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Unlocking iPhone even easier than we thought?

buymeaniphone

buymeaniphone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 8, 2007
303
0
San Antonio, Texas
Since we know now that AT&T and Apple will not activate our iPhone but we'll have to do it ourselves through iTunes, doesn't this mean it'll be easy to get the iPhone unlocked? We can literally go into an apple store, put down $536 and walk out with a touch screen video ipod with phone capabilities and wait til someone unlocks it and start using it with Tmobile. I'm sure not all features will work properly, but it might be worth it if it means you can avoid AT&T's 2 year commitment.
 
buymeaniphone said:
Since we know now that AT&T and Apple will not activate our iPhone but we'll have to do it ourselves through iTunes, doesn't this mean it'll be easy to get the iPhone unlocked? We can literally go into an apple store, put down $536 and walk out with a touch screen video ipod with phone capabilities and wait til someone unlocks it and start using it with Tmobile. I'm sure not all features will work properly, but it might be worth it if it means you can avoid AT&T's 2 year commitment.
Click to expand...

its gonna be just like when you buy directv from Best Buy, if you don't activate the box within 30 days, they will charge you a HUGE fee.
 
mrowl said:
its gonna be just like when you buy directv from Best Buy, if you don't activate the box within 30 days, they will charge you a HUGE fee.
Click to expand...

I wonder if it is 30 days...it would be cool if it was something like 5 or 10 days...that would reduce the number of eBay scalpers to zero.
 
iTunes is not going to let your sync your iPhone with your Mac until you register with AT&T, so unless you want incapacitate your new iPhone hardware's features by trying to unlock it then I wouldn't recommend it. Plus, how are features like visual voicemail going to be handled by the iPhone on a different cellular provider? Will it just not work, or will the iPhone crash?

If anything I'd say that unlocking the iPhone while using all its features is going to be harder than anyone thought, if possible at all.
 
buymeaniphone said:
Since we know now that AT&T and Apple will not activate our iPhone but we'll have to do it ourselves through iTunes, doesn't this mean it'll be easy to get the iPhone unlocked? We can literally go into an apple store, put down $536 and walk out with a touch screen video ipod with phone capabilities and wait til someone unlocks it and start using it with Tmobile. I'm sure not all features will work properly, but it might be worth it if it means you can avoid AT&T's 2 year commitment.
Click to expand...

the print on the web page says that even the iPod won't work until the device is activated. so you get a $536 paperweight.
 
I suspect there is little chance that the phone will work with any other carriers during the duration of the AT&T agreement.

Apple gets a part of the monthly revenues, so they want every single phone in use paying AT&T to be used, so I am sure they went to great lengths to make that happen.

Anyone sitting around waiting to use an iPhone on another carrier is going to be waiting a long time most likely.
 
Dont thnk it's worth it

In the end it'll be like unlocking the SK I bet. Wayyyyyy too much trouble to go through, and you might possibly brick the unit. Even if a method was found, I wouldn't try it.
 
The best way to answer this question is that you can wait around for it to be hacked, but you will find yourself without an iphone for a loooong time:p :p :p
 
I live in Alaska, which is the only state in the US that isn't supported by AT&T and the iPhone. If I use the phone up here for 4 months, AT&T will terminate my service.

So I'm wondering if I sign up with AT&T for the 4 months, then get my service terminated, will the music and video playback features still work? I plan on moving within the year, but I want the iPhone NOW.
 
Just throwing this out there...

We have a Blackberry Enterprise Server at work, and with one click, I can look at a person's phone model, serial number, SIM number, IMEI, and what carrier they're on. And with another click, I can completely disable their device.

I would have to imagine that this sort of capability isn't mysterious voodoo to AT&T, and iTunes almost certainly "phones home" whenever you sync your iPhone.

At best, it'll probably come back with something along the lines of "Hey, you're not on AT&T. Come back when you are." Worst case, it bricks your iPhone.

(Before the Teenage Legal Team goes spouting off about the illegality of bricking a device you own, take a look at the DMCA. And don't bother with the ruling about unlocking phones. It most assuredly is still illegal if you have to "reverse engineer" any part of the OS or firmware.)
 
Uptown710 said:
In the end it'll be like unlocking the SK I bet. Wayyyyyy too much trouble to go through, and you might possibly brick the unit. Even if a method was found, I wouldn't try it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Look at the sidekick. Has there ever been any widespread use of it off of t-mobiles network?
 
I'm from Australia so I'm not so sure how it works over in the states but in our country, most (if not all) our telecommunication shops offer both mobiles & Internet. Do you think that at&t as well as Apple will have computers set up in their shops for the people over their who do not have an active internet connection at the time, or computer for that matter, and want to activate the iPhone?

How cool would it be if Apple had a row of new iMacs set up with the iPhone dock and people can access iTunes to set up their iPhone services. Cool. This would kill ebayers if Apple & at&t stipulate that you must activate your iPhone within 5-10 days (for example). Furthermore, activation via iTunes is an extremely awesome idea. It will prevent people overseas getting 'hot' copies of the phones.

Secondly, I've read about all the negative aspects about the phone and you know what, they're all software based improvements!

Flash, Java Support? = Software update.
Ringtones, iTunes Access on iPhone = Software update.
Video on your phone? = Most likely software update.

-btaussie.
 
I must say this is the first time that I have ever been really mad at Apple, I think that this iPod lock-out is really going to hurt sales of the iPhone. Even with the $499 price tag I really considered getting one just to use as a iPod/Wi-Fi device. I refuse to change from t-mobile to ATT.
 
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