Read the post below you if you feel confused.
Rendering your phone useless is 'bricking.'
No.
Bricking, despite your assertions, does not mean "rendering useless", it means that the phone won't turn on. At all. If you wanted to say that the phone won't be able to function as a phone, or that you cannot unlock it, then say that.
Bricking, fortunately or otherwise, means that the device will simply not function. Ever again, thereby rendering it unusuable for ever. It is the permanancy implicit in the term bricking which is problematic.
Whilst we are not guaranteed a software unlock for future basebands, there remains the possibility that the phone will be usuable again. In fact, many people here ARE waiting for a new version of ultrasn0w and there are several rumours concerning the release of a new version of ultrasn0w; there is therefore no permanancy (which as I stress is what the term bricking implies) in unusability if one upgrades the BB.
In sum, don't use the word bricking because it is impossible to 'brick' an iPhone via software.
It is entirely possible to lose an unlock, the number of "i accidently upgraded to 4.1 through iTunes" threads is testament to that, but in ALL of those threads, the OP's phone is not 'bricked'.
