out of the iPhone equation.

Apple - AT&T contractual obligations = Apple surely wouldn't really intentionally or accidentally on purpose brick your iPhone. They're just warning you. Empty threat. No worries. Those unlocking geniuses will figure it out in no time then we'll be back in business. Apple makes money selling iPhones that people will unlock, anyway /= reality.

Apple + AT&T contractual obligations = Apple surely will brick your unlocked iPhone if they because if they don't they leave it in the wild and AT&T does not want unlocked iPhones on the planet = reality.

I will admit I don't know if the update will actually brick unlocked iPhones. We'll have to see, I expect today as likely the update will be released today and you know some bold, foolish or offline-for-24 hours unlocker will update. And he'll post some, What the *$#$@*&? message somewhere and it will spread, and we'll know. Or someone will test it and report everything is apparently fine except the phone is relocked and must be reactivated before use, and none of the current unlocking schemes will work, but it activated just fine on an AT&T plan. But there's no doubt it's a very real possibility it will be bricked, to get it off the street.

There's an elephant in the room. You see him? His name is Ma Bell.

[towlieban]

A word of advice to all, do not try to relock your phone. There is a very good chance that what happened to me will happen to you. After I relocked, I got an error that the SIM card isn't valid and the only thing you can do is make an emergency call. I found that you can use an activation tool called independence which will activate the phone so that you can do everything but make an actual phone call even with an official at&t sim card.

I would not recommend this procedure to anyone.

[doemel]

Originally Posted by towlieban

A word of advice to all, do not try to relock your phone. There is a very good chance that what happened to me will happen to you. After I relocked, I got an error that the SIM card isn't valid and the only thing you can do is make an emergency call. I found that you can use an activation tool called independence which will activate the phone so that you can do everything but make an actual phone call even with an official at&t sim card.

I would not recommend this procedure to anyone.

Well, of course you got a SIM error. After all you relocked your phone. OMG what were you thinking???

I think this is a nice hack for everybody who tries to get repairs under warranty done. Unless they check if you weaseled your way out of the AT&T contract. Then you might be screwed anyway.

[MrT8064]

Would using an unlocked iphone mean that when i upgrade to a new leopard mac, when pluging in an syncing for the first time everything will die?

thanks

[loseit]

does using installer.app count as "unlocking" your phone? or is the threat only for people who've unlocked their phones to be used with different carriers?

[spazzcat]

Originally Posted by loseit

does using installer.app count as "unlocking" your phone? or is the threat only for people who've unlocked their phones to be used with different carriers?

I don't think so, I think the problem with the unlocked phones is the firmware for the modem part of the phone has been changed.

[killmoms]

So, I re-locked the phone and got the Incorrect SIM error. Ended up having to use anySIM to re-unlock it. I'm sure the hacking community will figure out how to deal with firmware 1.1.1. In the meantime, there's nothing in there so exciting that I can't live without it for a few weeks.

The worst part is I wasn't even trying to get out of my AT&T contract or use another provider, I just wanted to try it for kicks. I'm planning on traveling internationally in the next couple years and wanted to see if it'd be possible to hack it enough to get local pre-paid SIM cards working. But I have no beef with the contract terms from AT&T here in the States.

Ah well, that's the price one pays for being curious.

[atowntx512]

!

[villanova329]

Originally Posted by atowntx512

Installer.app should not screw your phone up because its not a hack, it just like a application being installed on a computer.

If Installer.app wasn't meant to be installed on the iPhone, isn't putting it on there considered a hack? Don't you have to "jailbreak" the phone to install it, that seems like a hack to me?