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German iPhones Unlocked by iTunes

I'd be more apt to buy an iPhone if they just sold plain unlocked ones for 100 bucks more. Even though I have AT&T already I'd rather not go through the hassel of transfering it via some program or over the phone. I'd much rather just plug the SIM Chip from my old phone in and it workr ight away.
 
ChrisA said:
What Apple is trying to do here is teach people that phones are not free. You pay for them with grossly inflated monthly airtime charges that actually payoff the load on the phone. Yes the phone has only $250 worth the parts inside. But you have to also pay for the factory that assembles the parts, transportationa and the retail store that sells t. And what about all those engineers at Apple, they don't work cheap and there are many of them
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LOL @ you fanboys!

Please humor me.

If you purchase a MacBook at €1,000 it includes parts, factory assembly, software/firmware updates, research & development, transportation, and the retail that sell it?

If you purchase an iPod Touch at €299 it includes, part, assembly, software/firmware updates, research & development, transportation, and the retail?

But the iPhone at €399 doesn't include any of these things?

LOL
 
Don't like the entire idea of locked phone at all (and of iPhone in particular)... That's not customary for Europe, it restricts the freedom of choice and -- for some reason -- Apple chooses the wrong partners.

I want it badly, but I'll never buy locked iPhone.

sash
 
This is what happens when government meddles in free enterprise. The income for each iPhone comes from continued use on the carrier who invested their money with an anticipated return. A court says, "sorry" and now they must get that income from the sale. Apple is not the problem, even Tmobile Gmbh is not the problem. It's a reactionary and ill informed legal system that is costing the consumer the money. And posters who try to compare laptops with cell phones don't have a clue what the telecom business is like.
 
The FUD factor

Smaugg said:
I've one of these $1,500 iPhones and 4 days after buying it's still locked. T-Mobile has been completely incompetent in unlocking it and its telephone "customer service" representatives are totally clueless, not to mention those in the shops. Apple has been more professional in their responses, but basically they just blame each other for the delay. In the meantime, I am sitting here with the most expensive paper weight in the world.
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TROLL ALERT.

Thanks for the FUD, Troll.

You've only posted twice on these boards and they were basically the same exact posts on these two very recent Germany iPhone forums. Sure, we believe you... I feel so bad for you and your "most expensive paper weight in the world".

First two links the same posting on 2 forums

Apple's Dictionary Program said:
FUD |fəd|
noun
fear, uncertainty and doubt, usually evoked intentionally in order to put a competitor at a disadvantage : [as adj. ] the FUD factor.

troll 2
noun
informal Computing an e-mail message or posting on the Internet intended to provoke an indignant response in the reader.
Click to expand...
 
megfilmworks said:
It's a reactionary and ill informed legal system that is costing the consumer the money. And posters who try to compare laptops with cell phones don't have a clue what the telecom business is like.
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Hi megfilmworks,

You're accustomed to this US system, but binding a mobile phone user to a particular GSM operator by mean of an phone is simply not done in Europe.

I don't think that the telecom business is that different from any other business.

sash
 
Otaviano said:
Or you don't have a clue as to how the telecom industry is outside of the United States.
Click to expand...

Actually I do. I spend 4-6 months a year in the UK and Europe and have been using cell phone service abroad for over 17 years now. I have a French phone number, UK number and a US number.
 
megfilmworks said:
Actually I do. I spend 4-6 months a year in the UK and Europe and have been using cell phone service abroad for over 17 years now. I have a French phone number, UK number and a US number.
Click to expand...

You're measuring the European market -- not to mention European way of life -- by American ones. That's fundamentally wrong. Please note, I'm not judging, that's simply different things.

What you're doing, you're using your phone in Europe, staying in the US framework.

I'm happy for you, as you seem to be happy with the way things are going on in the US telecom business. And I hope this system will never get accepted in Europe. The customer MUST get all the freedom to choose.

Cheers,
Sash
 
So if T-Mobile wins this current law suit, will apple relock all those unlocked t-mobile phones?
 
TheSpecialist said:
Very interesting. I think Apple keeps the unlocking technique on their servers with IMEI numbers. I guess that your iPhone's IMEI have to be verified by the Apple server, else it would not unlock. I doubt hackers can use this technique.
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"keeps the unlocking technique on their servers" -- thats a ridiculous statement. obviously at some point, Itunes is sending SOMETHING to the iPhone. If not a firmware upgrade, it's sending some sort of encrypted key to the phone to tell it to unlock. Either way, the "unlocking" logic is either being downloaded and executed by Itunes or sent directly to the iPhone.
 
hdasmith said:
My UK iPhone doesn't show the FCC mark, only the CE mark, so I would guess that it is illegal to use a European iPhone in the US in the same manner that a US iPhone can't legally be used within the EU.
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WHAT? thats crazy talk. "Foreign" phones probably can't be sold in volume from a manufacturer if the device is different from its foreign counterpart which was already approved by the FCC/other reg body, but as far as buying a phone in Germany/UK/etc and using it in the USA or vice versa.. thats totally legal and is done all the time.
Why do you think they make QUAD-BAND phones? better yet, why do you think the carriers have INTERNATIONAL ROAMING PLANS???
 
slinky0390 said:
unlocked phones are ehh, i guess cool.. i mean, i love at&t, and would never switch to anything else, and really, the only other GSM carrier in the us is T-Mobile (worst carrier ever, had a sidekick for a while) i kinda view it like, if you want a ram truck with a hemi engine, youre going to have to get a dodge. i can understand for the people that do not get service where they live, but for the others that "just" hate at&t, it kinda sucks for them.
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and what redneck **** would EVER want a Dodge Ram with a "Hemi" engine???? :eek:
 
unigolyn said:
Get your car analogies straight. Dodge=Apple, Ram truck=iPhone. AT&T=Shell. Wanna buy gas at Esso or Texaco? Tough luck.

I don't understand why some people are so gung ho about supporting this dumb carrier tie-in decision by Apple. Would you buy a TV that only worked with one cable provider? Would you buy a computer that worked with only one ISP?

The most popular mobile device this decade is the BlackBerry, and the BlackBerry is NOT carrier-exclusive. Yes, carriers still brand them and subsidize them, but Apple is doing neither with the iPhone on AT&T. Just sell the damn thing like any other phone - unlocked unless the carrier sells it subsidized.

Also, when the hell are we going to get the iPhone in Canada? Or TV shows on iTunes? Or prices that reflect the actual value of the Canadian dollar?
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actually, there is a texaco, shell, exxon, mobile, bp, sunoco, gulf, getty, and lukoil all within 10 mins of my house.. yes all of them. i cant imagine what apple went through to get their phone as they wanted it out into the market. if you think about it, you can get a razar from any carrier, but a verizon razar is different from a t-mobile which is also different from a at&t one and so on.
 
Isn't this the wrong forum?

Why is this in the "Mac" forum instead of the "Iphone" forum? :mad:

Isn't it about time to assume that people who care about Apple's gadgets will follow the various gadget threads?

A sidebar panel in the Mac forum listing the latest or hottest threads in the gadget forums should be enough....
 
AidenShaw said:
Why is this in the "Mac" forum instead of the "Iphone" forum? :mad:

Isn't it about time to assume that people who care about Apple's gadgets will follow the various gadget threads?

A sidebar panel in the Mac forum listing the latest or hottest threads in the gadget forums should be enough....
Click to expand...

What do you mean? It's in this category because it has to deal with a news story.

:confused:
 
iMacZealot said:
Well, the iPhone runs Mac OS X, so it technically is a Mac....
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And Acura, BMW and Mercedes use Windows in their embedded electronics.... That doesn't make them Windows boxes.

;)
 

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winterspan said:
"keeps the unlocking technique on their servers" -- thats a ridiculous statement. obviously at some point, Itunes is sending SOMETHING to the iPhone. If not a firmware upgrade, it's sending some sort of encrypted key to the phone to tell it to unlock. Either way, the "unlocking" logic is either being downloaded and executed by Itunes or sent directly to the iPhone.
Click to expand...

I agree, if it only takes seconds for iTunes to unlock an iPhone then it is not modifying much inside the iPhone. It is certainly not re-flashing any of the firmwares for the different parts inside the phone. All that is happening is a small amount of data is written into the phone somewhere. iTunes prolly just sends the phones unique Id (perhaps IMEI) to Apple servers and based on that the Apple server creates an encrypted unlock key that works only in conjunction with the unique ID. Then, whenever the phone boots or something the key is checked with the unique ID and if they provide a valid unlock key then the fully unlocked functionality of the phone becomes activated.

All hackers need is two german iPhones and a controlled environment where they can monitor what iTunes is sending/receiving when they unlock one of the phones. Then they simply just need to dump the contents of both phones and compare to see where the change happened.

Then they can either hack the phones software to trick it to enable unlocked functionality without a key or figure out how to clone Apples unlock key creation process and all iPhone unlockers will be home free.

But then again Apple can just change the key creation and unlock process transparently for each new firmware and we would all be back to square one, like we are now. So I guess not much will have changed.... damn.
 
I wonder how long it'll take before someone figures out a way to unlock the iPhone so that Apple / Cell Carriers won't be able to tell the difference :) What a day that'll be... I'll stop daydreaming now.

:D
 
TurboSC said:
I wonder how long it'll take before someone figures out a way to unlock the iPhone so that Apple / Cell Carriers won't be able to tell the difference :) What a day that'll be... I'll stop daydreaming now.

:D
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That'll be that day I'll buy an iPhone.
 
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